Why I Oppose Dancing
(Editor's note: This excellent tract was sent to us from Amarillo, Texas, about a year ago, by a member of Central Church of Christ, who rejoiced in Brother Wilson's firm stand against worldliness in that church. Brother Wilson no longer preaches in Amarillo, but is with the Central Church of Christ in Cleburne, Texas.)
"Why do you oppose dancing?" This question is frequently asked, but somewhat like Governor Pilate asked our Lord, "What is truth?" without either waiting for or wanting an answer. However, there are some who really would like to know. Hence, this talk.
1. Dancing restricts one's appreciation for wholesome entertainment. This is evident from the oft-repeated question, "If young people don't dance then what are they going to do for entertainment?" This is an admission that those who want to dance are not interested in any other form of entertainment. When I express my disapproval of dancing I am sometimes accused of being narrow, as if I were opposing the only worthwhile type of entertainment. The individual who wants to know what young people can do for entertainment if they do not dance is much narrower in his thinking than the one who opposes dancing. I would give up any form of entertainment so restrictive in its nature that nothing else satisfies.
2. Dancing takes too much of one's time. Those who attend the dance usually become so obsessed with it that they do not have time for church activities or for any type of wholesome entertainment. Dancing is so all-absorbing that everything else must give place to it. We can hardly have a convention of any kind without winding up with a big dance. Other matters of importance may be tabled, or carried over a whole year, but not the "big ball." When you find church members who attend the dance, you nearly always find them putting the dance first. You may want them to help in some special church work, or meet and practice for some special service in the Kingdom of God, but if it interferes with their attendance at the dance, then the church work must be left to someone else.
3. Dancing keeps one out too late at night. Rarely does a dance close before midnight. Usually it is just getting well underway by that time. A church service that runs more than an hour becomes terribly boresome — especially to the dancing members. But the dance usually breaks up anywhere from two to four o'clock in the morning. One is hardly fit for church attendance, school work, or any other activity the day after the big dance. To argue that such practice is good for one physically, mentally, morally, or socially is to argue for something that has no foundation whatever in fact.
4. Dancing endangers ones health. The claim is sometimes put forth that dancing is a healthful exercise. No one questions the fact that dancing could be a healthful exercise, but the fates show that this is not generally true. The way public dancing is carried on does far more damage to the physical body than it does good. Usually those who engage in dancing never stop until they are exhausted. They dance in a crowded, smoke-filled room, where they breathe the germs of everyone else. There the bodies are overheated, then they go out into the night air where their bodies are cooled quickly and they become an easy prey to the germs they have been breathing. Many cases of pneumonia and untimely deaths have been, or easily could have been traced to the exposure of the dance hall.
5. Dancing puts one in the wrong crowd. It will be admitted that some church members attend the dance, but we cannot admit that the most faithful and most dependable members attend. Furthermore, we must not conclude that because some church members attend the dance their presence removes all the evils of the dance. We cannot escape the fact that by far and large those frequenting the dance are of the world. All classes from the average man of the world to the lowest type are found at the public dance. A man may go into a gas-filled room and walk out without serious injury, but he cannot long remain there without jeopardizing his life. Just so, a man may pass in and out among those of the world without being seriously affected, but one cannot live in such an atmosphere without being contaminated by the evils of his surroundings. The apostle Paul made this quite emphatic saying, "Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals." (1 Cor. 15:33) The subject of conversation, the smoke-filled atmosphere, the alcoholic odors, the rhythmic strains of music, plus the closely moving body contacts, exert their demoralizing effects, not only upon our youth but upon our more mature people. It is impossible to completely escape the evil consequences.
6. Dancing destroys one's love for the church. Some argue that they can dance without being affected. If we grant this, which might be true in some instances, it is the exception and not the rule. Certainly we should not base any 'general conclusion upon the exceptions. That some individuals may not have experienced all of the tempting influences of the modern dance will not be questioned. But we most solemnly protest when we were told that the public dance is beset with no, more temptations than an ordinary church picnic. The power of a few people may be strong enough to resist the temptations so characteristic of the dance, but these are in the minority. What is more: if people become regular attendants at the public dance it will not be long before they will be irregular attendants at the church services. The more people go to the dance the less they go to church. And the better dancers they are, 'the poorer Christians they are. The more they get out of the dance the less they get out of sacred worship.
7. Dancing destroys one's influence for good. Even if one who attends the public dance should attend all of the church services, he would have little or no influence for good. Dancing and spirituality are opposite in nature. Never do we hear of anyone being converted on the dance floor. Never does a great dancer become a great spiritual leader. Neither do we hear men and women, boys and girls at church on 'Sunday morning publicly discussing what a wonderful time they had at the dance on Saturday night. Nor do we ever hear of a dance breaking up on Saturday night with everybody asking everybody else to be at church the next morning. Truly, the influence of one is opposed to the other. The more influence we have over the dancing crowd, the less we have over the churchgoing crowd.
8. Dancing is a form of reveling. Dancing is given as one of the meanings of the term "reveling." When you add to the accompaniments of dancing such practices as eating rich foods late at night, smoking excessively, drinking intoxicating beverages, waltzing about on the dance floor until far into the morning, coupled with gaiety and hilarity, no individual can deny that this is a form of revelling, which Paul forbids in his long list of practices wherein, he concludes, "revelings, and such like: of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:21.)
9. Dancing inflames the emotions. Dancing would soon cease if it were not for the close body contact with the opposite sex. Add to the sex urge aroused by the body contact with the rhythmic sounds of music, and the emotions often become inflamed to the point of bodily harm. Some of the well-known psychologists defend the dance on the ground that it is a partial satisfaction of the sex urge. (See Psychology of the Adolescent, by Leta S. Hollingsworth, published by D. Appleton and Company, 1928, p. 122.) This apology admits the inflaming of the sex desire, but assumes that which is not true. The biological facts of life are to the contrary. It is far better for one's health that the sex urge be not aroused than to allow it to be inflamed and then smothered. Furthermore, it is contrary to the Bible. The apostle Paul said, "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof." (Gal. 5:24.) If we assume that inflaming the passions on the dance floor, which the psychologists admit takes place, and if we may further assume that partial satisfaction is better than no satisfaction — which we certainly do not — we still must reckon with the consummated fulfillment of the sex urge, which so often takes place after the dance is over. It will be enough here to remind all thinking people of the promiscuity so prevalent now throughout our nation. That the dance is one of the major contributing factors to this loose practice can hardly be questioned.
But this is not all of the story. Every year, so we are told, more than 100,000 high school girls, from good homes, are recruited by the "syndicates" for "commercial" purposes. Those who have made a study of the figures tell us that more than seventy-five per cent of the recruits are first contacted at the public dance. Of course, they are not usually enlisted with the first contact, but the "recruiting officers" are constantly on the lookout for likely prospects and subsequent follow-ups. The unfortunate part is that so many innocent victims are cleverly allured into the white slave syndicates before they realize what is happening to them. Many parents have had their very lives crushed out because they did not realize what was happening to their innocent girls until it was too late. The only way to make sure of ourselves is to "shun the very appearance of evil."
10. Dancing endangers the peace and happiness of the home. Many broken homes can trace their beginnings to the dance hall. A woman who may be a little tired of her husband gets in the arms of another man who holds her a little tighter, looks "divinely" into her eyes, and lifts her a little more gracefully on the dance floor — an what a delight! Yes, but often a delight that starts something which ends in a broken home, a broken heart, and creates more orphan children. Jealousies, quarrellings, fightings and sometimes killings have their beginning on the dance floor. To say that such things could start somewhere else is to beg the question. The fact that they do — yes, often do — start at the public dance is enough to cause every thinking person to recognize the evils of the dance. "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." All of the evils which grow out of the dance brand it as a corrupt tree.
The dance neither builds strong bodies, strong characters, nor strong minds. Contrariwise, it weakens one's health, one's will to serve the Lord, one's influence for good, and leaves one an easy prey to all the dangers of a misspent and distorted life.