PSYC 309 Week 1 DB Forum 1 Example

Discussion Board Forum 1: Thread and Two Replies

PSYC 309 Healthy Sexuality, Discussion Board Forum 1 (thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the course's own forum; the textbook, Scripture and published survey study are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for PSYC 309.

Thread

Popular culture often treats sexuality as a set of behaviors: what people do, how often and with whom. Surveys, advertising and entertainment all tend to measure sexuality by activity. A Christian psychology of sexuality asks a larger question: what does it mean to be a sexual person, and why did God create us this way?

Balswick and Balswick (2008) answer that sexuality is rooted in our creation in the image of a relational God. Because God exists in relationship, human beings are made for relationship, and sexuality is one expression of that design. On this view, sexuality includes far more than genital behavior. It includes our sense of ourselves as male or female, our longing to know and be known, our capacity for intimacy and our desire for connection that is present in every person, married or single. The authors describe healthy relationships as marked by covenant commitment, grace, mutual empowerment and intimacy, a pattern that applies to sexual relationships but also to friendships and families.

The broader view helps explain why changing sexual behavior in a culture does not necessarily mean changing satisfaction with relationships. Ueda et al. (2020) analyzed General Social Survey data from 2000 to 2018 and found that the share of men aged 18 to 24 who reported no sexual activity in the past year rose from 18.9% to 30.9%, with smaller increases among adults aged 25 to 34, mainly among unmarried men. The researchers did not study why, but the trend raises questions about loneliness, delayed relationships, financial pressures that postpone marriage and the role of technology in how young adults spend their time. A behavior-only view would simply count the change; a relational view asks what longing for connection may be going unmet. It would also ask whether some young adults are choosing to wait for reasons of faith, which a survey of frequency cannot distinguish from loneliness.

In Genesis 2:18, the first thing in creation that God calls not good is a solitary human being, and the remedy is a companion fit for him (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016). That passage places sexuality within a story about relationship, not only reproduction or pleasure. A healthy understanding of sexuality, then, begins not with rules about behavior but with the recognition that we are made for communion with God and others.

Classmates: how does seeing sexuality as relational change the way you think about people who are single, widowed or living with a disability?

Reply to Lauren

Lauren, you wrote that, being single at 28, you sometimes feel that churches treat singleness as a waiting room for marriage, as if sexuality only begins at the wedding. Your experience fits the problem the Balswicks identify. If sexuality is defined only as sexual behavior within marriage, single adults are left out of the conversation. But if sexuality includes the longing for connection, the capacity for intimacy and the experience of embodied personhood, then single people are fully sexual persons whose sexuality is expressed in friendship, community and service (Balswick & Balswick, 2008).

Scripture supports that fuller view, and so does much of church history, in which single believers served in ways married believers could not. Jesus lived as a single man, and Paul described singleness as a gift that allows undivided devotion (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, 1 Corinthians 7:7-8). Neither suggests that single people lack something essential to being human.

The research I cited in my thread also matters here. Rising rates of sexual inactivity among young adults may include people who are lonely and people who have chosen celibacy for reasons of faith, and the two experiences are very different (Ueda et al., 2020). A church that understands sexuality relationally can support both, offering friendship and belonging to the lonely while honoring the commitment of those who have chosen celibacy. Practical steps might include inviting single adults into leadership, hosting gatherings that are not organized around couples, and speaking about sexuality in sermons in ways that address everyone in the room. What do you think churches could do differently to include single adults fully?

Reply to Kevin

Kevin, you argued that media portrayals of sex have given young adults unrealistic expectations that make real relationships harder. I share some of your concern, and the relational view helps explain why. When entertainment presents sexuality mostly as performance and novelty, it detaches sexual behavior from the covenant, grace and intimacy that Balswick and Balswick (2008) describe as the marks of healthy relationships. People who absorb that picture may come to expect intensity without commitment.

At the same time, we should be careful about how strongly we state the link. The survey data in my thread show changing behavior among young adults, but they do not show what caused it (Ueda et al., 2020). Media might be part of the story, along with economic pressures, delayed marriage and the rise of online life, which can replace in-person time with friends and potential partners. Claiming a single cause would go beyond the evidence, and it might lead parents and churches to address the wrong problem.

Paul urges believers not to be conformed to the pattern of this world but transformed by renewed minds (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Romans 12:2), which suggests that the answer is not only avoiding harmful images but cultivating a better vision. How might parents or youth leaders present that better vision in a way young people would find compelling, rather than only warning them about what to avoid? I suspect that honest conversation at home matters more than any single program.

References

Balswick, J. K., & Balswick, J. O. (2008). Authentic human sexuality: An integrated Christian approach (2nd ed.). IVP Academic.

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Ueda, P., Mercer, C. H., Ghaznavi, C., & Herbenick, D. (2020). Trends in frequency of sexual activity and number of sexual partners among adults aged 18 to 44 years in the US, 2000-2018. JAMA Network Open, 3(6), Article e203833. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3833