Christian nudists to build village in Florida
Phil Barnoti Wahba
Columbia News Service
Dec. 6, 2005 06:29 PM
Jonathan Palmiter was enjoying a recent Sunday morning stroll through a lush yard full of trees and Spanish moss--naked as was Adam in the Garden of Eden.
A 59-year-old born-again Christian, Palmiter was visiting Natura, a development 40 miles north of Tampa, Fla., that, when it opens up next summer, will become the first nudist community for devout Christians in North America.
Natura is being developed over five years and will house as many as 200 people in 50 family houses on 100 acres of land, with room for up to 100 recreational vehicles, according to Daniel Bellows, chief executive of the development. He even envisions a self-contained village with home-schooling and a strip mall. advertisement
Christian nudism might sound like an oxymoron, but for thousands of devout followers, living and worshipping naked is at the core of their faith.
No one knows how many Christian nudists there are in North America, but the advent of Natura will increase their visibility.
Bill Martin, the driving force behind Natura, runs the Naturist-Christians Web site, which has 19,000 registered users and averages 35,000 hits a day. His Yahoo group--where members discuss biblical passages rather than the etiquette to follow in nude social settings--has 6,000 users.
While Bellows believes "naturism and faith are one," other Christians disagree. Bellows, 44, said he gets e-mail messages warning him of eternal damnation, while Allen Parker, from Virginia, said, "Many Christians attack us on many fronts, but the love Jesus shows us sustains us."
For many, nudism is the lifestyle that dare not speak its name. In Ohio, Rob L., who asked that his last name not be used, is a self-proclaimed fundamentalist who practices nudism in seclusion, fearing criticism and misunderstanding within his religious community.
Martin said he doesn't want Natura to be only a haven for these Christian nudists--or naturists, a term many prefer. Instead, he wants Natura to make the bold statement that nudism is not only healthy, but sanctioned by God.
"Naturism was quite normal for the first few 100 years of Christianity," said Martin, a 67-year-old Quaker. He blames puritanical Victorianism and what he calls America's sexually obsessed culture for society's qualms about nudity. "The culture has to be shown that naturism doesn't lead to promiscuity. Natura will show them that."
But the idea of raising kids in a nude environment can raise eyebrows--even Rob L.'s wife doesn't want him nude at home when their daughter is around.
Martin and Bellows contend nudism is healthy for all. They believe it helps to correct a poor body image in children, which they believe is at the root of low self-esteem, depression and drug addiction. And they believe nudism diminishes sexual curiosity by "demystifying" the body. They point to the lower incidences of sexually transmitted diseases and lower pregnancy rates in Europe, where more relaxed attitudes prevail.
The compatibility of Christianity and nudism is detailed in "Nakedness and the Bible," a self-published book by Canadian author Paul Bowman. The book cites key biblical events, including God's order to the prophet Isaiah to go naked for three years, and states that, contrary to popular belief, Jesus was naked when he washed the feet of his disciples, when he was baptized and when he was crucified and resurrected.
"Nakedness and the Bible" states that nothing forbids nonsexual nudity and that misinterpretations of the Bible stem from faulty translations of ancient Hebrew words for nudity.
For example, Jim T., Natura's spiritual adviser, and his wife, Shirley, believe the apostle Paul's call for modesty targeted ostentation, not nudity. Besides, said Shirley, 55, women in church wearing "designer clothes and $90 haircuts" are the immodest ones.
Christian nudists have long organized their own services and prayer groups. Carolyn Hawkins of the American Association for Nude Recreation, which was founded in 1931, said most of its 270-member clubs offer Sunday services, including one in North Carolina where they are led by a member who is a Baptist minister.
Nathan Powers, a 50-year-old Texan, begins his day praying naked in his backyard. Nakedness intensifies his dialogue with God, he said. "I feel closer to God. It's an act of humility. It is absolutely spiritual." To reconcile being a good Christian with their need to be nude, many of the faithful turn to prayer and follow their own spiritual path. Some are led away from their particular denominations.
