Pastor Hank Webb of Belmont Community Church says when more than a dozen clergymen wrote to the Shelby City School Board, concerned that students were shown a yoga video without parental permission, Superintendent Michael Browning tried to mitigate the issue.
"He said, 'There's no reason to bring this before the board. I would like to sit down with you and a few of the pastors that are concerned, and we can talk this out,'" Webb relays. "He didn't want anything to go public."
On November 25, Shelby Elementary reportedly offered a yoga session as an optional "Club Day" activity for pre-K through 2nd grade students. Browning, a yoga practitioner himself, says it did not include any teaching about or discussion of religion, but the clergy cited a 2016 national study of 500 yoga practitioners that showed 69% of students and instructors in secular yoga change their primary reason for practicing.
Most initiate yoga practice for exercise and stress relief, but for many, spirituality becomes their primary reason for maintaining practice.
The superintendent indicated that the school board as a whole did not support the activities that took place November 25, and the faith leaders want it in writing that the board will close any loopholes by prohibiting all yoga activities during class.
"[Browning] did say that he would write through the district that this would not be included in the next [Club] Day, that they would be more conscientious of it," Pastor Webb notes. "But until this point, we've not really seen anything to back that up other than the letter back to us."
The pastors believe yoga in Shelby City Schools is sanctioning Eastern religion.
