Dancing Around RedState Religion

Dancing My Way. Last Saturday, I danced up a storm at the Valentines Gala at the Carl Perkins Center in Morehead, KY. I stomped, boogied, shimmied, and twisted the bulging discs in my back and neck all the way back to the chiropractor's table on Monday.

But it was worth it!

I loved dancing in high school and college and sometimes danced three times a week to the local bands. At the local high school here in Kentucky, students only get three dances or so in a year. Talk about dance deprivation! Because they are hemmed in by evangelical religious prejudices against dancing, high school students are really deprived. Dancing to high school bands is highly democratic. It's individual expression; it's training in responding to other people; and its feeling like you're part of a group. Kids in this area often have trouble both in expressing themselves individually and identifying with groups. They would do better if they had more opportunities to dance. I know I'm a better person because I danced so much as a young guy.

Steppin to It. Not that religion is all bad. The Lexington Herald-Leader has a story on a Georgetown College (north of Lexington) dance team that engages in a form of "step dancing" that originated as a mode of communication among black miners in South Africa. The choreographer, Nicole Wilson, views the dancing as a way to show "the love of God" and has the dancers recite John 3:16 as they dance. Compared to evangelical churches, African-American religion has a very appealing emphasis on love, freedom, and social justice that's expressed by the dance team. White churches would do well to follow their example.

In fact. Some extraordinary things happen in religion. Kentucky has the second highest rate of disabilities in the country after West Virginia and people here routinely face disasters for either themselves or their families. However, one of the inspiring things about living in Kentucky is the heroic lengths that people go to help each other. The Herald-Leader had a particularly inspiring story today about a couple who met while both were going through extremely hard times--chronic unemployment on his part and the deaths of several close relatives on hers. When the story of their wedding got out, local businesses donated "photographic, cake, and music services" for the wedding. The couple viewed the generosity as "God working miracles." Those kinds of miracles should be part of the dance of life.