A landmark court ruling in California USA is set to reignite debate among Christian communities about whether yoga is leading Christians down the path of evil, according to a report in India news site, Matters India.
The Californian appeals court ruled that yoga is secular, and can be taught in schools, much to the consternation of Christian parents of a coastal beach city of Encinitas, in San Diego County,who brought the case that their kids’ yoga classes were promoting Hinduism and Buddhism.
Wading into the debate, Iyengar yoga teacher and Catholic priest, Father Joe Pereira, says the furore is the work of a small group of extreme fundamentalists, whom he describes as “God addicts”.
Father Joe – who is visiting to Australia next year – uses yoga to rehabilitate people with alcohol addiction problems through the Kripa Foundation, an organisation he started 34 years ago.
“Jesus, for me, is the supreme yogi, because he spoke about being one with God,” Pereira told Matters India. The author of a new book, Yoga for the Practice of Christian Meditation, Pereira says Iyengar yoga transcends all ideologies and philosophies.