Swimming - is it a sin?

[Catholic_Heart]

******Seriously…While swimming isn’t a sin, and I think it is OK to swim with those of the opposite sex, I do believe that some swim suits leave little to the imagination…I’m always amazed at how small they can be! I have never worn such a suit, nor allowed my daughter to do so when she was a kid. **

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Our Community Center has three locker rooms. One for Women, one for Men, and one for Families. The Family locker room has large private rooms, complete with toilets and showers that allow complete privacy. Still, I feel funny with the men being in there…Oh well…I’m a 61yr. old grandmother…My age is showing, I’m afraid.

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**Has anyone here ever watched Fear Factor? Now THERE are skimpy swim suits! And, the girls slip out of their jeans and tops in front of the camera…They wear their suits under their clothes. I’m sure this is done for ratings! **

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I shall stay out of all pools, swimming holes, beaches, etc. in reparation.

 

[quasimodo]

Is swimming a sin … maybe.

For most, No.
For some, Yes.
Is eating meat sacrificed to idols a sin?

What is swimming doing to your soul? How do you see others while swimming … as people or as objects? Are you swimming for fun and exercise or because prurience is a problem for you?

 

[snoopy]

pnewton:

Yes. I see no problem wearing a men’s bathing suit (not a speedo) swimming in public. As far as bikinis, I have never approved or allowed any clothing that reveals the midriff.

I didn’t know mens bathing suits covered the midriff!!

 

[ewee]

Just to drop in my :twocents:, I don’t think swimming is a sin in and of itself. I love to swim, it is possibly my favorite active thing to do in the whole world. But because I know that I am human with very human desires, I have told my bf, who also loves to swim, that I don’t think it would be good for us to go swimming together. If we are at a party with lots of other people, fine, that is different, but if we just go swimming because we are bored, not good. And not becuase of the type of swim suites we wear, I wear a one piece that comes all the way to my colar bone, with shorts over it, and he wears long shorts, but just because water can make just about anyone who is wearing not much clothes look sexy. I dunno, maybe it is just me, but water can be dangerous. Now, swimming with any other guys other than my boyfriend whom I have feelings for, no problem! have fun!

 

[springbreeze]

snoopy:

I didn’t know mens bathing suits covered the midriff!!

:clapping: To your post

I have never read such hypocrisy or double-standards in all my life, for goodness sake will people take charge of their own sins and stop looking around to blame someone else for them…! Or shall we all be adam and all be eve?

We are in Christ Jesus now, the Second Adam. Swimming is not sinful, most things are not sinful unless the intent is set upon sin, it’s all in the intent. The body is not sinful, however people’s intent about it can be, that does not make the body an obscenity, it does not make it sinful, the body is sacred!

I have heard of splitting hairs and I have heard of the scruples, but sometimes I am amazed at how puritanical we Catholics can be in the light of the Joy of our Eucharistic Lord, who does not call us to strict laws of Moses because our hearts and spirituality are such that we are beyond that law, we are called to a higher law of Love that does not neglect the law of Moses but developed it, this new Law of Love is extremely difficult and Love calls you to be merciful and lenient to your neighbour, to not pass judgement and above all to be lenient with the intent of others because you cannot know the intent of another.

Good grief to listen to some of the things people are holding in their hearts you would think the whole world an abyss with every soul in it unable to practice virtue and the Lord’s Mighty Hand is about to crush us all, this is not God, this is not the Truine God, God is merciful and loving and nothing like how people are viewing Him.

Women and men are equal in the sight of God, He does not make one law for women and another for men. The Law is the Law for all people.

Don’t entertain such ridiculous thoughts; if you entertain them surely you will not look left or right, surely you will face sin at every opportunity if your sights are set at this plane, set your sights on Christ Jesus.

In Christ Jesus you are free, you are not a slave to sin any longer, this is the New Covenant!

If you intend to be a saint you will be, if you make that your every intent and set your intent and heart on serving God and each other you will be, becoming Christ-like. Be merciful and be kind, love and love until it absolutely hurts you to love.

Man and woman are more than clothing!

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[pnewton]

springbreeze:

Women and men are equal in the sight of God, He does not make one law for women and another for men. The Law is the Law for all people.

But they are not the same. The bodies are shaped different and the emotional make-up is different. I do not allow my daughter to expose her midriff in any form of dress. My son may, depending on the circumstance. I do not hold to the same standard because I do not buy into the blurring of the genders that has been pushed by today’s feminists.

