Conference moira::naturism

    I don't think too much of Geraldo, but that's one show I'm
    sure I won't miss! Thank goodness I've got a VCR !
    Thanks for passing along the information.
    
    					Darrell
    

    
    	So, how many of you saw "A Current Affair" last night?  They
    had a really neat segment on Paradise Lakes in Florida.  Although
    they didn't show any fronts (TV censors again), they did show quite
    a few behinds !  All in all, it was very informative, and tried
    to correct the false interpretations of nudity=sex.  One of the
    female nudists summed it up like this:
    
    	"If you're wondering about it... then you should give it a
    try.  There's nothing to be scared of.  It gives you a feeling of
    freedom, and in this day and age there's not a whole lot that can
    make you feel free."  :-)    I think the show was really well done.
    
    						Darrell
    

    Did anyone make a copy of the segment?  If so, could I possibly
    borrow it, please?
    
    B.
    

    Yes, I did make a copy on my VCR.  What's your address ?
    I don't think there would be too much trouble sending it across
    the border, do you ? 
    	
    					Darrell
    
    P.S. You've got to promise to send it back !
    
    

    Did anyone happen to see Huraldo Revera (sp?) yesterday 2/2?
    I've been home sick with the flu all week and thus I have
    had the choice of sleeping, game shows, or talk shows. 
    (big choice huh) Anyway I turned on Huraldo (sp?) and 
    found that he was taking on the cotroversial subject of 
    Naturism, Nudism  etc... 
    Well any way he filmed his show (live) from a Nudist resort
    in Palm Springs and to make it even more controversial he invited
    a panel of three individuals representing: Born again Christians.
    
    Well as you can guess the sh*t hit the fan.
    Know, I'm not a born again Christian and I feel that everyone has
    a right to choose their own faith. However according to yesterdays'
    broadcast the church associated panel members declared that
    Nudists, Naturists are corrupting our society and that their
    actions are those of Satan.                    
    
    
    I'm looking for a fellow-Naturist(s) who by all chance may be also
    a Born Again Christian. Is there anyone out there who fits this
    description? I do not wish to start a debate. I'm just curious as
    to if this is the actual stand of this particular faith or if these
    panel members were a little extreme.
    
    
    I'd also love to hear anyone's opinions, input, etc.. on yesterdays
    show (if you saw it). I am not a fan of any talk-shows, however
    both my wife (who's also conveniently home sick) and I truly enjoyed
    this particular show.
    
    
    Greetings to all     
    
    "ss"
    

I, for one, am not a `born again Christian'.  If you have read the 
Native_Americans conference, you probably found out where I stand.

We taped the Nudism Geraldo show.  We watched it today, while eating
lunch (watched at home, in the privacy of our kitchen...I'm home sick 
today).  Found it to contain alot of the same feelings we have as 
naturists, as nudism is wholesome, we are born naked, the sun bathes
us which is a life source for everything God put on this earth, etc.

What made me smile and chortle to myself was the religious group that
was represented on the show...Assembly of God.  As many of you know,
my father-in-law was a nudist and would partake in joining us in being
nude at Valley View and while hiking.  The minister who officiated at 
my Dad's memorial service was from an Assembly of God church.  When we
asked Dale (the minister) if he would help us with the service, he said
he would out of respect and love for Dad.  My father-in-law also respected
Dale quite a bit since he was able to give benedictions to open a meeting
they both attended, that did not contain an over zealous amount of 
religious overtones.  I wonder if Dale would still respect Dad if he knew 
Dad was a nudist? ;-)

Judy

    My usual retort to people who put down nudism is:
    
    	Are so ashamed of what God gave you (your body) that you have
    	to keep it covered up?
    
    I don't go nuding all the time, but I'm not ashamed of my body.
    I don't find it acceptable that other people try to impose their "highly
    moral standards" on the rest of us.
    
    consider this...
    
    If someone wears short sleeves and expose their arms, is that person
    considered "obscene" because they exposed their arms?
    What if they wore a tank top?
    What if they took off their socks?
    What if they wore shorts?
    ...and so on...different people will say different things about
    where "decency" ends.  The reasons are usually emotion and not
    logical; they never take location and situation into account.

    I think that the problem that some Christians have with Nudity is their
    association of Nudity with Sex. This is not helped by the Revised
    Standard Version of the Bible (RSV) translating a Hebrew phrase as
    'Uncover his/her Nakedness' when the reference is clearly to a sexual
    relationship, or nudity with the intention of sex. One modern
    translation replaces the phrase with 'having sexual relations'.

    I think that most Christians are biased against nudity for social
    reasons, but if they knew the aims and ideals of the Naturist movement
    and were able to free them selves from their prejudices they would
    accept nudity as Natural. 
    
    My favourite Bible phrase about nudity is in Genesis 2:25 referring
    to Adam and Eve before the fall when they were perfect it says "The
    man and the woman were naked but they were not ashamed", an attitude
    to be encouraged.

