i believe that shame is something we teach our children.it is not something that they are born with.
consider tribes in the world where nakedness is ordinary,
even among adults. they do not walk around shielding themselves
from others' sight. they go about their daily duties without giving
any thought to their nakedness.
i believe that there is no "age of shame". it is beaten into us
from when we are young, because of the culture we live in.
i believe that if i didn't teach my children shame, they would
relish their nakedness and choose it over clothing.
what has our culture done to our innocence? why is our culture
so full of shame? why aren't certain other cultures ashamed to
be naked?
i believe that we will be naked in heaven, and that we will have
no shame in our nakedness. yes, we'll be "clothed" in light,
but our new and perfect bodies will shine through the light...
God made clothing because man sinned. Man;s sin brought guilt and shame. Man tried to cover the shame, but God made clothing to remind us that we are dirty, sinful and need His cleansing.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read The Great Divorce? C.S.Lewis postulated a very similar theory about clothing in heaven.
i have never read "the gread divorce", although i'd love to!!
ReplyDeleteHi, Bonnie! i'm glad you shared your blogspot with me:) I think nakedness is so shameful in our society, partly because of what we have done with sex. We have made it a Huge focus, more than it ever has been (possibly) and have twisted and perverted it, so that even children have reason to hide. We have deformed, malformed, and transformed what was meant to be an act of both beauty and practicality (for reproducing our human race) into something greed-filled, selfish, and inhuman. It's like some men's attitudes toward breast-feeding: their thinking has been so maligned in our society as to think that breasts are merely meant for their own sexual pleasure, and completely exclude the second (and probably more important) use of sustaining the lives of infants. hm. interesting idea, Bonnie.
ReplyDeletewarbler, i wonder at your use of the word "dirty" - do you mean sinful?
ReplyDelete