Christian naturism

Ancient Originally, Jewish mikvahs, and later, early Christian baptisms were performed with individuals naked. This included mass baptisms involving men, women, and children. They signified the participant's restoration to man's original sinless condition, having their sins blotted out. Others claim that children were baptized first, then men, then women, all separately. Public bathing was the common practice through the time of Jesus and still occurs today in a few cultures, including hammams, Victorian Turkish baths, the Finnish sauna, Japanese onsen or , and the Korean . With the exception of the family-focused Finnish sauna, most public baths are gender-segregated today. Entire families took part in the public bath—including Christians. Jesus even preached at the public baths in Jerusalem. Some historic religious sects, both Christian and syncretist, have made nudism a general practice. Probably the best-known of these were the Adamites, though some of their beliefs were contrary to orthodox Christianity. The post-resurrection belief of the unclothed body being evil or sinful may originate in Platonic asceticism (founded largely on the works of ancient Greek philosopher Plato) which was adopted and passed down by "Christian" Platonists in early church history. Platonism is a dualistic theology which proposes a realm of forms to include, on the one hand, "pure ideas", which are good; and, on the other hand, "matter", which is evil. When applied to humans, the soul is necessarily good, and the body is necessarily evil. Therefore, according to this philosophy, our "evil" bodies must be covered by clothing. Christian naturists reject such notions as unbiblical. Modern In the United States, the Christian naturism movement (which was the first naturism movement of any sort in the U.S.) began in the late 1920s. This occurred at nearly the same time as the start of the Great Depression, under the leadership of New Jersey Dutch Reformed minister Ilsley Boone. Initially, he was vice president of the American League for Physical Culture. By October 1931, Boone had taken over as president, and renamed the club as the "American Sunbathing Association" (ASA). Soon, naturism began expanding nationwide. With the beginning of the modern internet in the mid-1990s, Christian Naturism became much more organized in the U.S. than ever before. The website Naturist-Christians.org founded in 1999 is the largest website devoted exclusively to Christian naturism. Annual Christian Nudist Convocations began early in the decade of the 2000s. Vatican In Rome, Pope Pius XI strongly condemned the naturism movement throughout the early 1930s, calling it "paganly immodest". This prompted the head of the New York Legion of Decency, former New York Catholic Governor and presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, to try to outlaw all nudism. A recent court ruling had declared private social nudity to be legal per current law. Eventually, their efforts failed in the state legislature. After Boone's passing in the late 1960s, the ASA became more secular, along with American society in general. In 1994, the ASA was renamed as the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR), which has its headquarters in Florida. Pope John Paul II began his papacy in 1978, becoming the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries. His views on naturism differed substantially from that of his predecessors. Authoring the book Love and Responsibility (1981), he wrote: "Nakedness itself is not immodest[...] Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person, when its aim is to arouse concupiscence, as a result of which the person is put in the position of an object for enjoyment". Nudity and historical Christian sects • Adamites – A sect in North Africa in the 2nd through 4th century that believed they were "re-establishing Adam and Eve's innocence". • ('naked walkers') – A group of 11 Anabaptists in Amsterdam who, on February 11, 1535, stripped and ran naked through the streets proclaiming the "naked truth". They were later executed. • Sons of Freedom – Canadian Doukhobors who performed protests, long treks to return to Russia, some in the nude, to protest materialism. == Bible passages involving nudity ==