BY CAITLIN CLEMENT
Pornography, circumcision and sex: topics of conversation not usually had in Meredith 101 with people you “kinda” know. However, for those who went through the Alive series “Sex, God and Soul Mates,” that’s exactly the type of conversation they got.
The Alive service last Thursday started with some Christian music up at the front of the lecture hall with people standing and singing along, giving a more modern type of feel to the worship service. It was a casual affair, with fellow classmates donning more comfortable clothing choices than seen at a typical church service.
It wasn’t like the sex talk you had with your parents when puberty started becoming a thing. There was no “this is what sex is.” Instead, in this particular session, they focused on there being freedom in the choice to be single or to be married.
A major point of discussion was that things of greater importance and emotional investment such as sex and soul mates should have a greater emphasis of God in them.
“The more time, money and energy a choice takes, the more godly council you should seek,” said Caleb Thompson, the speaker of the evening.
The #MeToo movement on social media and the amount of songs written about sex were just a few of the contributing factors brought up to explain the focus on this issue during the Alive series.
Jacob Van Sickle, the college ministry director for Campus Fellowship, said “there is something broken” in our culture today with regards to the topic of sex. He brings up Hollywood and the allegations of particular senators and presidents around molestation and other sexual misconducts as examples of this brokenness. He said the questions society is struggling to answer are “what needs to be fixed” and “how do we fix it?”
“All the things we have been seeing are downstream from bigger issues,” Van Sickle said.
In order to fix these broken connections about sex, Van Sickle said one must “find God.”
However, Van Sickle said there must be “some defining first” in regards to sex, marriage and what it looks like to thrive as a family. He brings up the fact that current society is 50 years past a sexual revolution that tore down everything people knew about sex. Since then, society has been in a jumbled mess of confusion. We need to take a second and “go back to defining what is actually there,” said Van Sickle.
Pornography and masturbation create the same feelings and connections that come with having sex. When people watch porn, they are attaching these connections and feelings to a computer screen when such feelings should be felt with the person God intended for you, according to the speakers of the series.
“What it’s training your brain to do is to think that sex is a purely selfish thing. It’s about gratifying my selfishness,” Van-Sickle said. “That sex is purely objectifying … and is training you not only spiritually, not only behaviorally, but even biologically.”
Sex is a behavior that has been designed to be sacred to marriage, according to some interpretations of the Bible.
“The behaviors in our lives will outline his glory and image as we follow him in love,” said Rachel Stafford, Drake student and Campus Fellowship member. “I don’t think that either of those actions would be honoring God in the way he outlined in the Bible.”
When talking about God and sex together, Van Sickle and Stafford both believe that God must be highest on the list of priorities.
“God is the sovereign creator of this world,” said Stafford.
It is God who can truly fulfill our souls, and sex and marriage do not carry on into heaven: only God can give the soul eternal fulfillment, according to Van Sickle.
“God alone is to be on top and that’s how our longing souls get fulfilled,” Van Sickle said.
There will be a follow-up Q&A on the topics of sex, God and soul mates on Dec. 7 for those interested in learning more about these topics and their role in Christianity.