Truth in Education | by Rhonda Thomas | September 15, 2026
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
– Matthew 12:30 (ESV)
It has been decades since a series of Supreme Court cases removed Christian prayer and teachings from public schools. Cases such as Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) sent very clear messages that prayer – even non-denominational prayer – and Bible readings constituted government coercion to non-Christian children and thus violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A later case, Wallace v. Jaffree (1985), extended the ban on prayer even further to include voluntary moments of silence because the Court found that they carried the “[intent] to convey a message of state approval of prayer activities in the public schools.”
Under this current standard banishing prayer – or even the hint of prayer – at school, it is intriguing that Eastern religions and practices such as Islam, meditation, and yoga have found a state-sponsored place in the public education system.
For example, the spread of Islam in the United States has manifested in the public education system, as evidenced by the recent Connecticut law requiring that Arab and Islamic studies be added to the curriculum. Of note, the new course on Islam is the only available specific religious study program, a decision that Connecticut House of Representatives Minority Leader Vincent Candelora found “puzzling.” Candelora further pointed out that “it’s curious that we are going to be advancing one religion over others.” While religious accommodations in the public school system are nothing new, the teaching of one religion as a curriculum option is an entirely new practice.
This decision to incorporate Islam into the classroom is even more surprising, given the recent $2.6 million settlement agreement in 2025 with the Chicago Public School District Board of Education challenging the teaching of transcendental meditation in public schools. Students received instruction and were required to participate in practices such as chanting, using mantras, and even conducting a Hindu “Puja” ceremony. The law firm representing the students addressed that “[t]hough presented as a nonreligious exercise, Transcendental Meditation is rooted in Hinduism,” citing the Hindu American Foundation.
This settlement, however, has had no discernible effect on the spread of mindfulness meditation in public schools. Mindfulness meditation is a form of meditation that is related to both transcendental meditation and Vipassana meditation, using physical and mental strategies to achieve a self-induced meditative state. Mindfulness meditation often is taught to students using yoga, with numerous national and international organizations specifically promoting its use in school wellness programs. In claiming to be secular, these programs attempt to skirt yoga’s roots in the ancient Vedic texts of Hinduism and later Yoga Sutras outlining a path to enlightenment. However, these texts create the foundation and formation of the practices still in use today, making yoga clearly a religious practice.
Catholic exorcist Fr. Carlos Martins, known for his popular podcast The Exorcist Files, describes an exorcism case in which yoga was used to unknowingly invite a demonic presence into a woman due to yoga’s inherently religious nature. He describes how yoga poses cannot be separated from their religious essence, stating that “[t]he very word ‘yoga’ means ‘to yoke.’ You are yoked upon the Kundalini spirit, which is a serpent spirit that they believe lives in the spine, and the act of yoga releases it and gives it permission to act upon the person.” He also acknowledges that many individuals who practice yoga believe they are doing “simple exercises,” yet he warns viewers that possession is still possible because “it has nothing to do with the intention of the practitioner, but it has to do with those yoga poses as giving a permission to the serpent spirit to be released within the individual.”
While individuals may debate Fr. Martins’ assessment of yoga practices as an opening to the demonic, there can be no disagreement that yoga is a religious exercise. This, along with the mindfulness meditation and Islamic studies now in public education, illustrates the extent of state endorsement given to Eastern religions – even as anything remotely resembling Christian prayer or teachings is expressly forbidden.
While Christians might be tempted lament this double standard, they must acknowledge that it was on their watch that Christ was expelled from the public education system. As Christ warned, it was only a matter of time before scattering would follow the rejection.