Why so against dancing?

[Lostbutfound!]

That the key, clean dancing. Doing it in a way for God or having fun but not body grinding and no revealing clothing. Oh and most important, is clean music.

 

[arunma]

That the key, clean dancing. Doing it in a way for God or having fun but not body grinding and no revealing clothing. Oh and most important, is clean music.

This seems to be the key here. Dancing is prescribed in Scripture, as is music. But both can be used in a God-dishonoring fashion. This is what we should eschew, not dancing or music themselves. It is unfortunate that many fundamentalist churches have acquired a reputation for being opposed to things such as dancing, drinking, cards, movies, etc. The church ought to be known for opposing sin, not for legalism.

 

[Hog Red]

can't dance unless i'm drunk and that hasn't happened for 30 years, so i guess for me it would be a sin, now I know why they called it sat night fever because i always got sick and threw up. hope my kid never reads this.

 

[eldermike]

Dancing is fun. If your heart is not right, don't blame it on dancing.

 

[Abbadon]

In my 42 years being Baptist I still haven't found a Baptist church nor know of one, that shuns, bans, bad mouths, runs down, or otherwise.... clean normal dancing. I think it's another one of the rumors purported by other faiths or atheist. I think if you go to place where you find half naked people rubbing and down on each other you'll finds all faiths having something to say about it.

Actually, many Baptists used to be against dancing, smoking, drinking, and watching movies (although even if it was all of the Baptists in the world, this would be nowhere near a "Baptist" position). Such things were just too "worldly." My grandparents are really old, and they'd be shocked to discover that, yes, I do happen to enjoy a few mixed drinks every now and then, and I have no problem shaking and hopping about to some techno when noone's watching. Although they're OK with movies now, they would have found it odd that one of my hobbies is looking for spiritual messages in movies.

Nowadays, most of the churches against dancing are usually isolated and think that the Jews, Freemasons, and the Catholics are out to take over the world.

Dodge ball is useful~teaches hand/eye coordination and team skills; square dancing is from the dark side

Dodgeball also encourages thinking both as an individual and as a team, square dancing seeks to destroy the individual. It's completely fascist!

 

[Ave Maria]

I've honestly never really found a Baptist church that was against dancing. Even my own fundamentalist Baptist church is not against dancing as far as I know.

 

[Trelawrence]

I agree with most posts. Intent is key.

I have been to a few that still frown on "exuberant" dancing.

 

[TwilightSol]

Thank for the advice ness, and I just want to make sure people don't think bad about me. My baptist church has (saddly) been looked down on by another baptist church because we danceduring service, our youth go to christian rock concerts, and we minister alot through music and stuff. In fact we sometimes call ourselves almost baptists because it's like one big party in our world!!!! I want to make an observation now so don't get made at me..... but, a problem I've noticed is that all to often as christians we find ourselves looking to be in heaven already.....(kinda pointing at the "to worldly" thing) .... if thats the case... WHY'D GOD PUT US ON EARTH IN THE FIRST PLACE PEOPLE??? here's the duh... to save others!!! so don't look to heaven until you know your taking a few hundred other people with you!!! yeah!! whoot!!!!

 

[Fairmontackside]

In my Baptist church, dancing is not allowed at weddings.

But in the Children's ministry they dance to songs about God.


It's like everyone else said: dancing in celebration of the Lord is okay. You really have to use common sense. If you were dancing, and you looked over your shoulder to see Jesus watching, would you be ashamed?

I think dancing is cool, as long as it's not suggestive in an inappropriate way.

 

[NDNgirl4ever]

When I go to church, I attend a Baptist church, and I love to dance, as do all my Baptist friends.

 

[Mommajack]

I was asked once when I was in High School why Baptists didn't allow dancing. I was completely mystified by the question, I'd never heard anything about it and I was raised a Baptist.

Now that I'm older, I've heard of a few Baptists who think it's a sin, but they are all of the older generation, in their 80's or more. Nothing in the Bible says 'thou shalt not dance' (indeed, it seems to encourage it in some settings).

As Baptists, we are taught that we shouldn’t try to enforce our personal thoughts of legalism on someone else or vice versa: if a person feels that dancing or playing cards is wrong for them, then they don't dance or play cards-but they aren't supposed to look down on others for doing it.

Of course, there are *ahem* opinionated people in all walks of life, and you *will* be judged by others, some Christian, everywhere you go. That doesn't mean they're right and you're wrong. In the end, it comes down to this: do *you* feel it's wrong for *you* to dance? Do *you* feel the weight of the Holy Spirit telling *you* to stop? If not, then dance!

 

[Christian Soldier]

In my 42 years being Baptist I still haven't found a Baptist church nor know of one, that shuns, bans, bad mouths, runs down, or otherwise.... clean normal dancing. I think it's another one of the rumors purported by other faiths or atheist. I think if you go to place where you find half naked people rubbing and down on each other you'll finds all faiths having something to say about it.

I agree.

Anti-Christian types love to portray all or most believers as "narrow-minded", "intolerant", yada yada yada.

The late D. James Kennedy, proclaimed by the Christian-haters to be one of the most intolerant, actually dropped out of college and became a dance instructor at an Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Tampa, Florida. He met his wife of many years while giving her dance lessons at Arthur Murray.

I've been a Southern Baptist (SB) for years. There are numerous SB churches in my area, virtually every one of which I've been in. I have yet to find one that opposes all forms of dancing.

Having lived in the Bible Belt for over 36 years, I have yet to find a church that's opposed to ballroom dancing, tap dancing, folk dancing etc.

As others in this thread have already mentioned, sexually suggestive dancing/music is where most SB churches draw the line, as do numerous other denominations.