Fundies and the Different Types of Dancing

[Eighth-of-eleven]

Grew up Roman Catholic here, not much of a ban on dancing. However, my parochial grade school was staffed by sisters of mercy, who were either from Philadelphia and of Irish american extraction, or directly from Ireland and our parish priests were from Ireland as well. I did a LOT of Irish dancing growing up and celebrated st. Patrick's day SEVERELY.

[FoxyMoxie]

Bear in mind that when the Puritans were around (and American Puritans were far stricter than their English counterparts - that's why they left for America, to impose religious intolerance not flee from it), dancing was solely a public activity, and not involving a lot of bodily contact. Most of the activities they forbade were public ones - I think it was about publically saying that they were not Catholic. Also fundie neo-Calvinism is surprisingly recent, and came from Zwingli's ideas rather than Calvin. Heck even Zwingli believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, a lot of beliefs that were normal to early Calvinism would be shocking to neo-Calvinists (Calvin for instance believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it was Zwingli who proposed memorialism).

Sorry for the tangent! I honestly think the fundie ban on dancing (which happens mostly, as far as I can tell, in non-Calvinist groups anyway) has a racist basis to it. No music with a back beat? You know, that music with a strong background in jazz and other music founded by black people? Not to mention the stereotypes about black people being debauched and sexy dancers. Just watch Hairspray.

[Palimpsest]

Some fundies even do ballet. Modestly, of course, and religious dances only. I could never work out whether the ballet dancing Mortons were connected to the S'Mortons.

thekingscourts.blogspot.com

Interesting. Anna Naomi (formerly of MaidensofWorth as well as the Kings Praise Ballet) is now living in Shanghai with her engineer husband and expecting a second child. ry-an-na.blogspot.com

[YoshiCat]

I always think of Jim Boob talking about a wedding "reception" (I think it was for Josh and Anna's wedding) and he said "no drinking, no dancing, just a real good time."

And I wondered if he really thinks drinking and dancing are not enjoyable activities. It came across like he was saying they're not going to do those things that nobody enjoys---drinking and dancing---because they want to have a good time

[nastyhobbitses]

I grew up Southern Baptist and I was confused by the whole "Baptists don't dance" thing. We sure did in our church, my mom was in Country Dancers when she was at Berea and she was always trying to get us kids to learn steps to dances. It was never an issue at our church. We were moderate or progressive though.

Some years ago I went to a production of Lucia de Lammermoor that the Bob Jones Opera workshop put on. There is one scene where the village people dance. The BJU students looked so uncomfortable dancing!

I know that "village people" here is peasant folk and such, but I'm just imagining a bunch of BJU students gussied up as the Village People and looking horribly uncomfortable as they gyrate in leather pants and short-shorts to the beat of Macho Man.

[Cleopatra7]

Bear in mind that when the Puritans were around (and American Puritans were far stricter than their English counterparts - that's why they left for America, to impose religious intolerance not flee from it), dancing was solely a public activity, and not involving a lot of bodily contact. Most of the activities they forbade were public ones - I think it was about publically saying that they were not Catholic. Also fundie neo-Calvinism is surprisingly recent, and came from Zwingli's ideas rather than Calvin. Heck even Zwingli believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, a lot of beliefs that were normal to early Calvinism would be shocking to neo-Calvinists (Calvin for instance believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it was Zwingli who proposed memorialism).

Sorry for the tangent! I honestly think the fundie ban on dancing (which happens mostly, as far as I can tell, in non-Calvinist groups anyway) has a racist basis to it. No music with a back beat? You know, that music with a strong background in jazz and other music founded by black people? Not to mention the stereotypes about black people being debauched and sexy dancers. Just watch Hairspray.

I think this is the case as well. The whole "music with a strong beat is evil" thing first started when ragtime introduced syncopated music to white audiences and it hasn't gone away since. However, I've noticed that many medieval and Baroque era dance songs have fairly strong beats and lots of drumming. For whatever reason it seems like strong rhythms fell out of favor in Western music for hundreds of years and only came back when black music entered the mainstream.

[Leftitinmysnood]

The fundie group I was in was very Bill Gothard inspired and definitely frowned on dancing. One time, one of the dads really wanted to do a spiritual dance, like in Fiddler on the Roof (we can talk later about how they completely misunderstood the point of the movie). :lol:

We chose an open space and strung a rope through the middle, so the genders would be segregated. We all gathered, he played his guitar, and everyone marched in two circles for about 1/2 an hour because no one knew how to dance. :cray-cray:

[GodsKnickers]

AoG here and any kind of dancing, even square dancing in PE class, was strictly forbidden. The explanation given was that it could lead to other things or, as our pastor (the daughter-raping one) put it, "dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire".

I was surprised when it turned out the Smortons were into country dancing at their costume balls, but they did lay down the rule that unmarried females could dance only with their fathers or (I think) brothers.

My dad was from the US and raised AoG there, until he came to Canada to Bible School and became a Pentecostal. I find the Pents in Canada, for the most part, quite different than in the US. I tend to see or hear very little of the different sects of Pents in the US, here in Canada - ie. Holiness, Oneness, etc. I find the Pents here, to be fairly....hmm...liberal? I guess, in terms of their views on dancing and drinking. And by liberal, I don't mean politically minded anything by that, hahaha. There seems to be a core group that is still fairly opposed to it, but they also tend to be the old generation of Pents in Canada. I have heard the 'they dance/drink therefore they aren't really xians' statement more than once in my lifetime. Dancing seems to be a thing at churches now. I've seen their dance teams advertised. My very Pentecostal friends (I've known them since I was 13) have a niece that is on the dance team at her church.

My parents were very against dancing, as Pents. I suspect some of that was an AoG holdover from my dad's upbringing and mom just followed suit because leader of the house/faith/patriarchial crap. My folks pretty much had the same perspective of 'horizontal desire' and tacked on dancing not keep your body holy/a temple and I suppose, in FJ terms, it was defrauding. Dancing with someone other than your husband, even though they didn't dance and we weren't allowed to (not for school, not for anything), was dangerous as it might lead to that man having desires he shouldn't, and it being a catalyst for marital affairs to happen, blah blah blah blah. My dad would have shit enough bricks to build every fundie grifter living in RVs, 2 houses each, had anyone approached him about getting a dance team together, in any of his churches. :lol: They were also against card playing of any kind, movie going, bikinis, and so much else.

My family is batshit, this much I've come to understand. :lol: