Theology Pub – Why Does This Offend You?

It was a nice winter day so I headed to the mall.  Our town does not have a big mall but it is one of the few places in that you can still see green things when the white stuff covers the ground so I went hoping to get in some reading and maybe buy something for both of my wives.  The main reason though was to visit my favorite place to go to relax – the coffee shop slash book store on the ground floor next to the central fountain.  I like to come to this little place because it actually makes damn good hot chocolate which is my favorite hot drink.  I also like the fact that they have no WiFi and you can turn your smart phone off and no one thinks it is odd.

I was sipping said hot chocolate when I looked across to the fountain to see a mother with an infant child.  She was a well endowed gal and she sat down on a bench in front of the fountain.  The child seemed slightly fussy so she unbuttoned her shirt all the way and then opened up the right side and lifted up her bra on that side.  She then nuzzled the infant to her nipple and then proceeded to breastfeed her child. I went back to my book because even though she had larger than average knockers I see nudity all the time at the Pub so it was no big deal for me.  I do find that the sight of a woman feeding her child calming and quite frankly motherly so I enjoy it in that context.

After reading for a bit I looked up again and saw that she had switched to the other breast but had not really done up the other side so she was hanging out a bit which was not hard for her because she definitely had melons that were large melon sized.  I was about to go back to my book when another woman walked up and began to shout at the breastfeeding mother.

“You are being indecent, you need to cover yourself up when you do that!”

Now, you need to understand the country I live in.  We are pretty much Americans who transplanted ourselves to an a sizable island because we saw the abuse of the rise of federal power.  We created a country that basically celebrates and acts like Americans but we are not really Americans anymore. We even signed our constitution on July 4th so the holiday would be the same.  That said I knew the law of the land which is very libertarian.  The breastfeeding mother was well within her rights to do what she was doing.

The charge of indecent could still be leveled because of free speech and all that but the woman breastfeeding could not be stopped legally.  In our country we have seen the sense of making sure things are as equal as possible as far as government protection.  I had seen men in this mall (particularly in summer) walking up and down without shirts on because it is close to the beach which also meant that any woman, should she desire to do so, could do the same.  This is why my ‘clothing optional’ pub is perfectly legal with no permits or anything. There is no legal difference between a male chest and a female chest here.

Yeah, I know there are physiological differences in that a female chest has a fatty gland behind her nipples that has the potential to produce milk but biologically this their only real function. The fact that the male of the species also finds these fatty glands encased in skin attractive is just a side issue because they also find legs, a pretty face and the curve of a woman’s hips attractive and those often are not covered up and obsessed over being covered up as breasts are in Western society.

“Why does this offend you?”, the breastfeeding mother inquired.

“It’s wrong.”

“Who says?”

“Society.”

“Which society are you talking about.  In this country and culture there is no difference between my chest and a man’s.  What makes my female differences somehow immoral to show and a male’s moral to show?  There other countries where women openly show their breasts, are these countries and cultures less moral than your own?  Who are you to evoke society and assume that I am not a part of that society?  Give me a logical argument please.”

The accusing woman seemed stymied by the last statement.  That is because there really is not logical argument for a woman to keep her breasts covered while men do not.  Male and female nipples are absolutely the same but that is usually what is criminal for a woman to show in some of western society. However the actual breast in these same societies can be shown without showing the nipple and be OK, even though it is the mound of flesh of the female breasts that makes a woman’s chest different and not the nipple.  The fact is this argument against breastfeeding in public or even a woman being topless in public is purely emotional and cultural.  Logic has absolutely nothing to do with it.

“Well, men can’t control themselves when they see that.”

“Funny, there is man sitting there over in the coffee shop who has seen me feeding my baby for the last ten minutes and all he has done is smile at me and read his book.  Seems pretty much like a mature response.  Your statement assumes all men are alike and is quite frankly sexist.  Many men are fully capable of controlling themselves, and if they are one of the few that can’t, that is their problem not mine.  Try again.”

“Your showing off, seems prideful.”

“Not a logical argument but let’s look at you.  You come over here and feel that you are righteous enough and holy enough to not only judge me but also presume that you have the right to enforce your judgment on me because you are morally ‘superior’.  I say you are not and that just because you don’t like something does not give you the right to stop others from doing it. Also if I was showing off, I would want a better audience than you and some guy reading a book.  Quit confusing me with a stripper or something.  I would have done this in he food court and waved my girls around a little if I actually was doing this for attention.  I am just feeding my kid and there is nothing bad or immoral about breastfeeding a child so why should you or I act like there is? Did you ever think that maybe your negative reaction is based on your own insecurities?  Do you think it might be possible that you are doing nothing more than propping up your morality to feel better about yourself at my expense?”

The accusing woman clinched her fists and then stormed off.  The mother looked up at me and I saluted her.  She smiled and as if to say thank you for the moral support, she pulled her child off the other breast revealing them both briefly while she laid her child on her lap and then she dropped her bra back in place and buttoned up her shirt.  She took her child and left and I went back to my book.

I have long pondered the source of social mores and I think the basic problematic social mores are ones that are based on controlling the behavior of others.  The good social mores are based on protecting peoples’ freedoms to do as the wish as long as they are not harming others.  The first is based on control and manipulation and the second based on liberty and freedom.  I prefer the later.

Reluctantly I had to leave my book and hot chocolate.  I left the mall and walked back to the Pub which was two blocks away. The chill in the air was thankfully fought off by the liquid sloshing around in my belly.  I arrived back and as I walked in the door I was greeted with a kiss on both cheeks from each of my wives.  Connie had joined the workforce wearing a green barmaid outfit.  She looked good.

The fireplace was now burning as somehow some more wood had been found.  I warmed up by the fire for a little bit and Miss Wine (who was exercising complete ‘clothing optional’ status) came up and talked to me about the weather for a minute while warming her bare backside with the fire.  She then walked off to talk to someone else.  I went back to the bar to polish some glasses and serve some theology.  It had been a good day so far and I was looking forward to the rest of it.

Welcome to All Things Rabyd, your friendly neighborhood ‘clothing optional’ theology pub.  I, the Rabyd Theologian and your bartender, thank you for stopping by.  Please drink your theology responsibly or have a designated driver to get you home.  Please tip your waitress and they might give you a kiss on the cheek.  Just remember life is short so enjoy it.

