Is it Okay to be a Nudist if You are Christian?

[NecroCurator]

Speaking as a finn, avoiding nudity seems to be more of a cultural taboo than a religious one. I mean, nudism doesn't really even make sense here, considering that swimming naked in the lake is just as common as wearing swimsuits on the beach.

Not saying that you can do everything here. Just pointing out that you have a problem with your culture, not with your religion. Equating nudity with sexuality isn't a universal standard.

 

[Au Naturel]

When I was a young boy I grew up in an extremely conservative fundamentalist family. I always wanted to be nude but I also understood this was absolutely taboo. My solution was to get sneaky. We had some wild property and I'd go on solo nude hikes and skinny dips during the summer. I'd be naked in my room and I'd stretch my bath time out as long as I could. When my parents were both out, I'd be naked everywhere in the house.

I think I was ten when I started doing this. From 12 to about 18 puberty and raging hormones came into the mix. But that doesn't matter if you are alone.

After a while, the novelty wears off and it is just fun. Seeing nudity or being nude is only arousing because it is novel. (Or you are simply looking to be aroused.) I've been active in nudist circles my entire life and I'm 63 now.

Uh... you are more than old enough to have privacy in your room and if they don't accept it, tell them not to be surprised what they see if they barge in without adequate warning.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

The great thing about Christianity (and every religion really) is that the bible contradicts itself in so many ways and has so many bizarre stories and rules that you can basically cherry pick and interpret it to say whatever you want. So the answer to the question is "yes" and "no" depending on who you ask and what their biases are. Most religious people are taught to be ashamed of their bodies and see them as sexual objects though to the answer is probably going to be mostly "it's a sin".

 

[Au Naturel]

LOL! Adam and Eve were fine. Genesis is not a literal history.

Eden is a parable about the transition from a state of nature to a state of artificiality. The accrual of technology and social constructs leads to a certain loss of innocence.

Man in the natural state does not know he is going to die someday any more than a dog thinks about end of life issues. As far as he is concerned he is immortal and right now is forever. Knowledge reveals to him that he is going to die and in that sense, he loses his immortality. Women never thought about the pain pregnancy and childbirth would bring so it never preyed upon their minds.

God put that tree in Eden for Adam and Eve to eat. The serprent was doing God's bidding. God was certainly bright enough to know that declaring a fruit to be forbidden means that as soon as the children's curiosity outgrew their fear, eating the apple was inevitable. That knowledge was the basis for creating civilization with all of its good and its evil. We have yet to see the final result.

"But this by no means signifies that impurity of body is identified simply with partial or total nudity. There are circumstances in which nudity is not impure. If someone uses it to treat the person as an object of pleasure - even if it is by bad thoughts - he alone is the one who commits an impure act. Impurity of body only occurs when nuditity plays a negative role with respect to the value of the person. One can say that what happens then is a de-personalization."

Pope John Paul II

 

[Matthias]

Also, is it okay for Christians to be nudists/naturalists?

The YMCA, which stands for Young Men's Christian Association, actually required nudity while swimming in their pools up until about 50 years ago.

Research shows that more privacy = more loneliness and isolation = higher rates of depression and anxiety. A study found that by the 1980s typical children in the US had more anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s. Mental illnesses are 5 times as common in the US now than they were in the past.

 

[Aspychata]

Think bodies are beautiful. The alabaster statues come to mind. Nudes are employed in drawing classes for the students. Maybe religion shunned nude bodies to cut down back on rampant sexuality when birth control was nonexistent.

 

[NecroCurator]

Speaking of this weird taboo with nudity, I had a hilarious cultural exchange on my holiday in Spain. Me and my girlfriend went to a spa in Andalusia, and went to men's and women's dressing rooms respectively. I started to change to my swimsuit, and as I undressed I noticed how the locals were oogling me strangely. I thought that I had undressed improperly or something, until I went to the next room in the dressing room. There were dressing cabinets within the dressing room. It was then that I realized, standing there brazenly with my balls out, that spanish men aren't supposed to see each other naked even in a dressing room. My mind was blown, as was apparently the eyes of other people there.

I tried to be more mediterranean as I continued, pretending shame and whatnot. When I got to the pools, my girlfriend told me she had done the same mistake on her side. I have no idea how the locals saw us that day. Were we the uncivilized barbarians that the local racists hate?

 

[Jonn]

Speaking of this weird taboo with nudity, I had a hilarious cultural exchange on my holiday in Spain. Me and my girlfriend went to a spa in Andalusia, and went to men's and women's dressing rooms respectively. I started to change to my swimsuit, and as I undressed I noticed how the locals were oogling me strangely. I thought that I had undressed improperly or something, until I went to the next room in the dressing room. There were dressing cabinets within the dressing room. It was then that I realized, standing there brazenly with my balls out, that spanish men aren't supposed to see each other naked even in a dressing room. My mind was blown, as was apparently the eyes of other people there.

I tried to be more mediterranean as I continued, pretending shame and whatnot. When I got to the pools, my girlfriend told me she had done the same mistake on her side. I have no idea how the locals saw us that day. Were we the uncivilized barbarians that the local racists hate?

 

[Au Naturel]

Speaking of this weird taboo with nudity...

I get exactly the same response in the locker room at the local health club. Nobody takes a naked shower at a gym anymore. It is a combination of a new prudishness with the fear of easily concealed cameras.

They used to allow nudity in the pools at the Ys. But that was before everything went mandatory coed.