Should Christian Teens Dance? - Amy Lawrence

As a teenager, I was pressured severely concerning the senior Prom. I had friends, peers, and a boyfriend who was going. My friends assumed my decision to not go was based on domineering parents who disallowed it. They offered to help me sneak out of the house and get me ready at a friend’s house. My peers assumed I just couldn’t dance. My boyfriend continually reminded me that he would be the only guy there that didn’t bring his girlfriend. How would that look? My parents were in part responsible for my decision, but not because they were cruel and demanded that I commit social suicide. Their part resided solely on the Christian education they had given me up to that point. That begs the question: how would a Christian education affect my decision concerning the Prom?

Let’s start with the basics:

What is the Prom? The term “Prom” is an abbreviation for “promenade”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “promenade” as: “to take or go on a promenade, to walk about, in, or on.” It is synonymous with “parade”. The idea behind the word itself is the action of purposely displaying oneself to others. Putting oneself before an audience is not wrong in and of itself. It’s what we’re doing that is making people look that determines the morality of the situation. The gentlemen wear a tux, the young ladies wear a beautiful dress and spend quality time and money making their hair and features more beautiful than ever. The entire point of these things is to be seen, to “promenade”.

What does one do at the Prom? They get all gussied up to just...stand around and talk? No. The most prominent feature of a senior Prom is the dancing.

I. What is so wrong with dancing?

Let’s look at some world views...

- In an article published by the Sydney Morning Herald, December of 2005, Alok Jha of London wrote, “It’s true; dancing does lead to sex.” His article addressed the scientific approach to explaining why dancing was sexually appealing. “Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that dance was a courtship signal in animals, but there had been no studies of the relation of dance and genetic or physical quality in humans until now,” he continued.

“Scientists have confirmed what fans of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever have known all along: men with the best dance moves have the most sex appeal.”

-A more recent article written by Kristen Sollee in February of 2017 titled “4 Study-based Links Between Dancing and Sex” used scientific evidence to come to conclusions about the correlation between dancing and sexual lust. She wrote, “A new study published in Scientific Reports asked subjects to analyze and rate different digital avatars that were mapped from the dance moves of real women. Both male and female raters judged dancing with greater hip swinging as more attractive, as well as moves that incorporated asymmetric thigh movements and intermediate levels of asymmetric arm movements.” She also mentioned a study cited in Psychology Today that addressed how women danced differently based on the changes of hormones before and after their menstrual cycle. The article further addressed how women view dancing men. “You can tell a lot about a potential lover from the way they dance. According to a survey of 2,000 women by The Daily Mail, 80 percent said they experienced a direct correlation between a man's performance in the club and in the bedroom.“

- According to Dr. Peter Lovatt, a renowned dance psychologist, men with higher testosterone levels dance differently. Men with lower levels favor smaller movements, but men with higher levels of testosterone dance with more vigorous, flashy movements.

- Famous Paris fashion designer Christian Dior once admitted in an interview: “For the first time, I have done away with corsets even for dance dresses. I have often heard men complain that in dancing they could not feel a living form under women’s corsets.”

-Louis Guyon, once a proprietor of Paradise, a Chicago dance hall, said, “In over thirty years in this business I have come to the strong conclusion that dancing is just the beginning of other evils. Sex being the one most often led to, and I believe that this is what makes dancing nviting...thousands of boys and girls dancing in this very way who do not realize they are doing anything out of the way, and whose fool parents look on complacently.”

No matter the innocence one claims, dancing is documented by both the world as well as scripture as an intimate action.


II. What does the BIble have to say about…?

1.) dancing

2.) two people of the opposite sex being within such proximity to one another

-Let’s not forget John the Baptist’s beheading. Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and brother of Herod Phillip I, watched his niece (Josephus calls her Salome, daughter of his brother Herod Phillip I and Herodias) dance in view of everyone at his birthday party. He enjoyed it so much that he was willing to give her whatever she asked, up to “half the kingdom”. (Many suggest that Herod was drunk, and it is likely, but the context only tells us that he held a feast for the nobles and prominent men of Galilee, Mark 6:14-29. Mark wrote that it didn’t just please Herod, but also the others who sat with him, vs. 22.) What would move Herod to make an oath to this young woman to give her anything she asked? Lust can make a man do funny things.

