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)
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