The burden of proof

“Show me that the Bible says Christians can be nudists”

 “Where does the Bible say going around naked with your friends is acceptable?”

 “Show some scriptures to back up your arguments or else they’re all just rubbish”

These are things I’ve seen Christians who oppose nudism say quite frequently. Whenever someone says that Christians are permitted to be nudists, those who oppose nudism say “Find me some proof texts from the Bible that say that, or else it’s not true”. The problem here is that you can’t use the Bible in such a way to support or oppose many behaviours, nudism included. Rather, behaviours that are not explicitly commanded in the Bible (Evangelizing, helping the poor, meeting with other believers, etc.) do not require proof from the Bible to be practiced. Instead, people must find proof in the Bible that those behaviours are not permitted.

For example, let’s imagine an issue facing the church is “should Christians eat at restaurants”. It would be illogical for anyone to say “Show me Bible verses stating that Christians can eat at restaurants, otherwise it should be considered a sin”. What would be logical is for a person to prove that the Bible forbids Christians to eat at restaurants.

The same thing is true for a host of other activities the Church finds itself in. Should Christians fly on planes? Use computers? Celebrate birthdays? Give gifts at Christmas? Listen to music written by non-Christians? There are thousands upon thousands of things Christians do that are impossible to prove as acceptable from the Bible because the Bible doesn’t ever explicitly say “This behaviour is ok to engage in”.

The same is true of Nudism. If someone believes that the Bible forbids Christians of both genders from engaging in non-sexual social nudity with each other, let that person prove that our lifestyle is wrong. We can engage in civilized debate and figure out if those verses actually prove nudism is sinful, but do not expect us to prove our every action is permitted by the Bible.

A comment to Andy

This is my response to a comment left by a visiter named “Andy” on the “About” page. I’ve decided to copy it and post it here because it details how we approached our friend ‘Sarah’ to invite her to come with us to the nude beach.

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Hello Andy,
Thanks for the comment! Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, I was visiting relatives for thanksgiving.
I understand your situation with your friends. We have a few friends who are accepting of our lifestyle but only ‘Sarah’ has ever joined us in nude activities.

Before we approached Sarah about the topic of nudism we first tried to see what her feelings on the subject were. I said to her something to the effect of “So, I was reading about Nudism, and nudism in Christianity lately, what do you think about it?” and discussed it with her first. I saw that she was fairly open to the notion that Christians can be nudists without sinning, so I knew it would probably be safe to approach her. When we first told ‘Sarah’ about us being nudist she was mostly surprised. My wife has a “good little Christian girl” image, so Sarah had some difficulty believing that my wife would willingly frolick on the sand completely bare but we eventually convinced her we weren’t just joking with her. Sarah was initially quite accepting and curious about our lifestyle when we told her (And she still is accepting of it), which we felt was very encouraging.

To actually invite Sarah to join us I simply told her that my wife and I were going to the nude beach, she was welcome to come with us, and that she could keep her clothes on if she wanted to and could go nude if she was comfortable but she wasn’t required to. The most important factor, though, is that my wife was fine with it. Women will tend to be suspicious of men who invite them to walk around completely naked. Because my wife would be present and would join in with us Sarah could feel more comfortable about the whole situation.

Thanks for your interest and your support, I hope to hear from you again!

Messed up priorities, or Why do people care more about breasts than blood?

  I was thinking the last few days about how incredibly screwed up our society’s values are. Non-sexual, innocent nudity is considered so harmful to children that great pains are taken to ensure that children are never exposed to the human body, TV isn’t allowed to show nudity during timesof the day when children might stumble across it. Yet, acts of horrific violence and torture can be shown during those times. Why do people think that a 10 year old can’t handle the sight of entirely non-sexual nudity, but they can handle watching people be shot, stabbed, dismembered, and blown up?