Blessings and Cheers!!!

Dedicated to Alyssa Milano whose Instagram photo caused quite a stir.  Blessings and Cheers to you and your child.  Stay brave.  Stay strong. 

 

Sermon Redux – Part 2 of The Word Made Flesh – “The Humanity of Christ” – John 1:6-13

If we have any trouble grasping anything about Christ it is grasping his humanity.  Oh, we say we get the idea that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  The problem is that we actually choke on the humanity of Christ at times.  We create this image of a man walking around with no expressions and emotions who is human in form but not in character.  It is a sterile Christ that we create because we fear if we make him too human we will make him sinful.  This is the real problem which is because we cannot conceive of humanity without sin because we are sinners ourselves we tend to confuse being human with being sinful.

To get a better understanding we should look at humanity before the fall.  Adam has intellect, he makes decisions, he is given a wife which he shows a great deal of passion for with the words he says.  This shows Adam as emotional, intelligent and loving before the Fall.  Eve shows us that she had desires which we not sinful in themselves but lead het astray because of her lack of knowledge.  She desired a better life, had an appreciation for beauty and a desire to be more knowledgeable and wiser.  These were her humanity not her sinfulness.  We are ignorant and weak simply because we are not omniscient or omnipotent.  Human does not necessarily equate to sinful.

Jesus had all these human qualities .  Many of them because he chose to have them.  He finds himself as truly human.  He gets angry, frustrated and shows a desire for self-preservation.  These are not sin they are simple human traits.  It is this part of how human Christ was that we try to explain away but without them Christ cannot truly represent us as humans. He must be full human yet without sin.  In our theology perhaps we should strive more for trying to make Jesus as human as possible and truly tempted but not sinning.  Human but not a sinner.

The one thing this bring to us in the Christmas nativity is that Jesus would have cried to note his hunger, he suckled his mother’s breasts to eat and he messed himself and needed changing.  Totally vulnerability and dependency is displayed and this is very human.  He needed Joseph and Mary to help him live and protect him so it could be well understood on both sides what it meant to be human.

The biggest lesson this teaches is one of understanding.  No one can turn to God and say any more: ‘You don’t understand.’  Jesus stands against that.  God fully understood us already, but it took Jesus being truly human for us to understand that he understands.  Without Christ we could always say: “until you come down here and truly understand what it is to be human, you really cannot understand us.”  Now we can no longer make that accusation.  We can go to God in all our humanity and know he understands, empathizes and is moved by our finite condition.  He has truly been there.

Theology Pub – Revelations

The weeks had passed quickly since the War for the Pub (as it was now coming to be known) had ended and my wife had died the victim of vampirism.  Sherry and Vodka had christened their little girl and named her – Harmonia.  I was told that it was a  pretty forgone conclusion she would be a Muse like her mother.  She was cute as a button.  She had her fathers dark hair but her mothers lovely face.  The first time I actually saw Harmonia was shortly after my wife had died and she was nursing at her mother’s breast.  It was a sight that did cheer me a little.  There is always something about a woman nursing her child that gives me hope and peace. I still cried myself to sleep.  Tequila for her part was perfect in handling it.  Close enough to show her love and support for my grief but distant enough so she never gave the impression that she was trying to take my wife’s place.  There was always the old saying about ‘There is only one way to comfort a widow (or widower I imagine), you just have to remember the risks” but Tequila gave no sign this was her motive.  She simply was strong for me when I was weak and I was weak a lot.

I found some pleasure in the pub returning to ‘normal’.  It was now close to Halloween and thanks to Naphtha’s magic the Halloween decorations were in force but everyone was more in a thankful mood that a scary one.  The costumes this year were less scary and more about hopeful things than the vampires and zombies of last year.  It is hard to imagine horror when you have experienced it.  I was more content to get back to my brews and wine vats in the cellar.  The brews that would follow for the next months would all be reported as being both sweet and sour at the same time.  Perhaps it was my mood affecting the outcome.  The city around us rebuilt quickly.  Naphtha told me she was helping with that once she got the pub back to normal, she extended her magic to the streets around us.  It was taxing for her and to top it all off I knew it was close for the time she would hibernate in her tree for the winter.  The town however was almost as it was as the month of October drew to a close.

The pub returned to its normal life, people drinking theology and philosophy brews.  The townsfolk had come to see the pub as a sort of port in the storm now.  People shuffled in and out with smiles.  Miss Wine was back to being her nudist self along with many others.  There were writers coming in and out preparing for National Novel Writing Month.  The one thing that had changed was my perspective.  To pass the time between grief spells I began to investigate what was really going on leading up to the War for the Pub.  Oddly enough Tequila freely offered up the following after I asked only once.

Firstly I found out that my three barmaids were more than barmaids.  I thought to Tequila originally as Spanish in origin but that was not completely true.  Tequila and her two sisters are actually Jewish and Spanish combined.  They were recruited into an organization that was dedicated to defending humanity against supernatural threats.  Tequila was actually a deep cover operative, he specialty being infiltration and information gathering.  The barmaid position was perfect for her as a lot of information comes through bars and pub and my theology and philosophy often caused tongues to wag more than they normally would.

Tequila brought in her sisters when she discovered that my pub and the surrounding city had high levels of supernatural activity .  Margareta is an enforcer type, she was motivated by the fact her husband had been killed by vampires. Pina Colada is not only a nurse but a computer hacker of tremendous skill.  Her role was supportive.  The three of them moved in to assess the situation and it was determined that my pub was a Nexus.  It was confirmed when Naphtha moved into the oak tree and Avion showed up in her spacecraft.  Campeche came in at their request to bring in some much-needed magical defensive force.

The thing that intrigued me was I had opened up an opportunity that they took advantage of when I formed the Band.  They made sure that Jade Slade and Oni Kim were the only guitar and violin players worth anything so I would snatch them up and that brought in two more enforcers.  It probably didn’t hurt that Oni Kim played naked at her audition.  They recruited Colonel Gin, Miss Wine, Captain Rum and most of the rest into their organization.  Captain Baba was one of them but she simply added herself to Rum’s forces when he signed up.  Naphtha was made aware as well as many others but I was kept in the dark.  About the only ones who didn’t know completely what was going on were Sherry, Vodka, Pint and Myself.  Even Hilda was a botanical specialist they had brought in for the possible battle to come.

