Month: August 2024

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Hypersexuality

What do we do in a sex-crazed society? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

So at the start, Frost immediately begins with this:

For the many Christians who struggle with sexual control, we have hastily presumed that the first line of defense against such carnality is the strict application of increasingly restrictive coverage that treats the creation of God as if it were to blame. Disabused of our cultural narrow-mindedness, we can clearly see that the placebo of clothing only masks the symptoms but drastically intensifies the real root problems. As a result, our culture is well-known for extremes of sex-scandals, rape, molestation, and promiscuity that is far worse than the many unclothed cultures which often maintain marital fidelity and have little concept of immoral lust or pornography as we know it in our supposedly “Christian” culture.

Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 253). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.

Okay. The problem is if you’re going to say the problem is clothing, then you need to show the hard data. We can go back a few centuries and find that our country wasn’t like this. If anything changed our world, it was the sexual revolution. The idea of having sex without consequences and the destruction of the family unit caused the most damage.

Now could there be societies with very little clothing where fidelity and the body are honored? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean that those societies are one-to-one parallels with ours. You have to look at what is the same and what is different. Those societies could be highly community-focused and thus there are rules and understanding set in that keep people from stepping out of line.

Consider the world some of us heard our parents and grandparents grew up in if we live in America. If you went out away from your parents house and you were misbehaving, your parents knew it by the time you got home. The neighbors would call and let them know what you had done. Your doom awaited when you got home.

If we live in a culture that doesn’t honor marriage and family and is very individualistic and everyone just minds their own business, then no, nudism will not work here.

Meanwhile, there could be societies where there is no or little clothing and there is chaos of some kind over sexual matters. Perhaps there might be fidelity, but one person who has power will murder another to get a woman for his own. Perhaps these societies have some form of polygamy as well. Would these societies be changed by bringing them clothing? No. In both cases, this is a heart issue.

Frost will say that God’s creation cannot be to blame, but this is a problematic statement. After all, Eve fell in the garden because of the fruit and the serpent both, both of which were God’s creation, but also because of her own free-will. God’s creation is good, but evil uses good things to bring about evil. It has to. There are no things that are purely evil. That’s an impossibility. Temptation takes something good and seeks to use it in an evil way.

Can a woman also knowingly tempt a man with her body for something evil? Yes. Happens regularly. That is the good creation of God being used in a wrong way. Frost has this strange idea that if something is the creation of God, then it’s automatically exempt.It’s not. All we see is a creation of God and yet we live in a world of sin still.

Frost would need to list these cultures and show what makes them different from us and what makes them the same. We need hard data. I have not seen it yet.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Modesty Sells

Does modesty sell? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We all know it. Sex sells. I know I have purchased a product before from a display just because the girl selling it was really pretty. I am quite confident I am not the only man who has done that. We also know those commercials about the beautiful woman in a bikini chowing down on a big burger that we all know she turns away from immediately as soon as the shoot is done.

Frost makes what I think is a relevant point that nowadays, it takes more and more to sell us. We have to see more skin in order to notice. That’s because unfortunately, it has become too common. This is why ads for ED are so prevalent on radio stations. Now men in their 20’s are often getting this because they’ve seen so much porn that normal beauty doesn’t do anything for them.

If anything, I consider this to be quite problematic. Men were meant to be drawn to the woman and that was by her beauty. You can’t look at a picture of a girl and say “Yep. She’s a loyal one.” Character doesn’t come through easily in a photograph. What does come through is how someone looks.

For me specifically, I do find a girl in modest clothing to be more appealing overall. When I go through dating apps and see a girl showing off too much skin, such as bikini pics, I hit that X. Why? Because if she’s doing that to try to convince me, I suspect there isn’t much more there than that.

Meanwhile, when I was married, I used to tell my parents and in-laws that if they bought a dress for my ex-wife, that that counted double as a gift for me. I can still remember her trying one on at Wal-Mart and when she came out of the dressing room I dropped my jaw in astonishment. Is this my wife?

Won’t deny it. I miss that kind of experience.

That’s a bonus of working at a seminary. Girls do tend to dress conservatively and I really like that. We do have women who come in wearing dresses and I just think they look so stunning. What you women don’t realize when you’re talking about good men is that you don’t have to dress skimpily in order to get a good man to notice you. A good man will notice you in an outfit that you might even just consider to be plain.

