Nudity and Corporate Worship

I just found this thread by a young naturist on the site \"Naturist-Christians-Org\", in the forum. I thought it might be of interest to some of the punters on here (Rob notwithstanding), because earlier in the year I performed at Australia\'s first naturist Easter vigil headed by pastor Robert Wright. He has courted much controversy with the secular and naturist media alike with his ambitions to set up a nudist Christian fellowship in Brisbane, of which I am supportive.
Anyway, here is what the original poster wrote:

\"I realize I\'m sticking my neck out here. There are many naturists here who (undoubtedly) subscribe to the notion that corporate worship on the Lord\'s Day (or Saturday Sabbath, for our very own jochanaan) may be conducted appropriately in the nude state.

Note: I am a NATURIST (not an antagonist of naturism) with serious biblical and theological reservations and doubts about the propriety of nude corporate worship.

Nude corporate worship is a theme I am running into more often on the Internet at Christian nudist or naturist websites. I find this troublesome (and eccentric).

But this thread is not intended to present a full-orbed theology to the contrary (soon, I would like to present something more comprehensive for your consideration), but I would like to leave off this post with one item to whet your appetite and challenge you mentally.

My intent is not to divide us, but to challenge us to soberly reflect on and maturely debate the question of the propriety of nude public worship.

Without (for the moment) consulting the Old Testament, one observation I have made is that nudity is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament as normative during Christian assemblies and gatherings (for worship). In fact, there isn\'t even a single instance in which this occurs.

But this isn\'t merely an argument from silence. There are positive statements advancing the idea of clothes-wearing for worship as socially normative. I will close by providing just one example out of several:

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, \'You sit here in a good place,\' and say to the poor man, \'You stand there,\' or, \'Sit here at my footstool,\' have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (Jms.2:2-3)\"

NC25