Naturism and Religion

[didi]

Thanks for the post Jeep, it really makes you want to investigate further. I sometimes wonder how much hurt and guilt have been bestowed upon people by politics within religion...

I am a Christian, but I\'ve had major issues with the church I was brought up in. On the one side they preached love and acceptance and on the other they judged people left, right and centre for their race, sexual orientation etc. (In South Africa the church had a readily available answer to justify Apartheid which they managed with their own interpretation of the Bible ) I just realized early on that the Bible was misused in many different ways and so I decided to go my own way, build up a personal relationship with God based on a gut feel of what each one of us know to be right or wrong.

I\'ve been interested in Revelations and prophecy for quite some time and have been following world events and what has been predicted 2000 years ago with some amazement. In my opinion there\'s definitely a lot of substance and more than enough reason to sit up and take notice, but enough about that... having read books like the Davinci Code, attended lectures on Greek Mythology etc. I\'ve realized that a hell of a lot of politics have gone into our Christian faith and it makes me wonder how many of the sins that are ruining peoples lives are in fact real sins in Gods eyes?

I\'m thinking about sex before marriage, being gay or walking around naked... are they true sins or just politics that where worked into our faith over time?

Wonderful substance for debate!!!

Didi

[Pinkerbell]

Didi-
I completely understand about the whole \" preaching love and peace\" and then \" your going to hell for this\" yeah i grew up all around it. Its one reason i dont go to church today much. ( much to my parents sadness) I got really sick and tired of hearing the hypocritcal crap they preached some places. Granted- my pastor now isnt like that. But i  just dont go for my own reasons.
And if sex before marriage and walking around nudes are sins that i could go to hell for - well reserve me a seat at the front of the line!
But really, most churches or places of worship are very two sided when it comes to the way they teach. Its sad really that they just cant preach wha tthey are sent there to preach, they have to let their own personal feelings get in the way. Which is what happens a lot of the time!

[jeep]

I felt many of the same things you seem to have, and being brought up Roman catholic, and seeing so much hypocracy i felt there must be something more to the whole thing and that what is tought today can\'t possibly be what was intended by Jesus or god.
    My interest in history generally got me thinking that the best way to find out what gods real words were would be to find out the earliest possible teachings as they should be less affected by mans interpretations and the  political agendas that have raised thier heads over the centuries.
   The mention of the Divinchi Code brings to mind the way Mary Magdeline was portrayed as a prostitute to defame her. There has always been a myth that a few hundred years after Christ the early Christian church gathered together all the writings and teachings of the time and basically censored them to reflect the path they wanted the religion to follow. Aparently 26 volumes were reatined and were to become the first testament. The reamainder were ordered to be destroyed. The priests ordered to carry out this task felt uncomfortable destroying the words of god so Buried them instead. About 1600 years later a chap in egypt dug up a earthen jar that turned out to contain many volumes of leather bound papyrus books all in anchient script.
   These were taken home where some were used to get the fire going and others dished out to friends as some sort of souvineer. Eventually the find raised interest and i think some of the books were found, investigated and translated (Now into various languages) and are believed to be some of those volumes that were meant to be destroyed (They are presently preserved in isreal).
    Among other things various of the writers mention Mary Magdeline in a far more important light and it all points towards her being one of jesus fellow preachers (And women did preach with jesus in his day as he originally taught that man and woman were equal) and possibly one of his key deciples. Interstingly enough the time of this censorship and the defamation of mary coincides well with the Churches drive to ensure the Christian faith was a male run affair just as the other paternal based Hebrew and Jewish religion had done before them. The last thing they wanted was a woman being worshiped as that smacked of a the goddess type worship of the \"Old religion\" or pagans who of course they were trying to convert everyone from, and appart from the male based angle they wanted to promote, having Mary in the mix just made it harder to ween everyone off those old religions. Even today many times Christians tell me that Roman catholics are not Christian becouse of thier reverance for Mary the Mother of Christ.
    One thing i have learnt in my study of this subject is that most religions have been compromised by hundreds of years of mans political agendas (Take the Church of England on divorce, thats the word of Henry the 8th, not god.) and what is tought now is quite removed in some areas from what was intended by the first deciples of them. But this search for the true word of god has actually lead me to discolver the earlier faith of my celtic ancestors which although very misunderstood (Yet again due to defamation to dissuade followers) is far less open to pollitical manipulation by its nature.

[geog1]

Hi

 I am Catholic as well. Anybody else here both a nudist and a practicing Catholic?

[Anonymous]

Hi

 I am Catholic as well. Anybody else here both a nudist and a practicing Catholic?

Yeah me!

I am a catholic and go to a catholic school, but ive not been to chapel for ages, probs since christmas

[Anonymous]

I agree a lot of churches are hypocritical or condemning. But I think that\'s more an issue of personal pride polluting faith, rather than because of religion itself. Actually, I consider myself a believer, not \"religious\" as I think of religious in the context of rules and rituals that I don\'t believe Christ came to promote. I believe in a personal relationship with God, not a list of do this or don\'t do that that you have to constantly strive to live up to, because none of us will. It\'s all about grace, and humans don\'t seem to be very graceful at times, especially in organized things such as politics and religion.

[joush]

being naked is not a sin in of it self. sex before mariage is. the difference is that in the bible it sais so. i doesn\'t say anything about being naked as a sin. it never says anything about picking your noes, but i could make an argument that it\'s a sin, if i disregaurd the bible.

[Wolf]

sex before mariage is.

not in all religions.