Hi,

I got a message just now from a Christian fellow I know about promoting the World Naked Bike Ride. Interested to know what you think about his opinions:

"However, I will say that I believe the Naked bike ride and other intentionally "naked" activities to be fruitless and more harmful than good. Sure it dosn't say in the Bible that public or social nude activities are prohibited. But just ask yourself this Dario.. Would Jesus approve and be a willing participant? Aren't there better things to spend your time promoting.

The problem with Nakedness is that it reveals those sacred parts of are bodies meant only for the eyes of our dearest companions (wives and husbands)... being Naked is opening that up to any other person who (through the worlds sin and depravity) will only lust after what is seen.

Here is a link you can read: It answers the question alot better than I have tried to explain it above?! Let me know your thoughts.
http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-nudist.html"

Thanks for sharing.

Apparently, this person is making some assumptions about Jesus and the bible.

First of all, he agrees that the bible has no prohibitions against nudity, public or private. Then he proceeds to say that Jesus would not participate and that our bodily parts are sacred and can only be seen by a certain few. Assuming he got that from the bible? He just said the bible has nothing to say about it.

He is also making the assumption that God is not participating in humanity and their life. How does he know that there is not a Christian in that bike ride? If there are (and I believe there are), that would mean Jesus IS participating in that bike ride, because a child of God is in that bike ride. "I will never leave you nor forsake you" he promises.

God participates in all of our lives. The holy spirit was sent to guarantee that. We are making the fatal assumption that when we are doing our daily physical chores, that we are not doing the work of God. As if there is a "secular" and "non-secular" life. We are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. Our life reflects Jesus. Now if we do wrong, then what we do hurts Jesus. It hurts that triune relationship we have with the Father, Son and holy spirit. But he is here with us so he feels the hurt.

Now is the man claiming that this bike ride hurts the holy spirit? What is it they are doing wrong? They are crying out for a better world. Are we not crying out for a better world? They are using bikes. Is that a sin? They are naked. So were the prophets of old who spoke out to the Israelites for a better world with God in it. They are prophets on bikes. The holy spirit can work in these people.

We are created in God's image, naked, and the world is a natural world, we are physically naked of the natural world as well. We came into this world naked, why not warn the world of it's "impending doom" (assuming we go that far) naked? As the physical (world we are a part of) and spiritual (in God's image).

This man also assumes that being clothed will avoid lustful thoughts and that nudity will automatically cause them. He has no basis of truth in that and again, he is making the assumption that the bible agrees with him, when in fact, he admitted nothing is said about this in the bible.

Boyd

That, Boyd, is unfortunately the problem with many Christians. They assume that God is against nudity except between husband and wife, and I've heard of husbands and wives who were rarely (if ever) nude together--even during sex. Even if they don't believe in God, they still believe nudity to be sexual, and they will sometimes misquote scripture they don't understand or believe in to prove their point.

Many nudists/naturists believe that the world will some day be open to nudity, and that just isn't going to happen. As long as there are people, there will be those opposed to nudity who consider it to be perverse, and consider those who do it to be perverts.

All we can ever hope for is that we can have our places where we can go to enjoy being free from restrictive clothing--even if it's only our home. We cannot hope to change the thinking of all people everywhere--especially the majority of Christians who are convinced that the human body is dirty and obscene, and that nudity is sinful. I am a realist and don't see that happening--unfortunately.

I wouldn't bet on that. Right now, many people are beginning to understand things about the relationship with God that we did not have just a few years ago. A whole church (minus half the people) made theological changes that is 180 degree opposite than what they taught before! And survived, still here today!

See the history of the Worldwide Church of God.

Now others are joining their understanding of the Trinity and our how we are in that relationship with God. As are result, naturism is not a far fetched idea.

It's amazing how quickly ideas can change in only one generation. Where three or four generations ago, a child can take a knife to school and use it as part of their tools to cut an apple. Later, it was advised to not take it to school, might be dangerous. later, just a generation ago, we got in trouble for taking a knife to school, so it was taken away from us and we got verbal correction.

Today, the same person would be a "terrorist".

Nudity was ok at swimming holes, today they are now being challenged at sexual deviants. A child just two generations ago can hold hands and hug each other, even give each other a quick kiss on the cheek. Today, the same innocent seven year old child is a sex offender.

I grew up in that church I described above. Today, my child (one generation) has never heard of such nonsence we "enjoyed" then. It took about ten years for us to fully understand, and even then, new doors are being opened up for us now. But ten years is fast. I remember started just over ten years ago with naturism. Today, so many websites for Christian naturism has come up that now, this site is dwarfed by it, even no longer necessary in comparison to many other growing sites. Christianity and naturism has grown exponentially in the past ten years! I think with Christianity understanding God's grace and getting further away from legalism (which I grew up with), is coming sooner than you think!

But true, it may get darker before it gets lighter. But the light will come. Like a supernova from a start that shrunk and got darker just before it blew out for the universe to see.

Boyd Allen

From the quote in the original post: "Would Jesus approve and be a willing participant?"

Seems to me that He just might. As Boyd says, the WNBR and Christians both cry out for a better world. And we know that Jesus was naked or nearly so on several important occasions such as His baptism, the Last Supper, and His crucifixion.

If I could comment on that link you provided, Dario, I'd say that God merely provided clothing and didn't ask us to wear it all the time, and point out what the LORD commanded King Saul and Isaiah to do in His presence. As it is, the author's mindset is revealed in the other topics he links to--all about sex. rolleyes

Anyway, here's one Christian who has done the WNBR and plans to do it again.