Play

Shall We Dance?

Eric Reynolds
03/22/15 - Sun PM

Shall We Dance?

I.  Introduction

Dancing was a subject that was talked about quite a bit when I was growing up. I don’t remember specifically if it was put this bluntly or not, but the point that I definitely took away from what I heard was that dancing is wrong. It’s not something that Christians should do. Now maybe it was explained better than that, but that’s what I heard, and I know that’s what many of my friends heard as well.

This created quite a bit of confusion and misunderstanding. For example, at Christian-based schools like Florida College and Freed-Hardeman, of course they don’t have school dances, but sometimes they do have musical productions like a play or performance, and if there are people on stage moving in any way with the music, someone will object, “they’re dancing!”

Or someone will be studying their Bible and stumble across this passage:

2 Sam. 6:14  And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.

Or this one:

Ex. 15:20  Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.

And then they’ll say, “hey, David and Miriam danced! So…why is dancing wrong?”

Finally, there were plenty of us young Christian people who wouldn’t think of going to a dance, but had no problem going off somewhere alone and “making out.”

Looking back, it’s clear to me that there were a lot of mixed-up ideas about dancing and what is actually wrong and what is harmless. I’m not sure this was anyone’s fault. It may be that they explained it just fine, and I just didn’t understand. But today I want to try to shed some light on this question and the related issues. Hopefully it will be clear. As always, if you have any questions or think that I am mistaken about this or any lesson, please let me know.

We’ll tackle this subject in these three points:

• What is dancing?
• What is harmless?
• What is wrong?

II.  What is dancing?

Ok, so first off, let’s think about this word, “dance.” Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “to move your body in a way that goes with the rhythm and style of music that is being played.”

That’s a pretty good definition. I’m sure you can do a dance without music, but almost always, dancing goes with music. Let’s look at a couple of Old Testament dancing verses.

1 Chron. 15:16  David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.

1 Chron. 15:27-28  David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as also were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the music of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod. 28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres. 29 And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.

2 Sam. 6:14-15  And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. 16 As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

This was obviously a celebratory dance. The two words translated dance in these two passages have the meaning of skipping and whirling. The people were shouting, the music was playing, and David was leaping and whirling and skipping out of sheer joy.

The example of Miriam was also a celebration dance.

Ex. 15:19-21  For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

Here the instrument is the tambourine. Several other times there is mention of people, usually women, dancing in celebration with tambourines.

So that’s the image of dancing we find in the Bible. But when we come to modern dance, we find a huge range of meanings.

There’s everything from ballet to interpretive dance to clogging to line dancing, break dancing, pop and lock, ballroom dancing, to all kinds of sensual dances not worth mentioning.

So I don’t know if that helps narrow down our topic. But hopefully it illustrates the challenge in simply asking, “is it wrong to dance?” Well, we obviously have to be a little more specific. Some dancing is fine, and some isn’t. So what is the difference?

III.  What is harmless?

Clearly the dancing that David and Miriam did is just fine. In fact, the Lord uses the image of this kind of celebratory dancing in a prophecy.

Jer. 31:4  Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, 3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.

Another prophecy along these lines:

Mal. 4:1-2  “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

As we’ve seen, this kind of dance involved leaping, and twirling, and skipping for joy. It’s also interesting to note that these dances were done in a very open, public way. The right kind of dancing has nothing to hide.

I think many kinds of dances fall into this category. For example, think about clogging. Every year at the Fiddler’s Convention in Athens, they have a clogging competition. Little kids, boys and girls, men and women, and even old folks get up and stomp to the music. Very fun to watch, right out in the open.

Compare that with the image of a some adult-only place where there are no windows and you have to be a certain age to get in.

It would be great if all dancing was the joyful, innocent kind we find in the Old Testament. But sadly, there is a dark side to many modern dances.

IV.  What is wrong?

When we think of what might be wrong with a particular kind of dancing, there are basically two issues that come up: the dance itself and the atmosphere. Let’s start with the actual dancing.

A.  Sensuality

Rom. 13:13  Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

That word sensuality is the word we’re going to explore. It is translated “wantonness” in the KJV, “lust” in the NKJV, and “debauchery” in the NIV.

The same word is listed as one of the sins of the flesh:

Gal. 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality

Here’s how one dictionary defines it: “unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence.”

Several of those words are probably foreign to us. But you can see that it has to do with lust and shamelessness. In Thayer’s lexicon, it also includes this description: “wanton (acts or) manners, as filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females, etc.”

If there was ever an accurate description of most of what goes on at modern dances, it is those two last phrases: indecent bodily movements and unchaste handling of males and females.

Let’s take those two one at a time.

1.  Indecent bodily movements

What is indecent? In this sense, it has a sexual meaning. Sadly, many modern dances are designed to excite the passions by acting in a sexual way. I’m torn about how specific to get in describing what I mean, because I don’t want to put impure thoughts in anyone’s minds. So let me put it like this. It very often has to do with hips, both in guys and girls.

