Intolerant or stupid?

[jester]

Hard to decide if this is intolerance, ignorance, stupidity or someone who has no faith in their faith.....

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/...ga.html?ref=rss

B.C. school yoga classes slammed

[Black Dog]

Hard to decide if this is intolerance, ignorance, stupidity or someone who has no faith in their faith.....

I vote "all of the above".

[Wilber]

I go with ignorant and stupid. I don't think they know enough to be intolerant.

[Figleaf]

Actually, this is a tricky situation. Yoga on its own can be as simple as a set of physical exercises. On the other hand, if some precocious youngster asks 'where does yoga come from', any sort of complete answer, and any research the youngster does, will in fact lead to learning about a 'religion' of a sort.

As unusual as this is, I'm inclined to think the Christian parents have a point on this one. There are other exercise regimes available which have no spiritualist connotations, and perhaps schools should confine themselves to those.

[Black Dog]

Actually, this is a tricky situation. Yoga on its own can be as simple as a set of physical exercises. On the other hand, if some percocious youngster asks 'where does yoga come from', any sort of complete answer, and any research the youngster does, will in fact lead to learning about a 'religion' of a sort.

So what? That doesn't mean doing yoga as a stretching excercise is promoting any of the spiritual beliefs associated with it. And hey, maybe it would benefit these kids to learn something about other belief systems. But there's a world of difference between educating and proselytizing, which is what these parents are complaining about.

[Wilber]

Actually, this is a tricky situation. Yoga on its own can be as simple as a set of physical exercises. On the other hand, if some percocious youngster asks 'where does yoga come from', any sort of complete answer, and any research the youngster does, will in fact lead to learning about a 'religion' of a sort.

As unusual as this is, I'm inclined to think the Christian parents have a point on this one. There are other exercise regimes available which have no spiritualist connotations, and perhaps schools should confine themselves to those.

What's the matter with learning something about different faiths? It's not the same as promoting them. It's a school isn't it? Are they supposed to pretend they don't exist? Schools are supposed to be about learning, not ignorance. It's the same mentality as avoiding the dreaded Ch_______s word.

[Figleaf]

Actually, this is a tricky situation. Yoga on its own can be as simple as a set of physical exercises. On the other hand, if some percocious youngster asks 'where does yoga come from', any sort of complete answer, and any research the youngster does, will in fact lead to learning about a 'religion' of a sort.

So what? That doesn't mean doing yoga as a stretching excercise is promoting any of the spiritual beliefs associated with it.

It may pique an interest in a particular religion among a small portion of students nonetheless. Is even this small possibility permissible in a system premised on impartial secularism?

[Who's Doing What?]

Holy crap this kind of garbage is getting pathetic.

As long as the Yoga instructor isn't telling the kids to "feel Gods energy" or some other directly religous hogwash there is nothing wrong with having kids do some yoga.

I would suggest all the little buggers with ADHD get a double or triple dose.

[Black Dog]

It may pique an interest in a particular religion among a small portion of students nonetheless.

Is even this small possibility permissible in a system premised on impartial secularism?

Sure. Again: there's a world of difference between educating and proselytizing.

Here's an example of the latter:

On Sept. 14 -- the fourth day of class -- Paszkiewicz is on tape saying, "He (God) did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sin on his own body, suffered your pains for you and he's saying, 'Please accept me, believe me.'"

He adds, according to the tapes: "If you reject that, you belong in hell. The outcome is your prerogative. But the way I see it, God himself sent his only son to die for David Paszkiewicz on that cross ... And if you reject that, then it really is to hell with you."

That's a bit different from just saying "here's X religion, this is where it came from this is what it's about."

[Riverwind]

As unusual as this is, I'm inclined to think the Christian parents have a point on this one. There are other exercise regimes available which have no spiritualist connotations, and perhaps schools should confine themselves to those.

You mean an exercise regime derived from yoga that is not called yoga? I wonder if those mothers have a problem with their kids learning karate or tae kwon do - both of them have a spiritual side.

[MightyAC]

Reminds me of the Corner Gas episode where a former resident of Toronto wanted to teach a Pilates class. Nobody showed up because they didn't want to support a class named after the guy that killed Jesus. They had no problem attending the same thing when it was called mat class. Sad when reality almost mimicks something meant to be over-the-top stupid.

[margrace]

When the local high school introduced yoga there were protests and letters in the paper. Funnily enough the teacher was a strong Roman Catholic.