I needless to  say was a little mad about all this cloak and dagger crap, but Tequila set me straight.

“I wanted to tell you many times but we needed you free to do what you do without undue influence.  You are a natural leader and knowing the full truth would have created and artificial environment that someone else created.  We needed you fighting for something you cared about and we were not sure that you would care about our organization to fight that strongly enough for it.  The pub we knew you would fight for so we left it at that level.”

“So why tell me now?”

“Because you have loss now and that is what our organization is about.”

“Hate to disappoint you, but I am not into vengeance.”

“It’s not about vengeance, it is about being defenders of the innocent so more people don’t end up like your wife. It is also about justice.”

I frowned.  I couldn’t argue about that.

“So the pub is a Nexus, what does that mean?”

“It means that magic works well here.  It is probably why you theology brews work so well.  It makes the magic that you invoke when making them stronger.  It also attracts supernatural creatures like a moth to flame.  It is important to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

“So what about us then? Was you love for me part of the act?”

“I understand why you would say that so I am not angry about it, but no my love for you was not part of the act.  It was actually questioned by my superiors as a reason to pull me out of here.  Once the Seven Deadly Sins appeared though they changed their mind and let me stay, love being a great defense against them all.  No boss, right now it takes all of my will to not take advantage of your grief and work my way further into your heart”

“Wise.  So what now?”

“We have been assigned to guard this Nexus so all of us are staying.  I have been instructed to give you an invitation to join us as well.  I also have been instructed to tell you that you would be Commander here.  The Council feels you have earned it. ”

“So you would still have to call me ‘boss’?”

“Yes.” Tequila chuckled.

“Ok, I accept.  What did I just join?”

“Welcome to the Silver Shields.”

Tequila put out her hand to shake mine and I took it and for a moment shook it like any other business deal.  Then I pulled her close and kissed her.  Hard.

Welcome to All Things Rabyd, your friendly neighborhood ‘clothing optional’ theology pub.  I, the Rabyd Theologian and your bartender, thank you for stopping by.  Please drink your theology responsibly or have a designated driver to get you home.  Please tip your waitress and they might give you a kiss on the cheek.  Just remember life is short so enjoy it.  Blessings and Cheers!

My Bodybuilding Crossfit Life – Why People Hate Success

Over the last three months or so I have seen three different women who are mothers get absolutely blasted by the internet for posting pictures of themselves post pregnancy.  They were getting in trouble because all of them were pretty much flat stomached, fit and pretty fat-free.  All of them did it to encourage others to drop their excuses and get in shape.  However, they were firmly blasted by the internet folk out their for their efforts.

One commentator talked about how obscene it was that there was so much pressure on women to get to their pre-baby look after pregnancy.  Obscene!  How so?  Others felt that these women should apologize for doing this because the pressure was to great they were leveling on others. Others claim that the whole fitness thing promotes poor body image.

Still others pointed to the fact thee women had some special advantage to get their goal accomplished.  Some pointed to the fact they were fit before their pregnancies and so it was easier to get fit after their pregnancies.  Others just plain said their situation must be special because there was no way they could duplicate the results.   Sigh.

I am not the fittest man in the world but I give a pretty good effort most days.  I also think I can sum up all these complaints by the internet getting to the real motivation with one phrase that is quite common these days: ‘Haters are going to hate.”

Lazy people do not like hard workers, undisciplined people do not like disciplined people, people who are unfit do not like fit people.  Now I understand people might have true genuine health issue that prevent them from getting fit but I am not speaking to them.  I am however speaking to the more common culprit of this success hate and that is the one who has built up a mythology about their health that causes them to believe they can’t do it.  In this case there are indeed many moms who buy into the notion that once they are starting to have children they will lose the possibility of a nice body, women who breastfeed buy the notion that once they start down that path their breasts will never look good again.  The problem these women ultimately have is the mom who has three children, breastfeeds and within months after their last pregnancy looks like a million dollars because in all that they didn’t listen to the mythology that being a mom was going to stop them from being an attractive woman.

If I were to look at this from a spiritual point of view as a Christian I would call it ‘envy’ and ‘jealousy’  The fact is people do not like myth busters of any type.  People do not like the welfare family that suddenly decides to open a business and succeeds in getting off welfare and the people who do not like it are the people still on welfare.  People do not like the guy who had nothing in High School going for him who builds a successful company and becomes the rich successful guy with the smart beautiful wife on his arm and it is usually the other guys who had nothing going for them in high school who have used it as an excuse not to be successful that hate him.  Moms who bought into the mythology that pregnancy was the death nail to them being attractive women do not like the woman who prove this notion wrong and do so within six months or less from giving birth to a child.

Sorry, I have my own myths to bust.  “A forty something year old man can’t look great or do that, if they do look good then it is because they cheated in some way (aka steroids, etc.).”  “Weightlifting is for young people.” “You just can’t lose that last bit of fat.”  If I break the myths on this, I will have my own set of haters and I am going to do something with them that they hate even more – ignore them.

Truth be is this is really why haters hate and then write.  They are mad that someone else was noticed for their success and ultimately this kind of jealous hatred is nothing more than trying to get some attention by whining.  Sorry, no matter how much I try to slice it differently this is what it is – baloney.

I have learned that the Biblical axiom of ‘rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those that weep’ is true.  The problem is that many reverse this and laugh when people are weeping, and whine when they should be celebrating someone’s success. It is because they engage in jealousy over someone’s success instead of drawing inspiration from it that they are not successful themselves.

In fitness, you will never be hated more in your life than when you achieve ultimate success in reaching your goals.  You have busted the myths that others hold like sacred relics of a past that said – ‘weightlifting is bad for you, women go down hill in how they look after having children and sex gets worse after marriage.”  None of these are true but people still believe in them because they want to believe them so they can justify their own misery for their own lack of success.

