Why is nudity offensive?
I can't speak for anyone else but, I find most nudity offensive for a number of reasons. The chief one being that, outside of marriage, it is someone willfully revealing their physical sexuality to one or more people whom they are not married to. Apart from the fact that this person is sharing their sexuality on a visual level with people whom it is inappropriate to do so, they are willfully committing an act that causes others to sin. I find this offensive. Unless it's an emergency situation or I am just plain turned off by her, if a woman is standing naked in front of me, willfully revealing herself, then I am going to have sexual thoughts in my mind whether I want them there or not. I'm inclined to believe that most men (probably women as well) would be prone to have the same reaction.
I have no problem with the human body. It is the most amazing and beautiful thing God ever created. But, like it or not, human nature and inclination is to sin. If nudity were the norm, how many men and women would have to do as Jesus instructed and literally "gouge" out their own eyes and be blind just so they could walk through the grocery store without sinning? I'm a dude with the mother of all libidos, waging a war to hold onto my virginity for my future wife. I've got more problems than I can deal with in this sex-charged society. What I don't need is for every woman in the world to suddenly start walking around naked. If that happened, my best bet would be to go jump off of a cliff before my head imploded.
Another reason I find public nudity offensive is that it's a blatant, instantaneous, in-your-face revealing of the most private and intimate aspects of, a persons physical being. To be as blunt as I can (hopefully without being crude): If you do not give me permission to see your sex organs, then I should not be allowed to see them. Likewise, If I do not give you permission to show your sex organs to me (or my kid!!!), then you should not be allowed to show them. I imagine people can come up with all manner of cunning and crafty arguments, theories, and philosophies to counter this but it doesn't really matter because, fortunately, most of the rest of the world holds the same view that I do.
Situations where I would not be offended by nudity:
- If I ever get a wife and we are alone together
- An emergency situation (as previously mentioned)
- Seeing someone else or they seeing me by accident
- A medical situation or other situation where it's necessary
- A gym locker room where it really isn't feasible or remotely practical for everyone to have their own personal private space
A couple of situations where I would definitely be offended:
- If it's Big Bubba behind the counter at Burger King wearing absolutely nothing but one of those goofy paper crowns on his head, flipping Whoppers and deep frying taters, all while huge slimy beads of sweat are rolling off his chest hairs and his hardware down below is flopping and dangling out in the open air of the kitchen, then you better believe I'm going to be offended. In fact, my first inclination would be to grab a club, hop over the counter, and just make that insanity stop however I could.
- Someone exposing their nakedness to my kid (or any child). If I saw that happening I do not know if I would be able to stop myself from trouncing them or not. I would very likely kick their naked rear end up one side of the street and down the other and stomp a mud hole into them before covering them with a blanket.
People mention that Adam and Eve were naked in the garden of Eden and it was OK. Well of course they were naked and it was OK! Apart from the fact that their eyes hadn't been opened to sin and evil yet, they were a newly wedded husband and wife, who were all by themselves, in the privacy of their own home, with absolutely no other people around. Why would they be anything other than naked?
There aren't any accounts in the Bible of Jesus willfully parading around naked in front of others. I've always been under the impression that we are to follow His example. If The King of Kings and Lord of Lords never saw fit, found a reason, nor had occasion to willfully disrobe in public, I seriously doubt anybody else has a valid reason or justification for doing so either. As far as Jesus being unclothed at the crucifixion, that wasn't something he did to himself, it was something that was done to him for the purposes of humiliation and degradation.
