holiness – Houghton STAR

SPOT Falls Short of Houghton Standards

Crowds filled the Houghton chapel on Homecoming Saturday night for the SPOT talent show. Students stood in line for hours, waiting until the doors opened and the rushing mob could inundate the room and fill every cushioned seat. Excitement and anticipation were tangible as students waited for the lights to dim and the show to begin.

Towards the end of the night, two tall, plaid-shirted guys climbed on stage with their guitars and microphones. The lights shone on them and the crowd sat in hushed shadow. Strum. Strum. Strum. The guitar echoed in the dark room.

“Yeah, yeah, when I walk on by, girls be looking like d*mn he fly.” The words continued to wash over the audience as they sang, “I’ve got passion in my pants, and I ain’t afraid to show it. I’m sexy and I know it.” They swayed. They grinned. They sang, “Check it out,” taunting, inviting the girls to stare as they rocked their hips back and forth, singing, “Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.” The audience joined the chant, and my heart ached.

My friend’s parents and eleven year old brother sat next to her. I sat in one of the chapel’s back rows, and I watched over twenty alumni get up and leave after that song, looks of horror and disgust on their faces.

And it wasn’t just that song. It was the pictures of Miley Cyrus half naked, the rap about breaking all the rules, and the closing “Yeah” Usher song. And sexually showing off our bodies didn’t just begin this fall 2013 SPOT.

As I sat in the darkness and the audience clapped, I couldn’t help but wonder, How did this become okay at Houghton? Yes, we’re Houghton students, and we all know it’s a bubble. There’s a real world out there where songs and acts like this seem harmless. And yes, SPOT is a fun night, a night of student voice and freedom, and yes that is important.

Yet when did so blatantly glorifying sin become so okay? We all knew what we were getting into when we packed our bags and took out loans to come here. Most of us chose Houghton because God and the Bible meant something to us. We wanted to grow, be different. And the Bible has a whole lot to say about sex, sin, righteousness, and what we’re filling our minds with.

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During “Sexy and I Know It,” I longed to see people storming the stage and pulling the guys off, just as Jesus overturned tables in the temple. As I left the chapel I felt an ache to tell the students I passed, “God is calling you to a higher standard! He’s calling you to be men and women of justice and righteousness, people after His own heart, men and women of courage who will stand up for the truth! What you saw tonight was not that! God is calling you!”

Houghton junior Olivia Neveu says, “Christians are called to be holy and set apart. This is obvious all over Scripture. SPOT can and should be fun, but it simultaneously can and should be honoring to God.” 1 Peter 2:9 calls us to this holiness: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” It’s an invitation to love God. As Alicia Ucciferri says, “Having fun and loving Jesus are not mutually exclusive.”

SPOT comes around every year with kids, parents, and college-donor alumni attending. Perhaps the document outlining SPOT moral guidelines could start being followed. Perhaps there could be more moral voice in the audition reviewing board. Perhaps students could create acts that are fun, but also pure. And, perhaps, Houghton as a whole could begin to care. We could begin to care more about purity, about following God, and, as Dr. Jordan’s been sharing, about worship. SPOT is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is not a call to kill fun or student voice. It’s a call to holiness.

As an institution we have lost sight of what holiness is. While we vilify drinking and smoking, we actively encourage gluttony and obesity. As a Wesleyan institution, our roots are buried deep in the Holiness Movement. This movement focused on Wesley’s teachings of Christian Perfection, which holds that the heart of the born again believer could attain a state free of voluntary sin. Out of this teaching, the movement adopted practices that have become quintessentially equated with Wesleyans. Two of the more dominant practices are that of not drinking alcoholic beverages and not using tobacco products in any form. A few reasons for the exclusion of these substances are for the purpose of avoiding sin, maintaining purity and avoiding the appearance of evil.

At this point I am not much interested in delving deeper into these teachings—this is not intended to be a theological exploration—rather, I would like to turn my attention towards healthy living, and use the foundations of the Holiness Movement and Wesley’s teachings as a basis for critiquing the current health practices of the majority of Christians, Houghton students, faculty, and western society as a whole.

As Christians we are taught that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most used arguments by the adversaries of drinking and smoking. We point out the negative effects of smoke on the human lungs. Not only does the tobacco burn the lungs and deposit toxic tar, but it increases risks of heart disease, mouth cancer, and numerous other diseases. Alcohol wreaks havoc on the liver, has ruined countless lives, torn apart families, and destroyed reputations. Numerous children are affected by fetal alcohol syndrome. The fact is that alcohol can be dangerous.

Few are those that would dispute these facts. The proponents of indulging typically appeal to moderation, which is absolutely valid.

Yet as partakers in the holiness movement, I believe we have lost track of what the movement’s original purpose was. We focus on vilifying those that enjoy the substances we’ve qualified as evil; meanwhile, we continue to abuse our bodies by filling them with unhealthy foods. It has been deemed acceptable to attack smokers and drinkers, but it remains taboo to have open discussions about obesity.

Each meal, I wait in line at one of four water dispensers, nestled between 28 soda dispensers waiting to fill my cup with flavored high fructose corn syrup. The healthy food options are hidden amongst an abundance of fried food, sugary food, and sodium-filled food. In Shenawana Hall there are two vending machines but not one water fountain. At 5 Bites locations there are a hundred variations of corn based candy and maybe one organic food option. It is as though Houghton is actively encouraging obesity.

If our body is indeed the “temple of the holy spirit” then what should we make of these consumption habits? We condemn drinking and smoking. What about high fructose corn syrup, fried food, and all the other terrible things we ingest? Why do these fall into a different category?

Why is obesity acceptable? We used to hear talk about “freshmen 15,” now it is increasingly becoming “freshmen 30”. Worse than simply accepting obesity as a norm, we are actually encouraging it and making ourselves feel better about it. Obesity costs us approximately 147 billion dollars per year in medical expenditures. Over two thirds of all Americans are Obese.

Why is this form of self-harm any more acceptable than the other previously mentioned forms?