Below is an article from The Wall Street Journal entitled "Spirited Dancing: Dancing in Church Splits Congregations" (pp. A1, A10, 10/14/04). As you read it, please look for how the advocates of the practice seek to justify it:
At a concert here a few miles outside San Antonio, young adults in clingy leotards and sequined vests shimmied and shook through the aisles as shouts from the crowd rose above the music.
The dancers were here to "minister" at a gospel festival at the New Creation Christian Fellowship Church. "There's power, deliverance, healing and declaration in dance," said one dancer, "Lady" Michelle Nurse. "It's a form of praise and worship."
In recent years, black churches across the country have been starting dance ministries, in part to lure younger congregants. And that bothers some conservative souls who believe tight clothing and gyrating bodies don't belong in a house of worship.
"When you put women in leotards in the church, it's going to open the doors to problems because it attracts unbelievers in a fast and powerful way -- and worldly women who want to show off their bodies," says the Rev. Ron Brown, who bristles at the thought of putting a dance ministry in his First Missionary Baptist Church, a 100-member congregation in Desoto, Texas.
The two sides are turning to the Bible for support and drawing opposite conclusions. Dance partisans point to a biblical passage from the New International Version that deals with King David of Israel, who "danced before the Lord with all his might" and another passage about Moses' prophetess sister Miriam, who danced with other women after the Lord delivered the Jews from Egypt's oppressive rule.
Those opposed cite the same passages as merely advocating spontaneous demonstrations of the sort long seen in black churches among congregants who feel the spirit, not choreographed dance. Some white churches have dance ministries, too, but it has been more of a hot-button issue in black churches in recent years.
Today's "praise dancing," as it's called, is often a mixture of different dance techniques. Dancers often perform ballet moves such as arabesques and pirouettes in combination with twirls and spins seen in modern dance and hip-hop. Often, dancers -- both men and women -- perform flips, lifts and clap their hands. Some praise dancers also use streamers, flags, tambourines and ankle bracelets to add color, sound and theatrics.
As in other forms of dance, Christian praise dancing is used to tell a story or demonstrate reverence. For instance, some dances are choreographed to illustrate the resurrection of Christ. Dancers will lift their hands toward heaven and kneel as if in prayer. Likewise, wearing red can represent the blood of Jesus, black evil and white purity and the cleansing of sin.
The One Accord Ministries, an Austin, Texas, organization that trains and supports dance ministries, lists more than 1,000 of them, up from just five eight years ago. "It's the only auxiliary in the church you have to defend," says Carl Long, who leads the more than 30 members of the Tribe of Judah dance troupe at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Dallas. "Singing has never been on trial like dance."
Earlier this year, the Tribe of Judah -- wearing red and black -- jumped up and down rhythmically to an up-tempo gospel song that encouraged the crowd to break loose from the bondage of sin and oppression and celebrate freedom through Christ. As the drums and guitars played harmoniously, the dancers -- some in their mid-40s -- quickly fell to the sanctuary floor and rolled over, at other times jumping back on their right leg and kicking the other leg up as if performing a karate move.
Organized dance has strong roots in the church. With the rise of Christianity, churches developed dance rituals for use during prayer and mass. But it was quickly attacked as lustful and decadent. In the beginning of the ninth century, Charlemagne, the Holy Roman emperor, prohibited dancing of all sorts. But his edict didn't seem to end it in the church and actually encouraged it elsewhere.
In the case of black churches, one of the early dance ministries in the U.S. was started more than 20 years ago by the Rev. Ethel Veal, who co-pastors God's Children's Ministries Worship Center Church, a nondenominational congregation in Baton Rouge, La. The gospel dance troupe started out using only hand gestures. When it added below-the-waist dance movements, there were complaints, and some church members fled.
"When we started moving our legs and kicking them up, people asked, 'You say this is of God?' " says Ms. Veal, whose church has 200 members. "People thought we were out of it."
Pamela Rutherford, national co-coordinator for Christian Dance Fellowship U.S.A., a nonprofit group with about 650 members, says church leaders should accept that reaching modern churchgoers requires modern techniques. "They have to realize a lot of people are really being touched by the gospel through dance," she says.
The Rev. Vincent Jones of Shiloh Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, doesn't buy that. "I don't think we ought to make church a free-for-all just to get good numbers," Mr. Jones says. "Praise dancing is a fad and can be used as a gimmick to get people to come in."
The complaints come from the pews as well as the pulpit. Trevi Pershay, a New York resident, several years ago began an outreach dance ministry for teenagers who go from church to church performing mime, hip hop, liturgical and other dances meant to attract young people to Christianity. She says some churchgoers see thugs and hoodlums wearing baggy denim jeans, baseball caps and oversized T-shirts when they should be seeing 55 earnest teenagers dancing to Christian music. "Sometimes people will get up and walk out and at other times, they just won't applaud us," says Ms. Pershay.
New Covenant Christian Ministries, of Lithonia, Ga., has had separate dance ministries for adults, teens and children since 2001, but some worshipers still find it hard to take. A woman who attended Sunday services with her children recently walked away and vowed to never come back after seeing people line-dancing, says the Rev. D'Ann Johnson, co-pastor of the church.
To prevent such an exodus, some churches are toning down their dance ministries. At Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, the dance ministry urged performers to cover their leotards with modest skirts and oversized tops after churchgoers complained that they were too provocative. "It drove some of the men crazy, and some of the women would get upset," says the Rev. Josef Rasheed, associate minister of worship.
Despite the difficulties, churches are likely to feel more pressure to add dance to their services. The Rev. Brown of First Missionary Baptist in Desoto was so opposed to dancing in church that he refused even to watch a performance. "It does more hurt than help," he says. Last spring, however, he took in a performance at a National Baptist Convention meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. He thought the dancing was beautiful but still isn't convinced it belongs in church.
He concedes that he may eventually have to resort to a restricted dance ministry if he is to fill the pews in his 22-month-old church: "If I had three or four good-looking women with great bodies, I'd be guaranteed an audience."
In the quest for numbers, our denominational friends have provided an ever-growing number of programs to appeal to carnal appetites. In the midst of such foolishness, however, these folks should be congratulated for one thing. They openly admitted the nature of dancing as appealing to the carnal man and the clothing associated with it as provocative and skimpy.
The only approved examples of "dancing" they can cite from the Bible are no more than joyful demonstrations (Lam. 5:15; Psa. 30:11; 149:3; 150:4). Such approved dancing was done by one alone or by groups of the same gender (Jer. 31:13; 1 Sam. 18:6; 21:11; 29:5; 2 Sam. 6:14; Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34). In the cases where it involves men and women dancing with one another, it is clearly condemned (Matt. 14:6-11; Mk. 6:22-28; Ex. 32:19). If it involves movements enticing carnal appetites, it is characterized as lasciviousness, a sin repeatedly condemned (Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:19;1 Pet. 4:3). Henry Thayer said the Greek word translated "lasciviousness" (aselgeia) involved "wanton acts or manners, as filthy words, indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females" (Greek-English Lexicon of the N.T., pp. 79-80). He cites Rom. 13:13 as an example where it is translated "wantonness." No, denominational dancers have no Bible case, but some brethren need to learn the same thing.