Truck camping in Ocala National Forest
We have accepted the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and we seek to follow His teachings. The summation of His teachings can be found in Matthew 22:36-38
37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38. This is the first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(After these two, the rest of the Bible is commentary.) We resist the tendency of many to add uneccessary rules to what the Bible says. Whenever something is not specifically covered in the Bible, we don't rely on a particular denomination's or individual's opinion or extra-biblical doctrine. We can fall back on these two verses and decide whether the item in question violates or fulfills either of the two commandments.
Some people would be quick to object: "How can you be a Christian AND a nudist?"
Years ago, I thought that way myself, at least as far as mixed-gender nudity was concerned. Then I talked to a Christian friend who late one night while vacationing in Spain, had accidentally checked his family into a nudist campground. In the morning, their initial reaction was to leave as soon as possible. Then they noticed there was nothing unseemly going on around them. People of all ages and both genders were doing normal campground activities, just without clothing. There was nothing at all erotic about it. They ended up staying the weekend.
After hearing that story, and knowing my friend was no pervert, I did the kind of Bible study I am about to recommend.
Now that we have electronic Bibles, online Bibles, and Bibles we can download into our PDAs, it is very easy to do individual word searches. Set aside some time and look up all the occurances of bare, naked, nakedness, strip, stripped, and uncovered.
To get the correct context, read the whole chapter, not just the individual verse. (Cherry-picking verses out of context, you can "prove" anything from the Bible. For example, read Deuteronomy 23:13,
And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:
Without considering the context, this verse implies that we are disobeying God if we use a flush toilet when we go abroad!
The context however, makes it clear that this was directed toward the Israelites in battle encampments centuries ago.)
The responsible way to study the Bible is to read the passages in context, and with no pre-conceived notions. Read what it says, to whom, and under what circumstances.
When you study the Bible this way, you will find that:
1 God made man and woman naked and unashamed.
2 Except for certain priests performing their temple duty, nowhere does God specifically forbid nakedness in and of itself.
3. While God recognizes than mankind is often ashamed of nakedness, nowhere does He tell us that we should be ashamed of it.
4 God commanded Isaiah to go naked and barefoot for three years. If God commanded nakedness, how can it be intrinsically wrong? (For that matter, how could he create people naked if nakedness was wrong? Remember, it's not just Adam and Eve. Every single human is still born naked to this day!)
5 The one verse most Christians cite as prohibiting nakedness (1st Timothy 2:9) is actually saying women should not adorn themselves too fancy! In fact verse 10 says she should adorn herself in good works.
The Bible does tell us we are not to intentionally offend others, but this is not limited to nakedness. It means in everything.
The actual passage (1st Corinthians 8:13) refers to eating meat, and concludes it's wrong to do it intentionally in front of those who are offended by it. Sadly, a great many people in America are offended by nakedness, so don't think it's ok to show up at Walmart or the local conservative Christian Church in your birthday suit. That would be certain to cause offense, and would therefore be wrong.
For a more detailed discussion, as well as the list of verses about nakedness, click here.
Many today see clothing as a preventative for lust. In the industrial world nearly everyone is nearly always clothed. Lust is very much alive and well, which should tell us something.
Nakedness is much more common in so-called primitive cultures. Sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity, and pregnancies out of wedlock are usually (though not always) less common, both overall and per capita in these cultures than they are in industrial cultures where nudity is less common. About the only conclusion you can draw there is that nakedness has little to do with promiscuity, unwed pregnancies, and STDs.
Advertisers know that scantily clad bodies are more enticing than naked ones. People who gain access to nudist resorts to gawk often leave disappointed. Naked people doing ordinary things (walking, sunning, swimming, etc) really aren't very exciting. When you see everything, there's just not much fantasizing to be done.
Speaking of nudist resorts (they're not "colonies"), most informed people today realize that they don't have orgies there. If you didn't know that, now you do. If you don't believe that, go check it out. Fact is, nudist resorts require a higher standard of conduct than most comparable "textile" resorts. "Squeaky clean" is a good way to describe normal behavior at a nudist club.
Years ago, I was camped in a local national forest. It was hot Florida summertime, and not too many people in the forest. I had placed a sign back up the access trail which read "Nudist area today". Shortly after I had set up camp and was reading a book in my lawnchair, I heard a voice behind me say "hello?". I looked over my shoulder and saw a middle-aged lady standing there. She asked "do you mind if I bring my RV in here?" I asked if she knew I was naked, and she said she'd seen my sign and didn't mind. After she set up her campsite next to mine she explained she had seen my sign ealier and didn't want to intrude. She had set up in another site, but three single men there would not stop "hitting on her". She had known some nudists in the past and remembered how considerate they had been. She figured she had a much better chance of being left alone by a nudist than those guys, so she broke camp and moved next to me!
This lady was very much not a nudist herself. During the hottest part of the day she kept on her VERY CONSERVATIVE one-piece swimsuit, though the temperature and humidity were both well into the 90s, and there was no pond or stream to cool off in.
But having known nudists in the past, she did not feel threatened or offended by me, mere yards away and in full view of her campsite. Nudism isn't about perversion, it's about comfort and acceptance of God's creation.
We live in rural Polk County. It's a nice setting, with 2 acres of our own land surrounded by 39 acres of county preserve land. Our home is fully clothing optional.
At any given time, you might find any of us anywhere from fully clothed to fully naked - except that I only wear clothes when it's too cold or we have company that are not naturist tolerant (My wife and sons do not want to be pictured on the internet in any way other than fully clothed, and I respect their wishes).
Most of the yard is clothing optional as well, owing to the relative remoteness of the site, so most of the time we are able to live as God intended when He put Adam and Eve here naked and unashamed, and declared His work to be very good.
We have a three-member security staff of the canine persuasion - . They keep us safe from the wild hogs in the preserve, and from UPS deliveries.We also have Morgan, our resident adviser.
Of course, we also have the obligatory radio station, sweat lodge, and gun range you'd expect living in a rural setting.
The house is way up by those trees.
My interests include not only naturist camping, hiking, and boating, but also Geocaching, Skydiving, Spelunking, Ham Radio , fiction writing,
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