40s Swing Dance

40s Swing Dance

Last week my friends, my sister, and I went to a "Masquerade Ball". This Ball was put on by a homeschool group in the OC. Maybe it was our fault for not reading the plain writing on the home page, "We're a group of homeschooled and unschooled teens who gather in and around Orange County, CA for beach parties, regional dances, pizza nights, campouts, Disneyland trips and other events. We welcome all homeschoolers new and old, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, homeschool style, what you eat or don't eat or what time you get out of bed". Now this sounds nice, but it also is called relativity. It's when someone compromises on what they believe so much that they don't care what you believe as long as we all get together. Sounds like what Paul saw in Athens, "as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an alter with the inscription, 'to the unknown god'." Paul was dealing with people so "tolerant" as they say, that they worshiped lots of gods and just to be safe they paid tribute to a god that they didn't even believe in. What did Paul do, praise them for keeping peace among other people groups? NO, he told them they were created by God and are accountable to Him. One of my favorite motivational verses is Acts 17:6-7, I wonder how many Christians today can ever say they've been accused of "turning the world upside down"? Now where was I before this reconstructionist insert? Oh yeah the dance.

  Anyway we went to a pagan "ball" and had fun. That in itself is an example of how Christians can have fun with pagans, but that is not what I'm writing about, I'm writing because this homeschool group got one thing right, teens today need to have things to do, places to go and be themselves with friends, but when you have no standard to say no to a kid you can only imagine what went on at that "ball". I and maybe also my friends were expecting kids to be (actually) dancing with their friends, not simply shaking vigorously, laying on the floor, hopping from side to side, not to mention what was going on in the back corner off the dance floor. All that being said don't feel bad for taking us mom. Our parents don't intentionally send us into a sin filled environment but when it does happen they are there to teach us why it's wrong through the scriptures. I have gifts and not gifts, singing and dancing are  gifts the good Lord hasn't given me, but I was "dancing" better than most of the kids there. I can only see this as a slap in the face to the art of dancing. 

  So that is why my friends, sister, and I are going to throw a dance party this summer. The theme is a World War 2 era(1940s) dance. And to eliminate the sometimes awkward slow dance, we will be doing jitterbug dancing as they called it then, you maybe more familiar with the term swing dance. After going to the "ball" mentioned above, we have decided to throw a party based on Christian ethics and the art of dancing. We are still in the process of planning and scheduling the dance, but we want to throw it in an airplane hangar with airplanes from that era, we will dress the way they dressed and dance the way they danced to the music they danced to. The age range will be 13-18, and there will be chaperones there to supervise activities. Over all it will be a night to remember(in a good way). 

 One thing I ask from you is that if you are or know a WW2 Vet that you email me their story and a picture to go with it. Not only because I am fascinated with stories from old soldiers who fought for our freedom, but I would like to share the stories with the attendees of the party and maybe even on my blog. 

Doing His Will, 

Austin Ryan

Ps my email is creationcreatures@aol.com