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.
No, I said drug use replaced sports.
Have you been to a high school football game recently? The cheerleaders don’t even watch the game, they just compete for attention by doing a circus routine in a sexy outfit.
They have alienated themselves in an effort to get one over on the males. Gotta get those government funds for themselves.
Melinda, your granddaughter is GORGEOUS! She has a beautiful smile and such sparkly eyes. Hugs!
I am not arguing that some high schools and colleges who have their cheerleaders dress up like Vegas show girls or hookers and perform highly sexual bump and grind routines is very inappropriate. But I do take exception to those that equate all cheerleaders in this group. That a young woman who is attractive, athletic and a cheerleader is somehow automatically prostituting herself and acting like a “stripper” and can’t be a good girl or a good Christian if she is a cheerleader, is ridiculous.
Where are you watching HS football? It sure isn't where I'm watching it. One of the uniforms of my local HS is black jeans and a black and red T-shirt (school colors.) That one is for their community outreach projects - one of which is to be on hand to help out the new incoming freshmen get oriented and find their way around the building.
And just like the males on the football team (or any girl on any other athletic team) they best keep their grades up - or they are gone.
Can't happen to those who KNOW and HEAR and OBEY HIM/His Word.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." Col 2:8
Thank-you!!!
What a beautiful young lady! Grandma and her parents have every reason to be proud of her!
I can only imagine that some schools have more “risque” outfits. Our high school has an extremely conservative looking cheerleading outfit and pom outfits. I watched a game last night... the cheerleaders were very appropriate and downright cute. The cheers were “old fashioned” type... (and this is a public school in a very populated area).
“Hotness” itself, the gushing thereof, or the public display thereof is not necessarily unchristian. I doubt God would make some people that much hotter than others if we weren’t meant to notice. That leaves avoiding vanity, lasciviousness, and maintaining modesty. That last is toughest. But since tv cameras barely linger on cheerleaders and in person for most of the crowd they’re plenty far away it’s possible.
Websites are another thing.
So you are still equating sports with drug use?
Have you been to a high school football game recently? The cheerleaders don’t even watch the game, they just compete for attention by doing a circus routine in a sexy outfit.
Yes I have. In fact I attend a high school football game on Friday, my great nephew’s first HS game – a small town in PA. The cheerleaders were not dressed in “sexy outfits” unless you consider the same sort of cheerleading outfits that their mothers and grandmothers wore to be “sexy outfits”. I saw no bare midriffs, no cleavage on display, no hot pants or g-strings. And the cheerleaders were watching the game and where doing nothing more and nothing less than cheering for their team, there was nothing “circus” like about it. I’m really sorry for you if it is different were you live, perhaps you should consider moving to a better place (or perhaps getting your mind out of the gutter).
They have alienated themselves in an effort to get one over on the males. Gotta get those government funds for themselves.
I don’t even know how to respond to this. You really sound like someone who would be more at home with the Taliban. Yea, if a woman is attractive and doesn’t hide herself under a burka, it’s really her fault if a male (or dirty old man or dirty old woman like you for that matter) can’t control themselves from finding her attractive. As far as “Gotta get those government funds for themselves”, yes, it is a well known “fact” that a large percentage of the big money in government educational grants now days goes to the “slutty cheerleader” degrees. My great niece, a straight A honors student evidently missed out on the big bucks by getting a scholarship in biochemical engineering when if only she had just worn a bikini to class every day, she could gotten the much more lucrative “slutty cheerleader” scholarship instead.
Thank-you! I’m glad we live in a part of the country where these kind of activities are available for “good” girls. It’s sad that all girls can’t cheer and do other activities and still sing in church on Sunday morning like they can around here. I hope this area never changes. Of course we still pray before ball games and other times. There are a lot of advantages to living in a small town in TN.
I don’t doubt some schools do have more risque outfits - in fact I know they do - fortunately, ours isn’t one of them. And they’re good at what they do and have the trophies from competitions to prove it.
My daughter does dance, but never showed any interest in cheerleading, but several of her friends were on the squad in middle school and all but one were in the same advanced classes as she was. They all start HS on Tuesday - I’ll be interested to see which of them decides to continue with cheer.
My daughter doesn’t cheer, but she dances and she sings in church on Sunday - when she’s not serving on the altar. We also still pray before ballgames and other times! As there are advantages to living in a small town in TN, many (if not all) of those same advantages are found here in small town VA!!!
The hottest cheerleaders in college are the USC Song girls. Their outfits ooze sensuality without being revealing.
It’s a small town advantage that I hope never changes. I think most of Virginia is pretty conservative, or it used to be, especially the small towns and mountain people.
Yeah, I’ve been to some of those churches—that particular passage of their Bibles was blacked out with a sharpie.
Preach brother!
How nice for you.
Now that would show they are knowingly and willingly want to defy God’s Word. Lots of deception - out there, everywhere!
Just enjoy your little world.
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