Dancing to Discernment
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:43 PM

The forces of sin took a step forward on Friday night when
Wheaton College held its first dance, according to this article
in Sunday's Chicago Tribune. The Christian school located
in the Chicago suburbs recently lifted its 143-year old ban on
dancing.

Vice Squad, which mentioned the pending demise of the ban
in October, is all in favor of voluntary private regulations of
vicious adult activity. The fact that the elimination of the ban
was spurred by legal concerns is a pity. The student quoted
in the Trib -- "I like to have my restrictions" -- should have been
able to continue to study at a college that provided them. Not
that it's 'no holds barred' at Wheaton now! According to the
article: "At Wheaton College's dance, administrators were prepared
to tap students on the shoulder if they got too intimate or out of
control with partners, but, campus leaders insisted, no tapping
was needed with this crowd."

Nevertheless, Wheaton's Dean of Student Life, a proponent of
dropping the dancing ban, had an interesting take (as reported
in the Trib article) -- a point of view that could be generalized to
other voluntary adult activities: "After all, if we want to be about
teaching discernment rather than compliance, this is the way
to do it."

Labels: dancing, Illinois