IMHO

Life of Christ – Part 14 – Final Galilee Ministry(10) – The Unclean Spirit Returning

Text: Matthew 12:43-45

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

Text: Luke 11:24-28

“When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

While the direct teaching hear is about demon possession which is very enlightening, the thing Jesus is really doing is equating the man who get repossessed with demons as being like the generation he is ministering to.  The idea being that Christ has delivered them but he is basically predicting that the generation he is living with will return to their wickedness like before.  Without actually living the Word of God, then you re setting yourself up to be right back where you were before only worse.

There is another small passage in Luke here that directly references Jesus’ mother when the woman blesses the womb that bore him and the breasts that feed him.  Jesus says that the one greater blessed is the one who hear the Word of God and does it.  In short someone who is doing the Word of God that they hear is more blessed than Mary.  Food for thought.

Next: The Sign of Jonah

Naked Before God – Part 16 – The Core Problem

I think of all the creations of God the human body is by far the most wonderful both in its male and female forms.  When the artist known as God finally finished his creation with mankind he changed his observation from ‘God saw that it was good’ to “God saw that it was VERY Good”.  I think for all the debate on the subject the one thing that is significant is this idea that the human body as a creation of God is a very good thing that should cause us to like the psalmist exclaim – “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.

The real problem in nudity and spirituality is that across the board of religion, society, theology and culture is this inability to see the wonder of God’s creation in the human body but all they can see is that being naked equals sex.  Many people ultimately assume that if you are naked you must be having sexual thoughts at that same time.  This is why perceiving nakedness or nudity as being a spiritual discipline is so hard for people because to equate sexuality and spirituality has long been even more of a problem for people.

Adam and Eve did not seem to have this problem in the beginning.  Adam worked the land naked and was unashamed to do so.  There is nothing sexual about his tilling the ground.  Eve seems to have had her own work to do as well and she did it with no thought at all that she was naked.  I am not going to say that Adam and Eve didn’t engage in sex before the Fall as they probably did, but being naked had nothing to do with it because nudity was normal.  My point is there was in the ideal state of mankind a complete separation of the ideas of naked and sex.  Mostly because both were normal and natural and completely separate from each other.

The change was sin began to blur things over time as nakedness and sexuality became in some cultures unified in the thoughts of many.  I would however say that not all cultures had or still have this problem.  One of my new understandings from my missions trip to Romania is that in certain contexts partial nudity was not considered abnormal.  Women there breastfeed with little or no notice either from themselves or even men of the culture.   Romanian men took little notice.  It was us Americans that made notes.  When many of the people swam, clothing was often optional as swim trunks were often absent in peoples’ wardrobes.

This is not the only example I could use as many tribes all across the world had varying degrees of nudity including full nudity.  These peoples very rarely had a problem with it before westerners showed up.  You can’t make a theological case that sin always causes nudity to lead to shame between human beings because of nakedness on a practical level.  This actually usually results from western viewpoints being imposed on other cultures.  Nor could you cite natural law because there really is no across the board universal standard of what nudity is or shame because of it.  Ultimately we have the views we have on it because we live in a certain culture and we have been taught certain things by our parents.

It is ultimately theology, religion and society that form our viewpoint on nudity and its place with us and we get our start from our family in these matters. We are taught to be ashamed of our bodies and often the first teaching of this comes from parents.  It is probably easier to see this in girls as even before they have breasts they are taught wear two piece swimsuits and underwear.  Why when there are no breasts to cover?  Ultimately this covering up causes many girls to start thinking there is something shameful about their bodies  If young children streak in front of guests, parents become mortified and punish the child so the child quickly learns there is something to be ashamed of by showing their body to others. When pressed later in life parents often tell children you should not be naked with someone unless you are having sex and in a Christian context this is even more pronounced as sex should not be done until after marriage.  The equating of sex and nudity starts early and continues all through development but the message in the end is clear – being naked is ‘naughty’ and it means you are being sexual.

The reality is even in this context the teaching is inconsistent and does not play itself out in life.  I am fairly sure that a three year old streaking through the house naked is not thinking sexual thoughts, but this goes for adults as well.  As I have pointed out that even in our restrictive society we are naked in private, alone or in family, many times but the thoughts are not always on sex.  We are showering, getting dressed, or just living our daily lives in some way and being naked at the same time.  I ask each person: ‘when you are doing these things is your mind always on sex?”  I think we would all say -‘no’.  So if we are not always thinking about sex ourselves while naked, why does it then follow that to be naked is to be sexual?

I suppose one could argue the sexual part comes when we look at the nakedness of others, but I don’t think this is true either.  For those that have in the course of their lives seen their parents naked or siblings, there are certainly not in many cases any sexual thoughts.  The fact is that incestuous thoughts, contrary to Freud, are rare and they are certainly not 100% of the time we are naked with family members, even spouses.  Stepping outside the family do we see something different?  I have already pointed out that we have all had locker room, doctor visits and other situations where we have been naked with others and this has not always lead to sexual thoughts.  Being naked with the opposite sex?   At this point I think we have to look somewhat at the differences in men and women.

Women are not sexually stimulated by what they see as much as what they feel.  This means that being naked with a man does not necessarily translate into arousal for them.  I am not saying it can’t but usually when women have sex it is not just because a guy shows up naked.  Sometimes this is actually a turn off for some women.  Not because they think being naked is bad, but they would like to have some sort of feelings for a guy before they have sex with him or have some other motive to do so besides the visual nakedness.

Men are a different story.  Men are visually aroused by women and I think in large part this is biological.  I wrote a long time ago on this phenomena in Curve Addiction – Why Men Stare.  What Georgia Gwinnett College proved in their study was that there is a pleasure for men in looking at women’s bodies.  It also should be noted however that this pleasure took place regardless of being clothed or unclothed and that means this takes place regardless of the woman’s state of dress.  What I would also like to say at this point is this pleasure CAN lead to arousal sexually, but not necessarily.  I have done my share of girl watching in my life, but I can also say that not every girl I took pleasure from in my mind I wanted to have sex with.  I can also say that I was not ‘physical aroused’ many times during the activity of girl watching, it was mostly a psychological pleasure.  Just because you like how a woman looks does not necessarily mean you want to sleep with her.  Even the idea of a woman dressing sensually to be sexually arousing to men is not much more than emphasizing the curves to a greater degree.  What a man choses to do about this is still the product of whether he choses to cross the line from admiration to lust.  We are human beings, not animals.

