Maybe Yoga In Alabama After All?

 UPDATE

Turns out kids in Alabama will be able to participate in 
yoga sessions, with restrictions to appease fearful,
ignorant "Christians."
Yoga could be welcome in Alabama schools after all.  

Sponsors of the bill legalizing it made some entirely unnecessary changes to their legislation, just to appease religious "conservatives" in the state, who fear anything other than their brand of Christianity. 

According to Al.com:

"The (Alabama State) Senate amended the bill to say that 'school personnel may not  use any techniques that involve hypnosis, the induction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation or any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training."

Never mind that yoga does not involve hypnosis, and earlier versions of the bill these "Christians" objected to already banned schools from using yoga for anything other than exercise. 

But you gotta appease the crazies to get anything accomplished, right?  

I know yoga in Alabama schools is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but if these "conservatives" freaked out over this, imagine how strenuously they try to squelch the intellectual or even physical curiosity of any student who dares ask questions that depart from the narrow strictures these conservatives demand.

Glad I didn't go to school in Alabama!   

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Apparently, lawmakers in Alabama are afraid of some odd things.  

Yoga, for example. Apparently, doing yoga could make you very un-Christian, or at least do un-Christian things, so it has no place in Alabama.

At least that's the opinion of a number of Republican state legislators. 

Last month, a bill that would have allowed yoga (allowed, not mandated) was shot down once again in the Alabama legislature. 

According to the Associated Press, a bill was introduced to allow yoga in schools. The AP reported: 

".....representatives for two conservative groups objected, saying they were worried it could lead to the promotion of Hinduism or guided meditation practices. The Alabama lawmaker sponsoring the bill, a former college athlete, said the bill is about exercise and not religion. 

'This whole notion that if you do yoga, you'll become Hindu - I've been doing yoga for 10 years and I go to church and I'm very much a Christian,' said Democratic Rep. Jeremy Gray of Opelika."

By the way, the vast majority of yoga instructors and practitioners in the United States are not Hindu, and there hasn't been any noticeable trend in conversions to Hinduism.  

I have to wonder about the separation of church and state here. Yoga as practiced in the United States has pretty much been stripped of religious connotations. I wonder how much Christianity is foisted on public school students in Alabama. Even for families who want no part of it. 

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