Yoga banned from Taunton church

Posted by Harsh Nevatia Sep 1, 2007

BBC has reported on the 31st of August that the Silver Street Baptist Church in Taunton refused to allow the church premises to be used for children’s yoga classes. That of course is beyond doubt their prerogative. The reason given as cited by Mrs. Woodcock was “because yoga was related to a spirituality, unrelated to Christian spirituality”. Now this reason can be argued against and defended and is bound to give rise to debate and discussion in the coming days.

Seen from the point of view of a practitioner of yoga, yoga is a practice that seeks to condition the mind, body and soul to be one with the divine. It originated at a time when the spirituality prevalent in the Indian subcontinent was considerably removed from the current Hindu theology and referred to the divine in non-anthropomorphic terms that all religions use today. It was a truly non-secular spirituality that could be embraced by all. Even today yoga does not involve any religious rituals or incantations and is only tied to Hinduism because it was born in the Vedic age.

That however is reason enough for its detractors. Since yoga originated much before the birth of Christ and in a place not associated with Christ it is pagan and unchristian. Christianity is an exclusive religion and does not accept or support any movement that is not specifically linked to it. Yoga has not been the only sufferer. And why blame a Christian church situated so far away from the origin of yoga. In India yoga has been tossed about like a basketball in the game of political and religious one-upmanship.

Mrs. Woodcock will hopefully find another place to teach yoga and hopefully the children will not lose out.