Parker, who organizes the annual "Christian Nudist Convocation" in Virginia, a coming-out event for closeted nudists, was raised a Southern Baptist. He is now independent, turned off by Sunday sermons he said were "too hypocritical for one afternoon."
Jim T. let God do the talking. "As a conservative Christian, I had to let the Bible be my guide. I'm the one who'll have to answer to God," he said.
Secular culture has helped the cause of Christian nudists by "spawning the contemporary social nudist movement," said John Kundert, editor of the Fig Leaf Forum, a leading Christian nudist newsletter with a circulation of 1,300 that he runs from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In turn, Kundert said he offers the Gospel to secular nudists "willing to receive" it.
Christian naturists are particularly mortified by the caricature of the nudist as a randy middle-aged swinger. Parker and his wife attend many naked parties that he insists are wholesome. Some of the most spiritual conversations they've had have been in hot tubs with other couples, he said.
"You can admire beauty, but lust is wrong," said Rob L., the Ohio fundamentalist. On his Web site, he describes his first co-ed nudist experience. At a nude swim years ago, he bumped into an attractive woman in the changing room. When he didn't get an erection, he knew he could separate nudity from sex.
Indeed, nudist Christians said faith helps them resist temptation. "God created us as sexual beings, and gave us coping mechanisms," said Jim T. In any case, said Shirley, people are "sexier" in Victoria's Secret lingerie.
The lifestyle of these Christians doesn't necessarily make them lefties of the 1960s free-love, live-and-let-live mold. They tend to be deeply conservative on issues like homosexuality and premarital sex, and Republican, differing only from other Christians in their need and desire to be naked whenever possible.
For Bellows, the ideal society would be clothing-optional, but he isn't holding his breath waiting for that to happen. As much as Christian nudists advocate for naturism, they put faith above all else.
"I am a Christian first, a naturist second," Palmiter said.
Phil Barnoti Wahba
Columbia News Service
Dec. 6, 2005 06:29 PM
Jonathan Palmiter was enjoying a recent Sunday morning stroll through a lush yard full of trees and Spanish moss--naked as was Adam in the Garden of Eden.
A 59-year-old born-again Christian, Palmiter was visiting Natura, a development 40 miles north of Tampa, Fla., that, when it opens up next summer, will become the first nudist community for devout Christians in North America.
Natura is being developed over five years and will house as many as 200 people in 50 family houses on 100 acres of land, with room for up to 100 recreational vehicles, according to Daniel Bellows, chief executive of the development. He even envisions a self-contained village with home-schooling and a strip mall. advertisement
Christian nudism might sound like an oxymoron, but for thousands of devout followers, living and worshipping naked is at the core of their faith.
No one knows how many Christian nudists there are in North America, but the advent of Natura will increase their visibility.
Bill Martin, the driving force behind Natura, runs the Naturist-Christians Web site, which has 19,000 registered users and averages 35,000 hits a day. His Yahoo group--where members discuss biblical passages rather than the etiquette to follow in nude social settings--has 6,000 users.
While Bellows believes "naturism and faith are one," other Christians disagree. Bellows, 44, said he gets e-mail messages warning him of eternal damnation, while Allen Parker, from Virginia, said, "Many Christians attack us on many fronts, but the love Jesus shows us sustains us."
For many, nudism is the lifestyle that dare not speak its name. In Ohio, Rob L., who asked that his last name not be used, is a self-proclaimed fundamentalist who practices nudism in seclusion, fearing criticism and misunderstanding within his religious community.
Martin said he doesn't want Natura to be only a haven for these Christian nudists--or naturists, a term many prefer. Instead, he wants Natura to make the bold statement that nudism is not only healthy, but sanctioned by God.
