Now religion aside, I would like to mention a few of the psychological aspects of things. Afterward I would like to hear your thought of how this (nudity) could be a sin, This is what compelled me to this thread when I saw all of this… I did around 3 years of research on this subject and it was my thesis. I have thought about continuing my research into this as well.
Some of the interesting statistics I found were that African cultures that continue to wear clothing only as protection from the elements, yet continue the majority of their time with little or nothing on, almost never have an incidence of rape, or adultery. Same can be said for the true nudist or naturalist. I think it is safe to say that the majority of sexual crimes appear to be committed by males. And I think we can agree that it’s pretty easy to tell when a male is sexually excited, or “turned on”. You don’t see these signs of arousal (to put it delicately) in men surrounded by nude women… and children for that matter. In the very rare cases that this does become apparent, they are removed from the premises and if they suspect anything the law is called. But it is extremely rare. how often do we hear about sexual crimes happening around nudists? How many around everything else, even in the church. Sorry to say it, but we can’t hide from the truth, and I am getting to my point…
How many times have you heard about someone with an eating disorder? Have any of you known anyone with one? What causes them? Well an overwhelming number of professionals agree that body image is a leading cause. Having interviewed literally hundreds of nudists, including former child nudists, who continue to go nude, none of them have signs of poor body image. You have to ask yourself why? An analogy I heard once described a young teen (a nudist) who while hanging out with his friend (non-nudist), came across some nudie magazines. The nudist friend could not understand why on Earth his friend was so excited over this. He had seen nude women his whole life, It was not a big deal to him.
It so happens that nudists marriages last more often than non-nudists’ marriages. While talking about this with nudists, they all agreed on the same thing. Most people they know, when looking for a partner, the first thing they say is how good they looked, how great their bodies were, etc, etc, etc. They were sexually attracted to them first. Many of these marriages based on these attractions simply don’t work out and end in divorce. While the nudists were attracted to their spouses by their intellect, their charm, wit, since of humor, etc. Sex was the furthest thing from their minds. My response was, “So you don’t enjoy sex?” The answers were always along the lines of, “Absolutely, we probably enjoy it more than you. Because we have true passion for one another, what can be greater than that?”
It turns out that most nudists, especially ones that grew up as nudists, have almost no cases of STD’s among them, they have very positive and healthy body images, have long lasting marriages, are faithful to their spouses and boy/girl friends, and simply do not associate sex with nudity.
Meanwhile, we all teach our children right from the start to cover up. And the problem I see is that we don’t tell them the right reasons why to cover up. We don’t say that some people find it offensive because they were taught different, etc.
A sad example of this is this… A father hears a loud thump coming from his 16 year old daughters room, he shouts outside her door to see if she is alright, for what ever reason she doesn’t answer right away, he gets concerned and opens the door. She is naked, or at least partially, she is modified! Years go by and even though she knows it was a mistake and she isn’t mad at him or anything, she still has trouble looking directly at him.
And he does too, because both of them are inherently emotional people and they just never got over the shock completely, so there will always be some discomfort between them.
Same situation, but with a family who are not even nudists, they are just not ashamed of their bodies and don’t look at it with fear of sin if they are saw naked. So in this household, it was normal for them to see each other once in a while in the state of changing clothes, getting out of the shower and going into their rooms. They didn’t flaunt it, but they didn’t hide it either. The simple fact is they were use to seeing each other naked every so often and the daughter was taught that nudity does not equal sex. We must be clothed in front of others, because they may see nudity as something bad, evil, or heck, they might even be a rapist, or something, you have to be careful. but mainly we wear clothes in public to respect the feelings of people, because we just don’t know what their feeling are.
same thing happens with the loud thump, this father also runs upstairs shouts, and gets no reply, he swings open the door, she is getting dressed and is either nude or partially. She simply replies, “Sorry, I didn’t hear you, I’m fine. But thank you for being concerned.” He shuts the door to give her her privacy and goes back downstairs. No harm done.
How can nudity be a sin? Only if we have impure thoughts ourselves could it be a sin. And not everyone has impure thoughts. Personally, after knowing more about nudists, I would feel better if a nudist caught a glimpse of my daughter or wife naked, knowing that they likely are not thinking about it being “dirty” than someone else who I don’t know what they’re thinking, but I know there is a greater chance of this person thinking something dirty…
So to make a VERY long story short. I do not feel nudity is a sin.
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) Nudists feel that there is health benefits (which there are) and enjoy the freedom above all else. You may be surprised to know that the vast majority of nudists are also Christians. This category also feel that their body was a gift from God and that being ashamed of it would be an insult to God.