Biola University’s “Biola Screenings” series, sponsored by the Cinema and Media Arts department (CMA), is a series dedicated to bringing independent films and filmmakers to campus. The screening series often includes films whose directors or crew are graduates of Biola University’s CMA program, as was the case this academic year with screenings of Kidnapped for Christ, Cicada, Sinister and now Sing Over Me. The screening of these films on campus does not imply that the views articulated in them are supported by Biola University.

As a liberal arts university dedicated to fostering open, robust dialogue on a wide range of issues, Biola University desires to be a place where multiple perspectives can be shared on complex issues, and where disagreement can happen cordially and in the love of Christ. This has been the university’s goal in recent years in hosting forums, events and dialogue on campus related to the sensitive and yet important issues of human sexuality.

The documentary Sing Over Me, directed by alumnus Jacob Kindberg (’08) and featuring cinematography by alumnus Peter Borrud (’08), is a film that allows Dennis Jernigan to tell his unique and complex story. The film does not advocate for ex-gay therapy and makes it clear that this is only one man’s specific story, not prescriptive for anyone else. Biola University does not advocate reparative or conversion therapy as a response to individuals with same-sex attraction, and neither does Sing Over Me.

The importance of the human sexuality discussion necessitates that it not only exist in the realm of theory and theological or political argument, but incarnationally in the people who are living and struggling with these issues every day, each with a unique story and each created in the image of God. The documentary Sing Over Me shares one person’s story and sexual identity journey, and we hope that whatever they may think of the film, audiences would respect the right for Jernigan’s story to be heard.