Dancing is Not a Sin

When I was growing up it seemed like there was a lot of preaching about things you couldn’t do. Like it was wrong to wear shorts, it was wrong for boys and girls to swim together and it was wrong to dance.

In fact when I was in the 8th grade the PE teacher informed us one day that they were going to combine the boys and girls and we were all going to learn to Square Dance. I thought to myself… I’m not going to Square Dance because it’s a sin and smugly went home and told my parents what the Devil’s minions wanted me to do. Imagine my surprise when my parents said… it won’t hurt you to learn how to Square Dance. I guess that was my first lesson that just because you heard a preacher, preach something, didn’t necessarily mean it was true.

Of course in the Bible there is no command not to dance, there is no example of it being identified as a sin and there is no necessary inference that it is wrong. So, where is the authority for teaching that dancing is wrong and sinful?

Usually dancing is taught as being wrong because it might promote lust between a man and a woman and lead to fornication. If that’s a legitimate reason for forbidding a practice then we should also throw out dating or holding hands or putting on make-up or… so many things. And if we don’t include those activities then we are not being consistent in our arguments,

Sometimes preachers teach that dancing might hurt our Christian influence. Really? How could it hurt our influence if no one else sees anything wrong with it? I think it might do more damage to our influence if we condemn a practice that is not condemned in the scriptures.

If we really want to be biblical why don’t we teach and preach against lust and fornication… primarily… and mention activities that might promote those sins secondarily?

I still remember dancing with that girl in the 8th grade. I was so scared and nervous and couldn’t wait for it to be over. I also remember when one of my nephews got married that there was some dancing going on. My mother was 80 years old at the time and I asked her if she would dance with me and we did. I’ll never forget it… I think I cried.

Is dancing wrong? No it isn’t. What is wrong is the blanket condemnation of dancing, which is disingenuous, paints a false portrait of Christ and cripples the Cross of Jesus Christ.