Are Nudists Nuts?

By ELTON R. SHAW

E. G. Homrighausen, Staff Correspondent for The Christian Centuary of Chicago for Indianapolis, Indiana, in a dispatch dated April 8th., quoted "Billy" Sunday as saying: "Nudists Are Nuts; take them to Africa and let them run around with baboons and the monkeys."

If Nudists are nuts then:

1. Isaiah was a "nut". The Lord told Isaiah to be a nudist and Isaiah was one for three years. Nakedness among the prophets was very common and they were a combination of statesman, reformer, theologian. preacher and author. The twentieth Chapter of Isaiah describes the Lord speaking to Isaiah and telling him to go and loose the sackcloth off his loins and the shoes off his feet and Isaiah did so, going naked and barefoot.

In the year that Tartan came into Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; At the same time the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sack-cloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walked naked and barefoot.

And the LORD said, "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered. to the shame of Egypt.

And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory." (Isaiah 20, 2-5)

Thus by the prophet walking naked and barefoot three years was the shameful captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia prefigured.

2. King Saul was a "nut". That nudity was common among the prophets is made clear also by I. Samuel. 19: 24, King Saul visited the prophets and the story concludes "And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?"

3. Jesus was a "nut." There is no doubt that when John baptized in the Jordan, Jesus and the others went down into the Jordan nude. This called for no comment at that time. It was entirely in harmony with the time and customs and was acceptable to all as a matter of course. Consider the clothing of that period. It would have been ridiculous to have done other-wise. (See Rainey, "The Ancient Catholic Church," Page 448.)

4. Disciples were "nuts." Nudity in some occupations was common. When the disciples were busy with their fishing nets and boats they often were nude. Evidently they saw nothing improper in disrobing when they could be more comfortable without their clothing. These interesting incidents are proof that even among the Jewish people the idea of the obscenity of the human body was not universal. Some evidently realized that uncleanness and obscenity were really in the mind of the beholder rather than in the body beheld.

5. Early Christians were "nuts." Historians on the early church tell us in the outdoor ceremonies the rite of baptism was administered to the candidates in the nude. (Rainey, "The Ancient Catholic Church," Page 448.) Up to the thirteenth century baptisms in rivers and lakes were always done in the nude, both sexes together, and the nude body was oiled afterwards. Liturgical bathing before the great feasts was always done in the nude. It is true that the early Christians were segregated from the heretics but they established their own baths and they enjoyed their nude bathing. The early Christians also had innumerable paintings of nude bodies in the catacombs and nudity was associated with purifying ceremonies.

6. Many outstanding ministers of our day are 'nuts."

a. The outstanding pioneer in German nudism was a Lutheran minister.

b. The best handbook on nudism in England is by Rev. C. E. Norwood, pastor of Congregational Church in Southwold, Suffolk, and son of pastor of City Temple, London. He says: "Mankind must lose the fear of being naked: the fear of being seen naked: and the fear of seeing others naked. They must put behind them the fear of others knowing that they have repudiated in thought and practice, the old unclean idea of the body.

c. In France one of the strongest advocates of nudism is Rev. Father Sertellanges, disstinguished professor in the Catholic Institute of Paris.

d. Dean Emeritus William Ralph Inge of St. Pauls Cathedral in London has advocated nudism as a great social progress movement.

7. Scores of the outstanding psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, philosophers and scholars in other fields are "nuts",—Havelock Ellis, scholar and philosopher; Doctor C. E. M. Joad, head of the Department of Philosophy, University of London; Doctor Maurice Parmelee, sociologist and author of international standing; Stuard Chase, sociologist and author: Doctor Frank wood F. Williams, fifteen years Medical Director Mental Hygiene Association and Editor Mental Hygiene; the late Doctor Howard Crosby Warren, Editor of the Psychological Review and head of the Department of Psychology at Princeton; Harry Elmer Barnes, sociologist and economist; Arthur Garfield Hayes, lawyer; Mary Ware Dennett, specialist in sex education and author; Upton Sinclair: statesman and author: Poultney Bigelow, historian, author and statesman; Doctor Pierre Vachet, the great Scholar and Psychologist of France; Judge Ben B. Lindsey; Ernest Thompson Seton; Doctor Christian Alban Ruckmick, Professor of Psychology at the University of Iowa; Doctor Robert Lator Dickinson, Senior gynecologist and obstetrician of Brooklyn Hospital; Doctor Lewis Madison Ferman, head of the Department of Psychology in Stanford University; Professor John C. FluegeI of University of London and scores of others equally prominent. These people insist that this movement to abolish the superstition of the body taboo is the first real ray of light in many centuries on the sex question. They insist that the movement is a great educational and social force for good and hold that actual results already justify their claim that the movement is one of great social progress and moral betterment. They insist that when the entire body becomes familiar, the unnatural thrill that the average person gets from the sight of it will be at an end and one will contemplate it without shock. Mystery and taboo alone have never made the sight of the body hurtful to anyone.

