I have always said that if anyone at church ever questions me about me being a nudist, I would not run from it, but I would be honest with them about it.
Well, thanks to accidentally posting a tweet about my "interview" on Naturist Wanderings, and not realizing that I had done that, I got a text message from one of our assistant pastors, saying "Interesting tweet". Once I realized that it was tweeted, I deleted that tweet. I ended up calling him later that day, and told him that, yep, I'm a nudist. He, being a pastor in a conservative baptist church, did what I expected him to do, he said that he would like to meet with me. Here is the link to the interview:
http://www.nakedwanderings.com/2016/11/ ... s-rob-usa/Well, we met, and of course one of his first comments was that "this is so far out there, that I didn't know who to turn to for advise, so I contacted a friend that is a Christian counselor", his first question to me was, has there ever been any abuse in my life!!! This FLOORED ME! There has never been any abuse in my life. I started developing an interest in nudity as early as an 11 year old, and it's continued to develop from then.
Now this pastor and I are friends, and we were able to talk for about an hour in his office. He listened to what I had to say, but was not in agreement.
Rewind about 8-10 years, while struggling over if I should indeed follow the nudist life, as a Christian, I had been praying for a few years over this. One day while driving to a mid-week service, I was praying, when I heard a voice in my car, saying "I am not concerned with whats on the outside of man, but rather what's inside his heart". I mentioned this to my pastor friend, and he took the stance that "what, now you're a prophet?" I was nervous during this entire meeting, and didn't think about this comment until afterwards, but the voice, which I took as God speaking to me, wasn't giving me a prophecy, but was answering a pray, or in this case, many, many prayers. I will bring this up to him later on. He wants to meet at least 2 more times with me, once just between us, and once with my wife (who fully knows and has joined me at a few nudist clubs/resorts).
He asked me how I had actually come to feel that the nudist lifestyle is something that a Christian, and I told him, that I have studied God's word, trying to find where simple social nudity was a sin, and I found nothing, and in fact I found that Isaiah 20:1-4 actually confirms in my mind that simple social nudity is not a sin (this is where God commands Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot for 3 years, as a sign). I told him that my feeling is, God cannot command someone to sin, and commanding Isaiah to walk naked for 3 years as a sign to others (so he was naked in public), tells me that simply social nakedness or nudity, is not a sin. His reply to this was, "well, why did he have Isaiah walk naked for three years, to show the shame of captivity, and nakedness".
Now to be fair and honest, this all pretty much hit him from the blind side, and he didn't have a chance to really look into what I was saying. He wasn't attacking me, but was trying to defend his "old school" stand that nudity is sinful, period. I'm hoping that our next meeting, he'll may start to see that simple nudity isn't sexual, and that it really isn't any different than other so called "gray areas" in the Christian faith.
He gave me a "home work" assignment, of 4 pages of bible verses and references of nudity/nakedness in the bible, and would like for me to just write down a few words describing just what that verse is saying. There is also an article (I haven't gotten to that part of the package yet) about the subject of nakedness as a Christian.
It was funny, but a few nights ago, I couldn't sleep, following being woken up by my dog. As I was lying in bed, thinking about a few things, this whole subject came to mind, and I was actually firing on all cylinders, thinking of things that I could bring up in our next meeting, however I didn't write anything down, and I ended up going back to sleep. Now I can't remember the items I was coming up with! lol, oh well, they'll come to me.
In the mean time, I could sure use your prayers, as I go in to another meeting with him. At this time, it isn't scheduled, but I'm sure it will be in the next month or so. Specifically I could use clarity of mind, so I can think clearly, bringing out the points that I would like to make, and clearly defend any thing that is brought to me. Also to remember that this pastor is a friend, and is only looking out for my best interest in having me meet with him, and that I don't do anything to hurt that friendship. Also, that I may be willing to listen to what he has to say, because I can't go into the meeting with a predetermined mindset I'm 100% right and he is 100% wrong, and nothing is going to change my mind. I also ask that he will also go into the meeting with that same mindset.