This is a good question that I think causes a lot of sincere Christians some pause. I think it is good that you are thinking about this.
There is a verse in the bible that talks (I'll have to look it up--can't remember exactly where right now) about clean and unclean meat. If you remember, the Old Testament--especially in Leviticus, spends some tme talking about all of the things that are "unclean" for a man to do. This is why Jewish people and some Christians who are still closely alligned to the old Testament (SDA for example) don't eat pork and shellfish. Well, of course, Jesus came for the remission of our sins and did away with all of the "stuff" we were trying to do to be pleasing in God's eyes (which we couldn't do anyway). As a result, there is now no such think as "unclean" meat to the New Covenant Christian. However, the New Testament does say that we as Christians are not do any thing that causes a man to stumble or to not open his/her heart to the Holy Spirit. As I heard one minister say, that means you cannot be eating smothered pork chops and BBQ ribs in the face of a Muslim if you are trying to witness to him! He's not going to "hear" your message, because of what he will preceive as your ungodly habits (eating pork). ((Whew--I'm getting there, I promise--just stick with me!
)) So, what does this mean to the Christian who just likes to dance? I think the question to ask is:
Does this compromise my witness to none believers?
Different folks are going to have different levels of conviction on that matter. I know a minister (mine to be exact) who says, while he knows the Bible does not prohibit Christians from drinking (only from getting drunk), he has been convicted to not even be around folks that are drinking unless he is ministering to him. He went to a friend's birthday party in a public resturant and they had a champagne toast and he left the room. He didn't even want to give the
appearance of drinking because he didn't want people to burn up the phone lines saying "girl, guess who I say at so and so getting his DRANK on? That pastor over at that church! Girl, I KNEW preachers weren't 'bout nothin'. That's why I don't go to church today!"
At the same time, I know a minister who spoke from the Pulpit during a illustration about a trip he took to the Essence Music Festival, and no, he was not there to "minister" he wanted to hear Stevie and Mary J and who ever else like the rest of the folks.
Bottom line you need to read your scripture and see what the Bible has to say about it and then pray and ask the HS to convict you one way or the other. Unlike the Professor, I believe that we as Christians should be concerned about what others think. Look at AKA2D's comment:
Quote:
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Once they leave church and go to work on Monday, the last thing on their minds is ministering to anyone. Notably, they are the most messiest, heathens (sp?) around. Always causing confusion, etc.
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Once we say we are Christians we are ASKING to be held to a higher standard. Some folks are going to be looking to see if the conversion was real/makes a difference, others are looking just waiting to see you fall. When I was in Church last Sunday talking to a young lady who had just given her life to Christ, she mentioned that a friend got saved a month or so ago and she had noticed all of these major changes in her life so she wanted to see what was up with that! That's how we should live our lives, in a way that draws other to Christ.
Last point, I find it interesting that out of all of the posts on this thread, only one tried to quote scripture in their response and that was from a self-identified non-Chrisian! Ultimately, it does not matter what I (or anyone else) think about Christians and clubs, it matters what God thinks! And let me go and look up that scripture before I look like a hypocrite!