 

[springbreeze]

pnewton:

But they are not the same. The bodies are shaped different and the emotional make-up is different. I do not allow my daughter to expose her midriff in any form of dress. My son may, depending on the circumstance. I do not hold to the same standard because I do not buy into the blurring of the genders that has been pushed by today’s feminists.

Dear friend

You would argue with St Paul? You would say that Christ Jesus brought one law for women and another for men?

Where do you draw your philosophy from but your own intent?

Is how you view women and men colouring how you treat them?

Women and men’s bodies are not sinful nor a cause to bring about sin, the intent is the thing that causes sin is it not?

Are women being taught their bodies are sinful by this?
Are men being taught women’s bodies are sinful by this?

Is the body sacred?

It is the intent, the desire of the heart, therefore, that is corrupt/sinful and not the body.

Every man and woman has their dignity in Christ Jesus’ hum,anity and Divinity. There is nothing sinful about the flesh, it is the intent that is what determine’s the sin.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[CathMass]

**Pope John Paul II (the Great) went swimming **
I even heard he had a pool at his papal summer home in Castel Gondolfo. So if our beloved late Holy Father went swimming and since swimming is a skill given by God then it is not sinful when done for exercise, safety or recreation.

**I don’t believe swimming is sinful unless if you wear skimpy swimsuits and show off your body or go for an impure reason. An impure reason would be like a guy wants to go swimming just so he can stare at women in bikinis and swim outfits and look at how hot they are. Or if a woman goes just to stare at a man’s body in the same manner then that is sinful. **

 

[pnewton]

springbreeze:

Dear friend

You would argue with St Paul?

That would not be wise, would it? It is not a question of law, which is why I would never expect my opinions to be any but my own. It is more a question of prudence and judgement. My primary source in this is, as for most of us, my experience, specifically as an adult male. For further reference, I could suggest Jason Everet’s If You Really Love Me.

In any case, I was very fortunate to be able to take my daughter to one of Jason’s Pure Love seminars. We purchased his book which she read all the way through. She would be the first to agree with me in my standards of decency. This is a good thing in that she is soon to turn 18 and will be on her own.

If you find men’s style bathing suits to be a problem, then that would be an interesting point and one that we men would need to think about in judging what is proper dress.

Let me say again, I do not see this as a matter of Law. If it was, it would probably be addressed in the catechism.

 

[springbreeze]

pnewton:

That would not be wise, would it? It is not a question of law, which is why I would never expect my opinions to be any but my own. It is more a question of prudence and judgement. My primary source in this is, as for most of us, my experience, specifically as an adult male. For further reference, I could suggest Jason Everet’s If You Really Love Me.

In any case, I was very fortunate to be able to take my daughter to one of Jason’s Pure Love seminars. We purchased his book which she read all the way through. She would be the first to agree with me in my standards of decency. This is a good thing in that she is soon to turn 18 and will be on her own.

If you find men’s style bathing suits to be a problem, then that would be an interesting point and one that we men would need to think about in judging what is proper dress.

Let me say again, I do not see this as a matter of Law. If it was, it would probably be addressed in the catechism.

Dear friend

Thank you for your reply.

Then you see that you make a law unto yourself because of what you glean from your own intent and what you presume about others intent.

That is not what we are called to do.

Adam and Eve ran naked in the Garden of Eden, they didn’t mind their nakedness nor even recognised it. The flesh was innocent and the intent was also.

We can take their nakedness in two ways, literally they were naked or we can take it as they knew no shame, they were blameless in spirit, innocent and in union with God.

Either way is correct.

We perpetuate to some extent our own demise into sinful patterns of behaviour, some handed down generation after generation.

We have viewed the body as a shameful source of sin and especially women’s bodies. You may care to accuse me of being a feminist, I am not, I am a Catholic and as such am a people-ist!

If men and women are to live in mutual love and in Christ Jesus they must realise that they both bear resemblance to God, made in the image of Him. That their differences in the flesh are a compliment to each other and not a source to drive a wedge between them. They are as one in union in marriage, as ‘one’ does not denote difference but pronounces unity, as the Truine God is one though three seperate persons so the unity of man and woman in marriage is a reflection of this union of the One God.

You are probably worried more for your daughter than your son. I can see why you worry. All parents worry, it goes with the territory of parentage , to worry!

But in that worry we must be careful not to hand down generation after generation that the male and female persons are differing in that one’s body is a source of sin and the other is not. That is not true.

What is perpetuated here is a shame upon God’s creation who designed female bodies the way He did in His image, as He did also for male bodies. I see that more of a sin against God’s design than I do against the feminity of women. To take something beautifully made by the Hand of the Almighty and deign it sinful is an affront to God Himself.

