Apparently, yoga has been banned in Alabama schools for almost 30 years.

The Alabama Board of Education voted in 1993 to prohibit school personnel from “using any techniques that involve the induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, meditation or yoga.”

Recently, a meek bill attempting to reverse this absurd ban failed to pass out of the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee. Multiple conservative groups spoke against undoing the ban, claiming a worry that allowing yoga “could lead to the promotion of Hinduism or guided meditation practices”. The horror!

Obviously, this speaks volumes about just how pathetic and scared these people are. However, even the lawmaker attempting to repeal the ban was rather mealymouthed.

Democratic representative Jeremy Gray of Opelika, who has been trying since 2019 to get the ban revoked, sponsored the bill. “This whole notion that if you do yoga, you’ll become Hindu — I’ve been doing yoga for 10 years and I go to church and I’m very much a Christian,” he said.

This is America, where freedom of religion is enshrined in our Constitution. There is nothing wrong with Hinduism. There is something very wrong with anyone passing laws (or preventing the repeal of laws) which single out a specific religion.

Previously in fragile Christianity: Merry Whatevs

Update (May 21, 2021): Yesterday, Alabama became slightly less ridiculous, by removing the ban on yoga in schools. However, the text of the bill which did this contains all manner of ridiculousness, and probably isn’t even constitutional.