So overall, there isn’t much to disagree with in this section. I still maintain that some mystery is good for people, something that is shared between the two people that no one else gets to see and experience. It is part of the covenant of trust that goes into a relationship where the degree to which you trust someone of the opposite sex is to be parallel to the degree of how much of them that you get to see. The way to see it all is to have a covenant.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Why Wear Clothing?

Why does Frost think we wear clothes? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In this section, Frost is going to say why he thinks we wear clothes. At the start, he says it is a result of our inner sin nature rebelling against God’s beautiful creation. Well, that’s a lovely start. That means everyone you know who is wearing clothing regularly is apparently living in sin.

It’s statements like these that are so extreme that it’s hard to take Frost seriously.

But at any rate, let’s look at his big three.

The first one he says is a legalistic ego trip. This might be for some people, but it’s not that they wear clothes and others don’t. It’s more like they think they dress better than others do and they want to wear the latest fashion and trends just to wear them. This is not to say everyone who dresses nice is trying to do this, but no doubt, some are. We know that there can be a pecking order in some social areas that if you don’t wear the right clothes, you are out.

This is not to say there are not times one should avoid dressing their best. If you are on a date or a job interview, you will naturally want to have a good appearance. I won’t claim to know someone’s heart, but too often, it looks like Frost thinks he does.

The second reason Frost gives is to avoid responsibility. Frost does rightly say that it’s easy to blame someone else for our lusts, and this is so, but there is some truth in that some people do dress in order to tempt. That doesn’t justify what someone does with the temptation, but we should be aware of how our behavior does affect other people.

For instance, Paul warns about this with eating meat offered to idols. He wants to enjoy his freedom, but if it means he could entice his brother to sin, then he won’t eat the meat. The weaker brother is ultimately responsible, but Paul doesn’t want to be a contributing factor.

So if a guy sees a beautiful girl and goes home and watches porn as a result, he can’t blame the girl for that. It was his own choice. At the same time, all of us who are Christians should watch what we do and say around others in case we meet people who are susceptible. If I know someone has a history of being an alcoholic, I would not meet them in a bar, for instance.

The final reason is insecurity about our own bodies. Now this is true that we can all have insecurities, and while I know I have some, I also know when I was married, I never struggled with that insecurity around my ex-wife. If anything, our Instagram age has been particularly unkind to women in this area.

Frost never mentions positive reasons though. I wear clothing because for one thing, I am cold-natured and I like to stay warm. I also wear clothing because I don’t want to get arrested out in public. I often wear clothing that tends to reveal something about who I am and my interests. Many people at the seminary Post Office I work at notice my T-shirts about being sarcastic and it’s a good icebreaker when I wear my Smallville T-shirt. On Saturdays, I wear an NOBTS T-shirt in the hopes of meeting a lady who might want a seminary student for a husband.

It would be easier to be kind to Frost’s case if he didn’t go to such extremes in his argumentation. Unfortunately, he does. I hope he has just as much passion for reaching the lost as he does for getting people to not wear clothing.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Getting Over It

Should we all embrace nudism? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Frost is now encouraging us to just embrace the nudist lifestyle after all the arguing for it, arguing might I add I have found highly unpersuasive, especially on the biblical front. He does say he is not so naive to think that this would solve all of our sexual problems. I am pleased to hear that, but if anything, I think they would make it worse.

Before getting to that, let’s point out that in some places, this lifestyle would be impossible to practice. For instance, here is a list of the eleven coldest cities in America I found in a web search. Kalispell, Montana is the warmest on the list with an annual temperature of just under 44 Fahrenheit.

If you live in these cities, you need to wear clothing because that would be essential for your health. I can’t speak for every city, but I am sure there are some cities that have natural resources that we need and people need to be living in those cities. On top of that, we could add in cities where it would be raining a lot and other such problems.

There is a danger of a pendulum swing where too often, people veer too far in one direction. Is it a mistake to go so far as say, Sharia Law, and think you have to veil women entirely to eliminate any notion of their sexuality? Yes. It’s just as much of one to go to the other end with nudism. Sharia tries to destroy all sexual draw to a woman by hiding her. The nudist ideology tries to do it by making it too common. (We cannot say the same about men since in Sharia, men are not to be covered.)

