Something I posted on Jans Netnude site today and thought I would share it with you here as well. I was responding to someone (under Christian Naturism section) about finding churches that are friendly to nudists and their philosophy.
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"I think that those in church who have trouble with nudism are also the ones that tend to be "legalistic" in their understanding. The more legalism you allow in your life, the more restrictions you put on yourself and especially others.
Legalistic people are also very judgemental, even those who claim to be "free" in Christ and yet make "freedom in Christ" legalistic, judge those who are not "free" in the way they think. Example: Some naturists (very few thankfully) believe that we must be nude to please God or that the only way to approach God is in the nude. That is a form or legalism which requires works from us to please God. God made no such requirements.
Our relationship with God should be to the point where it doesn't matter whether we are clothed or nude in front of Him. We just need to show respect to God and we do that in our hearts and minds. And our actions and body reflect our hearts and minds.
So I found that those who are more in tune to Christ and his true freedom are the ones I can talk about being a nudist without them actually feeling like they need to be nudists. They may still not be comfortable around me while I am nude, so I don't push it, but they are not judgemental or critical of me either. Which is why my pastor has no issues with it.
A couple (three or four?) of years ago, we went to a leadership retreat our pastor sent us to. The men stayed in one bunkhouse building, the women in the other. We were divided up into four people in each bunkhouse (Our pastor stayed in the other).
I took a shower, wrapped a towel around me and got on my bunk (upper bunk) and sat there talking to the other three men that were sharing the room (I think they were all older than me, one African-American in his late fifties, early sixties).
Anywho, I got rid of the towel and let my blanket cover me slightly, but eventually the blanket slid off, (how did it do that?) and I just sat there nude talking to them. I can't remember if I got down later or not, but there seems to be no problem with it. I slept nude that night too.
Later, when I saw him at church, the same black gentleman talked to me and said that he had no problem with it. I may have told him that I was a nudist. But that was at least three years ago. Sketchy in the brain.
But the point is that if you want to talk to someone in your church about your naturism, talk to those who are not bent up about regulations, rules, "the devil is out there", or is trying to climb the ladder of church leadership, etc. People who look for the devil in everything will find him. Sometimes I think that the devil is preached in churches far more than Christ. If Christ was preached and our relationship to him was emphasised, then there would be no need to preach against the devil!
Legalism is a strangle-hold on the freedoms of people in their relationship with Christ. Look for that and let that be your guide."
Our preacher (you call them "pastor", the word for elders) was sick; so, an ex-elder who just moved here about a year ago from Vermont gave the sermon. It was about marriage. He was telling about a pre-marriage counselling session that he and his wife and some other couples (guess there were a group of them) went to. They started off the session talking about divorce. He said this was the wrong thing, to start off with a negative. His sermon was very positive. He's a great guy. Hope he can install him to maybe put some fire under our 2 do-nothing elders. Got another one that we could install as well who's good.
I think the negatism to nudity is tied into the very sorry translation in the KJV of Leviticus 18 where it translates "...do not have sex with..." by "...uncover the nakedness of...". This automatically equated nakedness with sex. It stuck. Put this on top of the general inability of churches to even talk about or to study the subject of nudity, and you get the negatism to it.
And of course, the church has had a negative view of sex in the first place, so any nudity would obviously be associated with it. If they can't talk about sex, something we cannot live without (unless you want the race to die off) then nudity is so far from their scope they cannot even think about it let alone discuss it.
I have heard of one church leader (back in the hundreds AD, probably between 400-800 AD) who was so opposed to sexuality that he thought the very sight of pregnant women were revolting.
I just wonder how we keep these things with us for so long?