Peter

    I've always wondered...
    
    Why (in the Bible) was it okay for Adam and Eve to be naked before
    their fall but not afterwards?  I never understood this.
    
    Ben
    

    Hmmm...?
    
    Does that mean that they didn't get hurt in the Garden of Eden?
    
    B.
    

    re: .10 (Jay)
    
>    It's quite obvious to me ... before the fall, neither Adam nor Eve
>    understood how delicate the body was.  Afterwards, they came to
>    understand about bruises, cuts, and contusions, along with the need
>    for 'protective' clothing.
>    
>    Don't you see it this way?
    
    	   Not at all,  The classic image of the clothed couple has 
    	them wearing fig leaves over their groins.  This hardly 
    	constitutes "protective clothing", unless one needs protection
    	only from light.  I assure you, fig leaves do little to 
    	prevent bruises, cuts, and contusions.
    
    	   No, the Bible states that when they ate of the fruit they
    	looked down, saw that they were naked, and were ashamed.  I
    	read this to mean they were ashamed to be naked in the eyes
    	of God.  Shame, therefore, was the penalty they paid for their
    	sins.  Lack of shame is, therefore, a more devine frame of
    	mind.
    
    	- Greg

    
       My thoughts on the Geraldo show:
    
    	1)  The show was too rushed. It didn't seem as if the people
       speaking were being given enough time to get their message
       across. And there were way too many "2-minute breaks".
    
    	2)  While the qualifications of the naturist "panel" seemed
       appropriate, I would have liked to have seen better spokespersons
       up on that stage. Our own Neil Faiman and some of the other noters
       in this conference would have done a much better job of a) getting
       the naturist point-of-view across, and b) properly debated the
       anti-naturist arguments brought up by the other panel.
    
    	3)  Speaking of the other panel, what a bunch of idiots! None
       of them could provide a decent argument against naturism -- not
       that they were really given the opportunity.
    
    	4)  One of the anti-naturist panel (the "larger" woman wearing
       black) seemed to be saying that here views about naturists/naturism
       had been slightly modified by her experiences at the resort and
       through speaking with the members, but again Geraldo wouldn't
       let her get a word in to expand on it.
    
    	5)  Do those people know the word hypocrit (sp?). Here you have
       one lady saying that parents who bring their kids to a naturist
       or nudist environment are committing child abuse, and in the
       background scenes you can see (on the anti-naturist side) kids
       running around while there are naked people on the stage! Also,
       Geraldo stated that there were no kids in the audience because
       of the "delicate" child abuse topic. (I suppose he meant no
       naturist children.)
    
    	6)  I feel sorry for the group of people who had to stay in
       the pool all day. I hope they were using a good sun-screen. :-)
    
    	7)  I suppose the gentleman who, near the end of the show, decided
       to disrobe ("I won't knock it till I've tried it", were his words),
       was allowed to do so for the "shock" value. It is, after all,
       ratings sweep month. In any event, I felt that was too stupid to
       have been included in the show.
    
       If anyone reading this has connections at CBS, how about trying
    to get Dan Rather to do a "48 Hours" segment on naturists? Now that
    would be an interesting show, and it would certainly be executed
    in a much more professional manner than the Geraldo show.
    
    
    Frank
    

    
>       If anyone reading this has connections at CBS, how about trying
>    to get Dan Rather to do a "48 Hours" segment on naturists? Now that
>    would be an interesting show, and it would certainly be executed
>    in a much more professional manner than the Geraldo show.

	Sorry, no connections at CBS, but Right On!  I so agree with you.
However, I can't see someone like Dan Rather or any of the other big anchor
men or women, trying to tackle the subject of naturism without some fear of 
it hurting their reputation.  None of the big news anchor people are willing
to take on stories on the lighter side of life, they are more concerned on
reporting about Earthquake fatalities, Political Campaign Races, War in the
Middle East, Libya (sp?) building chemical warfare factories, revolutions in
South Africa, get the idea ?  While doing a story on naturism might appeal
to them, it just doesn't get the oooommmph (or the ratings) that the other
stories would.  Geraldo on the other hand, survives only by contraversial
issues in a talk show environment.  He plays the devil's advocate by "trying"
not to take sides, and clearly annoys to no end, people on both sides of
each debate, heck, he annoys ME most of the time.  Maybe that's why some 
people like to watch his show every day, they just want to tune in to find
another reason to hate the guy.  Can you see Geraldo reporting on let's say,
the Space Shuttle disaster ?  I don't think anyone would have taken him
seriously.

	Anyways, isn't it funny that the only people they could get together
for a "panel" oppossed to naturists, were from the Assembly of God Church !
There are so many religons and beliefs around the world, that I treated it 
just as another example of religous fanatics trying to shovel their version
of moral standards down our throats.  Yuck!  Gag me with a yardstick !

						Darrell