Lessons From Footloose at Donegal High School

   Last night I enjoyed watching Donegal High School’s performance of Footloose. The cast and crew did a great job and while watching it I realized there are a lot of lessons we can learn from this show.

   The whole story is basically about people going against the church/the town council’s law that rock and roll and dancing is forbidden. This seems really bad, but is it? I’ve said time and time again that anything can be used to glorify God. Dancing and music can be used to glorify God. Now, some people do not glorify God through dancing and music. But, that does not change the fact that these things can be used to glorify God. Just look at Sight and Sound or Christian Music.

   Also the church in this story, mainly Reverend Shaw Moore, took it upon themselves to make rules that are not God’s rules. Those rules were not found in the Bible. It does not say “thou shalt not dance” in the Bible. Now, I’m all for rules of prevention like Eve saying they could not touch the tree, even though God only said you may not eat of the tree. But, that does not mean that dance should be eliminated completely. Dance and music is a good way to relieve stress and express yourself. The reverend just could not see that part of it though. And he had a fairly good reason why he did not like dancing but you will have to see the musical to find that out.

   Finally, in this performance, the church is painted as judgmental and it is true that sometimes we are judgmental. But, that is all society sees about the church. They think that we are judgmental hypocrites. The only way to get past that is to be kind to others. I’m not saying that we should not keep others accountable. But, we need to take a hard look at ourselves before we say to someone else you should not be doing that. We cannot think we are perfect because we are not. Thankfully we have a savior who is perfect, who can take away our sins. That’s what we need to focus on.

   So, do you realize that everything can be used to glorify God? Are you ever tempted to make rules that are not God’s rules? Are you quick to judge others before you check yourself?

   1 Corinthians 10:31, Matthew 7:1-5, Galatians 6:1-5

   Shout out to those in the Donegal High School performance of Footloose (especially Dr. Frisbee, Elsa, and Ten ;). There is one more performance Sunday March 12 at 2 pm. I encourage those of you who can make it to come out.