Religious Neutrality or Religious Freedom?

Today, I got a flyer in my mail box at the college. It read:

Stressed Out!

Difficulty Concentrating Don't Medicate....

Meditate

Free Meditation Instruction for faculty, staff, and students

It then gave the time and place. And it was printed with the college logo on the page. Okay, I don't have problems with meditation, per se. Some forms are simply relaxation techniques with no religious significance. And on the religious side, many religious systems practice meditation of different types including Christians and Jews as well as Eastern Religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Without knowing how the instructor would approach the practice, I couldn't say whether it would be essentially secular in nature or religious. After all, I don't know that they are going to have the person sit cross legged on the floor and chant mantras.

However, that's the problem. There is a picture on the page of a woman doing exactly that. She is sitting in the lotus position touching thumb and forefingers together. I had to wonder, if instead of that pose, she had been kneeling serenely with hands folded together what would happen.

Transcendental Mediation and yoga based meditation is a religious practice. The body positioning and the chanting of the mantras have religious significance as much as saying "Our Father who art in heaven" has for the Christian.

As readers of this blog know by now, I am not exactly a fan of the religious right (nor the religious left for that matter) but some of the more intelligent writers on that side of the culture war have made the point that there is a type of hypocrisy bound up in the protestations of religious neutrality by school administrators. They claim that the issue of religious neutrality only arises when the religion in question is Christianity.

For instance, one university is requiring reading from the koran, but have no such similar requirement for Biblical study. Turbins are allowed in some school districts, but crosses and crucifixes banned. This is yet another example that religious neutrality tends to work mostly against Christians.

I believe in religious neutrality in the schools. I oppose prayers led by administrators, posting of the 10 commandments, and I really don't care if the Pledge of Allegiance includes the words "under God" or not considering that they were added at a later date anyway. But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. One may argue that even though it is a religious practice, it is being used for a secular purpose - Relaxation.

One can argue that saying Christian prayers also can reduce stress. And those on the left argue -persusasively - that the teaching of "intelligent design" as an adjunct to the theory of evolution is simply a back door attempt to get the book of Genesis taught in the classroom. (Personal opinion is that at the lower grades it is silly to discuss creation from either perspective since the lack of evidence on both sides is overwhelming).

If this was simply a private individual using the school facilities, that's cool. If it was a campus student group, great. But as a school sponsored, faculty directed activity, it, in my opinion, crosses the line. The doctirne of religious neutrality must extend to all religions and not just Christianity. To do otherwise would be to violate a basic tenant of the first admendment.