Posted on 09/01/2012 11:43:01 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
The start of football season prompted me to visit several sports websites to get an idea of how the putative “experts”expect my favorite college and NFL teams to fare this year.
(Not particularly well).
What struck me is that almost every one of the sites I visited has some sort of photo gallery of cheerleaders, often ranking them not on how well the squads perform their sideline routines, but how “hot” they are.
If that is what cheerleading has come to for many, if not most, male football fans – ogling the young women between plays on the gridiron field – that raises the question:
Can a young woman be, at once, a faithful Christian and a cheerleader?
Ariann Denison believes so.
She was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader from 2005 to 2009, before becoming the squad’s choreographer. She also owns a dance studio that not only offers classes in ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical and “pro cheer,” but also a liturgical class that combines dance with Christian music.
Ariann says that her background as an NFL cheerleader and choregrapher, and her position as owner of a successful dance studio, has given her the opportunity to share the Gospel with young women who may think that cheerleading and following the Lord are mutually exclusive.
“My testimony shocks them,” she told The Good News, a Christian newspaper. “I tell the older girls that I didn’t have my first drink until I was 25. I never went to a club in college. And I kept myself pure until marriage.”
And like the dance students taking Ariann’s “pro cheer” class, there are many young women throughout the country who aspire to be cheerleaders at the high school, college or even professional level, but who refuse to compromise their Christian values.
Indeed, there are more than 500 Christian cheerleading camps and clinics around the country. The girls that attend the camps learn all the yells, the stunts, the acrobatics, the dances that are taught at secular camps.
The difference is that Christian cheerleaders are not about wearing skimpy costumes and performing bump-and-grind dance moves that are more appropriate at a strip club than on a football sideline.
Christian cheerleaders, as Ariann Denison attests, are not offended by male sports fans who think them “hot.” But those young women know they are set apart not by what can be seen on the outside by their male admirers, but what God can see on the inside.
How many Christians of today could adapt to living the Christian walk evident in the primitive Church? The more important question is, should they. Even when Tertullian wrote on chastity and dignity, Christians were getting a little too colorful for comfort, by the Christian standards of the time, not by the world’s standards. At what point should Christians realize they are in the world, but not part of it?
I think the world is going to make that decision for us soon.
Has come to? I am pretty sure that is always been that way.
That said, most men can find something sexual in just about anything, so the coy sexuality of a cheer squad is at best a tease with no real harmful intent. It's kind of like a more public version of the bride throwing her garter: titillating but not really prurient.
And since God judges on intent, if the girls are truly innocent of any sexual wrongdoing, I don't see any reason they can't be part of the cheerleading team and stay true to their values.
So you are equating sports, any and all sports with drug use? Are you really saying that anyone who plays any sort of organized sport is doing so because they are somehow mentally or cognitively defective?
And, cheerleaders were invented because Eve always wants a bite of the apple.
So cheerleaders, all cheerleaders are like Eve and in your opinion, are the root of all evil? Really? Really? I’d really hate to hear your opinions on the band members; you know, those loose girls who play the flute (an obvious oral phallic symbol) or the guys who play the trombone….obviously closeted homos…
Get a life.
Your granddaughter is a beautiful young lady and I know you are proud of her. And don’t let any of the burka and old bitty squad here try to tell you otherwise.
I am amazed at cheerleading today. They teach six-year-old girls to “shake your booty”. When I was in high school every girl wanted to be a cheerleader. When my daughter was in high school, she said the cheerleaders were the ones in remedial classes or parenting classes.
Of course not, what a question. It’s like working at Hooters. Cheerleading is a skin show, nothing more. Sadly.
No daughter of mine. . .
“once you are asked to violate your christian principles either quit or take a stand...”
Running about nearly naked shaking your ta-tas and butt is definitely violating your Christian principles.
“When men stop ogling women, the reproductive future of the human race is doomed.”
You’d best inform Jesus, as He told us not to do that.
That doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate a beautiful women, but you can’t ogle. Unless she’s your wife, then ogle away.
“burka and old bitty squad. . .”
One can oppose young women practically working as strippers in a public forum without being part of a burka or old bitty squad.
Cheerleaders are not half naked...at least not most of them...
Years ago high-school cheerleading was not about shaking your ta-tas and butt....it can be again...
Oh, I won't. We live in the Bible Belt and most of the cheer-leading squads are fairly conservative compared to other parts of the country. She doesn't cheer in high school and color guard is more conservative than cheer-leading. I was pleased that her gymnastics photos were tastefully done. She wouldn't be doing anything that was too revealing.
When she was in cheer-leading in the 8th grade the cheer coach wanted them to cheer to "Save a horse ride a cowboy", a country music song, and the parents pitched a fit and wouldn't allow it. The squad had a new coach shortly after that.
Well you’re obviously in a bad mood and looking for a fight. I was actually just musing about some of the philosophical questions that this subject brings up without taking any strong stands. There is of course an easy retort to your supposed point, but not interested in your gutter today.
What? Can a good Christian sit in judgment of everyone else? I think most here know the answer to that one, but forget from time to time.
I agree. She could never be mistaken for an adolescent boy, and so would be unacceptable to the "fashion" crowd. The only place that seems to use womanly models is Victoria's Secret, and she probably would not be interested in that route.
34 posts & no cheerleaders-in-mini-skirt pics?
The same dolts who would condemn a Christian girl for wearing a skimpy cheerleading outfit are the ones who would condemn Tim Tebow from playing in the NFL because it plays its games on Sundays. They are modern day Pharisees.
Actually, a lot of girls are introduced to Jesus through competitive cheerleading. Christian cheerleading is a big industry in Texas and they do very well for Jesus and the girls.
The teams are judged on their athleticism not whether they are hot. The athletcism required to many of the routines is quite high on the same level as gymnastics and many of the participants have been trained in gymnastics from a very early age.
I,M a former gymnast and some of the routines they do are astounding.
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