Monday School: dance

“5 Things Christians Label as ‘Sin’ That Aren’t Actually Sinful”: Dancing

What happens when your favorite song comes on the radio? If you are in the car? No one wants you to break out into a salsa when you’re doing 80 on the interstate. But we tend to want to move our bodies. Shake our shoulders. Bob our heads. If we are flying down I-75, we tap our fingers on the steering wheel or sway a little in our seats.

Psalms 149:3 says, “Let them praise his name with dancing…Praise him with tambourine and dance…”

2 Samuel 6:16 KJV

“And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.”

2 Samuel 6:20 KJV

“Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!”

“David dances before the Lord with all his might, providing us with a wonderful example of what it truly means to surrender to God in worship.”

God didn’t rebuke David no; his wife did.

“Dance is universal and a beautiful way to express your joy and gratitude for the One who gave us these gifts and talents.”

Ecclesiastes 3: 4 “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,”

The Old Testament has several examples of dancing.

So how did dancing get such a bad rap? Dancing was a large part of ceremonial rituals for pagan worship. When Moses was on the mountain getting instructions from God, the children of Israel were building a golden calf and participating in revelry. Exodus 32:6

What about the New Testament? “There are only 5 examples of dancing in the New Testament.” And which one stands out? Salome. At the request of her mother Herodias, this child does a highly provocative dance for a group of drunk men so that her mother could have the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Mathew 14:1-12 and Mark 6:14-29. This dance was NOT pleasing to God. “When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart:” Matthew 14:13

“Ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?” It was thinking along these lines that caused Christianity to stop dancing as part of worship. “According to church leaders and early theologians such as Tertullian and Saint Augustine, dance incited idolatry, lust and damnation.

“Starting in the 14th century, women were suspected of, and persecuted for, practicing witchcraft. During the European witch trials, witches were accused of dancing with the devil during a satanic ritual known as the Witches’ Sabbath.

“By the time the first slave ships set sail to Virginia in 1619, Christian dance was largely lost to history. Over time, enslaved Africans, with their traditions of sacred song and movement, would put the dance back into Christianity.”

Is dancing a sin? On the whole, no. If you are glorifying God, dance. Praise his name. Dance. King David danced before the ark of God. God saw no evil in his dance.

The Bible

Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman 1989

A special thank you to: https://ozarkwaterpal.com/2024/04/04/haiku-dew/ for helping me edit and valuable discussion on the topic.

https://www.gcu.edu/blog/performing-arts-digital-arts/dance-and-worship-way-glorify-god

https://www.christianheritageedinburgh.org.uk/2016/08/20/dance-in-the-new-testament/

Why Christianity put away its dancing shoes — only to find them again centuries later