Wholesome Nudity

Its a Cultural Thing


Why do we react so bad to nudity and have such a problem with nudity here in "Christian" America? Is it because we are truly immoral? Why is it that people here in the 'most Christian nation in the world' that we have the highest rate of violent sex crimes and the men here have such a problem with sexual temptation?

The slightest exposure of the female breast causes American men's hearts to race, and American wives' angers to flare. Is this righteous indignation or simply a cultural knee-jerk reaction?

The problems originate with our religious heritage. The Pilgrims and the Puritans are where we get our cultural thinking. Like a pendulum, attitudes go from one extreme to the other. During some periods of Church history, people are fairly free, then things change and get legalistic again.

The Pilgrims (who were Puritans) left their homes in Europe to maintain religious freedom. Their religions consisted of stringent rules that made an attempt to prevent sins. Yes, this was a reaction to loose morals during the time, but their rigid rules were not the answer to Christian living. Yet their rules became the law of this (USA) land. And the rules, perhaps more extreme in America than when they were in Europe.

During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), the queen and the Church of England, created the current phase of legalism so extreme that piano legs were considered obscene and were covered by "pants". Those ideas came to America. In the early 1900's in America, men were required to swim with tops on, and those rules lasted until the late 1930's. In 1936, men were finally free to not wear tops at the beach. This Victorian phase is the one that we are still recovering from. If you ask a person who grew up in this time period, they will tell you that men running down the street in a pair of jogging shorts would have been arrested for indecent exposure during that time.

In the early 1970's, co-education institutions became more popular. That, along with a rise in the incidence of child molestations, sexually-related crimes, and lawsuits from parents (if something were to happen on the school ground) made educators separate guys from the girls. Occasional nudity (skinny-dipping in swim classes, requirement of showering after gym class) started fading out of schools. This in turn conditioned the thinking of today's parents against social nudity. This and other cultural factors has turned attention to perceived 'dangers' of occasional nudity.

In the book of Galatians in the Bible, the Galatian Christians were becoming 'born again' of the Spirit of God, then keeping rules and regulations to keep being saved. Paul told them that the Law (the Old Covenant regulations) were set aside since Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. This was not to give the Galatian Christians a license to sin, but to free them from the legal laws of the Old Covenant to life in the HOLY Spirit.

A really objective study of the Bible shows that God does not condemn social nudism, but does condemn lust and immorality. And they wouldn't be the severe problems that they are if it were not for our cultural thinking.

Cultural values are often mistaken for religious values and they are hard to tell apart. That is why the only people who would fight social nudism are people with strong religious values. The hard part of cultural values is that noone ever takes a close look at them to see if they are right or not. That is why noone seriously studies the Bible to see if social nudism is in line with God's Word unless they are wanting to participate in it.

Jesus said, (Matthew 5:27, KJV) "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart".

These are strong words. Women cannot be avoided and all men notice pretty women. And a second glance at a woman is not automatically sin. But to daydream about having sex with that woman, or manipulating circumstances to have sex with that woman IS committing adultery in your heart. More than the physical act of adultery is the planning that goes into it. If you find yourself gawking without control, get help! If you have a problem being faithful to your spouse, get help! If you have a problem with pornography, click here..

Also, Christians are told to be 'modest'. The word 'modest' does not mean 'prudish'. It means "neat, orderly, and appropriate". It comes from the Greek work 'cosmos', which means 'the order of things'. Something orderly. We get our word 'cosmetic' from that word. Complete nudity at a social nudist gathering is entirely appropriate. A bikini would be inappropriate for church and a tuxedo would be inappropriate for a beach, wouldn't it? Our religious upbringing will tell us that 'modest' means 'prudish'. To keep oneself morally pure does not make a person a prude! Again, look up a short discussion on modest by clicking here.

If we in the USA are so prone to sexual sins, could it be that we are creating the very trap that we are in? Could our rules be so much more stringent than God's that it would be impossible to keep? If we trained ourselves not to be sexually oriented when confronted with nudity, would we not be able to push on to other areas of Christian maturity? Wouldn't more people feel 'worthy' to serve God if they didn't have to fight themselves?

Let's be honest. Do rules really stop sinful tendencies? Of course not. But we as Americans react to bad things by passing more laws. We don't do anything to fix the spiritual condition of the people. For example, after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, what subject comes up in legislatures? Passing more laws about gun control. More metal detectors, more police.

Nudist resorts? Pass more laws! Don't study the subject. Shut up and pass another law!

Our culture is mostly rules-based. This is a natural setting for rejecting something not of the same culture.

The most complete essay dealing with this subject may be found here..
Another nice article is entitled Why Nude Recreation?

The Conversation
Rebuttal
Quick Marriage Tune-up
My Thoughts on Social Nudism

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