Is Dance Dangerous? The Naive Surreal Collection, Part 8.

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 477
In the history of questions, this  ("Is the dance dangerous?") certainly must rank in the bottom tenth percentile.  Or at least I hope it does.  The question is the title of this small pamphlet, written by Porter Bailes (of the First Baptist Church of Tyler, Texas) in 1947, a work which is part of my Naive Surreal collection.  "If it's doubtful, it's dirty" is the major maxim that floats it way through this work, and proceeds to attacks it subject of "the"dance on its unholy, immoral, unnatural, imprudent, prayer-defeating nature. 

"Can any one stretch the imagination as to think of Jesus as being congenial and at ease in the atmosphere that the dance creates? No! Dancing is not to the glory of god. It never made anyone feel the nearness of god.  It robs us of the desire to pray. A dancing foot and a praying knee are not found long on the same limb."

And also:

"There are many fine people who dance.  They are fine not because they dance, but in spite of the dance."

And:

"The dance does not involve any moral requirements.  The more lewd the people are, the more proficient they may become. The gestures of the dance demand lewdness." 

Lastly:  "the tine of the dance makes it dangerous. Its hours are unearthly and abnormal"

And lastly last:  " The position of the dance make it dangerous.  For two normal people to place their bodies in the close personal contact that the modern dance demands and not have impure thoughts and unholy emotions stirred, would be very unnatural.  In truth, it is against all the known laws of human nature."

This is last just for my examples:  there are 20 pages of this.  It is remarkable that, in this highly restrictive and judgmental work,  the paper is allowed to bend. 

And not to be outdone, the author tells us that 97% of professional gamblers "attribute their habit to the practice of playing cards at home".  "The risk is too great, young people" Pastor Bailes tells us, "for you to start gambling--even at home".  He began to warm to this subject but I guess was saving this subject for later.

Comments

[Jeff]

The Dance. I like it. It's the same kind of distance as with the Rep. pol who recently said they would have to do some recruiting on "the Facebook" and "the Twitter." I don't consider knowledge of Facebook or Twitter to be essential knowledge, but it's funny when people talk about things they know little to nothing about. Porter Bailes knew a little about dance, but it's next to nothing. He's probably right about gambling starting at home. Probably true for drinking. For chocolate addiction. And sex. Let's not forget sex, Mr. Bailes notwithstanding. The praying knees and the parted knees may be found on the same body, sometimes at the same time. But I digress ...