The solution is in the middle. In the solution, sexuality is not seen as some desire that we must give in to. It is not that if I see a glimpse of seemingly illicit flesh on a female that I must go crazy with sexual drive. It is also not that if I see a female body nude I have no sexual drive. It is that I have a drive, but I control it, while treating the sacred as sacred and not as common.

Frost goes on to say that the first nudist society was started in America by an evangelical pastor named Ilsley Boone. Frost describes him as a godly Bible-believing preacher. Perhaps he was, but I didn’t find a list of people singing his praises or anything like that in a search. Unfortunately, his literature I could come across on this topic was too expensive for me to get. Boone might have been that, but all I have is Frost’s word and I need more than that.

Frost goes on also to describe nudist worship services and Bible studies. I’m not saying that these people aren’t Christians. That’s not my call. I’m not denying any positive experiences Frost had. Who could? i am saying it takes more than someone saying that.

Why? Because I have studied the issue of same-sex relationships and the church and I have heard accounts where people go to their services and talk about the same kinds of things going on. Do I think the people in these services are having positive and powerful feelings and emotions? Yes. Do I think they reflect reality? No, because that is clearly a practice that is condemned in Scripture,

So once again, some problems I have presented with what Frost says it is not feasible in many places. Not only that, but I think he sees a bad problem we have had with an unhealthy view of seeing anything of the body, and swings too far in the other direction. I also think he consistently takes other cultures different from ours, ignores those differences, and says “But this works there.” Our culture is extremely different in America and that must be taken into account.

We’ll continue next time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Immodesty and Lust

Should we keep things hidden? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Frost starts at this chapter with saying that Chinese men used to be captivated by the feet of women. Why was this so? Because they were kept hidden.

Question.

Many women today I know wear socks and on top of those socks they wear shoes. Since that is the case, why do we not go crazy over women’s feet as men?

Frost has at the start said that women’s feet were deemed attractive because they were kept hidden. No data has been given for this. Could it be they were kept hidden because they were deemed attractive? Without data, we can’t know either way. Frost could be right. I could be right. The problem is Frost starts off with the assumption that he is.

He then tells us the natural body should have remained neutral. Agreed. Unfortunately, this little event happened called the Fall of Man. From that point on, we have been using and abusing our fellow man. I tend to see the idea of Christian naturism as trying to get us back into the Garden without realizing that we are not in the Garden. In a way, it’s as if trying to force Utopia on Earth and well, Utopias like that never work out well in the long run.

Frost says lust is not caused by nudity in the Bible. The problem is he wants to see those exact words. I don’t think it ever says “Lust is caused by clothing” either, but Frost has no problem saying that. By the way, what was Bathsheba wearing when David started to lust after her?

As I have said, Frost often reads the Bible from his own culture and he reads it like a fundamentalist would. “I need chapter and verse to make this explicit!” As I said also, he makes exceptions when it comes to what he wants the Bible to say.

Now does keeping something hidden lead to lust? Perhaps it does, but at the same time, if things are done proper, it will cause a man to work harder. This is a great article with a hilarious title on the topic and a follow-up can be found here.

To say that if we put everything out in the open, then the problem will disappear, would be like saying that if we put money out in public and not behind safes, then greed would disappear. We would still have problems because people are evil and until the return of Christ, we will always have that evil within us. Christian Naturists are right on one thing certainly. Lust is a problem that is within us that we have to control. The problem is I disagree with their solution and in some places, it would be impossible to do. If you’re a Christian who lives in a cold climate, do you have to struggle with lust because people have to wear clothes constantly in public to stay warm?

Consider also the book of Judges. At the start, Caleb will give his daughter in marriage to someone who will conquer the enemy and Othniel does it. Othniel is willing to go and fight to win a woman. In the end of the book, women are being kidnapped so people can have wives. You can measure the morality of a society by how the women are treated.

Easy sex has made women to not be prizes to win. They are more objects to conquer. For a man like myself, a woman is a treasure and her beauty is a gift from God and one only gets to see that beauty if they are deemed worthy by the woman. That beauty is only shared with someone she covenants with. I avoid seeing nude women now not because they are icky, but because I am not worthy of seeing one who I have not covenanted with.

