NAKED!!

This past month, I spent most of my time with my group for CRIN 590: Collaborating with Families and School Personnel. It was a group of 7: 6 girls and 1 boy. The very first day we got together as a group, a joke about "no nakedness" being a rule for our group emerged. We, of course, milked it for all it was worth and said it daily (even incorporating it into class activities and such).

Well apparently Jim Cunningham does not feel the same as we do.

"Nakedness is next to godliness" in Jim's opinion. He has written several books about Christian nudity and other guides to things like skinny dipping.

Oh, and by the way, he's blind! (although I am pretty sure not from birth...but foxnews likes to spin it that way!)

"But if the body is what the Bible says it is -- the temple of the Holy Spirit and the image of God -- then modesty doesn't mean always covering up, it just means comporting yourself in a way that does not cause lust in others".

My question is, how does one do that? How can a naked women not cause others to lust? Someone, somewhere is going to have a problem with lust in that situation. Men are typically visual (see this article) therefore lust would be a problem. (And I am talking about widespread nudity...not nudity in nudist camps...I think that there is a totally different structure in a nudist camp.)

"For a recent interview, he walked down the stairs of his home and welcomed a visitor wearing a Catholic scapula hung around his neck, hiking boots on his feet -- and nothing in between. He's not self-conscious, and doesn't think anyone else should be." -- Well if I were blind I may not be worried about it either. He cannot see the interviewer's wide open eyes and gaping mouth!

Now with this statement, I agree: "People don't see nakedness anywhere except pornography. Everything that's naked on TV is some kind of sex theme. That creates a culture where nude is lewd, in people's minds. And it's getting worse instead of better." -- If nudity always equals sex, then of course there will be problems. It's an association thing. If you hook up a bolt of electricity to a rat and couple it with a specific sound...that rat will eventually learn that he will be shocked when he hears that tone. Therefore when he hears that tone, he will always brace for a shock, whether one is given or not.

Same with nudity. For instance, if a wife comes to bed nude, ONLY when she wants sex. Then her husband will learn, "ok, she wants sex because she is nude." Of course this might not always be the case for the woman (maybe she has a sunburn that hurts when she has a shirt on, or maybe all of her pj's are dirty one night.) But the man is going to associate naked wife with sex.

And while Cunningham would probably like it if everyone was a nudist, I think that public nudity should be contained with in camps. At least most will be in like mind with the others about the place and time of nudity. (It's too hard to explain your current (un)dress at a job interview. Plus, he/she may be looking at different assets than you're talking about!)