Sensual Tribal and Modern Dancing in our Adventist Institutions

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Job 14:4.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kenya operates the Eronge Adventist Boarding Primary School and the Eronge Seventh-day Adventist Mixed Secondary School, both located on the same campus in Nyansiongo, Kenya. In the video above, you will see students and staff participating in both modern and tribal dancing.

Tribal dancing is closely associated with ancient pagan religious and spiritual beliefs and was often performed as part of rituals and ceremonies. Historically, these dances were often meant to connect with the spiritual world and commune with the pagan deities. That is why when Christian and Seventh-day Adventist missionaries visited African countries to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the natives were encouraged to forsake their old religious beliefs and customs and live lives of purity, guarding themselves against sinful lusts, which included sensual tribal dancing, as you will see in the video. As people embraced Christianity, tribal dancing and other pagan traditions were forsaken as the new believers assimilated to the Biblical way of life.

This is all changing today. Now we are seeing a resurgence in tribal dancing under the guise of celebrating culture. Basically, our Adventist institutions are mixing tribal dancing with Christianity, and a new hybrid form of worship and praise is being created. In the new worship styles, any kind of dance is acceptable as long as it is called celebrating culture. The problem is that they are combining two opposing belief systems into one. This is how true biblical worship is being compromised and corrupted. People are trying to identify themselves as both Christian and indigenous at the same time.

Adventism is at risk of being eroded by tribal and modern dancing as certain leaders are appropriating these ancient cultural expressions and bringing them into the church. Paganism is not Adventism, and it never will be. You can take paganism and baptize it into the church, as they did with Sunday sacredness, but that doesn’t make it true. It only makes the error even more deceptive. And it is unfortunate that we have church administrators who are misleading and confusing our young people with the heathen dance phenomenon that is sweeping across the church today. Instead of protecting the faith, our members are being left to believe that they can praise Jesus and attract others to the church with tribal and modern dancing.

Tribal and modern dancing have become the deterioration of Adventism. Instead of driving the devil out of the church, we have welcomed him in. Church standards are so low today that any old filthy hog can come into the church grunting its way down the aisle, and we would welcome him with open arms. The worship of Jehovah is being corrupted. The integrity of our institutions is being compromised. And instead of raising awareness about all the different social and environmental issues in the world, why can’t leadership shine a spotlight on the systemic degradation of our faith?

“Many of the amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 459).

Now compare the video of these orphaned children and young people from the Fiwagoh Orphanage, which is also in Kenya, Africa. This is a self-supporting ministry operated by Pastor Benson and his wife, Florence Nganga, faithful Seventh-day Adventists, who are the founders and directors of this mission. They are not teaching their 300+ orphans about tribal culture and pagan dancing. The Fiwagoh children are reciting the Three Angels’ Message, the 10 Commandments, the 8 Laws of Heath, Biblical passages, and singing sacred music, all from memory. They are also learning trades so that they can support themselves when they leave the orphanage. Pastor Benson and his wife are doing a wonderful job with these children! Here is the most recent update on Fiwagoh Orphanage.

It’s heartbreaking to see people in responsible positions enticing the youth with worldliness and corruption. But it is encouraging to see that some will resist these temptations and instead choose to be led by the Spirit of God. The Lord is preparing a people to become a beacon of light and hope to the world. Their light will shine even brighter as we get closer to the coming of the Lord.

“Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth, there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children” (Great Controversy, 464).