By Michael R. Baggett
Naturally most parents want their children involved in school activities. It brings a glow to the face of any father whose son makes first string on the football team. It causes parents to be proud of their son or daughter when they excel in various sports, in the band, or other school related activities. However, parents, not all school activities are good or wholesome, nor should we be proud our child is involved in such. Sometimes Christians fail to ask: Is this activity my teenager is participating in at school something a Christian ought to be doing? Should you allow your teenage daughter to become a cheerleader for the football team?
Some parents seem to think that since it’s a “teenager” involved it is somehow alright for them to allow them to do things. You know the type . . . “leave them alone, they are just teenagers.” Whether they are teenagers or seniors in college is not the issue. The issue is: Is cheerleading harmless or is it harmful (sinful)?
Do you really condone the manner in which a cheerleader dresses? If your daughter is a cheerleader, more than likely she must dress in violation of 1 Timothy 2:9. This verse teaches that women, young as well as older, “adorn themselves in modest apparel. ” Modest here, has nothing to do with “what’s in,” but with “how” a Christian lady is to dress. “Modest” means “becoming” or in other words, in our language, “decent”! All of the cheerleader uniforms I have ever known of are designed to draw stares and, believe it or not, they do “light the flames” of young men!
Do you want men “lusting” after your young lady, fathers? Yes, I’m aware that some will lust anyway, but should your daughter dress in such fashion as to cause young men to stumble? Jesus says: “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom offenses come” (Matt. 18:7, NKJV).
Do you approve of “dancing”? Now mothers and fathers, there is no denying that this is what cheerleaders do! The fashion of the “cheer-dances” some do these days, one needs to wonder who the crowds are cheering for – the football team or the girls! The lewd, lascivious movements of these dances make one think of the sinful places where men go and watch the “Las Vegas Show Girls”! Someone had to say this! The dancing your daughter does as a cheerleader makes her guilty of the “works of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19-21). These shall not inherit the Kingdom of God!
Wake up parents! Stop teaching your children the ways of the world! Stop approving of activities God disapproves! “But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 23, p. 709
December 7, 1989