(RNS1-NOV20) Students at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., swing dance at an unofficial student-led dance party because the Southern Baptist campus officially prohibits dancing. For use with RNS-CHRISTIAN-SWING, transmitted Nov. 20, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Angela Abbamonte. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV20) Students at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., swing dance at an unofficial student-led dance party because the Southern Baptist campus officially prohibits dancing. For use with RNS-CHRISTIAN-SWING, transmitted Nov. 20, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Angela Abbamonte. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS3-NOV20) Students at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., swing dance at an unofficial student-led dance party because the Southern Baptist campus officially prohibits dancing. For use with RNS-CHRISTIAN-SWING, transmitted Nov. 20, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Angela Abbamonte. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-JAN15) Former evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who left the ministry after being caught in a sex and drug scandal, said Nov. 12, 2009, that the start of a prayer meeting in his Colorado home is a sign of his “resurrection” but not necessarily of a new church. Religion News Service file photo courtesy Nora Feller/HBO. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV19) The Rev. H.B. London, who directs church and clergy programs for Focus on the Family and was on the restoration committee for former evangelical leader Ted Haggard, regrets Haggard's decision to host prayer meetings at his home. For use with RNS-HAGGARD-RETURNS, transmitted Nov. 19, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Focus on the Family. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV18) Actor Woody Harrelson plays survivalist Charlie Frost who tries to warn others about pending Armageddon in Columbia Pictures' new film, "2012." The film, with other global woes, has fueled growth among the survivalist movement. For use with RNS-CHRISTIAN-SURVIVAL, transmitted Nov. 18, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Joe Lederer/Sony Pictures. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV17) Saudi officials have taken extra precautions to prevent the spread of H1N1, or swine flu, among Hajj pilgrims, like the ones seen here. For use with RNS-HAJJ-FLU, transmitted Nov. 17, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Embassy of Saudi Arabia. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV16) John Smith, left,, regional director of PastorCare Great Lakes, coached the Rev. James Stokes, right, following the murder of one of Stokes's parishioners. For use with RNS-PASTOR-CARE, transmitted Nov. 16, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Octavian Cantilli/The Grand Rapids Press. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV13) Church leaders and bicyclists had a small blessing and dedication ceremony for the new Madonna del Ghisallo Portland Bicycle Shrine at St. Stephen's Episcopal Parish recently. The shrine is on one wall of the sanctuary and features a painting of a bike with Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of bicyclists floating above. For use with RNS-BIKE-SHRINE, transmitted Nov. 13, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Fredrick D. Joe/The Oregonian. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV13) Church leaders and bicyclists had a small blessing and dedication ceremony for the new Madonna del Ghisallo Portland Bicycle Shrine at St. Stephen's Episcopal Parish recently. The Rev. Dennis Parker prayed and anointed bike chains with holy lube. The shrine is on one wall of the sanctuary and features a painting of a bike with the the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of bicyclists floating above. L to R: Ken Arnold, church deacon; the Rev. Dennis Parker and Brian Heron a pastor at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. For use with RNS-BIKE-SHRINE, transmitted Nov. 13, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Fredrick D. Joe/The Oregonian. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV12) Luke Phelps-Roper, 7, from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., pickets alongside his family at the United Jewish Communities 2009 General Assembly on Tuesday (Nov. 10) at the Marriott Wardman in Washington, D.C. The family have picketed 21 times during their 5 day stay in Washington. For use with RNS-WESTBORO-JEWS, transmitted Nov. 12, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV12) Shirley Phelps-Roper from Westboro Baptist Church pickets at the United Jewish Communities 2009 General Assembly on Tuesday (Nov. 10) at the Marriott Wardman in Washington, D.C. Phelps-Roper and her family have picketed 21 times during their 5 day stay in Washington. For use with RNS-WESTBORO-JEWS, transmitted Nov. 12, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS3-NOV12) Margie Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church pickets at the United Jewish Communities 2009 General Assembly on Tuesday (Nov. 10) at the Marriott Wardman in Washington, D.C. Phelps and her family have picketed 21 times during their 5 day stay in Washington. For use with RNS-WESTBORO-JEWS, transmitted Nov. 12, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV11) Atif Qarni, shown here pushing his 3-year-old son Zane as his wife, Fatima Pashaei looks on, said that he had no qualms about being a Muslim serving in the U.S. military. Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Muslim accused of shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, was reportedly conflicted about whether going to war in majority-Muslim countries was a breach of his faith. See RNS-MUSLIMS-ARMY, transmitted Nov. 11, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Christopher Rossi. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV10) The Rev. D. Paul Sullins, a married former Episcopalian who converted to the Catholic Church with his wife about a decade ago, says that he and many other married Catholic clergy support the church's policy of mandatory celibacy for priests. For use with RNS-MARRIED-PRIESTS, transmitted Nov. 10, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy of Catholic University. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV10) Monsignor William Stetson is the Catholic Church's point man for married priests who want to convert to Catholicism. He says about 100 priests have converted in recent years. For use with RNS-MARRIED-PRIESTS, transmitted Nov. 10, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy of Monsignor Stetson. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS3-NOV10) St. James Chapel is part of the Bethany Center in Lutz, Fla., where married priests who converted from Episcopalianism to the Catholic Church are on retreat this week. For use with RNS-MARRIED-PRIESTS, transmitted Nov. 10, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy of the Bethany Center. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS1-NOV9) National Bible Bee winner Daniel Staddon recites long passages from the Bible at the National Bible Bee competition on Friday (Nov. 6) held at the JW Marriott hotel in Washington. For use with RNS-BIBLE-BEE, transmitted Nov. 9, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS2-NOV9) National Bible Bee Finalists grow tired after a long day of reciting long passages from the Bible at the National Bible Bee on Friday (Nov. 6) held at the JW Marriott hotel in Washington. For use with RNS-BIBLE-BEE, transmitted Nov. 9, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
(RNS3-NOV9) National Bible Bee contestant Jessica Hofmeister of Warsaw, Ill., hesitates in reciting long passages from the Bible at the National Bible Bee competition on Friday (Nov. 6), held at the JW Marriott hotel in Washington. For use with RNS-BIBLE-BEE, transmitted Nov. 9, 2009. Religion News Service photo by Nick Kirkpatrick. | Download/Purchase this photo
November 20, 2009
NEWS FEATURE
Christian colleges get into the swing
By Angela Abbamonte
(RNS) Classes are done for the day. Meetings and work are winding down, and Facebook can provide a study break for only so long. So what’s a restless Christian college student to do?
For undergrads at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., a walk down to the campus theater provides one solution: dancing to the tunes of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.
Inside, young men offer their hand to available girls and take them to the middle of the hopping dance floor. Beginners practice basic steps while more advanced dancers take on the more complicated moves, flipping their partners over their heads and through their legs.
At Union, like a growing number of Christian campuses, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
Dance fever hit the Southern Baptist campus when two freshmen, Grant Kelly and Brandon Walker, started recruiting students to dance for fun last fall. The group has grown from just a few friends meeting in a small classroom to about 50 dancers who now take over the theater.
Fans say the swing thing has now taken root in at least 10 Christian colleges in the U.S., and the fever is spreading.
But like a scene out of the 1984 classic “Footloose,” some campuses have had to overcome religious or moral qualms about dancing. Union’s student handbook, for example, says the university “prohibits dancing at any Union University-sponsored event held on campus.” Students simply host the dance-offs as unofficial events either on or off campus.
“It’s fun and innocent,” said Dean of Students Kimberly Thornbury, who said she was given a heads-up by the students. “The university is not going to hunt people down. That’s not the spirit of the policy.”
While swing is downright innocent compared to the bump-and-grind moves found on many secular campuses, at Christian schools it often falls under the category of “social dancing” that some believe could lead to temptation, and therefore comes with guidelines attached.
To be sure, many conservative schools like Bob Jones University continue to prohibit all forms of dancing, yet some Christian schools have lifted the dancing ban in recent years. In Waco, Texas, Baylor University students were able to boogie in 1996. Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., whirled in its new dancing policy in 2003. In 2006, John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark., expanded its dancing policy to allow students to jive at more campus-sponsored dances with gentler genres such as ballroom and swing.
Randall Balmer, an expert on American evangelicals, said he was a little shocked to learn students on Christian campuses were picking up swing dancing, but sees it as an indicator of shifts within the evangelical subculture.
“What clearly has happened ... is that after 1980, evangelicalism was still a subculture—but it was no longer a counter-culture,” Balmer said. “With that decreased attention to `worldliness,’ some of the taboos have fallen.”
Balmer, who teaches American religious history at New York’s Barnard College and is the author of “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America,” says the suspicion of the “outside world” beyond evangelicalism has faded.
“There has been a general loosening of the (fundamentalist) structure of the 1920s and 1930s,” he said. “The dancing is just another evidence of that loosening.”
Still, some schools have reservations. In Kirkland, Wash., Northwest University’s dancing policy states the school “recognizes the temptations inherent in the sensuous and erotic nature of some social dancing,” and then sets guidelines to keep dancing off campus.
Those rules haven’t dissuaded Michael Weber, a Northwest student, from dancing for four years. He and his friends go off campus to community centers and dance halls in order stay within the guidelines and still swing.
Weber organizes dance events a couple times a month to encourage students to learn basic moves. He likes swing because, in his opinion, it’s easier to master than ballroom dancing.
“Swing dancing is easy to learn,” he said. “It’s not as proper.”
Kristen Henley of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio said her mostly Catholic campus is “a little obsessed with swing.” Every Sunday night, as many as 75 Steubenville students turn out for swing dancing and dance competitions.
Henley connected with the group her freshman year when they hosted a welcome-to-campus dance. She had so much fun she vowed never to miss a Sunday night dance session. Now, as a junior, she can say she has kept the vow almost religiously and rarely misses a week.
“As long as you can follow,” she said, “you can (swing dance) instantly.”
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