(Christian News Network) – More than 100 pastors recently signed a letter to the Ohio Board of Education, which was also sent to 39 school districts, to express opposition to yoga and transcendental meditation being taught in schools as they are rooted in Eastern religion and are a spiritual practice at their core.

The letter, signed by 105 pastors from various denominations, notes that yoga has been taught during school hours in Clear Fork, Galion, Lexington, Lucas, Mansfield and Shelby counties and asks for an assurance that such practices will be discontinued.

“Yoga is not merely an external physical practice with a purely physiological effect, but rather an internal spiritual practice advertised as being able to provide the power to change an individual and transform the world,” it reads. “Specifically, yoga’s ‘stretching’ and ‘breathing’ components, called ‘asanas’ and ‘pranayama’ in Sanskrit, are intended to be spiritually transformative.”


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The correspondence points to various court decisions characterizing yoga as being rooted in Hinduism, including the 1988 case of Powell v. Perry, which concluded that “yoga is a method of practicing Hinduism,” and the 1995 case of Self-Realization Fellowship Church v. Ananda Church of Self-Realization, which spoke of the “Hindu-yoga spiritual tradition.” FULL REPORT