In this day of changing values and consequent spiritual decline and moral decay, the Christian often finds himself frustrated and discouraged by the world around him. But even more disheartening is the discovery of deterioration within one’s own gates.
An examination of the Acts of Synod, CRC, 1977, gives ca use for concern in several areas, but the one which engages our attention right now is the Report 2-A found on pages 214–224 and Article 64, I found on page 97 regarding social dancing at Calvin College.
The report presents opinions which the committee has garnered from students, professors, administrators and others, followed by a recommendation to the CRC Synod that “Calvin College adopt a policy statement which would allow for social dancing as an acceptable and wholesome, on-campus, recreational activity for Calvin students and staff.”
A couple of reasons are given to justify this request. One is that Scripture does not forbid dancing. Another is that dancing provides the opportunity many young people need to be participants and not just spectators in an activity.
The committee furnishes a number of guidelines regarding the number of dances to be held, publicity, attendance, facilities, conduct, advisors, admission fee and music.
The committee envisions a few problems in carrying out the social dance program. 1) The music played at dances must be in keeping with Christian principles. This is a nebulous criteria particularly where music without words is involved. 2) Negative reaction from the constituency may present a problem.
But the real knub of the problem can be found on page 218. section 0 which says: “Social dancing in the minds of some people, carries too great a potential to evil for Christians participating in it. “The committee disagrees” (italics mine). The truth is that the committee disagrees with those who Snd evil in dancing. Everything which follows in the Report, Attachment I and Attachment II, is a defense of the pro-social dancing position.
The committee concludes that since the Scripture does not forbid social dancing and even speaks with approval of dancing in religious, worshipful settings, therefore we ought to have the social dance.
In response to this we must say that there are many things which Scripture does not specifically forbid but which the church (many denominations) has warned against for years. As far as dancing in the Bible is concerned, one looks in vain for even one reference that might indicate a planned social dance with entertainment as its goal and close body contact between a man and a woman not joined by marriage, as the means of achieving that entertainment. The “dance” approved in Scripture is always found in a context of a spontaneous joyful response to an act of God. To use the Bible as a justification for the social dance is a mockery and I for one was shocked and dismayed at the enthusiastic endorsement of this grounds given by our Board of Trustees.
The committee also defends the social dance by saying that the potential for evil lies in the heart of man and not in the social dance. But what the committee completely fails to point out is that the heart of man becomes corrupt by yielding to the temptations of Satan and the social dance is one of those temptations which confronts man. Proverbs 6:27 says: “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” Who dares to deny that the bodily intimacy of the social dance combined with fast and furious music or low and seductive music presents temptation and arouses lust? One author has said, “If sexual stimulation were taken out of the dance for young and old, it would be no more interesting than tiddlywinks.” In her column Ann Landers counseled a distressed young woman: “Steer clear of situations that can lead you to lose your restraint.” Isn’t it true that part of the excitement of dancing is the yielding (losing restraint) of self to another of the opposite sex? The social dance is the soil in which the seeds of lust germinate, often resulting in immorality, broken homes, hearts and lives. We pray earnestly for ourselves and our dear children, “Lead us not into temptation.” Shall we now as a denomination deliberately walk into it? As goes our college, so go our high schools and churches.
A few years ago, 1 was stunned to hear that some Gerefonneerde churches in the Netherlands were sponsoring dances for their young people in their own church facilities. The rationale was that this would present a more controlled atmosphere for their youth. After reading the Acts of Synod, 1977, and the endorsement and encouragement of the Board of Trustees printed in The Banner, I can see that unless the grass-roots constituency, consistories and laymen, put a stop to this decision, we are headed in the same direction as our sister church, in the Netherlands. Paul said, “Flee temptation” not “flirt with it.”
Already many parents of Christian high school students sponsor dances. They use the Christian school to distribute invitations and sell tickets. Many parents object in their hearts, but feel powerless against the pressures from their children who are in turn receiving a great deal of pressure from their classmates. “Brethren, this ought not so to be.”
Any person who is not convinced that social dancing is wrong, cannot escape two other cardinal principles laid down in Holy Scripture: 1) Our Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew 18:6: “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea” (also found in in Luke 17:1 and 2). The apostle Paul says in Romans 14:21, “It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended.”
To cause another believer to stumble or to cause offence in the Christian community is a serious thing. There are many of us in the CRC community who will be deeply offended if Calvin College implements this decision. This alone is reason enough to reconsider and recall the decisions of 1977.
The Board of Trustees is waiting for reactions to be sent to it from the CRC constituency before its February meeting. This is my reaction, not only as a mother of five children. Please send yours—TODAY.
Mrs. Vanden Heuvel is the wife of Rev. T. Vanden Heuvel, former president of the Fellowship and now pastor of the First CR Church of Chino, California.