Yoga Yokels

“A group of parents and religious leaders in upstate New York want yoga classes out of public schools, saying the instruction violates boundaries between church and state.” Hey, don’t they know that this “wall of separation” only applies to Christianity? It’s OK to trot around with prayer rugs, yarmulkes, and whatever people who subscribe to “Kwanzaaaaa” carry… but just don’t try any funny stuff with the Bible, or a Crucifix! Plus, hey, yoga is just an “exercise”, right? Or a “technique” – kind of like Transcendental Meditation, which was all the rage in the armed services a while back. I don’t think the TM instructors had to be members of the Chaplain Corps, did they?

The truth is that any form of meditation involves an “opening” of sorts, to spiritual influences, be they benign or otherwise. But the strictly secular mindset that dominates our public schools will not admit of spiritual influences, because they will not admit of a spiritual plane of existence at all. So every spiritual or religious exercise becomes just that – exercise, and nothing more. Unless, of course, it has a Christian odor, in which case it is driven into the outer darkness with a flaming sword.

The real “spiritual darkness” in our society has its headquarters in our public schools, and in the academic world in general. Just because they ape the physical exercises and disciplines of spiritually-based organizations doesn’t mean they see any real spiritual significance to them. But therein lies the danger. To the extent that the physical – the body – is an entryway to the soul, even things done in ignorance can have profound effects. Do I have to go back to the “Dungeons and Dragons” craze to establish this? Bow to an idol, and something in your body tells your brain that that idol is worth bowing to. Our physical movements reflect our attitudes, and our intent. “Body language” buffs tend to deal with the superficials… but we see a striking similarity in physical postures as parts of religious rites world wide. You sit in a certain way, breathe in a certain way, and you open up spiritual “centers”, the same way you open up physical centers with things like acupuncture. For the spiritually “adept”, i.e. those who know what they are doing, there is not as much danger; at least ignorance is no excuse. For the naïve (and is there anything more naïve than a public school student, when it comes to spiritual matters?) it’s a different story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the “pushers” of these techniques had a hidden agenda.

Hey kids, it’s time to learn your ABC’s (i.e., your Anything But Christianitys)!