Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1915-08-18
SAYS WE ARE BADLY WRONG.
Rev. Taylor Gives His Views on the
Question of Dancing.

Mr., Editor, with your permission
desire to write few lines to attac
the orthodoxy of your position o.
some forms of amusements.
In order to determine whether al
amusement is innocent and refining O.
not there must be seme standard t,
measure by.
The substance of the teaching of the
Bible is, Fisrt, that the creating ant
attaining of the highest type of Christ
ain characters is the first duty of mar
in this world.
Jesus said, "Seek ye first the king.
dom of God and his righteousness
Matt. 6. 33. Again he said to Nico-
demus, Except man be born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God. y
John 8. 3.
In the second place the Bible teaches
that 1t is the duty of Christ's followers
to serve the world by spreading the
kingdom of God. Hear Jesus again,
$50 ye therefore and teach all nations
Matt %. 10 "Go We into all the world
and preach the gospel to every crsa-
ture", Mark 16. Is.
In the third place the Bible teaches
that it Is the duty of Christians to
WELD good influence.
Hear Jesus again. Let your light so
hafA hof
your good works and glorify your faith
er which is in heaven" Matt. 5. 16.
Hear Paul, Wherefore if meat make
my brother to offend, will eat no~lesh
while the world standeth, lest | make
my brother to offend. Cor. 8. 13.
"Now, the deduction to be drawn
from the foregoing teachings of the
Bible is that whatever oetracts from
the Christian character. Christian ac-
tlvity and Christian influence is evil.
Now Brother Bishop let's use
examine your innocent amusement of
dancing by this standard and see how
1t pans out.
Some one has taken the pains to
collect statistics on the causes that con-
tribute to the downfall OF women and
have found that eighty five out of every
hundred fallen women started on the
downward road in the dance.
Now Mr. Editor, does that look like
an innocent amusement? Does the
dance detract from character or not?
Now Mr.. Editor, | shall challenge
you to produce dancing church mem
ber that is an active soul winner.
1t is said that in one of the Method
ist churches IN the Lebanon District
the dancing members were in ball
room dancing while revival services
were being held in their church. Did
dancing add to Or detract from the ac-
tivity of those members? Now, as to
the dance detracting from Christian
influence, / give this instance A
revival was going on IN town and
woman who was member of the
church, but society woman became
interested in the salvation of her hus-
band and spoke to him about it. His
reply was II am as good as you are.
Igo to the dance and you go to the
dance, | play cards and you play
cards.
Did dancing add to or detract from
the Christian influence of that wife or
not?
From the foregoing 1T is plain that
dancing cannot be classed as one of the |
innocent and normal amusements.
The very forms or styles of modern
dancing, as the writer has seen them
practiced and illustrated IN magazines,
show that there is no other purpose in
the designing these but the moral deg
radiation of woman.
Nobody understands this better than
the moral crook and if you have the
dance in the home he will come around
the we'll groomed travelling sales
man and find his way into your
home to lntwine your lovely, pure
daughter IN his Shiny arms thereby
arousing IN her sinful desires.
MY dear brother, the devil has never 1
devised better and more efficient
scheme to degrade womanhood than
the modern dance. And all intelligent,
purity loving people know this, and no
body knows it better than that class of
men who make it their business to de-
grade womanhood.
How do you figure that the in the {