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In the main column you can read many things that most of you won't like. There is an old saying that goes something like, "Truth is first a matter of jokes, then fought against, and finally accepted as obvious." Naturism has been regarded as humorous for the past several decades, and has reached the stage where war has been declared against it (as you can read about on the first page or two of this site). You were admonished in the New Testament to study to show yourself on the side of God. How about it? If you do believe the story of Christ, you will want to be on the side of truth. You will not want to take my word for what is true, nor that of anybody else. You will want to make it a scientific sort of an investigation, and work very hard to assure yourself that, when the truth has been made obvious, you'll be found standing firmly on its side. To get you off on a firm footing, the links to Christian Naturist websites in this column will mainly verify what I have presented in the main column to the right. I am assuming you to be a serious-minded person whose interest is mainly in the truth. I am also assuming you to be intelligent and wise enough to recognize it when you see it, and strong enough to adopt it, act on it, and spread the news of your great discovery to as many others as you can get to listen. Here is as good a place as any to begin:
Christian Naturist Bible Fellowship The Bible, Society, and Nudity Boyd Allen's Christian Naturism Naturist Business and Other Services Discussion Group has a section for Christians in Naturism 210 Reasons for Naturism . .
. and you will find thousands more by searching for phrases
like Christian Nudism, Christian Naturism, Nudity and
Christianity. If you favor another religion, use its name in
the place of Christianity in your searches. You will be
surprised at how much support nudism had in the ancient times,
and how much its loss has contributed to the artificiality and
seeming irrelevance of our current mode of beliefs and the
resultant way we live. |
We Inherited Nudity
I remember being sent to church as a teenager, by a mom concerned that her kids get a chance to learn the right way to live. The preacher would give long sermons about the lusts of the flesh, the fires of Hell and the angels in Heaven, how Jesus died on the cross to wash our sins away with his very own pure blood. I was pretty much a quiet kid, one of that kind who takes everything in, ponders it, wonders about things that don't jibe, but who learned early on that kids who ask the wrong questions get into trouble. I had never been able to figure out what might be a 'right' question, but felt willing to wait until some decent instructions would come along. They never have. We were pretty much rural, no matter how you would look at it, in a section of New York State I have nicknamed 'Yankeevania' in my book, Gran'Pa. Our church had more letters in its initials that most churches have in their names. Our preacher would stand up in front wearing his shiny black suit and its matching tie, wipe sweat from his face, and tell us that Jesus said we were to "cast off our worldly possessions and follow me." I would wait for the preacher to get undressed in front of us and do that, but he never would. I never dared to inquire as to why fancy shiny clothing should be worn by the people who swear they have dedicated their lives to the man they call 'The Master'. I often wondered why did they go against the very words they preached for the rest of us to believe. "Why," I wondered, "did Jesus' cleansing away our sins not wash away the need for clothing along with them?" That we could be pure in heart through Jesus and still be sinners always baffled me, and all their attempts to explain the connections only raised more questions than answers. I never asked questions. I simply listened to the sermons and the others who would not hesitate to give their questions voice, and try to piece the puzzle back 'together'. I never did find a reason for why 'together' did not equal the 'altogether'. I became cynical and, when I got old enough to drive the car to church, started investigating the other places of worship scattered around our township, and then our county. Different preachers, different settings, same message: "We are free of sin, but remain sinners." One preacher explained it this way: "No matter what we do, we are going to do something wrong and sinful because we are sinners." It began to seem quite likely that, no matter what path I would choose to walk through life, my likely end would be in the smoky, fumy place called Hell, and that almost everybody I had ever known would be there with me. I had figured out the reason to be in the message, that it had taken what God had deemed good in all His charitable and perfect wisdom, and applied a twist to it that turned it into something evil and, so, something to avoid whatever it would cost. If Christianity would portray the works of its own God as evil, I became alarmed enough to warn myself, then Christianity had begun to preach the words of Satan himself. I abandoned the idea of church shortly after that, especially when I began noticing the effects that it had on the people who went there. They proclaimed themselves happy, but they failed to show it. They proclaimed themselves to be compassionate, but were often the first to condemn. They proclaimed to be following the guidance of Jesus, but wore the finest clothing, lived in the finest homes, and drove the newest cars of anybody around. And, they never went naked, even to be baptized. Some, I understood, even bathed with clothing on. Action, I had often heard, speaks louder than words. I decided these people were telling me they had no belief in the religion they attempted to pass on to me. When I became able, and had only myself to answer to, I abandoned the whole thing. The one message they had imparted that I understood, was the exhortation to not be a hypocrite. By all the accounts I can find, Jesus was naked on the cross, and had been baptized while bare to his skin. I have discovered many Christian websites recently that support my reasoning and, even though I no longer number myself as one of them, I feel glad to learn that some have seen the light. The twisted message that failed to make sense, is the one that has stolen away our heritage and the true freedom that America was designed to support. It fails to make sense because it's untrue, and is defended with "It's not supposed to make sense." Maybe not, but that doesn't make it right. Something right will at least stand up on its own precepts, even if they disagree with everything in Nature. It starts with the man up front, who tells us to cast off our belongings and follow Jesus, who then fails to set an example by removing a suit of clothing that cost more than all the clothes I own. I have read his message and heard it in all the places I have been. I know Jesus went naked, as did all of the other prophets (that was how they were recognized as such). I know nakedness walks hand in hand with the freedom to believe, and that the fear of nakedness walks with chains on its wrists and ankles. I know that if you think my words come from the devil, then you are saying the devil wrote the Bible and put those words in the mouth of God that men like me would quote. If you truly fear eternity in Hell, then you had better know that you are doing right than to condemn a guy like me, and you had better know it for yourself than to trust a man in an expensive shiny suit to do your thinking for you. Men have proven time after time through all the ages they will do and say anything for the sake of getting money. I have no fear of suspecting they would preach at a religion in which they do not believe for that same purpose. Many have, and some have gotten notable wealthy from doing so. Will they escape Hell?—or will they burn for being so successful with their conniving, while others who deliver their same messages to you will not?—or will they all burn in Hell, and you along with them for not bothering to take them to task for things they've said and preached that are not right? I condemn no one. I am only a man and not a God, but I will take the God you worship at His word when he said that what he had made is very good, and that He had sent His son so that His blood could wash away the sins of all mankind. I can believe that makes sense, whereas nothing else does—that if His promise is to return mankind to the state of being very good—that if it was sin done in the garden that tainted us but God's act was to remove that—that to be a Christian I should take it upon myself to behave as though I actually believe it's true. I am not a Christian mainly because I do not have the freedom in this society to act as though I believe in what God has provided for me. I cannot walk the streets of any city or town as a Christian has to be able to walk if he or she truly believes. Those who call themselves Christians have stolen away our heritage, just as it was prophesied for the latter days. I sit here, naked, to write this so you can read it and take it upon yourself to discover what I have learned, and to shun it or adopt it according to your own desires. I would speak up, nowadays, were I to visit a church and hear the preacher say to cast off our belongings and follow Jesus: "Let us see you do it first and set an example." Benude yourself, Preacher! If you cannot be naked before man and God, how can you call yourself a Christian?
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