-The Bible uses a word to describe situations such as the Prom; places where there is loud music, dancing, and maybe even the occasional spiked punch. The original Greek word is κῶμος (komos), “revelry”. Even hundreds of years ago, they had parties with dancing, loud music, and drinking. It was trouble then and it is trouble now. No sane person dips their toes in shark-infested waters and thinks they won’t get bitten. No sane Christian walks straight into the devil’s snares with their eyes wide open and expects not to get caught. We cannot be ignorant of his devices, 2 Cor. 2:11.

-Consider the Proverb of the seductress. Proverbs 6 and 7 warn of a woman who has a talent for seduction. Not all women are out to ensnare men, but let’s look at the means by which this woman catches what the writer calls a “young man devoid of understanding” (Prov. 7:7.):

>. A flattering tongue

>. Lustful beauty

>. Mannerisms/attire of a harlot

>. Enticing speech

Let us equally consider the young man. He:

>. Took the path to her house. He chose to be in a place where he knew temptation would be found.

>. Was in the wrong place, at the wrong time - in the twilight, evening, black and dark night. The setting itself denotes a desire to find trouble.

>. He had a heart that was easily snagged.

All of the above is a recipe for disaster. That’s a bit drastic, Amy, you might say, calling young women harlots when it’s completely innocent that they only want to dress up and have fun. Just to be clear - I am not calling young women that go to the Prom “harlots”. I am not even suggesting that they think of nothing but sex in reference to the Prom. Do young women engage in activities such as the Prom with their minds focused on sexual encounters? Some do, but most do not. Most young women are excited about the opportunity to dress more fashionably than usual and be doted upon by young men. Do young men engage in activities such as the Prom with their minds focused on sexual encounters? I myself being female cannot with any honesty answer that question from my own perspective…but I do know and have talked with males concerning the subject. They have all stated the same: sex doesn’t start out at the forefront of their mind, but by the end of the evening it is most certainly there. I have had young women give voice to their being offended by the mere suggestion that they become a temptation for young men in situations such as the Prom, as if such suggestions label them as promiscuous. I am doing no such thing. We as females want to be seen as beautiful. Sometimes, though, that desire clouds our judgement. We forget to consider the perspective of the males. Most males will admit that it IS a temptation. We, both males and females, will be judged by the example we set and the influence we portray, Lk. 17:1-5.

The writer of the Proverb uses the phrase, “Can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” (Prov. 6:27) Paul Southern wrote, “it’s like lighting a fire under a tea kettle and daring the water to boil.” It matters where we are and what we and those around us are doing. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “…Evil companions corrupt good morals.” (1 Cor. 15:33) Paul wrote to Timothy, “FLEE youthful lusts.” (2 Tim. 2:22) Scripture should matter to every Christian. Its application keeps us out of trouble.

One of the biggest nets Satan uses to catch us are those stages in our childhood society calls “rites of passage”. The Prom is labeled as such a stage. It’s a tradition in a teenager’s transition from school years into adulthood. Many have been called odd (among other things) because they would dare speak against traditions such as the Prom. There is insurmountable peer pressure surrounding the event. (The article “Peer Pressure” is also available to read.) To miss one’s Prom is to “miss a once-in-a-lifetime event”, as they say. To speak against the Prom is to commit social suicide. Most choose to follow the world. Scripture tells us that he that makes himself a friend of the world is the enemy of God, James 4:4. We will never influence the world by trying to be just like it, and the more we look like the world, the less we will be recognized by Christ, Mt. 7:23. 


1 John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1 John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

There is hope. We can choose Christ. He offers not just a life, but an abundant one, Jn. 10:10. Don’t buy in to the YOLO attitude. You don’t just live once. But how you live this life determines where you end up in the next, Heb. 9:27, 2 Cor. 5:10. Choose Christ.

~Amy Lawrence