RELIGION OR EXERCISE?

Religion or exercise? Debate on yoga raises concerns

By DEBORAH FRAZIER
Scripps Howard News Service
September 06, 2002

ASPEN, Colo. - Steve Woodrow, pastor of the First Baptist Church, said this week that the words "chant," "mantra," "mandela" and other terms in a Colorado school district yoga program violate federal rulings that bar religion in classrooms.

Woodrow made the comments at a public meeting at Aspen High School to air concerns and hear support for the district's plan to teach yoga to elementary students.

"You can't separate the religious and spiritual aspects of yoga from the physical aspects," Woodrow said, noting the Hindu roots of the ancient exercise form.

"I don't want my children to do that," Woodrow said. "This is scary."

Last month, Woodrow objected to Yoga Ed for about 220 elementary school students as a conflict between church and state. Woodrow has two sons in Aspen Elementary School.

At a public meeting attended by about 75 parents, teachers, school board members, yoga practitioners and other residents, Woodrow quoted from the Yoga Journal that the meditation, breathing and stretching was "an altered state of consciousness" that promoted a "oneness with God."

And, Woodrow named four court rulings that found yoga violated the separation of church and state.

There was polite applause. And then there was spirited rebuttal and defense.

"Yoga is not about faith," said Allison Dailey, a substitute teacher and mother of two boys. She was a missionary and has done yoga exercises for five years. "I want my two sons to experience the focusing and stretching."

Ministers, priests and rabbis have contacted the Aspen School District since Woodrow challenged the yoga classes. A priest at the Benedictine Monastery in Aspen wrote that comparing religion to yoga is like comparing religion to running - there is no comparison.

Yoga Ed, the district's yoga program, was developed by the Children's Health Initiative at the Aspen Center for New Medicine after Sept. 11 as part of a program to make children feel safer in the schools. .

Few people in the audience had read the 2-inch-thick Yoga Ed Curriculum statement, but most were yoga enthusiasts that saw no religious connotations.

"Semantics is all we are talking about. We can change a few words and make it all happen," said Lloyd Herman, an Aspen dentist. At the end of the nearly four-hour meeting, the school board agreed to consider the options and make a decision next week.

(Contact Deborah Frazier of the Rocky Mountain News at http://www.rockymountainnews.com.)

BACK TO HOME

BLESSED CAUSE TWO CENTS:
Teachers instructing children to "clear their minds" is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. There IS a spirit world, there ARE demons. Many Christians will deny it unless confronted with one. When our children "clear their minds" and get into that mind altered place, it leaves them wide open to the spirit world. Remember the lesson Jesus taught? "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

It is not enough to be emptied of evil, we must then be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. When teachers tell our children to chant and "clear their minds", they concentrate on opening up to a spiritual entity. If they succeed in "clearing their minds" (the new mind of Christ) THEY ARE SUSCEPTIBLE. It is Antichrist in sheep's clothing.

THE LIFE OF THE GOOD THIEF

This Gospel also contains facts belonging to, what we may call, tradition of the second order. To this category belongs the following history. It is in the twenty-third chapter:

“And, presently, they came to the entrance of the desert. And, hearing that it was infested by robbers, they determined to cross it, during the night. But, suddenly, they perceived two robbers, who were lying near them, asleep, and round about were many other robbers, their associates, and they also were asleep. The names of these two robbers were Titus and Dumachus. The first said to the other, ‘I beg thee, let these travelers go in peace, lest our comrades discover them.’ And Dumachus refused. Whereon Titus said to him: ‘I beseech thee, accept of me, forty drachmas, and take my belt as security.’ And he, offering it, implored him not to call their comrades or give the alarm. “Mary, seeing this robber so well inclined towards her, said to him, ‘May God uphold thee with His right hand, and grant thee the remission of thy sins.’ “And the Lord Jesus said to his mother, ‘In thirty years’ time, O my mother, the Jews will crucify Me, and these two robbers shall be crucified with Me, Titus on my right hand and Dumachus on my left, and behold, that day, Titus shall be with me in Paradise.’ “And when He had thus spoken, His mother answered Him, saying, ‘God forbid that such things should befall Thee.’ And they went on their way towards the city of idols.”

But, the most important of all the Apocryphal writings, is the Gospel of Nicodemus. Hardly a sentence of it, but what is reproduced by many of the early fathers, such as St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Chrysostom, Firmicus Maternus, and St. Hippolytus, so that its general sense is unimpeachable. It has been much read in the West, where it was known from a very early period. In its present form it is attributed to the fourth or fifth century. Gregory of Tours, Vincent of Beauvais, and many other writers of the Middle Ages, frequently quote this Gospel, without ever expressing any doubt as to its authenticity. Eusebius of Alexandria analyzed, and wrote a commentary upon it, and showed no scruple in accepting its authority. At no very distant time, the Gospel of Nicodemus was regularly read in the Greek Church, not, it is true, as forming part of the sacred canon, but as being a work full of edification, written by a holy and venerable man. It is impossible to say how many editions it has gone through. They are innumerable. Like the Gospel of the Holy Childhood, that of Nicodemus records, over and above those events of which the New Testament gives us divine testimony, certain other incidents and details not mentioned by the Evangelists, in their brief narrative. We will content ourselves with citing a single passage, which throws a light upon the subject of our history. It is from the tenth chapter:

“And Jesus went forth from the Pretorium. And when He had reached the place called Golgotha, the soldiers took off, from Him, His own garment, and girded Him with a linen cloth, and put, upon His Head, a crown of thorns and a reed in His hands; and they crucified with Him two thieves, Dismas on His right hand, and Gestas on His left.”

There are numerous passages in the works of the fathers in which mention is made both of the names of the two thieves and of their encounter with the Holy Family in the desert. The good faith as well as the discrimination of these writers being established beyond doubt, it matters little whether their information was derived from the above-mentioned documents, or from others which have long since perished.

Among the published works of St. Augustine is a treatise, entitled De Vita Eremitica. Until lately it was attributed to the great Bishop of Hippo. We ourselves are more inclined to the opinion of the learned Père Raynaud, who believes it to have been written by St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. But, whoever the author, the work is undoubtedly old and of much weight. We quote it as confirming the tradition of which we have been speaking. “Consider as true that tradition, which represents the Holy Family as falling into the hands of robbers and owing their deliverance to a young man who was the son of their chief. The legend is that, being on the point of rifling them, he suddenly caught sight of the Divine Infant, resting in His mother’s arms. He was struck with awe on beholding the glorious beauty and majesty of His countenance, and believed at once that He was something more than man, and burning with love, he embraced Him, saying: ‘O most Blessed of children, if ever a time should come when I should crave Thy mercy, remember me and forget not what has passed this day.

THE PRIORITY OF FOLLOWING JESUS

Luke 9:57-62

[57] As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

[58] Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

[59] He said to another man, "Follow me."

But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

[60] Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

[61] Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."

[62] Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

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Jesus Christ comes before everything. Nothing in my past life gave me any lasting peace or satisfaction. I was always looking, searching; all my vain attempts to be noticed, appreciated, loved, or respected, ended in ashes. I’ve had it all – marriage, kids, house, car, & job security - & lost it all through, sin. My purpose in life is to proclaim the kingdom of God, without looking back on my past life. I am a sinner who deserves to go to hell but Jesus has delivered me from my inequities, through his death on the cross. His love lasts forever. I was lost but was found by Jesus. I love Jesus, so much. Oh! Merciful Jesus! Praise the Lord!!