Honjii wonders about nekkid Christians
Honji wrote “I didn’t know Christians could go naked!”
There has been much word wrangling among the social nude recreation crowd about Christianity and nudism.
I figure there are a couple of spectrums or tanges that people fall into.
The first I call ‘need to see’. That is, on one end are those that live in porn and strip clubs, they are desperately gratified to see nekkid people, usually of the opposite gender, whatever that might be for them. On the other end are those that are horrified at the thought of seeing someone else unclothed, that are convinced they will be horribly and permanently changed and damaged by the sight of someone’s naughty bits.
The other range of values I call ‘need to be seen’. On the one end are those that get gratification from being seen nekkid. The flashers in cars looking for truckers. A few strippers (some strip because they like the work, the rest have few alternatives). On the other end are those that don’t want to be seen without clothes.
Those adults choosing to participate in social nude recreation, I believe, tend to fall in the center of both ranges.
As Honji mentions, a group of people that want to feel sun and breeze on their skin isn’t selecting for prurient interest. And look at anything, even naughty bits, for a while and you notice that .. they pretty much look the same. You also notice, after a time, that the body language and facial cues you are used to in communicating with people still work. I learned to watch the face more, and pay more attention to the person.
Where I think Honji got it incorrectly was where she[edit] concludes that nudist camps, resorts, and activities are “places that exist for the sole purpose of bringing together groups of people ..”. For most of us, it is a safe place to be. We do it for ourselves. Yes, we meet friends, play tennis and volleyball and swi and hike. But the reason for going to a nudist activity is to feel the subtle sensations of breeze, sun.
Nudists also tend to be pretty safety aware. Anyone with kids knows about kid proofing a house. And about protecting kids from strangers. At a family nudist activity, nakedness is not related to sexual activity. No sex is allowed, especially if children are part of the activity. Anyone acting in a suspicious manner gets reported. To the manager, to the police, to other area activities. Harassment isn’t permitted, and is dealt with as a community, not left to each individual to try to defend themselves. Lupin Naturist Resort in particular, and such clubs and activities in general, tend to be very supportive and nurturing places for the individual looking for emotional respite and healing.
There are a couple of national organizations, including The Naturist Society in OshKosh, Wisconsin, and the National Association for Nude Recreation. Both are active in combating attacks on personal liberties, vigilantes that confuse mere nudity with obscenity, and protection of venues for non-sexual, family oriented nude recreation.
Did you know there are many hot springs popular throughout the nation that are often used for nude skinny dipping? Some years ago the National Park Service began removing these areas from their maps. Now the only maps to nudie hot springs located in national forests and parks is through private books like ‘Hot Springs of the Southwest’.
One source of angst between the naturist (not ‘naturalist’, those folks care about the distinction) and Christian community is the King James Version of the Bible. As reported in the forward to one of the modern translation, the KJV includes some 1400 deliberate mistranslations, intended to codify thinking and positions of the English church at the time. One of the choices they made was to use the euphemism ‘nude’ or ‘naked’ when the actual verse was about drunken debauchery. Whether the KJV resulted in the Victorians choosing to abandon millenia of skinny dipping and casual nudity for the invention of clothedness as the meaning of modesty, or the other way around I suppose historians could determine.
I have a t-shirt from the Lupin Naturist Resort in Los Gatos, CA (in the Santa Cruz mountains over San Jose), that states ‘If we were intended to go naked, we would be born that way.’ In my bible, it was Adam and Eve that invented mutilating fig leaves, and God asked ‘Why have you clothed yourselves?’ If clothes are enough to confuse God ..
August 8th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Hi and thanks for visiting my blog.
First I’d like to mention that I am a she, not a he…but that’s OK a natural mistake…I understand my name isn’t exactly in the mainstream.
This was a very tongue in cheek remark, no offense intended. Regular readers of my blog (hint hint) know that I have a warped and sarcastic sense of humor.
Honestly though, I still don’t get the
Pardon my ignorance, but in the summer when we tend to run around with very little clothing anyway (allowing the above mentioned sensations) aren’t you really saying you like feeling these subtle sensations on your ummm “naughty bits”?
August 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Honji, Please accept my apologies for making such an important mistake.
Welcome!
About the feeling on the ‘naughty bits’, yes and no. Even those wearing a skimpy bikini or similar scant bit of cover, there are straps, strings, ties of some kind, or glue, or whatever to hold those ‘modest’ covers in place. At what point does one say, ‘why bother’?
Nudists often refer to their clothes-free state as ‘body acceptance’. There is nothing shameful about a body, there is nothing that needs to be hidden, depending on where you are and who you are with. When responsible people agree on a clothing free area and experience, there is good reason to drop trou and all the rest of the fashion and marketing claptrap we often use to drape our body.
A woman with a mastectomy or two, a chubby person, a couple enjoying a hike with a twist. When people accept their own body, they often accept others - a synergy that helps with healing and growth. You learn that the important feature of a person is the smile. Scars, physical or emotional, age and stretch markes, lost limbs - these don’t define or limit a person. They merely give a body character.
When you take a person that spends fortunes on makeup, fashion clothes and accessories, then strip them, set them in a sauna or hot tub, shower them - they don’t look all that different from the kind lady with three kids playing quietly on the lawn. And the fashion person doesn’t have to maintain that ‘peak’ image. A revelation and release all at once, every time, in one of the more nurturing communities of people in America.
Plus, it can be quite liberating for some people to realize that being naked is not the same as demanding sexual contact. Taking off the clothes in a managed, nudist-friendly environment is about body acceptance.
As for the organized, repeated aspect - once you visit a beach, why would you ever go back? To experience the adventure again.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Thanks for the enlightenment. Maybe my problem getting it, is that I grew up in an environment, and for the most part still live in one, where nudity is considered no big deal. I must admit in hot weather I spend so much of my time naked, that on more than one occasion I have actually gotten as far as starting my car to go into town when I realized, oops, forgot my clothes. No I’m not old an senile so don’t even go there. It also helps that I live in a rural area on a lot of acreage and going outside sans clothing is no big deal. Many of those close (as in friends, not geographically) to me live a similar lifestyle. So the “formalized” nudity of the nudist camp or resort seemed odd to me.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
For the pioneer clearing virgin land for farming, a garden would be to grow necessities to supplement the major crop plantings. For a civilized (city-bound) person, a garden would be a retreat, a welcome excursion to regain the feeling of touching the earth, of experiencing the wonder of planting things, watching them grow, nurturing, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of the ‘hobby’.
Some nudists choose to live a nude lifestyle, some by working in a clothing optional environment (working at a nude resort, working at a clothing optional company or apartment complex - as in Naked Carpenters in California and one apartment complex that I know of in Austin, TX). Many other nudists escape their busy lives for relaxation, some go fishing, others to beaches, and still others to strip naked with like minded families. (My experience is limited to family oriented activities. I always figured to leave the sex games, risks, and exposures to other folk.) Many clubs and facilities make use of remote sites, of natural beauty on mountains (Mountain Air Ranch, Denver, CO, Lupin Naturist Resort, Los Gatos, CA., various nude beaches along California’s ocean front, Universal Life Church Camp north of St. Louis in lovely woods, etc.) or other places to help make the experience rewarding on a personal level, as well as attracting visitors and cash flow for a successful operation. Many nude recreation sites could be compared to a rustic, low-tech retreat similar to a water theme park.
For people with regular out-of-doors nudity in their life, the attraction would be meeting the kind of people drawn to naturism. For others it seems to be a combination of escape and recreation.
Anyone can find a secluded spot to strip off. For more congenial facilities you need more people cooperating. And to meet and interact with like-minded people you need organization and structure.
Hope this helps!
November 7th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Hello…Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin..holy Wednesday
November 7th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Wait… you’re a nudist?
November 8th, 2007 at 2:31 am
The Naturist Society, OshKosh, WI. http://www.naturistsociety.com/