NEWS FEATURE: At Christian colleges: Dancing? What about body piercing?

c. 1999 Religion News Service LA MIRADA, Calif. _ The decades-old debate of whether to dance or not to dance is still roiling the waters at evangelical Christian colleges and universities. But added to the mix these days are some new cultural twists _ like body piercing. And the presence of gays. Such issues were […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

LA MIRADA, Calif. _ The decades-old debate of whether to dance or not to dance is still roiling the waters at evangelical Christian colleges and universities. But added to the mix these days are some new cultural twists _ like body piercing. And the presence of gays.

Such issues were much in evidence at the recent (June 7-10) annual meeting of the Association for Christians in Student Development, which brought more than 500 residence hall directors, deans of students and other college professionals to Biola University in this Los Angeles suburb.


Last fall, for example, Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa, Calif., sponsored its first on-campus dance. Seeking to shed some of its stuffed-shirt reputation yet stay pious, the school mounted a 1980s theme dance centered on the 1984 hit movie”Footloose,”the story of a big city out-of-towner shaking up a small conservative town by dancing.

As he explained in his”To Dance or Not to Dance?”workshop at the conference, Azusa student services director Matt Browning got a copy of”Footloose”to show on screens during the dance. But there was a problem: The film’s PG rating stems partly from two shots of a bare backside. Those shots were snipped out, Browning said,”to be above reproach.” A successful follow-up dance had a”Saturday Night Live”theme but used only”clean”skits. The evening ended with praise for God, said Browning.”Very few people left.” Editing bare bottoms out of”Footloose”and scrutinizing”Saturday Night Live”skits are just two of many challenges facing modern Christian college administrators.

Browning’s workshop joined more predictable ACSD fare about running dorms and dealing with freshman angst. Now in its 19th year, the annual gathering is a window into how evangelical Christians not only run their own colleges but struggle working at secular or public colleges, where the most unnerving initials are LGBT _ for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.

And then there was Dan Noel, a counselor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., talking about body piercing.

Noel said college freshmen are piercing themselves less to express themselves or something about their faith, like the current Christian tattoo craze, than to upset people.”Within two weeks of being at school, they pierce their tongue and say they do it `because my dad hates it,'”Noel said.

Lee University, he said, has no formal policy against piercing, adding that his survey of 301 Lee students found 44 have pierced body parts, including 35 women.

Unlike Azusa Pacific, on-campus dances are prohibited at Lee, Biola and most other Christian schools, including the 2,000-student Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn.”Dance used to be directed to God, and now dance represents something entirely different,”said Gary Wood, director of Trevecca’s career and counseling center. He said most students support the dance ban.


Christian staffers at secular schools face very different challenges prompted by the rise of the gay and lesbian presence on state college campuses, known to college Christians simply by the initials LGBT.

At the very mention of LGBT, a palpable nervousness appeared among 15 young people at an ACSD workshop. The session wrestled with such questions as how to respond to Christian staff members who do not want to participate in a department’s gay pride programming.

Public university promotions of cultural sensitivity find some Christian administrators understanding mourning rites of a Hindu co-worker. But diversity training seminars on gay issues usually conflict with evangelical and fundamentalist teachings against homosexual sex. Oppose or speak out at such training courses and”you can get into trouble,”said Terri Pearson, conference services coordinator of California Polytechnic University, Pomona.

One college counselor said she fears helping students struggling with sexual identity. If a counselor suggests a Christian conversion ministry for gays and the student complains to a gay student group, she said, the counselor could be disciplined for proselytizing.

Her solution, she said, is to keep her job.”I would tell them, `I’m a Christian. I don’t feel comfortable advising you on this.'””I won’t talk about morality (to students). I’ll talk about integrity or ethics,”added Scott Strawn, a complex director at the University of Kansas.

Christian staffers said their first obligation is to give their supervisors their best work, and universities do not hire them to be missionaries.


But one college employee said befriending homosexuals is the first step in evangelizing because”it’s a lot easier to witness to a friend than to a stranger.” In contrast to her state university colleagues, Rebecca Lance, residence director at the private, non-religious Westminster College in Pennsylvania, called for compassion toward gay students.”I don’t think we really understand the struggle these people are going through,”she said.”What would Jesus do?”DEA END FINNIGAN

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