It’s not just TV and movies, either. Video games suffer from the same sort of messed up censorship as well. When the game “Mass Effect” came out, there was a big uproar over the seconds-long scene involving very limited nudity at a point in the plot when one character has sex with another, yet the hours of violence and killing weren’t important. The game “The Witcher” also had a similar experience. The Witcher follows Geralt, a monster-slayer for hire who is also a prolific lady’s man, who occasionally has sex with a handful of women in between killing monsters (of both the human and animal variety). After being with a woman the game unlocks an erotic collectible card featuring a picture of her that the player can view at any time. When The Witcher came to North America, these cards were censored and the game was still given a  ‘Mature’ rating (Mature means it is meant to be played only by people aged 17 or older). Yes, the collectible cards were sexual in nature but the fact still remains that killing hundreds of people is acceptable while the sight of a computer-animated woman’s nipples is not.

I am not, by any means, suggesting children should be allowed to view pornography. Sexualized nudity is the opposite of what Nudism attempts to accomplish. I am not even saying we should make it so that all children are exposed to non-sexual nudity. All I am saying is that it shows how messed up society’s values are when children are shielded from the mere sight of the body parts that all human beings have, even in completely innocent and non-sexual situations, but bloody violence is fine.

P.S.: Before anyone accuses me of being anti-gaming, I should inform you that I’m an avid gamer. I’ve played both Mass Effect and The Witcher through to the end and enjoyed them both. As an adult in his mid 20s, I feel I am mature enough to handle fictional violence in a way that a 10 year old can’t. These games were merely examples of how people will focus entirely on breasts while ignoring blood.

Nude Bible Study

  I’ve been thinking of hosting a Bible study for young adult Christians. I know there are many nudist Christians out there but there are very few Christian nudist events and activities. There are a lot more male nudists than female, so perhaps making such a study for couples only or limiting the number of males who attend so that the gender distribution is even. I would want the women to be comfortable and being surrounded by a dozen men and only one other woman might be too inimidating. I am hoping that, by offering such a gathering, young Christian nudists would be able to benefit by meeting others of the faith like themselves. I am also hoping that both nudist and non-nudist Christians would benefit from the closeness and intimacy that being completely open and bare, with no clothing to hide behind, with one’s brothers and sisters in Christ brings.

  Unfortunately, my wife and I are currently in a situation that prevents us from openly being nudists, let alone advertising a nudist Bible study. There are some people in our lives right now who don’t approve of nudists and have the ability to cause a lot of trouble for ourselves and some people we know. If it were just me I would gladly take anything these people can throw at me, but I have others to think of as well. Perhaps a few trusted friends can be invited to a nude Bible study, if we meet enough nudist Christians or get enough Christians to try nudism, but for now we’ll wait and see what happens.

Just a quick update

  It’s been a while since I’ve updated things, we’ve been pretty busy but it’s starting to ease up.

  My wife and I always sleep nude now, wearing anything in bed is just so uncomfortable. She goes naked around the house a lot more these days, though she still tends to keep her underwear on.

  We’ve had our friend who joined us on the beach over a few times since that trip. She’s now fine with me and my wife being nude and she’s gone a couple of times in just her underwear but our place is a bit too chilly for her to be comfortable completely naked right now. Oddly enough, once winter hits she’ll be more comfortable because we’ll have the heat turned on. We’re still hoping to make some nudist friends in our area or convert our current friends to nudism.

Our friend’s first time

Today we went to our local nude beach with a friend of ours for her first nudist experience. The weather was warm, the sun was shining, there was only a light breeze, and the water was clear (though a bit chilly).

When we first arrived there was already a lot of people on the beach but we managed to find a nice spot near the water. I stripped down as soon as we set up camp but my wife and our friend (I’ll call her Sarah) kept their swimsuits on at first. After we had a picnic lunch, my wife took her top off to sunbathe her upper body properly. Sarah kept her top on a lot longer, we could tell she was a bit nervous, especially since more and more people were coming onto the beach. Eventually she decided to go through with it and took it off too and really began to enjoy herself. When you’re spending your time trying to decide whether or not you want to take your clothes off at a nude beach, feeling anxious about exposing your body you enjoy yourself less than if you simply bite the bullet, take it off, and realize that it’s not bad at all.

