By Jana Wiersema
Couples cozying up on couches, marking their status with photos on every form of social media and forming engagements faster than you can say “I do” — ah, it’s the Asbury University dating culture. You can love it or leave it, but you can’t deny its existence.
While the dating culture is always a prominent part of campus, this week it’ll be front and center in chapel, talkback sessions, panels and other events as the 2018 Human Sexuality Symposium commences. According to Jeannie Banter, assistant director of Spiritual Life, this is the fifth year the symposium has taken place, while it was originally called “Sexual Wholeness Week” up until 2016.
“It began just out of conversations, listening to our students, listening to what’s happening in culture and realizing we hear a lot of voices from the outside about our sexuality,” Banter said. “And we really wanted to give our students the opportunity to hear, in chapel as the entire student body, about what God says about sexuality and offer safe places to have conversations regarding sexuality.”
Banter added that this year, the symposium will focus on dating and Asbury’s dating culture. The week’s theme is “Love in the Real World.”
“A lot of times, people don’t think Asbury’s the real world,” she said. “We talk about it being a bubble, … but what we do right now in our relationships matters.”
This year, the Human Sexuality Symposium’s schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. — Dana Malone will speak in chapel. Malone is the author of “From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses.” Kaylyn Moran, resident director of Glide-Crawford, has been involved in planning the symposium and said that Malone will speak on the pros and cons of “purity culture.”
Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 12 p.m. — Malone will have a talkback session in the Dougherty Dining Room.
Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 5:30 p.m. — Malone will speak on Asbury’s dating culture in the Aldersgate Lounge at an RSVP-only session, which will also have free Cane’s.
Thursday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. — Body Basics 101 will be led by Emily Brown, one of Asbury’s counselors, in Reasoner 214. According to Banter, the session is open to both men and women and is “an introduction to basic terms, functions and processes of men’s and women’s bodies.”
Thursday, Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. — Love, Sex and Dating Panels will be held for both men and women. Men will meet in the Miller Screening Room; women will meet in the Student Center. These panels will be moderated by Banter and Johnson RD Evan Duszynski, respectively.
Men’s panelists:
Chris Bounds, chair of the Department of Christian Studies and Philosophy
James Ballard, director of student involvement at the World Gospel Mission Student Center
Dave Coulliette, professor of math
Women’s panelists:
Tamara Bounds, wife of Chris Bounds
Janet Dean, associate professor of psychology
Haley Weaver, coordinator of Church Planting at Asbury Seminary
Rosanna Willhite, coordinator ofthe Global Engagement Office
Friday, Oct. 12 at 10 a.m. — A panel discussion will be held in chapel. The speakers include Professor Kevin Brown and his wife, Maria; Ethan and Jordan Engelhardt; and Jessica Avery, RD of Aldersgate.
Moran added that while the symposium will focus on dating, it’s not just for couples.
“We don’t want people to feel like you have to be in a relationship to, you know, be following Jesus well,” she said. “We’ll talk about ‘What does it look to be single? What does it look like to steward your sexuality well as a single person?’” Banter added that there will be single speakers in the panel discussions.
Both Banter and Moran noted that sexuality can be a difficult topic to discuss at Asbury.
“It’s uncomfortable,” Banter said. “A lot of times the church has not done a good job of talking about sexuality, so we’re comfortable talking about it everywhere else but chapel. So I think it’s important for us to continue just to talk about it and to bring it to the forefront of conversation because everybody has questions, and everybody’s asking.”