They take the position that boys and girls should learn to know the anatomy of the other sex while they are very young, knowledge which would greatly help instead of hinder their proper development.

No, Billy Sunday, the nudist are no "nuts". The "nuts" are the people whose minds are closed. The "nuts" are the people who are slaves to the superstition of the obscenity of the human body, the most damaging and damnable superstition the world has ever known.

COMMENTS OF A FEW OF THE "NUTS"

1. Edward Westermarck in the History of Human Marriage (London, 1901), says: "The facts appear to prove that the feeling of shame, far from being the cause of man's covering his body, is. on the contrary, a result of this custom; and that the covering, if not used as a protection from the climate, owes its origin, at least, in a great many cases, to the desire of men and women to make themselves mutually attractive."

2. Thomas Athol Joyce, M. A., O. B. E., Department of Ethnography. British Museum, says in Encyclopedia Britannica: "There is the evidence of competent observers to show that members of a tribe accustomed to nudity, when made to assume clothing for the first time, exhibit as much confusion as would a European compelled to strip in public. This fact, considered together with what has been said above, compels the conclusion that modesty is a feeling merely of acute self-consciousness due to appearing unusual and is the result of clothing rather than the cause."

3. The late Frances Newman remarked: "Nothing is so immodest as modesty."

4. Poultney Bigelow, historian and author: "Modesty begins when the last rag has left the human body."

5. Dr. Robert L. Dickinson, New York City: "As a near-artist, I can conceive of nothing that would make for avoidance of pot-bellies and other acquired deformities as nudity would. As a physician, I can conceive of nothing that would so improve posture."

6. Prof. Lewis M. Terman, Stanford University, California: "Those who are too steeped in the Victorian attitude toward the human body and its functions are right to leave nudity alone. It is my personal belief, however, that the world would be morally cleaner and more sane if all children from the earliest years up were made accustomed to the practice of nudity by the sexes in common."

7. Prof. Christian A. Ruckmick, State University of Iowa: "The practice of nudism has to my mind certain mental as well as physical advantages. First of all, it removes idle and suggestive curiosity ... Only the partly clothed figure of the opposite sex is sexually attractive ... One of the greatest achievements will be on the moral plane. Our greatest incentive to crime and malpractices of all sorts is the urge to do the forbidden thing. Wrongly motivated curiosity has been an enormous factor in the process of sexual wrong-doing. If we can cultivate both a reverence for the marvel of the human body and an increasing understanding of its place and function, education will do much to minimize sinful acts."

8. Ernest Thompson Seton: "All my life I have been in rebellion against clothes. What good are they? Why should we continue such a fearful burden of expense, such a cause of endless annoyance and disease! The prurient mind is the sensual mind. Clothing tends to make men bad."

9. Judge Ben B. Lindsey: "Clothes are one of the most fruitful sources of the sex obsessions that possess us. I wish the day might come when we might strip every stitch from our bodies anywhere at any time without-shame."

10. Dr. Edward Crosby Warren, Princeton University: "The practice of nudity is undoubtedly of esthetic value, since the human form, in its more perfect types, is an object of beauty. We have long recognized this fact by displaying the nude body in painting and sculpture. But neither a painting nor a statue can equal the beauty of the human figure itself. Furthermore, the human body in action, as in a graceful dance, or in athletic exercise, brings additional elements of esthetic enjoyment to the spectator. It is true that nudity may frequently accentuate bodily defects; but I am inclined to believe that, except in cases of glaring malformations or injuries, the general effect of an ugly body is no more displeasing when nude than when draped."