Question: Can Christians participate in public nakedness, like in Gay Pride festivals, Naked bike rides, and going to nude beaches? In Latin America Christians are conservative about this. In Mexico City, where I live, there is more openness about exposing one’s body in public. What is it like for Christians in the U.S.? We hear that Americans are pretty puritanical about public nudity.
Frank Answers: Yes, on the whole Americans are pretty puritanical about the body, especially Evangelical Christians. They are more puritanical than the real Puritans. There is a lot of confusion about nudity and modesty among Christians. The Bible has a lot of nudity. From the beginning, even God was surprised by Adam and Eve’s concern about their nakedness. “Who told you that you are naked?” the Lord asked them. “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” They had, and they now knew things they didn’t need to know and had trouble dealing with.
There’s nothing in the Bible against nudity as such. The concern for modesty in 1 Timothy 2:9 is for women to wear “modest apparel” (KJV). But there are many examples of cultures in which people are naked and unashamed and more chaste in their sexual practices than clothed cultures. Christian missionaries came along and made them cover themselves and, what do you know! They discovered forbidden fruit. So much for Christian moral influence!
In any event, there is nothing that precludes Christians from participating in public activities and events that display nudity and have a wholesome character. Nudity that simply displays the naked body is not sinful. We worship a leader, Jesus the Christ, who was executed naked in public on a cross, even though for the sake of modesty painters have draped his genitals in a loin cloth (often low hanging). The figure of the nude Christ is displayed in churches as a focus of devotion, especially Catholic ones.
Many saints and martyrs were stripped naked in public for purposes of humiliation, torture, death, and regarded this as glorifying Christ.
These kinds of images, displayed publicly mostly in Catholic churches, suggest that there’s nothing inherently wrong with the nude body in Christian teaching. See Frank Answers About Nude Art in Churches.
By the way, in English there is some confusion and overlap with the words “naked” and “nude.” I take “naked” to be fully disclosed. “Nude” suggests that there is always something more to be revealed. So, for example, swimming without a swimming suit should really be called “naked” because you could see the swimmer’s total body. But in paintings and photographs you cannot see the whole body. Hence, they are “nudes.” But these distinctions elude people and the terms have become interchangeable.
Now, as to the kinds of events you mention…
Gay Pride events are going on all during the month of June in cities around the world. There is a lot of showing of skin in Gay Pride events, but in public events such as parades not total nakedness. Exposing genitals, for example, would be illegal in many places. (In the U.S. this varies from place to place.) Furthermore, costumes are in abundance in Gay Pride parades. But some Christians do participate in Gay Pride parades to show their support for the civil rights of GLBTQ+ people. (See Frank Answers About Gay Pride, which includes my own experience of marching in a gay pride parade with other church members.) In many Gay Pride parades the usual costume is wearing underwear.
The World Naked Bike Ride usually takes place on the day of the summer solstice (June 21). Again, there may be restrictions in some places. But this is for the noble cause of reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere by increasing bike riding and decreasing automobile driving. We have had the Naked Bike Ride on a summer evening in Chicago for many years and I do believe that some environmentally conscious Christians have participated in it. Both women and men can be naked in public in the annual naked bike ride. Both men and women are given permission to bare all for the cause and enjoy the freedom of riding through town naked.
There is another environmentally conscious activity you don’t mention. That is the World Naked Hiking Day, which might also occur on or around June 21. In the U.S. there are two known organized naked hikes on the Appalachian Trail in the eastern U.S. and on the Pacific Rim Trail in the western U.S. Public nakedness (total nudity) is forbidden in many parks. But Americans may not know that nude camping and hiking is allowed in national parks and national forests and on trails as long as hikers are courteous to one another (which they usually are).
Your question concerns “public nakedness,” so this would preclude private facilities such as nudist or naturist camps, which some Christians go to even with families. Christians were actually among the pioneers of the naturist movement. Designated “clothing optional” beaches would presumably be public. In northern Europe (Germany and the Nordic countries) most beaches are clothing optional or at least have designated areas that are. (I note that these are mostly Lutheran countries.) There are many such beaches around the Mediterranean. I’m not sure how many clothing optional beaches there are in the U.S., although I know that there are some in Florida, California, and New Jersey. Tourists report clothing optional beaches in the Caribbean islands and Mexico.
I detect, my Latino friend, that you are interested and may have some concerns from your religious upbringing. Well, this Christian pastors tells you to go an enjoy being in the natural state in which you came into the world in natural places where laws and customs allow for it.
Carnival
Carnival is a big celebration throughout Latin America before the beginning of Lent and it has an explicitly Christian origin. Carne vale means “farewell to the meat,” and refers to the beginning of the Lenten Fast. That’s why Carnival occurs on the days before Ash Wednesday. Especially in the warmer climates costumes are very skimpy as well as very elaborate. Whether all the revelers are practicing Christians is hard to say, but the chances are that many of them are. Here are photos of Carnival from various Latin American countries. Carnival celebrants are usually not completely naked, but it is the nature of Carnival to emphasize body (eating, fasting, dressing up, dressing down). Certainly Carnivale is known to you in Mexico.
Carnival is a little bolder in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
The Carnival most known in the U.S. is Mardi Gras (“farewell to the meat”) before the Lenten fast begins. In the 1970s a group of nudists who attended Mardi Gras in their natural costumes picked up on the custom of the king of Mardi Gras of throwing beads as fake jewelry to revelers by offering beads to revelers if they would flash fresh, whether boobs or butts. Now women will flash their boobs to any and all in exchange for beads.
Christian Naturalists
You may also be interested to know that there are Christian naturists who may attend nudist camps. Admittedly, these camps are closed to the public. But they are open to those who register to attend. In any event, they are witnessing to the natural goodness of the body God created and also to freedom from conventions, unwarranted restraints, and anxieties. “For freedom Christ has made us free!” (Galatians 5,1).
We know from the Gospels that Jesus himself and the Apostles felt no false shame in laying off their dress (see for instance John 21:7). Jesus and his followers must have washed themselves in the Jordan or other ponds, undressing as they did so. Also, people were baptized naked in the ancient church and still are in the Eastern churches.. Christians have been in the forefront of the naturist movement. There is nothing that prevents Christians from appearing naked in public on appropriate occasions and in appropriate venues other their personal sense of modesty.
