{"id":1356,"date":"2013-06-25T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/constitutional-freedoms-and-defining-religion.html"},"modified":"2013-06-25T07:07:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T07:07:00","slug":"constitutional-freedoms-and-defining-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/constitutional-freedoms-and-defining-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Freedoms and Defining Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
An ongoing court case concerning the constitutionality of a yoga program in Encinitas, Calif., schools resumed today. The\u00a0plaintiffs<\/a>\u00a0assert that the program is inherently religious and, therefore, prohibited by the California Constitution. Their expert witness, a religious studies scholar from Indiana University,\u00a0testified<\/a>\u00a0that the program is clearly religious because it contains elements that connect historically with things that she associates with Hinduism, Buddhism<\/a>, and Taoism and that those Hindu, Buddhist<\/a>, and Taoist components cannot be effectively separated from the physical practices. Such an argument, if it becomes a precedent, could have significant implications (e.g., any reference to Santa Claus is obviously religious because it derives from a commonly recognized Christian figure, Saint Nicholas), something the presiding judge\u00a0reportedly inferred<\/a>. Beyond the specific legal issues, this case, along with others that focus on the freedom of and from religion, illustrates the strategic application of the term \u201creligion.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
Arguments about what is and is not acceptable in public schools and other governmental setting often reflect a strategic use of the term \u201creligion.\u201d The Secular Coalition for America, for example,\u00a0asserts<\/a>, \u201cThere is no evidence that the yoga activities include any express spiritual content at all,\u201d while it\u00a0opposes<\/a>\u00a0the phrase \u201cunder God\u201d in the Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools. Thus, they emphasize belief in God as defining prohibited religious practices, when those practices are enforced by school officials. This definition contrasts with the plaintiff assertions in the Encinitas case that religious content persists, even when references to god(s) are removed. On the opposite side, OneNewsNow.com, a self-identified \u201cChristian news service,\u201d accepts the\u00a0plaintiff\u2019s assertions<\/a>\u00a0about the yoga program being religious. Elsehwhere, OneNewsNow.com\u00a0celebrates<\/a>\u00a0a Texas law that allows display of religious symbols and Hannukah and Christmas greetings in public schools, while\u00a0rejecting<\/a>complaints about the display in schools of the Ten Commandments. This site implies that those elements that fit with their sensibilities remain acceptable, while those elements that come from outside Christianity, like yoga, are not.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ongoing court case concerning the constitutionality of a yoga program in Encinitas, Calif., schools resumed today. The\u00a0plaintiffs\u00a0assert that the program is inherently religious and, therefore, prohibited by the California Constitution. Their expert witness, a religious studies scholar from Indiana University,\u00a0testified\u00a0that the program is clearly religious because it contains elements that connect historically with things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nConstitutional Freedoms and Defining Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An ongoing court case concerning the constitutionality of a yoga program in Encinitas, Calif., schools resumed today. 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