In closing, I think the movement is right on a problem. However, I don’t think the solution is right. It might have short-term benefits, but I think in the long term, it would be problematic.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body — Icky

Is the body icky? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Frost devotes this chapter to what he calls the “ick” factor. Right at the start, he says that it is clothing that causes lust. Keep in mind in the previous chapter, he said nothing that we see can cause lust. Apparently, that rule changes when it comes to clothing. Seeing a woman with clothes on will cause lust, but I guess somehow seeing her naked won’t?

Frost seems to think we have an intense hatred of nudity in our religiosity. If so, then why were great masters of art who were Christians doing paintings of nude figures and sculptures of nude figures? They also wanted to show the body as something to honor, but that doesn’t mean they were practicing nudists. You can say you want to honor the body, but that doesn’t mean put it all on open display any more than saying honoring the marriage bed means put your marriage bed out in public so everyone can see it.

Frost says when he was in Africa, he and his friends would ditch their clothing and go swimming. If he did that here in America, that would not be accepted. Frost immediately jumps to the idea of insecurity. Is that the reason? Does he know the hearts and minds of the people he’s writing about?

Could it be for some? Sure. Could it not just as much be that that’s just not something that you do here because it’s out of sync with the culture? If I went to another culture, I would need to learn the ins and outs of that culture and not just assume that it was like mine. It would not be appropriate to say “The reason you’re not like the culture that I have grown up with is because of X negative trait about yourself.”

A parallel I can think of is a dead body. For many of us, a dead body is a horrifying sight to see. For many in the ancient world, it would have been an every day sight. We recoil in horror often when we see a dead body and don’t even want to touch a “stiff.” Now to be fair, at a certain point, there is disease to think about, but it could also be a respect thing.

I have heard someone who argues with atheists who asks why we don’t eat our dead relatives? Wouldn’t that be a source of food and from an atheistic perspective, wouldn’t that be beneficial? There is nothing to the body any more after all. It’s an interesting point. The main reason we don’t I suspect is we have a great respect for that body.

Frost then makes an argument I find just bizarre where he says that if we look at animals and see them naked and don’t think a thing about it, why are we hesitant with our fellow man. Well for one thing, I don’t think many of us turn over the bodies of our pets to look at their genitalia. Sometimes, we can’t even tell entirely due to how small their bodies are or how furry. Second, our bodies are much more noticeable with all that they have. Third, we are more prone to misuse what we see in fellow humans than in animals. No one thinks odd of you if you are aroused at the sight of a human, but if you were at the sight of an animal, you need some help. (But give it a few years and some “Progressives” will be normalizing that more and more.)

No. The human body is not icky. If anything, it is something that should be honored. That’s why I don’t encourage putting it on open display.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body — What Causes Lust?

Where does lust come from? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I still remember sitting with my former father-in-law at a restaurant at an ETS meeting in Atlanta. He and I were joined by another scholar older than my father-in-law is and were chatting about various matters. Music is playing with a country song of some sort being the song and there was a music video of it and while it wasn’t pornographic, it was pretty clear what was going to happen.

And I remember the older gentleman being asked something and he said “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. I was looking at the video.”

Okay. Probably not the best thing, but it felt kind of good to think that even in one’s older age, that drive was still strong.

Frost in this chapter says that according to the Bible, nothing that he sees can cause lust. It only exposes what is wrong in the heart. There is some truth to that. We are not forced to ever sin by anything outside of us. All sin is chosen willingly.

So what is the relationship between us and lust? To begin with, if a woman takes off her shirt in front of me, I am not able to choose my immediate emotional and/or physical reaction. I can choose what I do with it. I know there have been times when watching a movie that I have turned away because I thought too much of a woman was about to be revealed.

On the other hand, there are times when even such thinking would be completely inappropriate. If someone decides they want to watch Schindler’s List because there are a lot of naked women in it, and there are, they have a bigger problem. The thought of women being forced to be stripped nude in preparation for the gas chamber of death should not be a turn-on at all.

That being said, there is also the point of understanding one’s weakness. I used to attend a Lutheran Church that had an event called Bar Church. Now and then, they would have a church service in a bar. Now I never have drank alcohol, but I still attended. When announcing the event, they were also quite clear. If you struggle with alcoholism, do not come.

I am a man who has never struggled with pornography, but at the same time, I don’t put myself in dangerous situations either. I have a strong plan to never have a woman over to my apartment when it is just me and her and vice-versa with going to see a woman. (Family excepted of course.) I follow the Graham Rule because I know how easy it is to have your reputation damaged. How many men in ministry have fallen into sexual sin?