It is always the intent of people that is the sin, not what God has so beautifully created.

Such surpression of persons is not love, it does not say ‘you are beautiful, I love you’, it says, ‘you are beautiful but you will cause sin!’ How? Is a woman such an awful creation she is the breeder of sin, that she will by just her very existance in her body cause men to be seperated from God, is she a lesser demon that brings about sin?

I cannot tolerate this view.

I will not tolerate this view of women, just as I would not tolerate it if the same was implied about the wonderful men God has created.

To perpetuate such a philosophy is a great affront to God and to the whole of humanity.

This philosophy is built on a corrupt/sinful intent.

To every person, young or old, slave or free, male or female, they must realise their dignity in Christ Jesus and that their dignity, their spirit, their body, their mind, their holiness, their whole person, is freedom in Him, in His likeness, in Himself, in Him, in His Love and in His Mercy and that we see this in the uniqueness of each other which is a facet of Him.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[pnewton]

springbreeze:

Then you see that you make a law unto yourself because of what you glean from your own intent and what you presume about others intent.

That is not what we are called to do.

Adam and Eve ran naked in the Garden of Eden, they didn’t mind their nakedness nor even recognised it. The flesh was innocent and the intent was also.

We can take their nakedness in two ways, literally they were naked or we can take it as they knew no shame, they were blameless in spirit, innocent and in union with God.

Either way is correct.

We perpetuate to some extent our own demise into sinful patterns of behaviour, some handed down generation after generation.

I first want to apologize if you thought I called you a feminist. I was not referring to you, who I know nothing about. Feminist in America have pushed for gender neutrality in all things, ignoring the most basic maxim of the sexes, “male and female created He them.” At no time am I so arrogant to assume I know who you are and label you as one of the ones promoting such and agenda.

Second, I did not create a law unto myself, no more than anyone does when shopping for clothes. As a parent I have the responsibility to raise my children to be able to make the same correct decisions. That is not legislating, that is parenting.

Were we still in the Garden of Eden with no propensity for sin, you would be absolutely right. However since we “all now sin and fall short of the glory of God”, I will abstain from nudism.

It is not suppression, but catechism for which I strive when I encourage my children to be aware of the affect we have on others. Cain’s “Am I my brother’s keeper” still rings hollow today. Indeed you asked earlier if I would argue with St. Paul. While he did write about the great liberty in Christ, did he not also balance that liberty with the responsibility we have for each other? To help our brother and sister avoid sin by our own restraint is the proper use of our Christian liberty.

Finally, I see know that both men and women are equal in dignity and would never insinuate that any women was a lesser demon. The fact that we, men or women, can be a source of stumbling is not an affront to God, but a teaching of Jesus.

 

[springbreeze]

pnewton:

I first want to apologize if you thought I called you a feminist. I was not referring to you, who I know nothing about. Feminist in America have pushed for gender neutrality in all things, ignoring the most basic maxim of the sexes, “male and female created He them.” At no time am I so arrogant to assume I know who you are and label you as one of the ones promoting such and agenda.

Second, I did not create a law unto myself, no more than anyone does when shopping for clothes. As a parent I have the responsibility to raise my children to be able to make the same correct decisions. That is not legislating, that is parenting.

Were we still in the Garden of Eden with no propensity for sin, you would be absolutely right. However since we “all now sin and fall short of the glory of God”, I will abstain from nudism.

It is not suppression, but catechism for which I strive when I encourage my children to be aware of the affect we have on others. Cain’s “Am I my brother’s keeper” still rings hollow today. Indeed you asked earlier if I would argue with St. Paul. While he did write about the great liberty in Christ, did he not also balance that liberty with the responsibility we have for each other? To help our brother and sister avoid sin by our own restraint is the proper use of our Christian liberty.

Finally, I see know that both men and women are equal in dignity and would never insinuate that any women was a lesser demon. The fact that we, men or women, can be a source of stumbling is not an affront to God, but a teaching of Jesus.

Dear friend

I see your intent. You desire to stop what you anticipate. Though what you anticipate may not actually be a reality.

Do you think I say anything other to you than what is Truth?

Do you think for one minute I would desire to see the ruin of you and those you love?

No.

But I can see the great danger in such puritanism, which is a heresy.

Not that I say you are a heretic, you are merely an over-anxious parent in these times of anything goes. But your anxiety may lead you to puritanism, that is not an appropriate reaction nor a confidence in Christ Jesus.

