“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun. It shines everywhere.” — William Shakespeare
Parents in San Diego are objecting to yoga classes offered at a grade school, claiming they violate the First Amendment. As reported by the New York Times, the parents claim that yoga promotes Hindu religious beliefs.
The Times quoted Mary Eady, the parent of a first grader, who stated, “They’re teaching children how to meditate and how to look within for peace and for comfort. They’re using this as a tool for many things beyond just stretching.”
The problem is that the parents have fallen prey to a false syllogism. Here is how it played out. The yoga program at the school is supported by a nonprofit organization called the Jois Foundation. Some members of that foundation have the view that yoga is part of a spiritual experience that goes beyond exercise and stretching. Since they believe and espouse that, the parents therefore believe that yoga is part of a religious belief.
However, any activity can be found to have religious significance, and it is the participant who decides whether to ascribe the religious tie-in. To use an analogy, if I bought a pool for a public school, and then gave a speech about how I believe swimming is akin to receiving a Christian baptism, then should all parents pull their children out of any swim classes on First Amendment grounds because of my beliefs? This point becomes even more obvious when you consider that even the Foundation members don’t agree. “We’re good Christians that just like to do yoga because it helps us to be better people,” Foundation member Russell Case told the Times.
I did enjoy the quote from the school’s superintendent, Tim Baird. “If your faith is such that you believe that simply by doing the gorilla pose, you’re invoking the Hindu gods, then by all means your child can be doing something else,” he told the Times.
