Dancing by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 8, 1864

Dancing.

By Editor

Is dancing sinful? If so, why is it sinful?

These are inquiries which, for substance, have several times recently been proposed to us. It is alleged that there is a growing tendency to countenance dancing as an amusement among Christian people, and much desire is felt that the true character of this practice should be set forth for the instruction and warning of the young. A full consideration of this subject would require more space and time than we have now at command. A few words only we will venture to advance, and those simply as hints at the principles which we regard as involved in it.

Dancing, as it is commonly practiced in balls and public assemblies in which the two sexes unite, we regard as positively wrong, for the simplest of all reasons, that it is of licentious tendencies. Not that those who engage in them are corrupt, or are always conscious of those tendencies. But this is no proof that they do not exist. The attitudes, the motions, the familiarities connected with the waltz, and all kindred movements, can not, as human nature is, be practiced without a tendency to influence the sensual passions. We were once made an involuntary spectator of them while traveling in one of our elegant Western steamers, and can never forget the feelings of astonishment and shame we felt at the exhibition. They were practiced in the ancient heathen origies, for the very reason of their impure tendencies. They have ever characterized the corrupting worship of pagan deities, as all who are familiar with the history of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, and other nations, both ancient and modern, are aware, and they form a part of the disgusting revelries of the lowest haunts of vice in our cities. We repeat it, that many of our youth who are attracted by the music and gaiety of the ballroom, are not themselves aware of the nature of the influences it exerts. We are very sure that if the truly refined ladies, who often grace it with their presence, could overhear the remarks which are drawn forth from those with whom they share in the gaiety, they would blush at the revelation made to them, and henceforth as carefully refuse their presence as from the more open and recognized haunts of dissipation.

We need say nothing, then, about the evil effect of balls upon health, or their waste of valuable time, or their tendency to promote a taste for frivolity, and dispel serious thought and feelings,—if the essentially corrupting influence now charged upon promiscuous dancing really exists, it is enough to determine its moral character. If to this be added these last-mentioned effects, all of which are undeniable and of grave importance, they surely put it beyond the possibility of question whether the indulgence is wrong, or should ever be tolerated by a Christian.

In respect to dancing in families and schools, or among children, we may freely admit that it is far less objectionable than that just described. But so far as it involves the intercourse of the two sexes, the principle is not essentially different. It is for judicious parents to judge to what extent children can engage in parlor dances without approaching that dangerous ground. We fear it would be at an earlier age than many suspect. Whenever the practice falls short of that, it is to be classed with those other amusements, of which it is not too much to say, they are not needful to the development of the mental or physical character, while they may sow the seeds of what will ultimately be a fatal harvest.

In a word, then, this is our test of dancing. As commonly practiced among adults, it is wrong, because it is of impure tendencies. If it be thought there is a kind which is free from those tendencies, that fact should be made certain before it is permitted. And even then we think that Christian parents, with all the facilities for interesting and instructing their children and promoting their health which are so abundantly furnished at the present day, may, without difficulty, find for them amusements equally attractive and far more consonant with the solemn ends of human life, and its relations to eternity.—The Tract Journal.