I can also say that familiarity can bring boredom (in the case of pornography for example) or simply acceptance.  If you spend a lot of time with something it becomes normal to you and it means you can start to make choices about it instead of just being led by base impulse.  I think this is where nudists and naturists prove something to the rest of us.  They live and act in nudity and they are not out having orgies or engaged in sexual activity any more than rest of us in our clothed lives.  I think this ultimately demonstrates that nudity does not necessarily lead to sex.  The idea that nudity equals sex is actually more fostered in the world where nudity is rare, not in a place where it is common.

The great shame of this from the standpoint of our relationship with God is that we have trouble recognizing one of  His greatest works of art – the human body.  We cannot appreciate his handiwork like many other things in creation.  The culture, religion and other forces make this a taboo item and so we are left to find ways to do this without raising the ire of our community around us.  Largely this is simply the product of the effect of sin which blurs the line between nudity and sexuality.  The challenge for many of us is that it takes a great deal to reverse this understanding in our minds and realize that nudity and sexuality are separate concepts.  They may be present at the same time but not necessarily so.  The great work ahead is to get people to realize this in a culture and society who have made a choice to blend them together.

For those that want to practice spiritual nudity in the context of spiritual disciplines, this reality must be recognized and the real challenge is to use a great deal of wisdom in how and with who you practice spiritual nudity.  The reality is that until sin is finally eliminated, there will always be cultures and societies that will use the inability to distinguish nudity and sexuality to control people or make life more difficult.  Just because some may have liberty in this area does not mean they have license do as they wish for a multitude of reasons.  There are still many other factors to consider including being a peace with all men and women and the level of negative effects this can have on you and your family.  “Be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves.”

I think the main force in overcoming this may be the spiritual disciplines themselves in the context of nudity as a spiritual discipline.  It may be the act of getting alone with God and being naked before him that causes the transformation in a person to have greater understanding that it is not God who has caused us to be ashamed of our nakedness but ourselves.  It is we who are responsible for the blending of our ideas of nudity and sexuality and it may be the practice of naked spiritual disciplines that may start to change our understanding of the relationship between nudity and sex.  Not just for ourselves, but for those around us as well.

The main study is concluded, but I have two appendices to add as two more posts.  Appendix A will deal with objections that people raise to the content of this study.  Appendix B – Will be my own personal testimony regarding naked spirituality.

Next: Appendix A – Objections to Spiritual Nudity

Naked Before God – Part 15 – Naked Problem #3: Spiritual Nudity vs. Society

The real interesting thing about nudity is it not just religious prudes that stand against it.  Culture and society on the western world seems to also have a problem and I have always found this puzzling.  Recently I have come to realize that there are many forces in society that have a vested interest in keeping people clothed or if nudity does take place it needs to be in a controlled situation.  The battle lines are many but in the case of spiritual disciplines involving nudity, the issue of public nudity seems to still cause many people to recoil and want some controls.  Ultimately, it is not only religion that seeks to use this issue to control people but politicians and other societal forces as well.  Some of these forces may seem to be surprising, others not so much.  This is of course not an exhaustive list but it does highlight how deep the problem is.

The Pornography Industry:

Surprised?  You shouldn’t be if you think about this one hard enough.  The pornographic industry makes its money on two basic types of porn – the porn that depicts idealized nudity and the porn that depicts sexual acts.  The first type would take a nasty knock if nudity becomes common place enough that it is no big deal.  Why buy something if it is available free of charge.  Secondly and more importantly, when people begin to understand that the naked women and men in porn are not the general rule of the human body because people can see the real thing more often, do you think people might begin to realize they have been sold something instead of reality?  The fact is the pornographic industry has good reason to keep nudity ‘dirty’ so it can sell it as ‘dirty’ material.

The Fashion Industry

Other than the obvious, ‘if people enjoy nudity more we will sell less clothes’, there is simply the matter that fashion and gossip seem to go hand in hand.  How can you have a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ and cause a stir that makes the gossip tabloids if nudity is commonly accepted?  Like it not, the fashion industry uses nudity very selectively, they like it a grey area so they can keep the rumors and gossip flowing.  “Showing the girls off too much” is as much a moral statement as a fashion one and the fashion industry has a whole branch of its industry devoted to selective nudity in a ‘naughty context” – lingerie.  If nudity in normal, they too stand to lose a great deal of money.

Psychology:

I blame psychology here on a lot of levels.  Freud started the whole ‘everything is related to sex’ idea and began to try to classify certain behaviors as sexually deviant.  Among them was the desire to be naked and public nudity.  Now I realize there are other branches of psychology now that disagree with Freud, but this illustrates the real problem with psychology.  Psychology is still a child compared to other sciences.  It very much resembles the medical profession 200 years ago before an understanding of germ theory and infection.  Lots of theories, not a lot of hard facts.  However, these theories are often used to classify people with certain deviancy in society but the fact is psychology is undecided as to whether nudism and naturism are deviant behaviors or simply normal desires in a certain percentage of the population.

The Law

The law is always a Johnny Come Lately to change in any context but when it comes nudity in public they are truly slow moving.  The Law is simply a reflector of what is commonly believed but it changes slower than the common belief.  You could have, for instance, a community with a majority of people that want to put in an clothing optional beach but the law says no so you have to go through the process of changing it.  That process of change can not only be lengthy but blocked by a minority who hold the power for the express reason of stopping such things from taking place.  It often comes down to long battles and lots of angry words.

The law has another more nasty context for nudists and naturists in the simple idea of – indecent exposure.  This is at best a nebulous concept because there always seem to be exceptions to the rule.  The danger is that you might end up on some ‘sexual predator’ registry for doing nothing more than taking a walk in the woods naked.  “Indecent exposure” has a lot of problems because when you ask what makes exposure ‘indecent’ you will get a lot of answers and none of it consistent.  Ask a simple question like “what makes showing a woman’s nipple in public wrong and a showing a male nipple not wrong?” and you are going to get an emotional or cultural response not a logical one.  When laws are based on emotions and a desire to control behavior they usually are lousy laws.  When it comes to the idea of ‘indecent exposure’, this is particularly true.  I simply ask: is it right that a guy who took a leak of the side of a boat has to register as a sex offender when he didn’t think any one was watching and there was nothing ‘sexual’ about his intent or actions?  The fact is the ‘indecent exposure’ laws tend to be pretty harsh in punishment but weak in thought.

