Georgia Parents Confuse Yoga for Anti-Christian Propaganda, Fight to Get It Out of School

School demands a lot of kids, so it’s no surprised that kids get stressed out from all the things they’re expected to do in a day. In a nice attempt to help kids de-stress, a Georgia elementary school started adding yoga exercises between classes recently. That sounds like a pretty good idea–kids spend way too much time in the day sitting at desks and not enough stretching or moving around–but because we can’t have nice things, the school was reportedly inundated with complaints from parents who thought the yoga was anti-Christian propaganda.

I just can’t even with these parents. I think I need to take a deep breath and do some stretches.

giphy

(Via Giphy)

According to The Washington Post, the Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw, Ga., started several years ago having kids practice yoga and occasional mindfulness exercises in class to help them focus and reduce stress. But recently some parents became very, very worried that their kids were being exposed to anti-Christian propaganda in schools. One mother accused the school of “pushing ideology,” and a father wrote:

”Now we can’t pray in our schools or practice Christianity but they are allowing this Far East mystical religion with crystals and chants to be practiced under the guise of stress release meditation. This is very scary,” wrote father Christopher Smith on the school’s Facebook page.

Smith also instructed everyone to Google “mindfulness indoctrination.”

I Googled it so you don’t have to, and all I found were articles about this story, and some personal blog posts about how Buddhists are using “mindfulness training” as a form of mind-control and a secret attempt to indoctrinate unsuspecting children into anti-Christian practices.

The school sent a letter home to parents saying that the yoga would be altered so students will no longer say “namaste,” and students will not color in pictures of things like mandalas, even though adults everywhere are coloring these days in an attempt to relieve stress. She also specified that magic crystals had never been a part of the program.

It remains to be seen if those efforts will mollify parents like Smith, or if the mere act of touching one’s toes will be considered an affront to traditional Christian values.

Similar Posts