> What?? You can't dance at all? Ever? I grew up in a Baptist church and never heard of such a thing. I'd call that rule a gross intrusion, unless I misunderstand what you mean. There's certainly nothing biblical that suggests dancing is unallowable and, in fact, there's probably the indication that dancing as part of rejoicing in God's glory is a good thing.

I thought I already clarified this in another post. Maybe that's one of the times I started to write a post and didn't have time to finish and didn't post it. Anyway...

I'm not referring to all dancing. Of course the Bible doesn't condemn dancing; there's no verse that says "Thou shalt not dance" or the like. In fact, it even records King David dancing before the LORD, and his wife Michal got in trouble for mocking his dancing. It was a culturally accepted thing...dancing before God isn't a mainstream worship activity nowadays, at least not in any church that I would be comfortable attending. (I wouldn't condemn a church that did promote it; I just wouldn't be comfortable doing it myself.)

Neither do I have any problem with artistic forms of dance, as long as they are in good taste. I don't particularly enjoy ballet--men in tights just don't do anything for me--but I don't see anything inherently wrong with it. The "breakdancing" craze of the Eighties was kind of strange, but it was interesting to watch.

The kind of dancing that I think is dangerous is slow dancing, with couples, a man and woman, dancing together, close together. Again, I'm not saying that this type of dancing is even wrong, just dangerous. Dangerous because it is a very intimate activity, and can obviously cause sexual arousal, which I believe should only happen between man and wife. Naturally, this leads me to take the position that this type of dancing should be reserved for marriage.

I Corinthians 7:1-2 says, "...it is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." One of the issues that Paul dealt with in I Corinthians was sexual purity, and this verse established a basic principle for them to live by. It's best that you don't participate in certain types of activities unless you're married to that person that you...er, participate in them with. In my POV, dancing is one of those activities that this applies to. If my wife and I were coordinated enough to dance together and we enjoyed it, we would. But we both have two left feet, so the point is moot for us.

I didn't mean to "preach," and I hope this post isn't taken that way. I just wanted to explain not only what my position is, but the reasoning behind it.

Grishny