Politicians:

Like it or not politicians like to use nudity issues to cloud other issues.  In February of 2013 the North Carolina Legislature proposed a bill to criminalize women’s nipples in public places.  They made exceptions of course – breastfeeding mothers, strippers, incidental exposure and (get this) any other situation where the nipple might be working.  Male nipples can work or be at rest and be exposed with no problem, but a woman’s nipples must work to be legal and exposed.  Funny huh?  The real issues of deficit spending, jobless people and other such things seemed to lack the importance of this one.  I wonder if they realized that this kind of legislation is the exact kind of thing certain groups would need to challenge all indecency laws on the basis of sexual discrimination?  For the standpoint of pure law, this is sexual discrimination.  The fact is this was used to misdirect people from the real issues.

Culture:

The one issue kind of highlights the whole stupidity of our culture is the topfree /topless debate because almost all laws regarding women’s breasts allow a woman to show every part of her breast except the nipple.  You have to do this because of swimsuits and sunbathing.  What that means in 99% of the Union known as the United States a woman showing all her breast except the nipple is legal.  The woman below could show up in public in most places in the United States and be perfectly legal to do so.

I don’t know, seems that she is far more sensual because of the pasties to me.  Disagree that this is legal? How is it different than this swimsuit which is legal on every beach in the United States?

What this highlights is the only real reason we think women being topless is wrong is we culturally have always believed it is so.  It also highlights what I said about the fashion industry.  So a woman is allowed to show the top, sides and bottom of her breasts but not her nipple.  I ask, how is this more moral exactly?  What exactly is it about female nipples that is evil or sinful compared to men’s seeing the structure of both is exactly the same?

If one wants to engage in nudity for spiritual reasons, the prevailing culture then labels that person as not only a spiritual crackpot, but perhaps a law breaking, deviant as well.  But what all this really highlights is that there is a larger issue that crosses theological, religious, cultural, political. legal and psychological lines – the inability of many people to separate nudity from sexual behavior.

Next: The Core Problem

Naked Before God – Part 2 – You’re Already a Spiritual Nudist; You Just Don’t Know It.

Part of the human struggle with nudity and our relationship with God is that we do not recognize the wholeness of what it means to be a human being.  Even in Christian theology there is the argument that we were created in two parts – body and spirit or three parts – body, soul and spirit.  The real tragedy in my opinion of this argument is that it focuses on man and what he is now and not what he was created to be.   A living soul – a single entity – and part of that was the human body and at the beginning there were no clothes — there was simply nakedness.

I believe that our naked state best reflects this wholeness of being and wholeness of being involves everything we are made of including our spiritual side.  There are moments, whether we are conscious of this unity of flesh and spirit or not, that this comes through and the reality of it touches us regardless of how we are raised, our culture or society.  There is simply too much life that we live not to experience that feeling of wholeness from time to time because sooner or later we all end up being spiritual nudists because sooner or later we have to take off our clothes and be without them for a time.  There are going to be some moments in these times where we will feel this wholeness of being, the way we were created by God, whether we do this consciously or unconsciously.  Usually this happens when we are relaxed and also naked.

This post is addressed to the masses of western Christians and others who have been taught in many ways to avoid these moments.  You have been taught by your parents, culture and religion that being naked is sinful.  You may be devout in your faith and are firmly convinced that this is true and everything I am saying you are ready to argue with and challenge in your heart.  There are others though who are also devout, but they know Christianity involves meditating on and praying through the issues.  I urge you to do so with this one.  I want to use the rest of this post to highlight how in our lives we at some time or another have engaged in spiritual nudity whether we recognized it or not.

Bathing

I think the most obvious place we engage in spiritual nudism is when we are bathing is some way or form.  I have lost count of the number of personal revelations from God I have received while taking a bath or a shower.  I know of at least three people who came to Christ and became Christians and when asked where they made the decision they replied that they were bathing or taking a shower.  I think we have to freely admit that we bathe for more than just the process of getting clean.  We also bathe for release.  There is something about bathing or showering that allows us to drop our guards and relax and we often enter a state of mind and heart that is meditative.  That opens us up to hearing from God.  Part of this is that we must shed our clothes to do so.  It is this shedding of clothes that is not only symbolic of casting off the cares of this world, it is also in a very real way relieving us of the barriers that protect us in life which allows us to just be ourselves.  Nudity in bathing is actually relaxing and not shameful and most of the time we simply just acknowledge this is true.

Changing Clothes

Sooner or later you have to change and in that process you are at times going to be naked while you are looking for something to wear.  Usually we do this in our rooms so we feel relaxed and because we are also naked, at least momentarily, we can also experience the same kind of meditation state as in bathing.  This form of spiritual nudism is not as pronounced as bathing, in my humble opinion, but the spiritual state can be similar if a person slows down and breathes deeply.  Perhaps you have gotten guidance or peace in such times and I submit to you that your nakedness at the time may have contributed to this, whether your recognized it at the time or not.

Sleeping

Next to bathing this one is the best for achieving a meditative state and it allows Christians to actually take seriously one of the more common Biblical ways that God speaks to us – dreams.  Less than 10% of Americans sleep in the nude but those that do know its health benefits which include health, better sleep, confidence and better sex.  More than that the same relaxation principle applies to the idea of sleeping from a spiritual point of view.  In the Bible dreams that guide people are a regular occurrence.  Part of the reason dreams no longer seem prevalent is that we have been taught the negative side of dreams too much so we don’t take them as seriously as we should.  Also I would say that it has been shown that westerners don’t sleep as well as they used to and part of the cure for that is to sleep naked.  Also by sleeping naked you create a better meditative state as you fall asleep so your receptivity to dream increases at least in my opinion.  Many people who do sleep in the nude know what I am talking about and would probably acknowledge that their nudity was in some way responsible for having better and more productive dreams and a better night’s sleep.

Sex

This may be more limited to those in a relationship, particularly committed married couples, but anyone who has genuinely made love knows there was more to the pleasure and wonder of it than just the mechanics of foreplay and having sex.  Part of sex is spiritual through the knowing and loving each other and good reason for that is that as a couple we find our selves back to the way God intended man and woman to be – unashamed and NAKED.  One of the more enjoyable parts of sex for me has been the afterglow when you are laying in each others arms.  In that moment, if you are paying attention, you can truly feel like you are one flesh and part of that is your openness to each other by being naked.  There is more than physical satisfaction at this point; there is a spiritual joining to each other and in large part the intensity of this spiritual feeling is because we are naked at the time.

Breastfeeding

Now you don’t necessarily have to be all the way naked to breastfeed but even I as a man cannot deny there is more to the act of breastfeeding that involves an element that most people in western society think is sinful — a woman baring her chest.  Something is exchanged that is more than milk between a mother and child in these times and don’t think men don’t get some spiritual satisfaction out of this as well.  Some of my more relaxing times when our children were infants was when I was watching my wife nurse.  There is something about that just makes a lot of things that are wrong with this world just fade away and that is a spiritual thing brought on by a form of nakedness.

Everyday Activities

A woman gets up out of bed after sleeping naked, puts a load of laundry in the washer, takes a shower, puts on her makeup and does her hair and THEN she gets dressed.  In households all over we find ourselves at times doing things naked and often times it is either we are not really conscious that we are wrong or it is simply more convenient.  We are safely at home. Why get dressed before doing the laundry, if in a few moments your going to shower?  Why get dressed after you shower, if your right where you need to be to do your hair and makeup? We may not do this all the time but sometimes it is just more convenient and easier to wait to get dressed.  Sometimes we just forget because we are at peace in our own home and relaxed.  We simply do not see a need to get dressed.  In these times we can experience much the same wholeness and open quality that we find in many of the above activities.

There are many more activities that I could list that we may have experienced in our lives but the main point is that not all of our experiences in being naked are bad ones.  Some are downright pleasant and relaxing.  In all of these cases our nakedness actually is part of the equation that helps us relax and open our hearts minds and spirits to what God may want to reveal to us.  The real problem is that as Christians we do not take these moments seriously because we are often rushed as we need to get dressed so we are no longer ‘sinners’ by being naked.  Truth is that idea is not a biblical one but a church and religious culture concoction.  There is nothing wrong with nakedness itself.

What I want everyone to see, that is probably more a standard ‘I am not a nudist’ Christian, is that you do not necessarily have to become a nudist or change your life in major ways to practice spiritual nudism.  You don’t have to join a nudist colony, head to a nude beach or resort.  Most of what it may involve for you is: 1) Simply taking the times you are naked more seriously as times you can grow spiritually or 2) simply slowing down and not being in a rush to be clothed.  It is in these moments, you can simply open yourself up to meditation, prayer, worship and even study and gain some benefit from being naked before your God.  In these times you can truly be who you are and He can truly show you who you are.  It is an opportunity for spiritual growth if handled properly and it should not be wasted.

Over the next few posts I will attempt to show how nakedness affects certain spiritual disciplines and we will start with meditation.

Next: Naked Meditation

Theology Pub – Miss Wine Gets Naked

“Boss, we need to talk.”

“Tequila my dear, I always have time for my favorite employee.”

“I’m your only employee.”

“True, makes it easier for Employee of the Month decisions that way.  I ask Pint each time and you always get his vote.”

Tequila smiled, “Pint’s biased.”

“True, but his vote counts with me.  What’s on you mind my dear?”

Tequila took a deep breath,”Boss, do I have to serve the nudists and what about that painting over the bar?”

The course of events in the Theology Pub necessitates some explanation for you the gentle reader.  The loft over the pub had been rented out.  It had become both a yoga, dance and art studio run by a Mr. and Mrs. Champagne.  The studio specialized in nude yoga classes, nude dancing and art life classes.  In short, there were always a lot of people running around in the nude.  Mr and Mrs. Champagne were nudists and nudist activists.  They visited the pub fairly frequently and usually in birthday suit attire.

The second issue this had caused was that Miss Wine had volunteered to be a model for the life class.  One of the results was a painting done by Mrs. Champagne that she had gifted to my pub.  It was simply titled “Reclining Nude” but anyone who was a regular in the club knew that the model was Miss Wine in the raw.  Wouldn’t have been so bad, but she was posed in a full frontal pose on a couch.  In an effort to be neighborly, I had placed it above the bar next to the mirror.  I now could see that this was causing more problems than I had anticipated.

“Well, to answer the first question, yes.  The nudists that visit this pub are actually my more faithful clients and they do look at everything I have posted on the Bible and nakedness.  Besides, how exactly do you propose to keep them out?”

“You could post a ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’ sign.”

“Yes, I suppose I could but your average nudist would take that super literally and still show up with nothing from the waist to their ankles.  Not to mention this is an internet theology pub.  How the heck would I know if someone is sitting at their computer naked while they browse?”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Tequila, your just going to have to smile, look at their face and give them what they want to consume.”

“Well, I really don’t have a problem with the women, it’s the guys that cause my face to flush.  Especially when they get…”, tequila had stopped her face looking like she was searching for the right word.

“Aroused?”

“Yes, that’s it.  I thought nudists frowned on that sort of thing.  I mean isn’t it about appreciation of the human body by taking sexuality out of the picture?”

“Theoretically perhaps, but biology is going to interfere every time, I don’t care what they say.  Don’t be fooled by the ladies simply because they don’t have any outward visible signs of arousal.  There is a reason most nudist resorts tell everyone to carry and sit on a towel.  Just because nudists advocate openness without boundaries doesn’t mean they are all stupid enough to think that the sight of a nude human body won’t be arousing at times.  The smart ones recognize biology and take extra precautions about that stuff.”

“So I have to serve them?”

“Yes, Tequila one of my great axioms is to treat people like people no matter what.  Nudists are people and I respect them for it, I am not going to allow you to differentiate between them and others simply because they have no clothes on.  It would probably help you if you start to see them as people, so you will have less problems with them.”

“And the painting?”

