Should Christian Teens Attend the Prom? (by Todd Clippard)
[NOTE: The following article was sent to me via email from brother Todd Clippard, who preaches for the Burleson church of Christ near Hamilton, Alabama. The PROM is a major event for young people, but brother Clippard presents some very important truths for us to consider. The article is reprinted here with his permission and with my total agreement.]
Among the many misplaced priorities of America’s young people and the media targeting them is the hoopla surrounding the Prom. Teen-oriented magazines begin at the first of the year to promote this “once in a lifetime” event. Untold time and money are spent on what is considered the crowning night of one’s high school experience.
Tragically, many Christian teens and their parents lose all rationality and common sense when it comes to the Prom. Should Christian teens have anything to do with the Prom? An ungodly world puts tremendous pressure on God’s teenagers to join with them in worldly recreation. While not wanting to sin, God’s teenagers do want to enjoy these years. It is for this reason that sin needs to be defined and lines drawn so that they can know what is right and what is wrong. So, with that in mind, what does the Bible say about the Prom?
The primary focus of the Prom is the dance. God’s word is clear in its condemnation of dancing. In listing the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, dancing is condemned three times: as lasciviousness, reveling, and “such like.” Lasciviousness is “indecent bodily movements, unchaste handling of males and females” (Thayer’s lexicon, p 79-80).
Some honest teens would ask, “What would be wrong in attending the Prom if I did not dance?” Paul warned Timothy, “be not a partaker of other men’s sin, keep thyself pure.” Ephesians 5:11 forbids the Christian from having any “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” Furthermore, dancing is an inherently sexual art form and as such incites lust. Paul admonished the young Timothy to “flee youthful lusts” (2 Tim 2:22).
While the word Prom is a shortened version of the word “Promenade,” it might as well be a shortened version of Promiscuity. A Google search of the words “Prom” and “sex” resulted in over 1.4 million hits. Admittedly, not all of these were concerned with sexual activity as it relates to the Prom, but most were, including the very first one. This link sent me to teenadvice.com and its “Prom Central.” Here I found a long list of links to articles about the Prom. Among these articles was a “how to have sex on your prom night.” Among the other links were numerous articles which promoted Prom as the night to lose one’s virginity. This thing is “not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26). Any Christian parent who does not know these things only does so by turning a blind eye to the whole situation.
While working with teens in Tennessee, I asked them to consider the following questions as they considered their participation in the prom.
- How much time will you spend shopping and primping for the prom? How does that time compare with the time you spent helping the church outside of the worship services?
- How much money will you spend preparing for the prom? How do these figures compare with your church contribution in the previous month?
- Would you invite Jesus as your guest for the prom? If not, why not?
- Would you ask Jesus to dance with you? If you would, do you think he would accept?
- What effect will going to the prom have on your influence as a Christian?
I believe any honest person can clearly see that Prom is no place for the Christian teen.
6 Comments
Paula Harrington
Glad you posted this. I may borrow it and email it out if that’s ok.
Thanks,
Paula
almcfaughn
It’s fine with me. Todd sends out several sermon outlines and articles and tells us to use them in whatever way we can.
Are we the new Pharisees?
I wish fellow COC folks would spend more time writing, posting and passing articles about how to connect and care for a community, focused on drawing people in, so people would first think “You’re those folks that really love your community, right?” rather than “You’re those people who tell everyone not to drink and dance, right?”
Adam Faughn
“Are We,”
I understand your sentiment in such a response to this article, but may I kindly ask: why does it have to be one extreme or the other?
In other words, can we not be known BOTH for connecting and caring for our community AND for showing people specific sins that are destroying souls?
Also, I would ask you to consider this fact: if we are not standing against sins that harm lives, are we really caring for our community?
Thank you for taking the time both to read the post and to share this comment.
Are we the new Pharisees?
Adam, that’s my point, apparently we CAN’T be known for both. We aren’t known for this at present.
COC is known for being judgmental and dogmatic. If you publish 1 article condemning prom go-ers and 10 articles on how to sustainably lift a homeless family out of poverty, sadly the message that will stick will be “That Church says the prom is for sinners” because it really seems like you’re preaching at people, telling them what to do, rather than sharing love for them, or the community.
I know that may not be your intention, but when your agnostic/non-christian friend checks Facebook and they see the articles that get shared, liked, and commented on by their Church of Christ friend(s) most frequently, they notice that most of them are negative:
-Don’t go to prom
-Social Drinking is a Sin
-Gay Marriage is Ruining our country
-R-rated movies are immoral people
-Miley Cyrus is the devil
I’ve just had too many unchurched friends and co-workers that finally discuss religion with me, only to find that I have to spend the whole time explaining, defending, and apologizing for the COC stance they’ve heard. It makes it incredibly hard to actually move a religious conversation beyond this, let alone, getting them to step into a brick and mortar COC on a Sunday morning.
-To your second point, I really do think we are caring for the community best by not publishing articles like this. I don’t think “standing against the sins that harm lives” means publishing articles that further alienate us from the people we are trying to connect with. The only audience here you are going to have an effect on is the conservative COC mother who now tells her daughter she’s not going to prom. The non-Christian mother or teen isn’t going to read this and say “Great point, I’ve got to find my way to a pew this Sunday.”
I don’t mean to pick on you or this blog, there’s a thousand of them out there, and I just stumbled upon yours today and started airing my ongoing concern about the ever shrinking influence that COC has in the modern day lives of people; Christian or otherwise. I wish we were known for something more.
Adam Faughn
I know what you are saying, but I want you to go back to your first paragraph. “We can’t” because “we aren’t” just is not a good way to approach this.
I know that the stance against evil is not popular with folks, but that does not give us the right just avoid the issue altogether. We must stand against evil. Jesus did. Paul did. The early church did.
I, too, have had to “step back” during studies/conversations with people when they heard the words “Church of Christ” in the conversation. However, that will not stop me from trying to BOTH care for people AND stand against sin.
It is frustrating, I know. But I would also suggest to you that we are living in times when there are SOME (maybe not a lot, but some) people who are looking for people of principle instead of those who just go with the “whatever” attitude of our society.
Balance is the key, and must be what we go for. We must reach out to our world while not letting sin reign around us. Let’s do both! Thanks again for taking the time to comment. This is a very good conversation.