Do you trust the path that you walk? Do you trust that those you raise in the path you walk will always stay or come back to that path? In short, do you trust the Providence of God? Do you know to what I am referring, to what is written? Do you know the ways of the Providence of God?

Do you see that it is your intent and presumption that is the corruptor and condemnation of your daughter’s flesh and not the Image of God she is made in?

Do you see that a soul only told of their beauty in God will not even consider the opposite of it?

You know that innocence is only shattered by exposure to the opposite of it?

You are trying to tell me by telling your daughter there is something sinful about her body that she is preserved from sin, oh God forbid it, her body is not sinful in any way, it is the intent of others that is sinful, you have backhanded the law of God to her in such a way that is detrimental to her. That is not Love and that is not the Law of God, you have made a law unto yourself and I cannot condone it. Her body is sacred, no matter what others may have in their intent.

In Christ Jesus we are not reactionary to the times, we shift no goal posts, we are constant throughout all time, His Truth is for all time.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Windmill]

I think that we are talking past each other, here.

No, the body is not evil in and of itself. God created man and saw that it was good. However, all sin is a twisting of God’s creation to our own disordered appetites. To deny concupiscence and assume that every male out there is going to be able to control himself when exposed to a half-naked female is wreckless.

Men’s minds are designed to be attracted very heavily to a females body and curves, and these visuals leave a permanent impression on him. Why did God make it this way? Well, first of all, he hoped that the first time a boy would be exposed to such sights would be on his wedding night. After that, he’d be permanently, emotionally-bonded to that female.

However, when we start flaunting “a woman’s glory” in front of every Tom, Dick, and Harry, we start misusing the gift God has given us. We are now tapping into that good sexual impulse for bad reasons.

There is a difference in teaching modesty and prudishness. One teaches a girl to save as much of herself as a gift for her husband. The other teaches a girl to be ashamed of her body. One is out of love, the other out of hate.

Why is it not considered LOVE to help men attain virtue? How can we men disassemble the internal wiring that God, himself, gave us?

It’s not shoving our sins onto others. It’s an honest plea that acknowledges a reality the world refuses to accept. If you shove a visual of a half-naked woman in front of a guy and then expect him not to be seriously tempted, you have your head stuck in the sand.

I ask people this, what is so horrible about covering up a little? Especially if it we are talking about souls falling into grave sin.

 

[springbreeze]

Windmill:

I think that we are talking past each other, here.

No, the body is not evil in and of itself. God created man and saw that it was good. However, all sin is a twisting of God’s creation to our own disordered appetites. To deny concupiscence and assume that every male out there is going to be able to control himself when exposed to a half-naked female is wreckless.

Men’s minds are designed to be attracted very heavily to a females body and curves, and these visuals leave a permanent impression on him. Why did God make it this way? Well, first of all, he hoped that the first time a boy would be exposed to such sights would be on his wedding night. After that, he’d be permanently, emotionally-bonded to that female.

However, when we start flaunting “a woman’s glory” in front of every Tom, Dick, and Harry, we start misusing the gift God has given us. We are now tapping into that good sexual impulse for bad reasons.

There is a difference in teaching modesty and prudishness. One teaches a girl to save as much of herself as a gift for her husband. The other teaches a girl to be ashamed of her body. One is out of love, the other out of hate.

Why is it not considered LOVE to help men attain virtue? How can we men disassemble the internal wiring that God, himself, gave us?

It’s not shoving our sins onto others. It’s an honest plea that acknowledges a reality the world refuses to accept. If you shove a visual of a half-naked woman in front of a guy and then expect him not to be seriously tempted, you have your head stuck in the sand.

I ask people this, what is so horrible about covering up a little? Especially if it we are talking about souls falling into grave sin.

Dear friend

Do I have my head stuck in the sand or do I have my heart sheltered in Christ Jesus?

There is a difference.

For too long women have been viewed as a sexual sin of enticement for men and on the other hand men a sexual sin of enticement for women.

People who are rooted in Christ Jesus do not view THEMSELVES this way and therefore do not allow others to treat themselves this way, whether they swim half naked or clothe themsleves up to the eyeballs!

It is easier for sinners to say hide yourself from my view should you corrupt me, but there is nothing sinful of those who are asked to hide…What an absoluet hypocrisy of those with a mind to sin!!! How awful of those whose mind is so corrupt…look away if the good Lord’s work offends you so much, you who would be rooted in flesh only!

Men and women are more than clothing, the flesh is more than this and the soul is infinitely more than this.

If I hear one more word about women having to clothe themselves and men being at liberty to dress how they like I think I may explode from the double standard of it!

