Yup...Yoga is the devil's work
 

All I can think about this is.....:rolleyes:
eta: To bring it into perspective, Quesnel would be the boonies/sticks/BFE.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...9/bc-yoga.html

B.C. school yoga classes slammed
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 9:41 AM PT
CBC News
A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing
complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.'s Cariboo region.

They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn't be taught in public schools.

Chelsea Brears, who has two children in the school system, said her son was asked to do different poses and "to put his hands together."

Brears, a Christian, said she doesn't want her children exposed to another religion during class time.

"It's not fair to take prayer out, and yet they're allowing yoga, which is religion, in our schools."

Local rancher Audrey Cummings doesn't believe Christian children should be doing yoga at all.

A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.'s Cariboo region.

They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn't be taught in public schools.

Chelsea Brears, who has two children in the school system, said her son was asked to do different poses and "to put his hands together."

Brears, a Christian, said she doesn't want her children exposed to another religion during class time.

"It's not fair to take prayer out, and yet they're allowing yoga, which is religion, in our schools."

Local rancher Audrey Cummings doesn't believe Christian children should be doing yoga at all.

"There's God and there's the devil, and the devil's not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that."

The two women have complained to the education minister and the Quesnel school board.

But school board chair Caroline Neilsen said the yoga is being taught as a stretching exercise, not as a spiritual practice.

Neilsen also noted that children who don't want to practise yoga can do different exercises or leave the classroom.

LOLWTF. Someone should complain that math is a religion and should not be taught in school.

Also, WTF is this woman smoking: "There's God and there's the devil, and the devil's not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that."

Didn't Calvin refuse to answer a math question because it was against his religion? Heck, I've tried to give it up for Lent before, that didn't fly either.

Sounds about a stupid as those parents who protested the fact that kids learned to sing "One Tin Soldier" on the grounds that it was anti-Christian in it's message :rolleyes:

I don't think this is that ridiculous. While I don't see Yoga as a religion, I don't think a school needs to be involving themselves in such things. A lot of people get uncomfortable when children are asked to do anything bordering on praying or even relaxation techniques.

How on earth is that anti-Christian? Did they think the "go ahead and hate your neighbor" part was a directive and NOT sarcastic?

Oh, and yoga is not a religion. That's like saying walking back and forth is a religion because you walk up to the communion rail.

Besides, if it was OK for Marcia Brady in 1973, it's certainly OK for Canadian kidlets now. :)

No, not really. Yoga, as widely practiced in the West has become pretty detached from religious underpinnings, but that just the Americanization of yoga. (McYoga, maybe?) I can tell you that when my wife was getting training as a yoga teacher, she had to read quite a few Hindi religious texts.

Per the ever-helpful Wiki:

Yoga (Devanagari: योग) is a family of ancient spiritual practices dating back more than 5000 years from India. It is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. In India, Yoga is seen as a means to both physiological and spiritual mastery. Outside India, Yoga has become primarily associated with the practice of asanas (postures) of Hatha Yoga (see Yoga as exercise).

Yoga as a means of spiritual attainment is central to Hinduism (including Vedanta), Buddhism and Jainism and has influenced other religious and spiritual practices throughout the world. Hindu texts establishing the basis for yoga include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and many others.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't have a problem at all with yoga, and I think these parents took a great big gulp of overreaction. (Although I tend to agree with shinerbock -- is this something for schools to get into?) But these parents are not kooky just for acknowledging that yoga can be a religious practice rooted in concepts that many conservative Christians might find problematic.

Whatcha wanna bet that those parents had the fat kids that couldn't get into those poses and hate exercise in general.

/I'm just sayin'

it is something schools need to do becaus there are too many fat kids

there is hindu yoga, yeah, also buddhist and some atheist (devoid of religion or religously neutral) yoga out there, and probably some christian yoga too.

It just sounds like a couple of hicks who don't know anything.

Then make them run laps or do something aerobic that will actually burn fat.

Yoga traditionally is Hindu or Buddhist. There is indeed yoga adapted to Christian understandings (although these women would probably also consider that the work of that non-gentleman Satan) and yoga purely as exercise.

Or who do know something of the history and origins of yoga, perhaps, but not enough and overreacted.

Pretty much...Quesnel is hicksville / BFE.

Burning fat is only part of the solution there are three basic types of "strength" that your body needs to be strong

*cardio-pulmonary strength for breathing, good heart/lungs, good for endurance

*muscle strength - can you pick stuff up? can you take a blow, etc?

third and most overlooked

*flexability - it doesn't matter how "strong" or "fast" you are, if you don't have the full range of motion for any given body part, then you are at a disadvantage and this could lead to health problems later in life.

Although, you're right...these two were over-reacting

I think they just want their 15 minutes. These are the BC anti-yoga ladies of 2007, please take their picture so we can go home now.

Buddhism isn't a religion, it's a faith practice and doesn't go against christianity. It's possible to be buddhist and christian. But being that most people don't know that, I'm not surprised.
Also, my mum probably would have reacted the same way if I'd been doing yoga in school I think.

I understand all of that. I would just place yoga low on the list of PE priorities that overweight kids need. Dietary education for parents might help the most.

What exactly is your definition of religion vs. "faith practice." FWIW, every dictionary I've consulted calls Buddhism a religion.
I suppose it all depends on how one is defining "Buddhist" and "Christian." I understand that this may be a "correct" assertion from a Buddhist perspective; from a traditional Christian perspective, I think it would be exceedingly difficult to reconcile traditional Buddhist understandings and philosophies with orthodox Christianity. But that's a whole 'nother discussion.

Oh noes are we going there again? You cannot be Buddhist and Christian. You can be Christian and engage in certain Buddhist practices or agree with certain Buddhist philosophies, but you cannot be Christian and Buddhist.

ETA: Here is an earlier "discussion" on this issue.

That's right, and here's why:

Jesus and the Buddha said a lot of stuff that goes hand in hand, and a lot of stuff that contridicts each other. With the "new age" movement going for a more Bahai'i type thing than a U/U type thing, the commonplace practice is to claim to be observing the truth of both religions or even to be both "christian and buddhist"

It doesn't work because jesus said "I am the way to salvation/enlightenement/freedom"

and meanwhile buddha said "work out for yourself your own salvation/enligtenment/liberation." In Buddhism you save your self. That is not the only difference but it does make them mutually exclusive.

So only Jesus could be a Christian Buddhist. LOLZ.

This post specifically might be best to look at in Val's linked thread - while you can jigger the specific terms however you want, almost every real authority disagrees with you.

My real authority is uh...my boyfriend's buddhist family. There are many types of buddhism...the buddhism you are most familiar with believes in reincarnation because they believe that one must go through many lifetimes to achieve enlightenment.
Soka Gakkai is Nichoren buddhism-the belief that personal enlightenment is possible for each person in this lifetime. Ergo-you can believe in enlightenment and still think that after death you're off to a much better place.
http://www.sgi-usa.org

Salvation is not enlightenment. FWIW.

And I knew by saying that it was a can of worms.

Sometimes, the can of worms can be avoided simply by not stating things in such broad and absolute terms. For example, a statement such as

"some forms of Buddhism might be considered more of a philosophy than a religion and might be compatable with the beliefs of some who consider themselves Christian,"

comes across quite differently from "Buddhism isn't a religion, it's a faith practice and doesn't go against christianity."

Otherwise, you can expect some Buddhists, such as Valkyrie, RU OX Alum and (I think) KSig RC, to take issue with the absolute and fairly easy to refute generalization that "Buddhism isn't a religion."

And again, what's the difference between a "religion" and a "faith practice"?

Oh so basically you're saying that for a VAST majority of Buddhists, their beliefs run directly contrary to vital functional parts of traditional Christianity, but for a couple it's possible under a specific sect of Buddhist philosophy (as opposed to the rest of the traditional Buddhist faith)?

Because that's not what you said:

Apologies, should not have swooped in like that. And there are many different sects of buddhism, not just one giant traditional faith. My habit of speaking before thinking through again...damnit.

valkyrie,
don't be reading those "devil" Harry Potter books either, you heathen you. :D

LOL I've never read any Harry Potter books, but I hate them a lot -- not because they're satan, though.

All good, and I understand what you're getting at, I really do - trust me on this - but yeah, it's really a terrible argument to try for.

That's pretty much what I thought. PE class in general may next be "the devil's work" if that's the case.

One could argue that football is a religion in Texas but were not about to ban that.

It's amazing how different the rest of BC can be once you get outside the lower mainland. In Vancouver it's a sin not to include yoga in your lifestyle... :p :rolleyes: ;)

I partially agree with the parents and mostly with shinerbock and MysticCat. I know quite a few Christians who are against yoga because they are older and don't know about the McYoganization (thanks for whoever posted McYoga) of yoga.

The solution would be the school ensuring that the students aren't asked to get into "prayer" poses or participate in chanting. Unless the chanting is in English and the kids are saying things like "frreeeee yourrrr mindddddd" or "matthhhhhhhh issssss eassssssy."

haha I'm gonna try that with my neices and see if it works

The physicians are finding that some yogic practices, especially those of mindfulness are extremely beneficial in helping terminal patients dealing with disease and most folks from de-stressing.

I agree with Mystic.

I guess the folks were upset because they cannot do the "downward facing dog" better yet, they don't have the strength to do "sets of nine" or the "swan move" from the Kama Sutra or the Tantra...

I tried that rationale once in junior high. The teacher or my parents did not appreciate me finding God during midterm examinations.

Teachers never appreciate that. Going to a Catholic school they were completely on top of the "giving that up for Lent" excuse too. I always wondered if I attended a public school (and got a gullible teacher) if I could have pulled that excuse off. My parents would have slapped me silly though.