By Cynthia Moberly, News Editor
Through talk-back sessions, panels and chapel services, students had the opportunity this week to fully embrace a topic that among Christians, especially Christian college students, can be very taboo. Sexual Wholeness Week not only inspired conversations about sex and relationships, but also about sexuality and how it connects to our spirituality.
This week was a relief from the usual awkward sex talks that I’ve attended in the past few years at Asbury. The speakers and panels were chosen very carefully and it was reflected in the obvious wisdom of each individual.
Conversations were brought back to the dorms, mentors stepped in to answer questions and even though some of us took to Twitter with our criticisms (and praises), campus generally seemed to react positively to these discussions. Our time at Asbury is a good time to find safe places to figure out what we believe before being confronted with our culture’s often rigid views concerning all topics that revolve around sexuality and identity.
After spending a week earlier this semester at a conference about family, marriage and the sanctity of life, I have heard many talks about the Sexual Revolution in our culture and what its implications are. The speaker in chapel on Wednesday was right; we once crumpled up the beautiful image of our sexuality and threw it away because it looked like trash. Our culture has now encouraged us to take it back out of the trash can and own what it is; something our culture says is beautiful but is really just a crumpled up, dissatisfying version of sexuality. Even as Christians, we have become disillusioned to the fact that the body and the soul are parts of one holistic being. This week allowed us to think about what it would be like if we smoothed out the wrinkles.
We’re not the students who are generally influenced by this negativity and this so-called hook-up culture that most college students live in, so why do we have to have these conversations? The thing is, hook-up culture might be teaching people the wrong things, but our purity culture does, too. It teaches us to repress our sexuality rather than allow Jesus to redeem it.
As Christians, we repress our sexuality, forgetting that it was created both for our pleasure and for His glory. God designed us to love and be loved, and this week was a wonderful opportunity to spark interest in exploring what that means. Even our chaplains have been willing to have open conversation about anything (and I do mean anything!) Having these conversations allows us to think holistically about who we have been created to be. Even though we do live in a culture of purity here at Asbury, many students have experienced very personally the reality of our hook-up culture. Addressing this topic has led to not only a fruitful discussion, but a necessary one.
One of the most important things I have learned from this week is that we have been given an unmistakable design for union, both biologically and spiritually, as we are made in the image of a community itself; the trinity.
Perhaps C.S. Lewis was right when he claimed that “We are far too easily pleased.” We cannot be a people who simply accept what our culture tells us it means to be a sexual being. We have to fight for the Truth.
I want to thank all of the people involved in planning this week. It was truly beneficial for the men and women of this campus. Greg Haseloff said one of the goals for this week was to “raise the transparency in discussions about sexuality and contribute to healthy conversations,” and I believe it did just that.
That being said, there were many things we didn’t talk about. The leaders of this campus recognize that there is not enough time to cover every topic in regards to sexual wholeness. Do not feel isolated in your struggles, desires or questions, especially if they didn’t get brought up. The enemy intends to destroy the good things that God has given us in any way he can. If you’re afraid to ask a question, consider this your invitation to ask it.
