WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE NUDITY CRAZE?
Shocking news of nudism on College and some High School Campuses throughout the country is being reported more frequently all the time. It would be to shameful to speak in detail of some of the demonstrations we hear or read about. Sometimes one wishes he could make a covenant with his ears as well as his eyes (Job 31:1) and be spared from even knowing about such demoralizing situations. However, this would not change the reality of the situation and would disable us to testify against it.
One is further appalled when we read that “authorities have taken a tolerant view of the ‘spring-time fad’ so far . . .”
This all means that the nation has gone down hill a long, long way since 1907 when at Atlantic City, New Jersey women were not allowed to be on the beach without stockings, and 1920 when in Sarasota, Florida police ordered some women off the street because they were wearing no hose.
But why should we be shocked and appalled that the nation has gone down grade so rapidly? Has not the Church gone even more rapidly down the road of degrading immodesty—and can we say that this is not the reason the world has become so brazen in their nudism and immorality?
In our life time we have seen the larger body of the Church of the Brethren and the larger body of Mennonitism turn aside quickly from beautiful Biblical modesty to ugly worldly immodesty. Many of our acquaintances and loved ones who once dressed modestly are now making bare their legs and uncovering their thighs (Isaiah 47:2) and church authorities, like civil authorities, have not only taken a tolerant view of the “spring-time” (year ‘round) immodesty but speak highly of those who are guilty. Pictures appear continuously in church periodicals of grossly immodest persons who are held up as models of dedication and loyalty to Christ and the Church.
Are they ashamed who commit such abominations and publish them in their papers? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, neither can they blush anymore. The break down of modesty among professing Christians the past ten years or so and the tolerant attitudes and acceptance of it by the Churches has undoubtedly had a weakening effect on the conscience of society. When the salt has lost its savour, the conscience of society is lost and the Church and world together march on headlong into the cesspool of moral corruption and to the final judgment of God.
Those few individuals and Church groups who are continuing to maintain a consistent modest appearance in the home and in areas of public life, along with a consistent life, are quietly giving one of the most powerful testimonies possible in this day of immodesty and immorality. . May we never put this light under a bushel.
Methinks when the immodest world immodest professing Church stand naked frozen before the judgment bar of God have their complete biography unveiled then sentenced to the fiery lake naked bare, they will then blush and wish they received the garment of salvation and symbolized that garment by keeping their bodies well covered.
-Behold I come as a thief. Blessed that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (Jesus Christ).
Aaron M. Shank
May 1974