One sure sign I think you are about to fall into a sin is if you think you cannot fall into that sin. While Frost thinks nudity is the way to overcome pornography, I contend the way to overcome it is to have a healthy respect for women while at the same time honoring their bodies. A woman’s body is to be viewed as a treasure saved for the man she loves.

Also, we have to watch ourselves over what can cause someone else to sin. It’s not a one-to-one parallel, but when my former roommate and I back in Charlotte had Mormons over, we didn’t order sodas or tea or anything like that. We got Gatorade instead. We also had a pizza from Little Caesar’s every time, which I think is a great thing to do when wanting to reach Mormons. If we had something like tea, which I love, it would have damaged our witness to them.

I don’t agree with liberated Christianity as it’s called, but if you want to practice that, remember don’t practice it where you could put a stumbling block in front of another.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body — Why Be Modest?

What does Frost see as the reason for purdah? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

This chapter is really about the roots of modesty, but there isn’t much worth responding to. Instead, I want to focus on a long paragraph Frost has at the end of the chapter.

Even as a religious hoax, purdah is so deeply entrenched that many people will patently refuse to reconsider their views regardless of any facts. For such people it makes absolutely no difference whether I can establish a perfectly waterproof case from the Bible or demonstrate documented historical and cultural examples from around the world. For them, the evangelical standards of conservative modesty are a vital source of legalistic pride, so the evidence doesn’t matter. Their sense of holiness and self-worth is so deeply invested in this pet interpretation of modesty that no amount of research, Scripture, or sound reason will have any influence on what they are already determined to believe no matter what. They will continue to behave, believe, and belittle others without change regardless of anything they might learn to contradict their entrenched positions. Even if they are logically forced to admit that they have been wrong, they will continue to live without repentance, much less changing their standards or standing up resolutely for a truth that is unpopular, inconvenient or uncomfortable. They are so terrified of change that they would rather persist in a something familiar they know to be a lie, so long as it continues to provide anesthetic comfort and a false sense of security and an external show of piety.

Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (pp. 200-203). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.

Well, there’s no holding back here.

So first off, calling the idea of wearing clothing to protect modesty and uphold morality is a stretch. Frost seems to always think in extremes. It leaves me wondering if something else is really going on.

To be fair, many people will refuse to reconsider their views. This is true for almost everyone. None of us really like the idea of being wrong. This is why I always try to be reading at least one book that I disagree with. Frost needs to realize he can be prey to this as well.

Moving on, had Frost presented a waterproof case, I would have accepted it. Instead, I found speculation upon speculation with NO biblical scholars cited. Frost spent more time documenting other cultures than that of the Bible. What other cultures may or may not do could be interesting, but if we want to study if a view lines up with the Bible, that is the culture we should focus on.

After this, he points to pride as the reason. This is just poisoning the well. As a man, I would have enjoyed a good case that I could get to see naked women easily, but I don’t think it’s here. It looks like if a man wants to enjoy and treasure the beauty of a woman, he might still just have to work hard, be a man, and win a woman’s heart.

It is ironic that Frost goes on to talk about belittling others and about pride. The only case I see going on in this paragraph of pride and belittling is Frost himself. I have documented earlier in this book how Frost has pride in thinking that he has made an airtight case. If this is what liberated Christianity produces, then that will be a hard pass for me.

Would that Frost had spent some time studying biblical scholars. I do not consider that belittling because he did not cite ANY of them. If your case can withstand scholarly scrutiny, show it. Frost has not.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body — Naked Baptisms

Did Baptism used to be a lot more graphic? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

So the main point I want to emphasize in Frost’s next section is baptism. I do want to say that for a section about clothing standards in biblical times, no biblical scholars are cited. It’s getting rather tiresome. What Frost points out towards the end is baptism and that it was done in the nude.

Here’s what St. Cyril said about it:

2. As soon, then, as you entered, you put off your tunic; and this was an image of putting off the old man with his deeds. Colossians 3:9 Having stripped yourselves, you were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who was stripped naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness put off from Himself the principalities and powers, and openly triumphed over them on the tree. For since the adverse powers made their lair in your members, you may no longer wear that old garment; I do not at all mean this visible one, but the old man, which waxes corrupt in the lusts of deceit. Ephesians 4:22 May the soul which has once put him off, never again put him on, but say with the Spouse of Christ in the Song of Songs, I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on Song of Songs 5:3? O wondrous thing! You were naked in the sight of all, and were not ashamed ; for truly ye bore the likeness of the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed.

