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BlueWavePsych

(2,635 posts)
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:03 PM Apr 2021

Yoga banned. Christians might convert to Hinduism!

Citing fear of Hindu indoctrination, Alabama GOP block efforts to lift 28-year-old yoga ban

Did you know that for 28 years, Alabama has had a ban on teaching yoga in the Yellowhammer State? Well, it’s true. Since 1993, the Alabama board of education has blocked yoga, hypnosis, and meditation from public schools. According to Newsweek, the state’s guidelines explain it this way: "The State Board of Education specifically prohibits the use of hypnosis and dissociative mental states. School personnel shall be prohibited from using any techniques that involve the induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, meditation or yoga." [Insert your eyes widening in disbelief here.]

Since 2019, Democratic Rep. Jeremy Gray has been trying to get the ban lifted because it’s … bewildering, provincial, and bewildering again. A couple of weeks ago, Gray’s bill—HB235—that would override the ban was passed through Alabama’s House of Representatives with a 73-25 vote. At the time, Gray, who has taught and practiced yoga for years, told The New York Times that he was hopeful: “Most of the senators that I’ve talked to are OK with it. A lot of people in their districts have reached out to them, and a lot of their wives actually do yoga. So I think it has a good chance of passing.”

The Associated Press reports that on Wednesday, the bill stalled in the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee. How come? “During a hearing, two conservative groups objected because of yoga’s historic ties to Hinduism.” When they aren’t turning your kids Muslim I guess they’re exercising them into Hinduism? It’s hard to say how this works in the mind of the right.

The Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP) legal adviser, Eric Johnston, told the Times that yoga’s important place in the Hindu religion made it dangerous; he said that “it does not need to be taught to small children in public schools.” ALCAP was one of the groups testifying against the bill in the senate committee. To be clear, Johnston says that he does not oppose the practice of yoga as it’s already accepted and taught at some Christian churches. The issue is the slippery slope defense that the religious right has used for years. “You cannot have any kind of religious activities in elementary schools.” Remember how same sex marriage was going to end in all of us marrying houseplants and pets?



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/2/2024153/-Citing-fear-of-Hindu-indoctrination-Alabama-GOP-block-efforts-to-lift-28-year-old-yoga-ban

More GOP nonsense
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Iggo

(47,552 posts)
2. I didn't even know there was such a place as The Yellowhammer State.
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:11 PM
Apr 2021

Honestly. Fifty-nine years living in this country and I’m today years old when I found that out.

Karadeniz

(22,514 posts)
3. Hindu has many gods; Paul said there were many gods. Hindu has reincarnation; reincarnation is
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:11 PM
Apr 2021

All through Jesus' parables. I don't see the worry!

tanyev

(42,556 posts)
4. Would they be OK with it if it led to Qanon indoctrination?
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:22 PM
Apr 2021
The yoga world is riddled with anti-vaxxers and QAnon believers

In my day job, I monitor the spread of online disinformation and conspiracy theories. I never expected to find them at my yoga class

Prominent pandemic deniers include a number of keen yoga practitioners, such as alternative health proponent Sayer Ji, who runs the website greenmedinfo.com, and his wife Kelly Brogan, who describes herself as a ‘holistic psychiatrist.’ More recently, the links between yoga and conspiracy theories came to public attention after the ‘QAnon shaman’ who stormed the Capitol on January 6, was revealed to be a yoga practitioner who is reportedly on an organic diet.

It’s hard to tell just how much conspiracy theories have infiltrated the wellness and yoga space. Researchers have tried to document the recent revival of ‘conspirituality’ – the intersection of yoga, spirituality and holistic health with conspiracy theories. The Conspirituality podcast, co-founded by cult survivor and yoga teacher Matthew Remski, lists figures in the wellness industry who have shared conspiracy theories and aims at exposing ‘faux-progressive wellness utopianism.’

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/yoga-disinformation-qanon-conspiracy-wellness

Beastly Boy

(9,340 posts)
5. I am shocked to learn they didn't yet ban bagels!
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:25 PM
Apr 2021

It's an open invitation for Alabamans to convert to Judaism. An inexcusable oversight!

3catwoman3

(23,983 posts)
6. Oh, please, tell me this is a joke.
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 04:34 PM
Apr 2021

How do people this stupid survive?

I have thought for a long time that those who blather on about their strong faith being the reason they can’t bake a cake for a same sex couple, or read Harry Potter, or dance, or whatever-the-hell-else are actually showing that their faith is rather weak. If it were as strong as they claim, shouldn’t it serve as a bulwark against all these horrors and temptations?

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
8. But then if a person can believe in Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny or
Sat Apr 3, 2021, 05:39 PM
Apr 2021

any given Gawd/Gawdess or plurals thereof they can easily believe in any one of the
above or a new one or none at all!

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