Plenty of yoga classes in the U.S. have no spiritual component whatsoever, it's simply exercise. I've taken such classes.
That said, the yoga classes offered at our church (in the parish hall, NOT in the sanctuary) were too New Agey for me, so I quit. The instructor is a parishioner, but she's clearly a New Age nut . . . has a website all about being a "Peace Warrior" etc.
I haven't been in the parish that long, so I'm not raising a stink to the rector. The class has maybe 8 people in it, both women and men.
There is no such things as a yoga class with “no spiritual component whatsoever”. Spiritual content is in the DNA of yoga.
This is not merely a Roman Catholic perspective:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/yoga.htm
Yoga is dangerous to anyone’s spiritual (i.e.: actual) well being.
I’m beginning to think it isn’t possible to separate yoga from its spirituality.
I watched a good friend of mine as she first experimented with yoga. Then she began to attend retreats. Then she decided she wanted to become an instructor and went on certification retreats.
This is going on 8 years now since she started and in the past 2 years she has slowly lost her grip on reality.
I’m not saying yoga does this to everyone - my point is that from the very beginning it was a slow introduction into a specifice brand of spirituality and thought process.
People are capable of stretching, balancing, strenthening, etc....without having to bring spirituality into it, and many people take yoga without buying into its basic principles.
But that doesn’t mean yoga in itself is not a faith system all its own.
In the end it is classic pantheism.
You SHOULD raise a stink!! The preist probabky thinks Yoga is just a work-out class! Next, they will have a Lodge Meeting of Masons!
http://youtu.be/87XRZBeuVzM
http://youtu.be/K66h_vtCE-4
This is a documentary. It explains what yoga is all about