Devon Naturists

Naturism and the Christian Faith

Conflict or Complement?

My journey in the Christian faith began very many years ago when I was learning to play the Church Organ and I came to know a clergyman who had a profound and lasting influence on my life. He knew that I liked organ music and also that I was studying for 'A' levels in three science subjects.

I was a typical adolescent agnostic but he caused me to 'doubt my doubts' and gradually, as my knowledge of science gained, I began to realise that there were whole areas of life that simply couldn't be explained in scientific terms. I didn't have an instant 'conversion' but, over a period of time, that non-scientific dimension' gathered momentum and I became convinced of the existence of God. I still am. During my years as a professional scientist I have come across many colleagues whose experiences have precisely mirrored my own.

My journey towards naturism began even before that. As a child I enjoyed the freedom which being naked at bath-time brought. I'm now 51 and this was well before there was even such limited acceptance of nudity as now exists and it didn't occur to me that 'public nudity' could ever be an option. However, my parents tolerated 'sleeping in my skin' during warm summer months' and I gave up wearing pyjamas completely at the age of about 16. That was the limit of my naturism until I had my own flat and was able to relax in the evenings unclothed albeit alone. Much later, I heard about a beach where 'people sunbathed in the nude' which I investigated and became an instant convert.

Marriage 20 years ago was no bar to the nude sleeping which my wife and I had previously enjoyed separately and we found that we had each visited a sauna in Torquay which also had a couples' evening once a week. We decided to go together; it was naturist, very friendly and we became devotees of those evenings. We gradually slipped into naturism, first when we hired a small boat in Greece and found a deserted cove where we experienced the real pleasure of the sun on our naked bodies. In subsequent holidays we visited resorts which were near naturist beaches and then started to visit fully naturist centres. Euronat in Western France is our particular favourite. We later became involved with a couple of naturist leisure clubs and so added a whole new dimension to our lives.

So far, I have drawn no link between our Christian and our Naturist lives. Some Christians attempt to justify Naturism by referring to Genesis 2, 25 Now they were both naked, the man and his wife, but they had no feeling of shame towards one another. Taken alone, it's an attractive concept but it doesn't get us much closer to a religious justification of naturism particularly as only a man and his wife are involved, which is hardly revolutionary in naturist terms. The argument falls over 7 verses later in Genesis 3, 7 when we are told that they discovered they were naked and, in verse 10, when the man admits I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. It's not very encouraging for the naturist cause and things get worse in Isaiah 20 when the prophet removes his sackcloth and went about naked and barefoot . . . as a warning to Egypt and Cush who were destined to go about their buttocks shamefully exposed.

At this point perhaps Christian Naturists ought to give up but I suppose that, if nothing else, these Old Testament references serve as a salutary reminder that nudity in the wrong place can be insulting. However, I believe there is also the dimension that Jesus' teaching on good-neighbourliness is often well exemplified by naturists in their friendship and willingness to share in each others' joys and sorrows. In our own club, our closest friendships are with members whom we have later found also to be Christians. It is, however, very important to draw a distinction between naturism and various other types of nude activity, including exhibitionism, and even occult practices. It ends up being a matter of prayer as to whether what you are doing is wrong. I'm convinced that true naturism isn't.

Perhaps my favourite story of naturist good-neighbourliness occurred at Euronat. Our daughter, then aged 3, was standing at the water's edge a few feet from me when a huge killer wasp landed on the spade she was holding. At the same time, a giant of a man was walking briskly along the beach towards her. He saw what happened and, in one swift movement, he gently took the spade from her, killed the wasp, handed the spade back to her and continued on his journey before I could even thank him. He probably forgot the incident even before he left the beach but, 15 years later, it is still vivid in my memory. It occurs to me that because of the behaviour of a minority on textile beaches, a similar incident there may have had most unpleasant consequences through the fear of a well-meaning man approaching a small child. I have no idea whether that giant had a faith but, as a Good Samaritan, he seems to me to have been a better follower of Jesus' teaching than many of us who call ourselves Christians ever seem to manage.