Mobile messages encourage students to speak freely at homosexuality forum
Nikarri Parker
Public relations editorial intern
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Anonymous text questions encouraged Avondale College of Higher Education students to speak freely during a homosexuality forum on the Lake Macquarie campus this past month (September 14).
Organiser Stephanie Bennett, a residence assistant, provided three phone numbers to which students could text questions for a panel of academics and ministers. Stephanie and two friends screened the questions before putting them to panel members Pr Mike Browning, a retired Seventh-day Adventist minister, Dr Bruce Manners, the senior minister of Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church, Dr Ray Roennfeldt, the president of Avondale, and Kristin Thompson, a lecturer in early childhood in the School of Education and a clinical member of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (NSW).
Among the questions: “Is homosexuality a salvation issue?”; and, “Are you born gay?” Another student asked whether prayer can help one change their sexual orientation.
While the answers from the panel members reflected the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s position statement on homosexuality—Adventists believe “sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman”—they also highlighted the biblical statements of homosexual sex as a sin and the biblical commands to love and accept all—as Jesus did. The theme of the discussion: grace, and that it is God, not man, who is judge.
“God’s grace is bigger than we can know,” said Bruce.
One of Stephanie’s colleagues, fellow residence assistant Hayden Ward, described the panel members as doing an “excellent” job of answering the questions. Stephanie agrees but adds “from my limited experience with these controversial issues, it seems most people just want a clear-cut answer.”
Perhaps this is why the conversation at the forum is one Ray supports. “It is absolutely essential that, on a Christian higher education campus, we should be discussing issues like this,” he says.
Tags: Student Services