Senior Writer
Sex, the Bible, and pizza were all present, or at least talked about, at the discussion entitled “Sexy Pizza” held in the basement of Steinman College Center Tuesday.
The discussion was held to clear the air on some of the common misconceptions people have regarding the Bible. More specifically, it focused on how the Bible treats topics relating to sex and sexuality, such as sex outside of marriage, masturbation, and homosexuality.
The discussion began with a casual reception where students could come in, get some pizza and a drink, and chit-chat with those around them. During this time, Argemira Florez ’13 and Joseph Mohrbacher ’15, organizers from the College’s chapter of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, were walking in and amongst the groups passing out small index cards and pens, asking participants to write down a question they would like answered during the discussion.
Initially, many of the participants looked confused, but most still complied and wrote down what they would like to learn about during the discussion.
The reasoning for the index cards became apparent when the moderator of the discussion, Betsy Stout Willet, a full-time staff member of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, explained the evening’s discussion would be a question-and-answer-based forum. In this forum, students were supposed to exchange ideas and personal conceptions of Biblical interpretation, as well as their own interpretations of topics concerning sex and sexuality. The index cards would serve as springboards for new topics when one was exhausted.
To start off the discussion, Willet stated the problem addressed by “Sexy Pizza.”
“Sex and sexuality are all around us, but we never address it,” Willet said. “People have different perceptions but are not sure about it.”
After the opening words, Willet drew the first card from the box. The question read, “What does the Bible say about sex before marriage?” At first, it seemed as though no one was going to answer and people began to shuffle in discomfort.
However, one brave soul finally took the dive and gave her opinion. Mind you, it was the stance she thought the Bible took, but it was a good start nonetheless. Many of the students agreed with the original speaker saying they thought the Bible had a very condescending attitude towards premarital sex.
After a short while of opinions confirming this view, Willet jumped in with a relatively surprising piece of information: the Bible does not actually address the issue of premarital sex at all. Instead, it emphasizes that sex is a spiritual experience which joins two people and creates a sort of marriage in the process.
Following this revelation, a student raised the concern of sex with commitment, as in a serious relationship, without the formality of marriage.
“God is very pro-sex, but he has many rules regarding it because he wants us to get pleasure and to not get hurt,” Willet answered. “This is why [the Bible stresses] that commitment is necessary.”
There were several other questions drawn from the box before Willet drew what was probably the most controversial question of the session: “What does the Bible say about homosexuality?”
While many students said they felt the Bible was very anti-homosexuality, they also stressed this seems to be incongruent with the language of love and acceptance prevalent in other portions of the Bible. The most interesting argument involved the Genesis Creation story, in which man and woman were created in the image of God.
“If God made everyone in his own image, how can homosexuality be wrong?” one student asked.
This conversation of morals and Biblical interpretation went on for a fair amount of time before Willet gave her opinion on the Biblical interpretation.
“Homosexuality is not confirmed but neither is it affirmed,” Willet said. “The Bible does not directly address the very important and specific questions that we have today.”
The talk ended with a few closing comments about InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and a different perspective on sex than college students are used to.
“God thinks we can get along totally fine without sex, which is contrary to the world around us,” Willet said.
This statement is entirely different to what hook-up culture dictates and leads one to ask: what creates happiness in a relationship?
Questions? Email Justin at jkozlosk@fandm.edu.