This Week in Texas Methodist History  May 24

MEC General Conference Grapples with Resolution to Loosen Rules on Dancing May 1920

What types of behavior does it take to get kicked out of a Methodist church?  The answer to that question has varied since the origins of the denomination in 1784.   It has also varied among the various Wesleyan denominations that sprang from John Wesley’s movement.  At one time being a slave owner could get you kicked out of the MEC, but the MECS declared slavery to be a positive good. 

Documents of church trials in Texas reveal that members were brought up on charges for rustling cattle, “bowling at nine-pins”, attending a baseball game on Sunday, going to a lemonade party, playing cards, wearing gold jewelry---and the list could go on. 

There was often a generational divide on these and similar issues, and sometimes accommodations were made to skirt the restrictions.  For example, the popularity of the domino game 42 in the South is partially explained by the prohibition on playing cards.  Of course one could gamble on 42 as easily as one could on poker.  Another way to avoid playing cards was the game of Rook.  Rook decks used colors instead of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, so they were not playing cards.  There were also Authors cards, a game in which players formed sets of 4 cards representing works by famous authors. 

The prohibition against dancing helped the popularity of “Play Parties” which featured choreographed movement games but with hand clapping and singing instead of musical instruments, after all, the fiddle was the “Devil’s Box.” By the time of my childhood in the 1950s many of the play party games had evolved into children’s games at school or birthday parties. 

The 1920 General Conference of the MEC meeting at Des Moines in May 1920 debated a resolution to loosen the Disciplinary language prohibiting dancing.  The resolution was voted down, and the prohibition stayed in place.  The question of motion pictures also vexed the delegates.  Some pastors were already using motion pictures as part of their ministry, but there was a strong anti-motion picture element.  Since movies could portray either the sordid or the uplifting, it is easy to see how the issue could divide the delegates.  The pro-movie cause was advanced just a few years later with the release of Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments.  Even with such uplifting Biblical themes, some Methodists still refused to go into a movie theater to watch them.

Methodists continued to argue about dancing.  In 1944 Paul Martin was elected bishop from First Methodist Wichita Falls.  Joe Z Tower transferred from the Texas Conference to fill that appointment.  He defended youth participation in “folk games” when he was accused of allowing dancing.

Methodists liberalized the rules on both movies and dancing.  That liberality actually drew members from more rigorous denominations.  One of the most prominent families in the church of my youth (First Beaumont) was there because the parents had been kicked out of a Baptist church for dancing.