Swing Dancing Theology

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Last week Greg, Gina, Shaunna, and "mozied on down" to Hot Springs, Arkansas to celebrate Ouachita Baptist University's homecoming, since it is my wife's alma matter, and to visit Brittany (Greg and Gina's daughter) who happens to be a freshman there this year. After the homecoming game (where OBU unfortunately got annihilated) we went out to dinner, then for frozen custard, then to dance ata the Arlington (pictured left). An eclectic mix of local college students, dance instructors/students, and older folks (actually from the swing era) come to dance on Saturday nights as a jazzy/swing type band rocks out in the lobby of this beautiful hotel. Brittany and her boyfriend Grant (also a freshman at OBU) have become quite the swing dancers in recent months, but unfortunately for me, I have long forgotten a majority of the moves I once knew so well.

Anyway, Grant and Brittany put on quite a show! As a matter of fact it resulted in a roar of applause, a visit and encouragement from an local older couple, the offer of drinks by another couple (water being the selection btw), and then later a visit by that same couple. Here's where the real excitement begins. The lady of the pair was the first to swaggle over to offer her accolade which, due to an obvious level of inebriation, included an steady stream of expletives . Shortly there after the gentleman of the couple made his debut on our side of the room. Weirdly enough, he actually begins to give what seemed like a solid word of prophecy to the young college couple. What started out so beautiful soon took a downward turn into some...interesting...theology.

Among other scriptures, he went on to quote Psalm 37:4 which says: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart...". It was not the quoting of this verse that was disturbing, but his interpretation of it. His instruction to the young couple was to act on and live out every desire that they had because they were all desires given by God--WHOA! He went on to illustrate that Jesus first miracle was to create, and in His creation of this wine for the wedding feast He was giving His blessing for the people to get and stay drunk--WHOA WHOA! By the way, it was also obvious that this gentleman took liberal advantage of this belief as he too reeked of liquor. So there you have it. You go out for a night of swing dancing with friends and what do you get? Some verrrry shaky theology from a sloshed "baptist pastor" with just enough knowledge of Scripture to be dangerous.

On another note, Greg, Gina, Shaunna, and I have decided to take a few ballroom/swing lessons here in town to ensure that we'll be the ones dancing circles next time! ha ha...

Here are some pics from that evening: