The other day I watched on Netflix the remake of Footloose that came out a few years ago. Some of the same songs, same plot lines, same names. Hey kids, wouldn't it be freaky if your life was exactly like a movie that had occurred 25 years ago? You'll know not to cross that bridge while drunk or you'll get hit by a semi and the reactionary town council will ban dancing! Don't people ever learn?
Sure, there are differences. The part of Sarah Jessica Parker is now played by a girl of indeterminate ethnicity. It's located in Georgia (since, of course, the south is where backwards religious people live now, right?). The preacher's daughter is a skank with mental problems, not just a bit wild and rebellious. The uncle is a much more sympathetic character. The chicken/tractor scene is replaced by a bizarre school bus race. But it's mostly the same thing.
I would wonder if the original of this movie has helped to change the evangelical church's position on dancing more than anything in my lifetime. When I was a kid we heard sermons and classes about the evils of dancing. Now? Except in the most conservative churches it's a given, and in some places it's encouraged. Heck, I go now to an evangelical Christian university that has dances. Who knows if it's always been that way, but nobody thinks anything of it.
In both movies there is a climax scene in which bad-boy Ren comes before the town council to plead his case for the big dance. Helped by the preacher's daughter finding him some Bible verses, he passionately speaks about the need to dance, and hey, it's in the Bible, too! A psalm speaks of dancing. David danced before the Lord. So shouldn't we dance too? The town council sits in silence, destroyed by the word of God.
Of course, it ain't that easy. While I no longer think that dancing is the epitomy of evil, and fully expect my kids to want to go to dances when they get older (my son especially already has rhythm), in a Christian sense how dancing is today is very problematic. I don't go clubbing...but what I see of it shows me that there ain't a lot of 'dancing before the Lord' in much of modern dancing. Maybe in high school dances or evangelical Christian university dances, it's a much more tame thing. Nobody looks like they are simulating sex in such places, I would bet...but in much of the rest of the world godliness is nowhere in sight. Drunkenness, promiscuity, and the like are all encouraged in much dancing today.
But like most things, we can't make the distinction between these things. Like the reactionary town council in the movie, it's all or nothing. Either you can't even choreograph, or you have to bump and grind like a couple of dogs in heat. Why can't Christians make the determination about what is good and what is evil? Because for years we have held to slippery slope arguments or have been obsessed with extreme positions that have no basis in reality. Only when we will start to understand degrees, and see things through eyes of the Spirit, will it really start to make sense what is acceptable and what is not.