I’ve been at a concert when the lead singer started doing the hip-thrust thing, and all the girls screamed with delight. And of course, the girls have their own moves that get the boys’ attention.

The lyrics to this Shakira song explain what I mean.

 Oh baby when you talk like that

You make a woman go mad

So be wise and keep on

Reading the signs of my body

And I'm on tonight

You know my hips don't lie

And I'm starting to feel it's right

All the attraction, the tension

Don't you see baby, this is perfection

Hey Girl, I can see your body moving

And it's driving me crazy

And I didn't have the slightest idea

Until I saw you dancing

And when you walk up on the dance floor

Nobody cannot ignore the way you move your body, girl

And everything so unexpected - the way you right and left it

So you can keep on shaking it

So much of modern dances are meant to draw attention to one’s body in a sexual way. But a lot of times young people don’t even know this. You can see videos of little babies dancing like Beyonce. They don’t know what they’re doing, they’re just mimicking what they see. And the same thing happens as they get older. They see the popular dances and try to figure out how to do them. And many of them are very sensual. They are indecent. They just excite the passions.

But let me say that there are lot of things that are indecent besides dancing moves. There are lots of body movements, hand gestures, etc. that communicate a sexual meaning. I’m sure most of you know the kinds of things I mean. And those have no place in the life of a Christian either.

2.  Unchaste handling of males and females

The other thing that Thayer mentioned was the unchaste handling of males and females. This is probably the main thing that goes on at modern dances and dance clubs. Boys and girls dancing together in ways that are not pure.

We recently pulled up a video of a high school dance, and we started looking closely, and in a room full of young people, every single couple except for one was dancing the same way, with the girl in front of the guy with her back to him, and his hands on her hips, and she’s rubbing up against him. “Grinding” I think is what they call it. It’s such a problem that many schools have cancelled their dances because they can’t control it.

Now it’s possible to dance together in a wholesome way. I’ve seen father/daughter dances, and obviously nothing bad is going on. But in a lot of cases, the two people are pressed tightly against each other, arms wrapped around each other, moving together, and that is definitely sensuality.

Now here’s the part that I never remember hearing. You can do the exact same thing without dancing. In making out, or standing around, or even sitting together, Christian boys and girls don’t need to be draped over one another, pressed together, etc. That’s just as sensual as dancing.

B.  Worldly atmospheres

Now let’s say someone says, “yeah, but if I went to a dance I wouldn’t do those things. I’m just going to see my friends and hang out. I wouldn’t act like that.”

And I hope that you wouldn’t. But there’s one other thing to consider. And that’s the type of environment at some of these dances.

We’ll look at two passages.

Eph. 4:17-20  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

See, this is what worldly people do. They give themselves to sensuality. They love that kind of thing. They drink and try to see how far they can get with a girl, how much attention they can get from the boys, etc.

In a typical dance, the lights are off and there is very little supervision. Oh I realize there are chaperone teachers there, but from what I understand they are off to the side talking among themselves. This is what we heard from a friend of Sarah’s who was at one of our local dances. And she said after what she saw, her daughter would never go to another one. I was also surprised to find out that parents aren’t allowed in the dance. They can come for the introductions or whatever, but then the kids go in the gym and the parents stay out. And the lights are off, and the music starts, and that’s the atmosphere.

It’s not out in the open in broad daylight like the clogging competition I mentioned earlier. And I’ve often heard that if you want to stop a dance all you have to do is turn on the lights. And that should tell you something.

And my point here is: if that really is the atmosphere that’s there, is it where a Christian should hang out?

Look at what Peter says:

1 Pet. 4:3-4  For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you

There’s a worldly crowd that we don’t run with. This description sounds like a typical college party, where alcohol is flowing and anything-goes. That’s no place for a Christian. It doesn’t matter if you say, “well I’ll just go, but I won’t do those things.” It’s not the right crowd.

Now let’s look at two extremes. On one end is a modern club, basically a big dance floor with a bar. Adults only, very wild and sensual. On the other end is a 5^th grade fall dance. Just cute little kids mostly talking to their friends and too embarrassed to really dance. We can probably see that the little kid thing is very different from the adult dance. But as they get older, it becomes more and more sensual. So where do you draw that line? I don’t know. What we decided was just to avoid the dances altogether, and that’s our rule. It hasn’t been a popular thing around our house at times. I don’t doubt that our kids could go and behave themselves. But in my judgment it’s not a good environment.

Those are the kinds of decisions parents have to make, and they may not all see it the same. But we should be careful to take into consideration what will be going on, and what kind of environment it is.

V.  Conclusion

Hopefully this explanation has been helpful. Dancing is not a black-and-white question. Some dancing is just fine. Other dancing is terrible and sinful, and some dancing atmospheres are not wholesome. We all have to study these things and make our decisions about what we will do and allow, and it may not be popular. But the main thing is to focus on walking in the light, living in holiness and purity.

Eph. 4:20-24  But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

INVITATION