We have been asked a few questions about how our clothes-optional activities tie in with our beliefs as Christians. This page attempts to offer a few answers to those questions.
How do we justify wasting time and energy on leisure activities when we could spend it doing something useful?
This is a major problem for many Christians. We spend so much time in frantic activity, we join in with so many good and worthwhile activities, that if we spend any time in relaxation it feels like we are failing to live up to our responsibilities.
But God commanded the people of Israel to rest one day in seven. He also gave them numerous feasts and holidays ('holy-days') when they were to relax from their work and celebrate His goodness with friends and family.
In fact, God is so interested in us getting enough rest that one of the Ten Commandments is about making sure we rest each week. That's one of the top-ten things He wants us to be very careful about, alongside not committing murder and honouring our parents!
God wants us to work hard, but He also wants us to balance that work with rest and recreation ('re-creation'). Keeping a godly balance between the two is not easy, but failing to attempt some kind of balance seems like sheer stupidity.
And - as an aside - most of the people we know spend a significant amount of time each week in front of the television. For some reason, this does not raise the same moral question in their minds as does making time to participate in a hobby.
How do we cope with the sight of naked bodies around us?
Quite simply, there is nothing to cope with. The problem - whatever it is - only exists in the minds of people who have never tried any clothes-optional activity.
People imagine that the sight of naked people will be sexually stimulating and tempt them to immoral thoughts. It just does not work that way.
Of course, there is nothing to stop you thinking immoral thoughts in a naturist environment. But most people look much better with their clothes on. That may be the main reason why so many people worry so much about the 'need' to keep wearing clothes - it is not modesty, but pride.
Sue and I don't watch much television, but from what we have seen, almost any evening spent in front of the box is far more sexually stimulating than an evening enjoying a sauna with some naturist friends. The conversation is better in the sauna, though.
How do we reconcile our clothes-optional activities with our Christian faith?
This question can be approached from a number of different directions... But, firstly, a quick word about the terminology used.
'Clothes-optional' is used to describe an activity or a place where clothes are, well, optional. These are often places like beaches, swimming pools and saunas, where the clothes which are optional are generally swimming costumes - possibly the only garments in the world with no useful function whatsoever.
'Textile' is used to describe activities and places that are not clothes-optional. These are the places where people get upset if they see the 'wrong' bits of people's bodies, although the same people who get upset are quite often willing to pay money to see pictures of these 'wrong' bits of bodies.
'Naturist' and 'nudist' are generally used to describe people who don't mind, in appropriate circumstances, being without clothes. Some people distinguish between the two terms, while for other people they are used interchangably. We tend to use 'naturist' purely on the basis that the corresponding noun, 'naturism', is less clumsy than 'nudism'.
Now we agree on the words, it is probably useful to say that Sue and I do not call ourselves 'naturists'. Accepting that label seems to imply that we are committed to something, or believe in something, while for us it is almost the precise opposite.
We do not share in clothes-optional activities because we believe in something. We do not believe that nudity is in some sense 'right', or that it is wrong to wear clothes. We do not believe that swimming costumes should be banned. But we also do not believe that wearing them is a moral duty.
We share in clothes-optional activities for a number of simple reasons.
We do have a few thoughts on the subject which touch on the area of morality.
Hopefully, it should be starting to be obvious from the above that there is no need to reconcile naturism with Christianity because the two are entirely consistent.
There is not a single commandment against nudity as such in the Bible. There are times and places where it is inappropriate, but if you try to ban everything which the Bible says is sometimes wrong, you will find there is very little left to life - especially as you would not be able to eat anything!
So, to be clear about this: naturism is not condemned or forbidden in the Bible. If it was wrong for people to be nude, do you think God would have created Adam and Eve that way? If the human body is somehow offensive, why did God choose to walk with a naked Adam in the cool of the evening?
Naturists do not believe all nudity is bad (of course!), or that people ought to be clothed whenever possible. Naturists do not believe these things, and neither do Christians. At least, the Bible does not teach either of these ideas.
If you equate nudity with sex, then you will understand anything promoting nudity as encouraging promiscuity. But once you realise the two are quite distinct in the Bible - as they have been through most of history - then nudity becomes a practical, not a moral issue. In other words, not an issue at all.
How do our Christian friends feel about our clothes-optional activities?
It is rather hard to say, as we have had no feedback on this subject at all. Our friends all know we sauna together every now and then. We have asked various people if they would like to join us, but nobody has yet taken us up on the offer.
Sometimes, when we lived in Guildford, people would ask where we sauna. We would then describe the various places, and explain one advantage of Bracknell and Alton is that we can sauna together and don't have to wear costumes. So far, this appears to answer their questions, and the conversation moves on.
So our strategy is to be open about what we do, but not push it. We do not hide any of our activities or lie about them. But neither do we push naturism as something important, because in our scale of priorities it is pretty minor.
If one of our friends regarded nudity as a Big Thing, they would probably react when we mention saunas and question the morality of such activities, or something. Of course, if we knew that social nudity was a problem for someone, we would not suggest they join us for a sauna, any more than we would invite someone with strong views on (against!) alcohol to join us for an evening in a pub.
I (Paul) was once stuck in the middle of an argument between two Christian friends. One of them was maintaining that nudity was always sinful. The other seemed to be saying that if you couldn't take of all your clothes with someone, you clearly didn't have any depth of relationship with them. They asked me to say which of them was right, and were both distressed to discover I considered them both mistaken.
The first friend produced a (very lengthy!) Bible study on the subject of nudity. This Bible study was intended to prove that nudity is sinful, but it actually convinced me that nudity is not a moral issue in the Bible. And I was not convinced that the test of a good, strong relationship in the church is whether you are prepared to strip off with them. I tend to feel that emotional honesty counts for a good deal more.
So nudity is an issue for Christians - when is it appropriate, who with, and so on. But it is an issue on about the same level as the eating of chocolate bars. And if either nudity or chocolate bars is a serious issue for someone, I suggest this points to a pastoral problem which should be resolved for the sake of the individual concerned.
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