Mormon prom gives religious opportunity
May 1, 2008
By: Mary Queisser <mqueisser@hilite.org>
Junior and Mormon Anne Moyes’s prom dress is long and made of red silk. However, it needs some adjustments: sleeves. To go to the prom she’s planning on attending this year, the dress must have at least capped sleeves in order meet dress code requirements.
It also covers her shoulders, chest and back. “So it’s different from other prom dresses,” Moyes said.
Senior and Mormon Evan Crowder said, “We try to uphold a high standard of dress at our church, and obviously that isn’t quite met by everyone at school, and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. So they end up not going, and we started noticing that and started our own.”
Along with attending prom here, Moyes and Crowder will be going to a separate Mormon prom with their church due to values upheld by their religion.
Mormon prom, also known as Latter-Day Saints (LDS) prom, started three years ago. It’s being held May 24 in the gym of The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints in Fishers and is open to the 16 to 18-year-old age group. Crowder said it’s always been a great success.
According to Christian Hanselmann, who’s in charge of planning Mormon prom, the event varyingly gets a turn-out of about 200 people. But that number includes all of Indiana, not just Carmel.
Crowder said, “It’s really cool because we got people coming from three and a half hours away.”
Mormon prom’s values extend past simple dress code into other matters. Hanselmann, said, “School proms are great, but our religion doesn’t put as much emphasis on singles dating, but typically society does. So we started Mormon prom to help members of the church still have a prom in high school, yet it’s still a wholesome religious experience.”
Moyes said that the music is also different from normal proms. “We don’t play Christian tunes, but good songs that don’t have any swearing or anything like that, and it’s music that you have fun dancing to,” she said.
Hanselmann said people go on group dates instead and hasn’t heard of someone going on a single date for prom. He said they generally go out to eat before or after, then go back to someone’s house for an after-party.
Other rules include limits on proximity while dancing. “The joke the church has is, ‘You have to leave room for the spirit.’” Crowder said. “As long as you have a few inches between you, you’re good.”
Both Crowder and Moyes said they will still be going to prom here despite possible discomforts. “I like going to school proms because I get to see all my friends and stuff,” Crowder said. “While the whole nasty dancing kind of bothers me, I don’t really let it get to me, and I just go off and do my own thing.”
Moyes said, “You just go to have fun and not worry about dirty dancing and feeling uncomfortable around other people.”
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