Men must accept their failings as much as women must and work to the glory of God and stop condemning the beauty of what God made in both male and female, it is the glory of His work creating them in flesh, mind and spirit.

If people desire to condemn the flesh let them go ahead but they drink condemnation upon themselves because they reveal purely their intent and not how God intended the body to be viewed, God says the human body is sacred and so it is, end of discussion…anything outside of that view is a corruption of God’s view of humanity and shows their sinful intent.

Who’s flesh and blood do you drink and eat of as well as soul and Divinity? Who’s Mystical Body are you part of!

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Isidore_AK]

pnewton:

Yes. I see no problem wearing a men’s bathing suit (not a speedo) swimming in public. As far as bikinis, I have never approved or allowed any clothing that reveals the midriff.

Whats wrong with a speedo?

I was a competitive swimmer while I was in school (3rd grade and up), and I see absolutely nothing wrong with speedo’s. Now, that being said, you don’t need a speedo if you’re just goofing around in the water, or laying on the beach. Speedo’s should be worn when you serious about swimming, and not screwing around in the water…Also, please stay away from speedo’s if you’re over 10lbs overweight…

 

[Windmill]

I don’t believe what I am reading.

Being sheltered in Christ is not the same as being free from concupiscence.

More to come… I gotta eat

 

[Psalm45_9]

Swimming with the opposite sex would not be sinful, skinny dipping with the opposite sex (depending on your culture) would be sinful.

 

[springbreeze]

Windmill:

I don’t believe what I am reading.

Being sheltered in Christ is not the same as being free from concupiscence.

More to come… I gotta eat

Dear friend

Concupiscence? Do you think any soul is free of it?

No.

Do you think a soul who would submit to Christ fully may be sheltered? Do you deny the graces of God, do you think without the graces of God any soul could defy any sin?

Eat , do as you like but I have seen enough purtianism for one night for any person to be so sickened as to not to eat!

We can make all the excuses we like but the end is we rejected God’s graces, we moved from them we made effort not to submit to them.

Sit comfortably in this manner, but it does not remove the fact that every soul that comes to God by His drawing has the infinite benefit of His graces and none is more valued by God than another, all are equally loved by Him and the intent of one soul does not make another evil by their very existance.

God is greater than all these human failings and each one being a created creature is in the fullness of his Glory and thanks to Him.

I see nothing but pride here to be comfortable in sin and make excuses for those sins. I see people blaming each other, for being human, for their sins, good luck with telling God that! He won’t have one ounce of time to hear such a plea, He will ask ‘you know I created all people in my Image and in my Likeness why did YOU not treat people that way?’

Oh get away from me, twister of words I can’t be doing with people who would twist words just to justify their own weakness when they wouldn’t even hide in our Lord when they are weak, so that they may be strong!

The cock crows for all of us of who would deny the Truth! The Body is Sacred, if you deny it your cock crows.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[springbreeze]

springbreeze:

Dear friend

Concupiscence? Do you think any soul is free of it?

No.

Do you think a soul who would submit to Christ fully may be sheltered? Do you deny the graces of God, do you think without the graces of God any soul could defy any sin?

Eat , do as you like but I have seen enough purtianism for one night for any person to be so sickened as to not to eat!

We can make all the excuses we like but the end is we rejected God’s graces, we moved from them we made effort not to submit to them.

Sit comfortably in this manner, but it does not remove the fact that every soul that comes to God by His drawing has the infinite benefit of His graces and none is more valued by God than another, all are equally loved by Him and the intent of one soul does not make another evil by their very existance.

God is greater than all these human failings and each one being a created creature is in the fullness of his Glory and thanks to Him.

I see nothing but pride here to be comfortable in sin and make excuses for those sins. I see people blaming each other, for being human, for their sins, good luck with telling God that! He won’t have one ounce of time to hear such a plea, He will ask ‘you know I created all people in my Image and in my Likeness why did YOU not treat people that way?’

Oh get away from me, twister of words I can’t be doing with people who would twist words just to justify their own weakness when they wouldn’t even hide in our Lord when they are weak, so that they may be strong!

The cock crows for all of us of who would deny the Truth! The Body is Sacred, if you deny it your cock crows.

Concupiscence, yes I can in all honesty accept that, but i cannot accept in that conscupicence condemning another, that I cannot accept your intent does not make another culpable and neither does the Gospel of Christ Jesus, no He is all Mercy and He is all Kindness and if you see a different Lord to me then we do not worship the same Lord Christ Jesus and Truine God.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa