The naked church is popping up all over the world, bringing people to their places of worship entirely without clothes. While many Christians are admonishing them for this reason, they have philosophical reasons for their nudity. There are also many outside the Christian faith who are criticizing their methods.
The admonishments are a result of people's equation of sex with nudity. The movements don't have any focus on sex at all. Rather, the priority of the Christian nudist and others in the naked church is on 'undisguised Christianity and authenticity.'
There are some churches inside nudist colonies and others that aren't. The Christian nudist living in these colonies never dresses, and worship is no exception. Others outside colonies only go without their clothing for services.
As there are different ideologies among ordinary churches, there are different philosophies among each of these nudist churches. However, they do seem to all have an overriding focus. They are conscious of the enormous focus on money that the more popular mega churches have. They claim that these facilities are retrenching their employees due to the recession while still spending millions of dollars on their buildings.
They want to move away from the common church focus of building the institution's machinery. They instead want to concentrate on what God desires. They say their communities are highly family focused and compassionate.
They also want to rid their areas of the societal judgments that clothing brings. They say without clothing their environments are stress free with every member being seen as equal. They want to move their worship away from human invention.
Visitors to nudist colonies are rising despite the global recession. Obviously, people like what they're doing. There's also a growing internet community for the Christian nudist. This has established a growing and active internet church complete with chat rooms and forums for interaction.
These religious movements appear to be perfectly innocent but there are others with a dark side. Some preachers are using nudity to sexualize their services and take advantage of members. These are few and far between, though, and very different from those held by the Christian nudist community.
Some worship places are 'clothing optional, ' This means that they can choose whether they want to wear clothes or not, whereas a true nudist place bans clothing. The naked church is beginning a revolution that will, perhaps, move religion away from its growing material focus.
The admonishments are a result of people's equation of sex with nudity. The movements don't have any focus on sex at all. Rather, the priority of the Christian nudist and others in the naked church is on 'undisguised Christianity and authenticity.'
There are some churches inside nudist colonies and others that aren't. The Christian nudist living in these colonies never dresses, and worship is no exception. Others outside colonies only go without their clothing for services.
As there are different ideologies among ordinary churches, there are different philosophies among each of these nudist churches. However, they do seem to all have an overriding focus. They are conscious of the enormous focus on money that the more popular mega churches have. They claim that these facilities are retrenching their employees due to the recession while still spending millions of dollars on their buildings.
They want to move away from the common church focus of building the institution's machinery. They instead want to concentrate on what God desires. They say their communities are highly family focused and compassionate.
They also want to rid their areas of the societal judgments that clothing brings. They say without clothing their environments are stress free with every member being seen as equal. They want to move their worship away from human invention.
Visitors to nudist colonies are rising despite the global recession. Obviously, people like what they're doing. There's also a growing internet community for the Christian nudist. This has established a growing and active internet church complete with chat rooms and forums for interaction.
These religious movements appear to be perfectly innocent but there are others with a dark side. Some preachers are using nudity to sexualize their services and take advantage of members. These are few and far between, though, and very different from those held by the Christian nudist community.
Some worship places are 'clothing optional, ' This means that they can choose whether they want to wear clothes or not, whereas a true nudist place bans clothing. The naked church is beginning a revolution that will, perhaps, move religion away from its growing material focus.
About the Author:
NakedChurchLive.com is an internet church catering to the Christian nudist community. Visit them online for details! (http://www.nakedchurchlive.org)
