Challenging Thoughts

I want to talk about something that is very important to me.  It is something I didn't expect to take interest in, something I thought had no merit.  However, I have found joy in learning about it every day and trying to adjust my life to my new knowledge.  It has also brought me much closer to God as I have researched and learned about it. I hope any of you reading this will have an open mind about this as I feebly attempt to explain my reasons for these thoughts.

One of the core doctrines of the church formally known as the LDS or Mormon church is that God has a body, and a body is a gift given to us for coming into this life. 1 The body is the vehicle of every human being to interact with the world, giving us the power to act. A long standing tradition in the church is that the body, because of its sacredness, is something that must be covered up.  One must not view another’s naked body, nor allow their own to be seen, save within marriage. However the avoidance of the nude form is a bane to the core belief we have of the body. Many hypocritical false traditions have been established around the body. Accepting and encouraging common nudity can help resolve and heal the wounds that have come from all these false traditions.

In the scriptures, we learn that Satan was the one to tell Adam and Eve they were naked, not God.  For those who have been to the temple, we know that Satan, not God, told Adam and Eve, “…take some fig leaves and make you aprons. Father will see your nakedness, quick, hide".  God gave them coats of skins to protect them, not to hide them.  Most of the world, led by western culture, tells us to hide the body because it is disgusting and no one should see it.  The church tells us to hide the body because it is sacred and no one should see it.  That seems conflicting in my mind.  Why would we support the actions the world decides on for a completely opposite reason? And on the note of hiding the sacred, we do not hide our temples.  There isn't a covering hiding the physical body of the temple. 2

The culture and traditions surrounding our church and sexuality are complicated at best. Sex is so interlinked with nudity in our minds, even for non-members. This encourages a belief that they are the same. If there is nudity, there must be sex at the same time for one cannot exist without the other. The severity of sins surrounding sexuality is frightening at best. This causes a strong fear of nudity, to the point that we believe we have sinned if we have seen someone naked, or even if we have allowed someone else to se our own naked body. This perpetuates into many marriages among members, where they are supposed to flip a switch in their minds that sex and nudity now is not a bad thing, where before the wedding it was. 3 However if we can separate nudity from being always accompanied with sex, we can remove a lot of the shame that is prevalent around the body.

It is crucial that as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we remove the hypocritical traditions and embrace the doctrine we have in regards to the body.  We must remove the notion that the sight of the physical body requires a sexual reaction. Not only do I believe this will help us feel closer to, and have a greater love for, God, others, and our own beings; but I believe it will help us heal in many ways as we see each other the way that God sees us. It is an impossible task to do so, but I believe in miracles.  I believe that God will give us that miracle if we truly desire it.

There a tradition that we are commanded to wear the garment at all times. I have heard from some that we have covenanted to do so. In the past that may have been true. As of 2023, we hear in the temple that we are "instructed to wear the garment throughout [our] li[ves], and were informed that it will be a shield and a protection to [us], inasmuch as [we] are true and faithful to your covenants." We are also told the garment is a symbol, one of taking on the name of Christ and as a reminder of our covenants.  Our covenants revolve around the commandments, obedience, chastity, and consecration. Previously it was asked in the temple recommend interviews if we wore it "day and night". The wording has since changed to "throughout your life". Contrary to what many members think, I believe it is not there to remind us what rules of modesty we have to be maintaining. It is to be a shield and a protection to us. It is a gift from God to remind us of our covenants.  I feel that wearing the garment nearly 24/7 can lessen our remembrance of the covenants we made. It’s becomes the routine underwear we wear every day. I do not believe that we break our covenants by removing the garment when we decide to do so. The garment is not a covenant, but a blessing that comes from keeping covenants. In the end it is up to each individual member to work out with God the manner in which they wear the garment. 4

Modesty as defined by the church has caused more harm to people than good in my opinion. J. Kirk Richards, who has made art for the church and is an active member, said it best in his blog post: "the careful concealing of the human figure produces a sexual response". The world wants us to get as close to being naked as possible, but not actually naked.  Just enough to make us fantasize about those parts still covered.  This attitude is unintentionally encouraged by the church's view of modesty.  What needs to be understood is that the more you require people to cover up, the more they will be triggered by seeing any reduction from the modest outfit.

