Sensible Dancing

Dear Sir:

My dad reads your paper; that s how I got the address. I ve been talking to him about dancing. He won’t let me, because of what it will lead to, and all the preachers he has talked with on the subject say, No, it isn t good.

But my side: That s just about all the things that teenagers do beside smoking and drinking. I can see where these aren t good and I would never dream of doing them, but what s wrong with dancing? It s just something to do for pleasure.

I have already promised to keep my dancing sensible. Other kids (two) at my church (Church of Christ) can. Do you, and the ones you can’talk with about this subject, think I should miss out on the fun? Please answer in a letter.

Signed _ ___ , N.Y.

I certainly do not want you to miss the fun - and I am aware that what it leads to makes very poor argument indeed to early teens. But you seem to be very intelligent - try reasoning on your own statements.

By what standard do you reject smoking and drinking? It is done for pleasure; and many contend it can be kept sensible. Other kids do them, and should you miss out on the fun? Some other kids break store windows and bait the police just for kicks. But you see the end of these things - the alcoholic, death by cancer, etc. These ends are physical, and more readily seen than the breakdown in morals, and of character. Apparently your dad, and those with whom he has counseled, see some ends of dancing that are not yet clear to you. And they know that one s concept of sensible dancing - like that of smoking and drinking - usually change for the worse as we grow older.

You will not long remain a young teen, dancing at school or in supervised parties. In a few short years you will dance at Clubs, Night-Spots, where drinking, smoking and sensuous dancing will be pressured upon you. (Associates there will ask why you should miss the fun of things you now know to be wrong, and reject.)

What you reject now, because of their end - the physical breakdown - are not nearly so damaging as those things that attack one s morals, and destroy character, and cause the loss of one s immortal soul.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for younger and less experienced boys and girls to see this point. That is why Christian parents have to see, and rule in such matters, for their children. (Pity those whose parents are too weak to accept and meet this responsibility.) But I believe you can understand that the wrong in dancing is not the happy association, music and rhythm you might enjoy now. It is the sensuality, immodesty, and lasciviousness (study those words in an unabridged dictionary) of the full grown vice of which we warn. Already you may sense such association being made by older and more bold girls or boys of your public school classes. I m resting my case on your maturity, and your love for Jesus Christ.

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