3. Then, when you were stripped, you were anointed with exorcised oil , from the very hairs of your head to your feet, and were made partakers of the good olive-tree, Jesus Christ. For you were cut off from the wild olive-tree , and grafted into the good one, and were made to share the fatness of the true olive-tree. The exorcised oil therefore was a symbol of the participation of the fatness of Christ, being a charm to drive away every trace of hostile influence. For as the breathing of the saints, and the invocation of the Name of God, like fiercest flame, scorch and drive out evil spirits , so also this exorcised oil receives such virtue by the invocation of God and by prayer, as not only to burn and cleanse away the traces of sins, but also to chase away all the invisible powers of the evil one.

4. After these things, you were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and you made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. For as our Saviour passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were both dying and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die Ecclesiastes 3:2; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time effected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.

And yet even in this there is some dispute. There is some belief that there were deaconesses who handled the baptism of the women, for instance. Let’s point out a few things.

Nudity here was for a specific purpose. It was not the norm. If Frost wants to show the early church didn’t have the standards we have about clothes, then we have to ask why did they dress again? If nudity represents freedom in Christ, why did they not stay that way?

These are questions Frost doesn’t wrestle with, but I do. Frost needs to point to normative behavior. He is not doing that. He is pointing to the way people dress for a specific event. You might as well say wearing a costume on Halloween or for a Masquerade Ball shows how people dress normally.

If anything, I think this actually hurts Frost’s case and again, he doesn’t point to any biblical scholars. By the way, he also ignores something else. Archaeologists have regularly dug up pottery in ancient Israel. They have also dug up an abundant number of loom weights. Thus, Israelites were apparently busy making a lot of clothes.

I wonder if Frost knows that.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Book Plunge: Christian Body – Clothing Standards Worldwide

How do cultures view clothing? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

It’s hard to talk about clothing standards worldwide in a few pages. One would think that would take a whole book in itself. Early on, he says that ancient Chinese women were insecure about their feet and would only uncover them for their husbands. My problem here is no source for both claims. Suppose I grant for the sake of argument they didn’t uncover their feet. How does Frost know it was from insecurity? Does he have any Chinese writings that say that?

I remember reading once in Chesterton that someone in the future could think that because we put flowers on gravestones, that would mean we thought the dead could smell flowers. No one places the flowers on a grave hoping their beloved dead likes the smell. We do it for different reasons. Now it could be that the Chinese women were insecure about their feet, but he needs to show that. It could be that feet were seen as special and they wanted to save that for their husbands.

He later says a statement I am unsure how to interpret.

Truly, culture is contrived without substance and completely arbitrary. It is whatever people think it is.

Frost, Aaron. Christian Body: Modesty and the Bible (p. 164). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.

What does this mean? Does this mean that a culture has nothing that defines it? Does it mean it can be whatever people want it to be? Someone could think we live in a dystopian Handmaid’s Tale in the West and I could think we live in practically Sodom and Gomorrah and we’re both right? This is a kind of statement that needs to be explained, but Frost does not do that.

Now Frost goes on from here to list several different cultures. I have written on this in past looks at this book and my same standards still apply. I would like to see more up-to-date scholarship on this area and I would like to have a philosophical explanation of Natural Law theory.

Keep in mind, I could fully accept that there could be cultures where different parts of the body are seen as erotic to them that we do not find erotic at all, and vice-versa. There would also be some cultures where clothing would be an absolute necessity, such as people who live in extremely cold climates.

If clothing is the cause of the sin of lust as Frost seems to think, are those cultures bound to struggle with sin due to the effects of clothing? Once again, and I know this is a radical suggestion, but could it be the problem is not clothing but that the problem is that the heart of man is sinful?

Frost seem to have gone from one extreme to another and I think both extremes are problematic. I have a problem with a nudist culture, but I also have a problem with a culture that tries to hide all bodily beauty, such as the way Muslims treat women and require them to wear full covering even in hot weather. The answer lies in the middle.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)