Hi Friend,
There are profound concepts that a minister must deal with from time to time. A man in another profession may face the same idea, give it a passing thought, and move on, but the minister has to answer the question. That requires thought about things others might sweep under the rug.
It was more years ago than I want to count that a young couple began attending the church where I was the pastor. We talked about a lot of subjects as they were considering what church they wanted to call home. They had questions. We had several discussions until we came to a question I had never encountered and, to be honest, never thought I would have to answer. They were naturists—meaning they went to places that were “clothing optional” and had actually lived in such a place at one time during their marriage. The candid question they wanted answered was what was wrong with being a naturist—for a human to go without clothes.
It was a question that had never crossed my conscious mind. It just seemed to me that Christians didn’t want to do that sort of thing. My parents would definitely not approve of it, so I grew up knowing it was contrary to our value system. But what was the biblical answer? The new members used the story of Adam and Eve to justify their idea that the first two humans were the original naturists and clothing was an afterthought.
My parents were not prudes. Mom was reared on a farm with eleven siblings along with many cows, horses, chickens and sheep. Their house had everything but an indoor bathroom. By my standards they lived a fairly primitive lifestyle, but even for them the idea of a mature person parading around in the altogether was deeply offensive.
Growing up in in an environment surrounded by farm animals, drawing water from the well and bathing in a number two tub (some readers will know what that is) was a stark contrast from instructions God gave to Moses regarding the way priests should dress. Chapters 27 and 28 of Exodus give detailed instructions for how priests are to dress when approaching the temple. God did not leave it up to the men to choose what they were to wear. God was in the business of designing clothes long before Ralph Lauren ever put his logo on a shirt. The priest’s clothes were elaborate, expensive, and stunningly beautiful.
Why did God do this? Dennis Prager says that “Clothing is a distinctive sign of being human; it sets people apart from animals. Animals walk around unclothed, people should not.” It is significant that the first thing God made for humans was clothes. Most other things man had to learn from experience. Man had to learn how to build a house, prune the plants and plant crops but it was God Himself who sat down in the Garden and sewed skins together to make clothes for these first humans.
It sets humans in the dominant class above animals just as the priests wore special clothes to signify their elevated status. As Prager says, “The single greatest argument against public nudity may not be about sex per se, but about holiness.”
It was God’s choice to give man a privileged position of dominion in this world. The person who is conscious of his high place in creation reflects his respect by covering his body with proper clothing when he appears before God.
Animals don’t build rest rooms to use when they must relieve themselves, so they do it in public. A fire hydrant is sufficient even if cars are passing by. And they leave it to their human owners to carry a plastic bag around to pick up their waste.
When we see people in San Francisco and other large cities defecating in streets and in front of businesses, we are seeing people who live like animals. The greater sin may be committed by those who encourage this behavior by arguing that the rest of the community should accept this lifestyle. By so doing they drag our culture into an uncivilized world.
Maybe that’s why the movement to allow men to participate in women’s sports is so demeaning to the human race. To allow a man to parade around naked in a women’s locker room degrades more than the ladies—it degrades mankind. The University of Pennsylvania has betrayed the trust of citizens that support it. Intellectuals who have become so proud they cannot understand the “holiness of mankind” reflects an unparalleled arrogance that will ultimately lead to destruction. Historically we have referred to such people as barbarians. They aren’t civilized. Civilized people wear clothes. They know the difference between male and female and they respect the rights of individuals to be clothed. But there is that word again—respect. Clothes show respect.
And that brings us back to the reason God required the Priests to dress in the manner He commanded. It was to show respect for God. He was with them, and He demanded it.
It all begins with respect for God. It inevitably follows that such a man will demonstrate his respect for the privilege of being a human. And that will be followed by what we term, self-respect. Like love and marriage—you can’t have one without the other.
The challenge America faces—indeed the world faces, is not whether men can compete in women’s sports. It is whether we are a civilized nation. And if the world implodes into a morass of barbaric behavior, the Four Horsemen of the Book of Revelation are closer than we realize.
Until next time,
Jim O’Brien