Letters To BYU Daily Universe - Burn The Dancers!!

While I’d normally stick to snarking ‘nacle posts, the Nacle has been rather uninterestingly boring of late. When I need a good laugh, I check the BYU Newsnet to see what controversy is stirring amongst the Cougars in Provo. Yesterday’s Daily Universe was no disappointment.

(Partial Disclosure – I am a BYU grad, in case that matters.)

It seems that this past Tuesday’s devotional featured dance performances. The Cougarette Dance Team performed a routine choreographed to the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I didn’t see the routine, so I can’t really comment on whether or not it was well done. However, should you want a review, you could ask Heidi McLaren or Rebecca Fluckiger – two BYU students who watched the performance and were, by their own admission, shocked, appalled, and horrified.

It drove them to such hysteria they were inspired to use a big descriptive word to illustrate their feelings. They described the performance as blasphemous. Take a few centuries off the calendar and blasphemy could get you stoned, burned, or otherwise deprived of life itself. Yes, somehow a Cougarette dance team managed to stray into the realm of irreverence and profanity.

That, for me, is just a bit of a stretch. More likely, however, is the possibility that Heidi and Rebecca fall into the category of church member which believes any use of hymns outside the chapel is heresy. These young women remind me of girls who would audibly gasp in surprise and near horror when I would crack open a can of Mountain Dew in the Wilk to wash down my lunch. And here I thought the Footloose mentality was limited to a movie shot in Lehi.

Memo to Heidi and Rebecca: Dear Sisters, loosen up! You obviously missed or did not even bother to read The Preacher’s counsel regarding dance. Just because somebody’s use of music and dance does not conform to your narrow interpretation of “acceptable” doesn’t mean it’s vile, irreverent, or profane.

You both might want to think about that before you go unsheathing a word you picked up from your Old Testament class vocabulary list.