We went swimming a few times, the first time I was nude, my wife was topless, and Sarah was wearing her whole suit. The last time we went in we were all naked, enjoying ourselves and the water. This was probably the best time we had swimming of them all. Once the suits come off everyone is free to act as unihibited as they’d like, having a good time without care or worry. It was all just innocent fun, free of bathing suits and social barriers between people.

Everyone had a good time today, especially once they began to relax and take of their bathing suits. When you’ve shown yourself to your friends like that and realized that they don’t judge your body, they don’t stare or gawk at your ‘private’ places, they don’t sexualize your body, they simply accept all of you for who you are without criticism, it’s much easier to be open and intimate with them on other levels.

Updates

Friday my wife and I went to the beach. Our friend couldn’t make it with us this time, but we’re planning to go again next week if the weather’s nice and she’s making sure she can join us. We’re talking to a few male friends, subtly trying to figure out if they’d be open to trying nudism with us. So far, none of them express willingness to try it our. They all say they would be embarrased, or would be looking lustfully at the women, or just don’t want to see other people naked. Maybe later they’ll be more open to it. I know when I was younger I was terrified at the thought of showing myself even to a doctor, now I visit a nude beach every week.

We have another friend planning on joining us as well, another girl.  She, too, is eager to experience nudism on the beach, though she thinks she’ll probably just go topless rather than fully naked. I am quite alright with that, sometimes people need to ease into this sort of thing. I would rather her try going topless a few times, see how comfortable and natural it feels and then eventually go naked with us than for her to not try it at all for fear of being completely nude around strangers.

The Beach Tomorrow

  Tomorrow my wife and I are taking a friend of ours with us to the clothing optional beach.  She’s interested in experiecing a nude beach and maybe even going nude herself. We’re happy to have found a friend in our area who’s also a Christian and is comfortable with the nudist lifestyle.  This friend is someone we’re comfortable with and who we know well so it was easy bringing up the topic of nudism and inviting her to join us at the beach.

  What’s dissapointing to me is how hard is to talk about it with other friends, particularly Christian ones. We would love to invite more friends to join us on the beach in these last few weeks of summer, or even to join us in our home. The problem is that many Christians are quite opposed to nudism and visciously attack anyone who supports a nudist lifestyle. Once a person believes you’re just a misguided sinner leading others astray it’s hard to have rational discussions with them.  I don’t mind if someone disagrees with me, but I would at least like to present my side of things fully before being opposed.

But, we’re making headway. Tomorrow will be a great day with our friend and we are slowly making gains in bringing other friends to try a clothing-optional life. It’ll take patience, but with luck we’ll be able to figure out who’s open and invite them to nudist activities. Maybe I’ll be surprised and more Christian brothers and sisters will be accepting of nudism than I think. I can only hope.

Wanted: Your stories

Based on the number of views I’m getting every day, I can tell a bunch of people are reading my blog. What I want now is for you to share your experiences with anything and everything nudist. E-mail me at christiannudist@live.ca with a short story or testimonial about your experiences as a nudist. Don’t attach any files to the e-mail, I wont open them. Just put it in the message part. Also, be sure to indicate what name you would like it credited to. This can be your real name or an alias, but you have to tell me what you want used.

-The Christian Nudist

1st Timothy 2:9-10 and 1st Peter 3:2-5

Of all the Bible verses I’ve heard quoted against the Nudist lifestyle, these two are by far the most frequently used. They are also used improperly, as I intend to show. First, let’s see exactly what each set of verses actually says:

I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (NIV, 1 Timothy 2:9-10).

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. (NIV, 1 Peter 3:2-5)

Notice in both verses nothing is said about wearing too few clothes, or wearing sexually provocative clothes, or needing to cover up to avoid inspiring lust. Both of these sets of verses only compare the modestly dressed woman to women who dress in rich, expensive, flashy clothes. To use these verses to prove women need to cover themselves up to prevent men from lusting after them is just bad hermenuetics. The purpose of these verses is, in my opinion, to accomplish two things: First, encouraging people to not spend excessive money that could be used to help the poor on fashion and secondly to encourage equality amongst believers, instead of the rish separating themselves from the poor by using expensive clothes as status symbols.

I am not going to make the mistake of thinking these verses encourage nudism, but I am quite convinced they do not discourage it.