"Naturism was quite normal for the first few 100 years of Christianity," said Martin, a 67-year-old Quaker. He blames puritanical Victorianism and what he calls America's sexually obsessed culture for society's qualms about nudity. "The culture has to be shown that naturism doesn't lead to promiscuity. Natura will show them that."
But the idea of raising kids in a nude environment can raise eyebrows--even Rob L.'s wife doesn't want him nude at home when their daughter is around.
Martin and Bellows contend nudism is healthy for all. They believe it helps to correct a poor body image in children, which they believe is at the root of low self-esteem, depression and drug addiction. And they believe nudism diminishes sexual curiosity by "demystifying" the body. They point to the lower incidences of sexually transmitted diseases and lower pregnancy rates in Europe, where more relaxed attitudes prevail.
The compatibility of Christianity and nudism is detailed in "Nakedness and the Bible," a self-published book by Canadian author Paul Bowman. The book cites key biblical events, including God's order to the prophet Isaiah to go naked for three years, and states that, contrary to popular belief, Jesus was naked when he washed the feet of his disciples, when he was baptized and when he was crucified and resurrected.
"Nakedness and the Bible" states that nothing forbids nonsexual nudity and that misinterpretations of the Bible stem from faulty translations of ancient Hebrew words for nudity.
For example, Jim T., Natura's spiritual adviser, and his wife, Shirley, believe the apostle Paul's call for modesty targeted ostentation, not nudity. Besides, said Shirley, 55, women in church wearing "designer clothes and $90 haircuts" are the immodest ones.
Christian nudists have long organized their own services and prayer groups. Carolyn Hawkins of the American Association for Nude Recreation, which was founded in 1931, said most of its 270-member clubs offer Sunday services, including one in North Carolina where they are led by a member who is a Baptist minister.
Nathan Powers, a 50-year-old Texan, begins his day praying naked in his backyard. Nakedness intensifies his dialogue with God, he said. "I feel closer to God. It's an act of humility. It is absolutely spiritual." To reconcile being a good Christian with their need to be nude, many of the faithful turn to prayer and follow their own spiritual path. Some are led away from their particular denominations.
Parker, who organizes the annual "Christian Nudist Convocation" in Virginia, a coming-out event for closeted nudists, was raised a Southern Baptist. He is now independent, turned off by Sunday sermons he said were "too hypocritical for one afternoon."
Jim T. let God do the talking. "As a conservative Christian, I had to let the Bible be my guide. I'm the one who'll have to answer to God," he said.
Secular culture has helped the cause of Christian nudists by "spawning the contemporary social nudist movement," said John Kundert, editor of the Fig Leaf Forum, a leading Christian nudist newsletter with a circulation of 1,300 that he runs from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In turn, Kundert said he offers the Gospel to secular nudists "willing to receive" it.
Christian naturists are particularly mortified by the caricature of the nudist as a randy middle-aged swinger. Parker and his wife attend many naked parties that he insists are wholesome. Some of the most spiritual conversations they've had have been in hot tubs with other couples, he said.
"You can admire beauty, but lust is wrong," said Rob L., the Ohio fundamentalist. On his Web site, he describes his first co-ed nudist experience. At a nude swim years ago, he bumped into an attractive woman in the changing room. When he didn't get an erection, he knew he could separate nudity from sex.
Indeed, nudist Christians said faith helps them resist temptation. "God created us as sexual beings, and gave us coping mechanisms," said Jim T. In any case, said Shirley, people are "sexier" in Victoria's Secret lingerie.
The lifestyle of these Christians doesn't necessarily make them lefties of the 1960s free-love, live-and-let-live mold. They tend to be deeply conservative on issues like homosexuality and premarital sex, and Republican, differing only from other Christians in their need and desire to be naked whenever possible.
For Bellows, the ideal society would be clothing-optional, but he isn't holding his breath waiting for that to happen. As much as Christian nudists advocate for naturism, they put faith above all else.
"I am a Christian first, a naturist second," Palmiter said.
