205ARGUE

In many pre-Christian pagan religions, such as those practiced in western Europe and Great Britain, nudity-
-especially female nudity--was a powerful force, and played an important role in pagan worship and rituals. 267
172. The Church's aversion to nudity derived, in part, from its roots in the cultures of the ancient Near East,
where nakedness had signified poverty, shame, slavery, humiliation, and defeat. Naked, bound prisoners were
paraded in the king's victory celebration, and slain enemies were stripped of clothing and armor. 268
173. Before Western civilization, nakedness was a normal element of life and considered acceptable in
many circumstances. However, as Freud describes in Civilization and Its Discontents, psychological repression of
the awareness of our natural being was a necessary step in building civilization, by disciplining the masses into
taking part in vast and self-abdicating social projects. 269
Lee Baxandall notes that, by contrast, "the post-industrial, newly greening era offers fresh options, a chance
to integrate the natural human being with post-industrial values, technology, and knowledge." 270
174. Nudity has often been censored primarily to avoid the more difficult task of managing it. 271
175. Recreation managers often "permit" nudity on remote beaches without facilities or lifeguards, then use
nudity as a scapegoat for problems including litter and drug use that inevitably appear in high-use recreation areas
without active management.
176. One of the greatest challenges faced by clothing-optional beaches is that their popularity, combined
with their scarcity, leads to intensive use, which in turn conflicts with environmental and management concerns.
This has been a source of problems at several beaches across the country, including Sandy Hook in New
Jersey, and Cape Cod National Seashore, which closed its traditionally nude beach ostensibly for environmental
reasons in the mid 1970s. 272
177. The "secondary effects" of an actively managed nude beach have in actual experience proven to be
less crime, less inappropriate behavior, no drug dealers, an increase in parking revenues, and an increase in business
in the adjoining commercial area. 273
178. Nudity has often been repressed for economic reasons, not because it was considered immoral.
Bernard Rudofsky writes: "In the 1920s, in some parts of Europe people used to bathe in public without
feeling the need for a special dress. At the height of summer the beaches on the Black Sea swarmed with bathers
who had never seen a bathing suit except in newspapers and picture magazines; their holiday was one of untroubled
simplicity. . . . The idyll came to an end a few years later when tourism reared its ugly head, and the protests of
foreign visitors led to making bathing suits compulsory." 274 The same thing has recently happened in the former
East Germany, where traditionally nude beaches are now being restricted to appease more conservative European
tourists. 275
lost.
179. We must never forget that for any freedom that is lost, we bear partial responsibility for letting it be
In the words of Frederick Douglass: "Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the
exact amount of justice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. . . . The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those who they oppress." 276
Christianity supports Naturism. 277
180. Genesis 1:27--The (naked) human body, created by God, in God's own image, is basically decent, not
inherently impure or sinful. The human body was created by God, and God can create no evil. It is made in God's
image, and the image of God is entirely pure and good.
181. Genesis 1:31--God saw that everything, including naked Adam and Eve, was good.