Christians and Nudity

The verses do not support that nudity was "reprehensible" just not appropriate or humiliating, which is how we view it today.

The implication of seeing another uncovered is to view the whole self, sin and all.

Rob

 

I'm not sure that just seeing his father naked was what got Ham into trouble.

I think the bigger problem was that 1. he didn't do anything to help his father out when he was laying there naked and 2. he went out and blabbed it to his brothers. In other words he shamed and embarrassed his father when he should have had enough respect for Noah to cover him up, make sure the tent door was closed, and then keep his own mouth shut!

 

Down southh where I live we don't get naked .

We get neeeeecccckkkkkedd

I have no problem wth changing in a locker room

 

What about showering, changeing clothes, etc, are we not to do these naked?

 

I think we make being "nekkid" taboo. Kids dont mind it until they realize it - lol. I would not get naked in front of anyone other than my husband (and daughters), for any reason. (And I dont just do that for my daughters, it just sometimes happens)And that will stop as they grow older. Some body parts just need coverin' - didnt Paul say something like that?

 

Amen!

 

There is enough to be concerned about in the daily Christian walk than to worry about this issue.

 

Not necessarily, PastorSBC. Our daily christian walks should be a minute by minute walk with Christ, but it doesn't hurt to think ahead about issues such as this so we know how we should act as Christians ahead of time...before something like this happens (dressing in a hospital room with a roommate the same sex, for instance).

I personally hated gym class (public school) because I am a very private person. I don't know why, given the way my parents were when I was growing up. They weren't very private around the house. [Edit: Actually, I can think of several reasons why I ended up different from my parents.]

My husband set the rules before we were married that we were not to dress scantly around our kids when we had some, and we never did. We are all very private people. People who are more worldly than my husband and I will tell me (and have told me) that we are stifling my kids' sexuality and they will not be the healthy marriage partners they should be for their spouses. And actually, they didn't use the terms "marriage" and "spouse". We've taught our children how to conduct themselves on dates and how to act for their spouses. I'm not concerned about them as long as they marry the right people and obey the Lord. But, as far as how private people should act in front of their kids... I'm not saying these should be everyone else's standards. These are what we decided on (or he decided on and I obeyed him).

One lady in one of my childhood church told me she never undressed in front of her dog because it would be beastiality. As a young teen who took everyone in church seriously, I started covering my hamster cage when I got dressed.

What about the doctor? I hate going to the doctor (and have had bad experiences with many of them...comments they made, things they did).

And yet, I lost respect for one doctor who did NOT examine me completely when he should have. I don't think he knew what he was doing, to be honest. I chose him because his website indicated he was a Christian doctor, and wanted to avoid experiences as I did in the past. But in his case, you can't examine a car engine without lifting the hood.

A good doctor has to find that line between acting like a total jerk and examining the patient for problems as simple as mobility and range of motion.

But unfortunately, we haven't reached the point in our medical technology where we could stand in a pod, let rays shoot through us and walk out fully clothed with a printout of our physical evaluation in our hands.

[ July 13, 2005, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: Victory in Jesus ]

 

I just retired from a 32 year career in the Army Guard - if I couldn't have showered with a bunch of naked guys I wouldn't have showered at all many times! I think there are more important things to worry about. Bruce

 

Being naked in front of others is not, in and of itself, a sin.

There are Bible verses that also indicate that nakedness is not shameful and is not a sin.

We make it a sin because we are sinners. Adam and Eve did not "realize" they were naked until after they had sinned. Then they felt shame. So is being naked the problem? Or is it our own sinful sense of shame that is the problem?

 

I think the condemnation of looking on their father's nakedness in Gen. 9 has more to do than with just Noah being naked.

There is also this:

The NET Bible has this commentary on the Gen 9 passage:

Apparently, it seems in Gen. 9 that it is seeing someone naked without any respect for that person, so that you are not respectful of that person or embarrassed for them. I think the sense of the term, based on this, is that it is being naked immodestly or seeing others naked without any sense of respect and modesty.

So flaunting nakedness or looking at naked people when it's unnecessary and with no sense of their privacy is the sin.

 

All of mine do!

In Christ,
Trotter

 

That's how my Pastor pronounces it, he's from Tenn.

 

I tell you what Victory, you worry about that, and I will worry about prayer and the ministry of the Word.

 

I think it was Lewis Grizzard who said that the difference between being "naked" and being "necked" is that if you are naked, you ain't got no clothes on, if you are necked, you ain't got no clothes on...and you up to sumpthin'.

 

"Medical people" in Afghanistan cant look directly at their patients if they are of the opposite sex. Only males can be medical practitioners and to see patients, they hang up a sheet across the room. The patient will sit on the other side of the sheet, fully clothed, and describe thier issues to their husbands, fathers, or male children who will then, in turn, tell the medical person what is wrong because the patient cannot speak directly to the medical person and vise versa. No examinations are done. Women there never disrobe to give birth or even fully wash their faces. All because their doctrine says it is sinful to view flesh. Apparently even their own.

 

Actually,

Genesis supports "There are Bible verses that also indicate that nakedness is not shameful and is not a sin. "

Adam and Eve were not in trouble for being naked. They were in trouble for being ashamed of being naked because that shame was evidence of the fact that they had disobeyed God and eaten of the forbidden fruit.