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.
And so was MINE!
Life must be horrible for you when someone doesn't agree with you, you label it as picking a fight. NO WHERE is that evident in my post so it's only in your mind as 'all your rant' shows that along w/your dumb@** comment about screen name.
Your posts shows there is too much out of your grasp - I'll let your continue your rant SOLO. You are not worth my God-given time!
There’s a lot of subjects out there to discuss. I’m just mildly amused that sexually related topics are so prevalent on your blog. Don’t Conservafive Christians complain all the time how the LEFT is obsessed with sex? Interesting.
Why link back to your blog at all and why use the name of your blog as your FR handle if hits aren’t important?
I’m sorry you’re offended by my subject matter. God bless you.
I said it was ONE of the outfits the team wears, and the one the often use in community outreach - such as what they did on Thursday at Freshman Orientation.
I spend a lot of time on collegiate sidelines.
Cheerleaders don’t cheer anymore. It’s becoming Cirque DeSoliel. And not a very good one at that.
I have no problem with them per we, and certainly they can be Christian. Interestingly, the best Division III basketball half time dance performance I ever saw was at Gordon College, a Christian College in Mass. They were pretty, athletic, and non of that pump and grind stuff that is usually just gross. A clear indication that you can do it.
But what do they wear when they are actually performing as cheerleaders at games? That’s what they’re talking about here, and what seems to offend some.
Let's put it this way - I'm 52yo and I wear shorter skirts and more revealing tops.
The cheerleaders I have seen in the last decade have all been in the bump and grind mode.
If you still get cheerleaders in your area who are modest, that’s terrific. I know it can be done. I just don’t see it any more, and have not for a long time.
Skirts are too short and clearly immodest...
I’m not offended by your subject matter. I’m amused.
Can a Good Christian Girl Be a Cheerleader?
“If she’s hot.. why not?”
~ ~ ~
There’s your answer OP, no.
Obviously a cheerleader with hurt feelings. Sorry about that.
Can they be good Christians? Why not?
Can they be dogs? Hell no. They are eye candy.
That’s funny, my daughter is has been a cheerleader for the last 6 years. The cheerleaders don’t have time to get into much trouble because they are either in practice, in the gym working out or at the gymnastic center.
They are not shaking their booty, they are working on stunts. In junior high, she was a flyer which scared me to death, now she is catching girls who can be falling from as high as 10 feet. They are athletes and as a group are much stronger and in better shape than the girls on the volleyball or basket ball teams.
She is also a good Christian girl.
Now you’ve done it. Hornets nest meet foot.
“They are athletes and as a group are much stronger and in better shape than the girls on the volleyball or basket ball teams.”
Like my earlier comment, above. My older sister was a high school cheerleader. I used to practice with her in our yard. I tried out, but had mononucleosis and didn’t know it. I couldn’t muster much energy that day. I know how much we practiced and the routines the UNLV girls did... I can’t even imagine reaching that level and how much work it took.
After the general orientation, we attended the Liberal Arts student orientation. The keynote speaker said, “Just because it’s called ‘liberal,” it doesn’t mean we are. I was quite surprised since this is Las Vegas after all. I think a fair number of people here, with the extreme sin in our face, are actually made even more conservative. As they say, out of site, out of mind. I try not to limit God in how and where he can use people.
You have not seen my daughters cheer team! There is a 200lb’er on her team.
No, but you might catch pneumonia from wearing that wet blanket. ;-)
Five SEC teams in top 10.
From the "Big" 10, only MICHIGAN not one team ranked in the top 10. Congratulations on what looks like another great year.
Let me help you out and I’ll type slowly so you can follow:
The article was from the point of view of what is in the mind and heart of the cheer leader. Your post was off on a tangent about what was in the minds of folks looking at the cheerleader. Thus, you had no chance of even connecting with the subject at hand.
There are exceptions to every rule.
I bet she doesn’t stand at the top of a pyramid.
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