The body was the final creation of God in the scriptures, his magnum opus. Why would God be concerned about covering it up so no one can see it?  God wants us to admire and appreciate all the beauty of the earth, yet the most beautiful thing he created, we cannot view or display or, according to tradition, it will cause us to sin, meaning to turn away from God.  How can admiring God's creations draw us away from God?

I have learned a lot about what would happen if we normalized the view of nudity, and try to remove it synonymity with sex. If we teach our children to have a normalized view of the body, they won't be scared of it.  Kids will always be curious about the body and sex.  Unfortunately, most parents are so scared to go near the subject, they avoid discussing it or feel awkward about it.  Those feelings will transfer to the child. So instead of their parents, who would be the best source for a child to learn about the body and sex in a healthy manner, the turn to the Internet. Inevitably, they learn from the internet's loudest voice on the matter, pornography.  Regardless of the shame the child feels, they will seek to satisfy their curiosity.  If the child feels shame around the subject, it will only intensify as they view pornography, especially in private.  This causes a cycle where the child will feel shame, and want to medicate by viewing porn and feeling the dopamine rush, then feeling shame for doing so, and returns to it, etc.  This effect is amplified as it is done in secret.  I share this because it is something I lived.  I went through that cycle and it wasn't until recently in my life that I learned that shame was the reason I could not stop looking at pornography earlier in my life. I overcame a lot of that shame and now it is so much easier to talk about it.

I believe that not only should it be acceptable to see nudity and be nude around others, it should be doctrinally encouraged.  5 Research has shown many positive aspects of accepting common nudity.  It has neutral to positive effects on children to have nudity be common in their house growing up.  6 People are able to befriend each other better and become kinder to each other when all defenses are gone.  There is very little body shame among those who see their body regularly and are around others in the nude. In this world of social media and physical isolation, we forget how to be social with others.  Spending time around others nude can teach us to see them as God does, removing all the pretext and getting to know them as they truly are.  Finally, how can we expect to grow and become like God if we are so scared to lay eyes upon God's greatest creation?

To clarify, a lot of this is conjecture for me.  I have not spent time nude around other nude people, this is just what I have heard from others online, including several members of the church who have experienced this.  I hope one day to be able to do the same so I can understand truly how that would affect my relationships first hand.  Until then I only have the experiences of others that I go off of.

I hope I was able to be clear with you with what I have been learning.  Understanding this truly has brought a stronger sense of the Spirit in my life.  I have come to understand why we were created in the image of God.  I see where modesty has failed to give me the protection I was promised it would.  Thanks for reading.

Notes

1. “Spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49; Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102).
2. I also understand the sacredness of the temple. We don’t publicly show what happens on the inside of the temple, but neither would people show the insides of their body. And even though we don’t show the internals of the temple to everyone, we want everyone to experience it.
3. Chastity and fidelity in marriage is still something that is truly important for us to maintain. Separating nudity from sexuality does not separate the sin from the unchaste behavior.
4. "Endowed members should seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to answer personal questions about wearing the garment." (General Handbook of the Church, 38.5.5)
5. This is not to say it should be encouraged to be nude 100% of the time. Clothes are good and help protect us and adorn us. The garment protects us and reminds us of our covenants with God. What I am suggesting is making an effort to encourage acceptance of the nude form as it occurs in our life instead of shaming it and calling it a sin.
6. “For five years, Dennis Craig Smith and William Sparks studied the effects of social nudity on children. Their book, The Naked Child: Growing Up Without Shame, is written in part from their personal experience with naturism, and remains a solid piece of descriptive self-reporting on the effects of social nudity on children. They conclude that “the viewing of the unclothed body, far from being destructive to the psyche, seems to be either benign and totally harmless or to actually provide positive benefits to the individuals involved” (183). Scholars publishing in academic journals have come to the same conclusion.” Children, Social Nudity and Scholarly Study, Mark Storey