Pastor Defends Dancing Class for Poor

Dec. 1898

Jersey City Pastor Who Provides Means of Pleasure for the Poorer Members of His Church

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey — Rev. John L. Scudder, pastor of the Tabernacle and First Congregational church, in Jersey City, N. J., who has started a dancing class in connection with his church work, has done so not only as a means of keeping the young people away from other worldly amusements, but because he believes dancing, under certain conditions, is perfectly proper. Mr. Scudder when seen regarding the dancing class, said:

"We have Biblical authority for dancing. Dancing is all right within certain limitations. In the crowded section of the city, where the young people are cooped up in tenements, the desire to dance is as great as among the wealthy, who can entertain their friends and hold receptions in their own homes.

"There is no place for the poor to go to dance but to the public halls. What harm can there be in their dancing beneath the eyes of their pastor and the deacons of the church? While I believe that dancing is perfectly proper in its place, there are limitations I would place upon it."