Thaindian News

Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): Christian women in a small town in Texas, America, are being invited to take up a new exercise class, Pole Fitness for Jesus, that encourages them to spin without sin for the Lord.

According to KTRK-TV, instructor Crystal Dean teaches the dance one Sunday each month for free to Christian women who bring in their church programs.

“God gives us these bodies, and they are supposed to be our temples and we are supposed to take care of them. And that’s what we are doing,” ABC News quoted Dean as saying.

There is biblical approval of mixing religion with song and dance, namely, Psalm 149:3: “Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.”

Christians have been adjusting their moral obligations to the modern world for the last half-century with Christian tattoo parlours, books about Christian dieting (Thin for Him, Fit for My King), and even Christian sex manuals.

On the scale of shocking modern activities for Christians, Thomas Tweed, a professor with the University of Texas, rates the pole dancing classes as “mildly surprising”.

“This is just another attempt to think through how to live a full Christian life,” Tweed said.

“Some people of course would say that this is not the way; that it’s too vulgar, it’s too crass, it’s inappropriate.

“But I can imagine some Christians saying if it actually brings a husband and wife together as Christians to deepen the marriage bond, that actually it’s okay,” he stated.

Pole dancing, however, maintains a stronger relationship to vices frowned upon by the Christian community.

“It does have a history of being used for unhealthy practices, for things that are not good for portrayal of women,” Rev. Ron Krueger, pastor of the Immanuel United Church of Christ, said.

“I wouldn’t seek that route to encourage spiritual development,” he stated. (ANI)