By Dominic Taylor-
Alabama has extended its alarming ban on yoga in public schools, after two conservative groups raised concerns it could promote Hinduism.
The Alabama Board of Education first voted to ban school personnel from ‘using any techniques that involve the induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, meditation or yoga,’ in 1993. However, a number of Democrats in the state have been trying to lift the ban for years.
The ban comes as a big disappointment to Democratic representative Jeremy Gray, who has been trying to get yoga reinstated in Alabama schools since 2019, insisting the practice has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Alabama in the South of America, is deeply religious, with a deep Christian base, largely unaccepting of Hindu practices, or anything unchristian.
Last year in March, the Alabama House of Representatives voted 84-17 to pass the “Yoga Bill” which was moved by state legislator Jeremy Gray from the Democratic Party. aimed at giving Alabama public schools an option of offering yoga as an elective, requires activities to have English names and bans “chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, and namaste greetings.
The bill was then moved to the state Senate for approval, paving the way for it to become a law and end the 28-year ban in schools.
However, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday blocked the bill, after a testimony from Christian conservatives, including representatives of former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law, who claimed it would lead to proselytising in public schools by followers of Hinduism, Tuscaloosanews.com reported.
Opposing the bill, conservative activist Becky Gerritson said that yoga is a very big part of practicing Hindu 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,’ Gray, who sponsored the bill, said at the hearing
If the bill does get passed into law, it would give the individual schools the decision as to whether they’d like to authorise yoga – however, only poses and stretches would be permitted. Meanwhile, all the moves would be translated into English names, and chanting mantras or using the phrase ‘namaste’ would be banned.
One of those against the bill is Becky Gerritson, director of Eagle Forum of Alabama, who argued that there’s no need for yoga in schools as students can do other kinds of stretching.
‘If this bill passes, then instructors will be able to come into classrooms as young as kindergarten and bring these children through guided imagery, which is a spiritual exercise, and it’s outside their parents’ view. And we just believe that this is not appropriate,’ she said, as per the Indian Express.
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has argued against fears that practicing yoga will encourage students to follow Hinduism, by pointing out that the vast majority of yoga instructors and practitioners in Alabama, and the United States as a whole, are non-Hindus.
Gray expressed his disappointment but said he hoped the bill would pass the next time it reaches the committee.
Groups who argued against the Alabama bill believe it violates the separation of church and state. The act of meditation is spiritual, argues constitutional lawyer Eric Johnston, who works with Christian advocacy groups that have spoken out against the measure.