Interesting that at this church where everyone including the pastor is naked,
the only person not naked (see 00:17-23) is Jesus on the crucifix
(and we all know what he was wearing then
(see "Jesus died naked..but not in Christian art and movies" and "Two-stage shaming")
Whatsup with that?
Obviously, this video is from a nudist resort. Total body acceptance doesn't work in a culture religiously committed to porno-prudery, as ours is. But in a sub-culture guided by the moral philosophy of traditional nudism, you would expect a clothing optional church. These nudists have 10 strongly logical arguments for every strongly emotional one we have.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the insight of the late Dr. James McKeever who wrote, "There is a tribe, which lives on the island of West Kalimantan (formerly Dutch Borneo), who go nude because of the extreme heat. They go to church this way, and there are actually pictures of them taking communion (the Lord's Supper) with the entire church nude." He uses this illustration to launch a reprimand on the American church for its cultural idolatry in this area: "It is a very difficult task to sort out in our minds what has come from our culture, our environment and our upbringing, and what is truly part of God’s character. The thing that we need to be very careful of is not to create God in our own cultural image. We need to guard against attributing characteristics to Him based on the taboos of our society. The very worst thing is to take a false image of God that we have created and to try to impose this “god” on other cultures. Often missionaries have equated Western culture with Christianity, such as the first missionaries to Hawaii. What we need to do is to introduce people to the real God of the Bible. If there are any modifications to their culture that need to be made, you can believe that God will take care of it."
Wise but unheeded words among a people who treat their cultural values as ordained of God. But all that will be sorted out when the entire human race stands naked before the Judgment Throne of the God to Whom we must give an account.