Naked and Ashamed: Dealing with It

Ancient Faith Ministries ^ | March 15, 2021 | Fr. Stephen Freeman

[Carpe Cerevisi]

The Scriptures record that Adam was ashamed and hid. It’s a primal response. Shame is experienced as a burning sense of exposure and vulnerability. It begs to be clothed upon and hidden. It is possible to say that human beings have been playing “dress-up” ever since. This can be understood in a literal manner as we wrap ourselves in fashion statements or tattoo identities on our skin. It can also be seen in an extended manner as we borrow identities from the various “tribes” with which we identify ourselves. In a very personal way, it is a thought that enters our head as we prepare to meet strangers, and even those whom we know, as we think about how we want to be seen and evaluated. It can be a minor distraction, or threaten to shut us down completely.

Many of our modern behaviors cluster around this reality. The more common, natural elements with which human beings have traditionally clothed themselves have either been radically modified or completely swept away amid the sea of constant change that marks our culture. I am encountering a growing number of young people (Middle School and above) who have lost confidence in their own gender, unsure whether it should be accepted at face value or traded in for one of the newer ways of being. That something so fundamental should be so easily questioned makes it little wonder that almost nothing else holds a grounded value. Today’s cultural clothing could become tomorrow’s naked shame.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

The latest from Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog.

[baclava]

Except now instead of marking ourselves to feel a part of a tribe, an individual choice, you have the tribe forcing changes on you.

Time to be an outcast again, lol

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

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[Red6]

This shame is taught. Babies don’t feel ashamed of their nakedness. There are many people around the earth that are naked on top, or naked on bottom and do not feel ashamed. A long time ago, Michael Angelou painted naked people and it was for the church, sculptors made naked statues and it was in commission of the church. The bare breasted women belonging to Arminius’s men didn’t feel sexy nor ashamed...

There is such a thing as a consciousnesses. There are universal ideas of right and wrong. But this guy is obfuscating a conscious which is somehow hard wired into us either biologically or from God, and mixing that up with the idea of being naked which is taboo from “his” personal cultural vantage point. There are folks that do the same with alcohol and tobacco and pretend the Bible tells them they are right.

But I do not wish to engage in a argument over “how many angels and dance on the tip of a pin,” and that is what these sort of arguments always degenerate into. But one thing is for sure - I can find you many people in time and around the world that do not share his view of shame with nakedness, even the Bible doesn’t really say this (typical cherry picking), just like giving the other cheek is misinterpreted today, etc etc etc.

He is right in so far when “nakedness” goes into the realm of lust. When the human body becomes either worshipped like an idol (some narcissistic body builder), or sexualized in porn. However, the naked body by itself is not sin. These sort of debates turn into how much of an ankle can a decent women show in her hot 50 pound dress. In Victorian times when they stank (didn’t bathe except a few times a year), and covered up with powder, wigs, and perfume, they were very “decent.” Sound like an argument by taking it to absurdity? Not really. Why do you think 40% of the US population has a vitamin D deficiency?

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-Consumer/

Then again, you can always swallow a bunch of pills, because that is so “natural” and surely what our body was designed for. Or you can tell folks living hundreds of miles from the ocean to eat more fish, because that’s so natural.

Your body wants the sun. It kills fungus, bacteria, and viruses. UV light kills most stuff you don’t want growing on your feet (why do you think foot fungus is so prevalent in Western society) where we wear moist dark and warm shoes all the time?

I’m happy for him (and I sincerely mean that), that he feels confident that he found God and what he thinks is the righteous path. He just needs to be careful not to become self-righteous. I go to naked coed spa’s all the time with my wife when in Europe (would never dare do that here - too many weirdos that prove him right). There is zero sexual. I’m sure I’m a sinful parent because I taught my daughter to go out and get morning and evening sun (not direct it cooks the skin) and I think she does this to this day. Sorry I don’t feel ashamed or get aroused (I’m sure those not agreeing with him are perverts and motivated by sin). It’s good for you, and like almost EVERYTHING in life, it can be made bad. You can frigging eat your self to death with gluttony, and what do you think much of the high cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and gerd are caused by today? Food and water can be a sin.