If dancing is against your religion, what do you do if your 4 year old starts to wiggle to music?

The best advice I can give is to relax, clear your muddled head & stop being such a fool.

If I discovered that about “my” religion after my child started dancing, I’d dump the religion.

If I had prior knowledge of said prohibition, I’d reason that because my 4-year old isn’t a member of this religion, the restriction wouldn’t apply to her/him.

Severe punishment, and if that does not work, I would disown the child and cast it out of my house.

I’d get up and wiggle with my child…been there done that. Music is rhythm and dancing is rhythmic…a most basic and natural pairing. Put on yo’ dancing shoes and get down!

I’d wonder what strange religion is that. Perhaps the people in that religion don’t ‘wonder’?

The mountain of stupid silliness involved in people’s religions always leaves me wondering how it is possible for the cults built around the nonsense to persist and even expand. This morning, I answered the door to find 2 glaringly clean cut young Mormon missionaries out on patrol. When I asked how they were able to resolve the conflict between their obvious educations and the wall of breathtaking absurdities which underpin their religion, they simply smiled almost affectionately at the poor untutored heathen in front of them, and deftly changed the subject. When I returned to the kitchen, a report was blaring from the radio about the Taliban murdering musicians. Apparently, music is un Islamic, but slaughtering musicians is not. I seriously don’t get it!

@stanleybmanly
The word of “god” is absolute, and it is not the believer’s place to question the underlying reason.

@LornaLove The Baptists. Not all Baptists are against dancing, but many are. That religion is pretty big in the southern part of the US.

Whoa, Baptists?!? The same Baptists who sing upbeat, infectious music in church?
Like in the movie Sister Act?

How can you not dance to that?

@cookieman Just certain sects of the southern Baptists from what I understand. Did you ever see the movie Footloose? I never saw the new one, I don’t know how good it is. The old one was good, it was about a small town where they were not allowed to dance and some rebellious teens (I think one of them was the child of the preacher in the town) started dancing and planned a school dance, something like that. I know people who were raised that way, raised not allowed to dance. Most of them are willing to break the rule. In that same religion they aren’t supposed to drink, but many of them do. I can understand how the Jews look at it, which is the dancing is done with the sexes separated, but I can’t imagine no dancing. I figure some of the leaders in that religion couldn’t dance so to avoid embarrasment they made dancing against God. LOL.

Severe chastisement. Once that fails I would have the child put to death just like the Bible commands.

I wouldn’t be part of any religion that has such stupid rules. Although it reminds me of a cool Xena episode.

Some serious history lessons are needed.

Some of the rules in the bible were made even before Jesus walked the earth.

The rules of the bible were for ancient times.

We are living in a modern world, do they still apply to us? I don’t know, our modern world is different.
But I believe that Jesus was the prince of peace, I also believe that dancing is not something that would be dissallowed, maybe unless you are rejoicing to idols or to Satan like Miley Cyrus, if you believe that, bringing evil into the world, and even still maybe it wouldnt be dissallowed because we were given the freedom to make a choice, but we would dissapoint Jesus just as he was dissapointed and angry when he went to the holy temple and saw that they were trading animals for sacrafice and money because that was not his vision but he preached to them his vision and let them make their choice.

Mark 11:15–18
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

Well, if a parent actually believes dancing is a “sin,” then they’re probably the same kind of person who would wack the shit out of the kid for “sinning.”

I think dancing is instinctive. The twins have been “dancing” since they were a year old.

@Dutchess_III Yeah, song and dance has probably been around humans much longer than even the first religion ever. It’s a natural human thing to either do, or enjoy. (slaves on boats would often row to the rhythm of a drum for example, made them work better and suppressed the slaves from pissing each other off in their already dismal conditions) Although old, hard ass Christianity is known for repressing human nature by converting it into sin. Never heard of any Christian rule that says you can’t dance though, although I’m sure that in the fifteenth century or somewhere near there they could have found a reason to attach to it, and make it bad.
Improper conduct, flaunting the body, showing off, what have you. Beliefs in the Devil and witches often described the followers of Satan as dancing nude around a fire, usually covered in some animal’s blood. So in an age where you get your head detached from your shoulders for looking at a priest wrong, people were probably pretty wary of what they did.

Worse is, what was said about Devil worshipers and their practices probably came from Pagan rituals and the like, which was probably not even evil in intent.

Which religions—I know that the Church of God, some Assembly of God churches and Holiness religions in the South ban dancing.

Let the kid dance. I’d just take to heart many of these quotes listed here: Bible quotes on dancing

except for Matthew 14:6–8… that’s morbid.

I’m surprised how many people never heard of religions that forbid dancing. Some of the religions interpret it as too sexual. That dance movements are similar to movements during sex, or that dancing can lead to sex. Sex sex sex.

@linguaphile Doesn’t matter which one, just matters that a parent who thinks dancing is sinful has a kid who is doing his own jig to the beat and now has to squash the child’s natural rhythm and joy of movement.

@JLeslie I was responding to those who asked “which religion” by giving examples. I grew up in a town of 11,000 in Alabama and am familiar with these set of beliefs. They usually go along with the no card playing, no billiards, no paid entertainment, no adornments on the body type of rules.

@linguaphile Got it. Thanks. I didn’t realize Chruch of God doesn’t dance. My roommate in college was/is Church of God. We definitely went out dancing back then, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t raised not to dance. She wasn’t going to church while we were In school, and possibly her group didn’t ban dancing.

My former cult simply redirected the children into praise moves.

Gotta get that brainwashing started early.