At this point, I had to frown because I had to admit that this had been problematic even for me.  Miss Wine represents my enjoyment of life part of my mind.  Truth is she is the one that keeps my desires to be more open myself alive.  Honestly, there is always a part of me that wants to say: ‘screw it’ and then go find some enjoyment in life by finding the nearest lake and going skinny dipping.  Miss Wine and Captain Rum are after all brother and sister. However, I knew her well and she was going to be around the pub so a naked picture of her, even a painted one, was going to make things awkward.  It is far easier to deal with nakedness of strangers than people you know.

“Tequila, I don’t think I can take it down.  It’s art to me as difficult as it to me at times for me to accept things like this when they are people I know.”

“So you admit it is awkward?”

“Yes, but I will get over it.  I have before.”

My thoughts centered on a couple of incidents in my life:

There was the time as an eleven year old boy, I went to the nursery of our church to give one of the women something and when I opened the door, I caught sight of a breastfeeding mother’s mammary glands.  She was shifting the baby from one to the other so I got a good look at both of them in all their glory.  You know, one of the things they should teach young boys is where to look exactly when a mother is breastfeeding.  Perhaps though it would be a waste of time as I am fairly sure I know where they will look if given the opportunity.  Kind of like asking them to have control of their ‘arousal’ at certain times of their life.

The other incident was the time that I was staying at a friend’s house a few years later.  My friend’s older sister came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.  Halfway down the hallway the towel fell off and she got so mortified she missed trying to grab it from the floor twice.  In the end she ran off towel in hand to her room without even trying to wrap it around herself.  Being a young teen, I really hadn’t developed the willpower to not look.  Got a first hand education about female adolescent anatomy that day from all angles.  Also found out my friend’s sister dyed her hair.

The real problem with both of these actually had nothing to do with the incidents themselves. It was the days and weeks after when I saw them with clothes on.  I couldn’t stop imagining and replaying in my head what happened.  Eventually I moved on, but every time I saw them I was aware and they were aware that something was different between us.  Not necessarily bad or good, just different and maybe a little awkward.  We all got over it though without counseling and everyone is fine.  I think.

“Everyone seems to have different opinion about the painting, Boss.”

“Ok, I’ll bite.  What does everyone say?”

“Colonel Gin wants it gone, says it is a defying of traditional morality.”

“Hypocrite, the guy will stand there condemning the painting all the while trying to get a closer look by putting on his monocle and inspecting it more closely.  He hides behind tradition while all the while his heart is engaged in pure lechery.”

“Captain Rum also wants it gone.  He says that even though he think people should be free, he does not think his sister’s body should be on display for public consumption like that.”

“Always interesting how that guy wants everyone to be free and ‘seize the day’ as long as it does not embarrass him by being a member of his family.  I doubt he would have as much trouble with the painting if it was you up there.”

“Boss!  I would never do that.  I am way too shy for that, I prefer to be far more subtile.”

“Not saying you would my dear, just drawing a comparison.  Although for such a shy gal, you do seem to put your goods on display.”

“Gets me more tips, men are always easily swayed but matched pairs.”, Tequila giggled

“Rum is just as lecherous and hypocritical as Gin, advocating freedom in everything until it is one of his flesh and blood.  What does Vodka say?”

“You know boss that Vodka was a former military censor.  He says it should stay but we should put black lines over Miss Wine’s nipples and…”  once again Tequila was looking for a word.

“Nether regions would be acceptable I suppose.  Vodka has no taste for art.  He would ruin a wonderful painting for his self-righteousness of supposedly doing the public a civic service of some sort.  All the while he will take a picture of the original and keep it in his desk to show himself what great job he did censoring it.  Another lecherous hypocrite.”

“Scotch says it should stay.  He likes it and says it inspires him to stand ready protect females everywhere.”

“Finally, an honest man.”

“Professor Bourbon went into a long diatribe about how nudity and nakedness are culturally defined and people should just get over the idea it is bad.  Took me twenty minutes to get the simple answer he thinks it should stay.”

“Does the same thing with every issue.  Guy is smart but he will intellectually talk you out of staying awake more than anything else.  I of course agree with him, but I hope I found a way to give the answer in simpler terms.”

“Boss, that’s three to two against keeping the painting up from the men.”

“Did you ask Pint?”

“Pint’s a dog boss.”

“And that has what to do with anything?  I will not have someone’s opinion disrespected because of their species.  I can tell you he thinks it should stay and so do I.  That makes it four to three to keep it up from the males.”

“Boss, honestly I think you just let Pint vote so you can have two votes about everything around here.”

“Guilty as charged.  Truth is, this place in a dictatorship with me as the dictator, but I will go along with democratic action if it helps keep the masses in line with an illusion of choice.  Still, stacking the deck always helps me win.”

“If that’s so, maybe I should not tell you what the women think.  Based on what you just said, it is probably a waste of time.”

“Humor me and continue.”

“Sherry thinks the painting is lovely and it should stay.  She did have a complaint though.”

“Complaint?”

“She said if you are going to have paintings up of naked bodies, you should include some of men too.”

“A woman honest about the fact that women like naked males as much as men like naked females.  Refreshing, maybe I should volunteer to have a painting done of me.”

“Please don’t boss, that would make it awkward for me.”

“Brandy?”

“She is a bodybuilder, so she thinks the human body, male or female, is a wonderful work of art.  She says it should stay.”

“The picture is of Miss Wine, so I am guessing she wouldn’t have let Mrs. Champagne give it to the pub unless it was OK?”

“Correct boss.”

“Yourself?”

Tequila seemed troubled by what she was going to say.

“Boss, I don’t have a problem with it being art, but wonder if it is wise to leave it up.  We all know Miss Wine and it is going to make thing awkward every time she is involved with something.”

“Down, then?”

“Yes, from a wisdom stand point I think it would be best.”

“Wisdom? OK, I guess I can see what you’re trying to say.  Still makes it three to one from the females to keep it up; Seven to four overall.”

“Seven to five, boss.”

“Five?”

“Your wife voted.”

“Crap, I was afraid of that.  Actually she just made it a tie as she has one more vote than me and Pint.”

“Gee boss, how do you break a tie around here?”

“Never happened before.  Whatever I do will be a precedent for future decisions.”

“Wow, what are you going to do boss?”

“Simple, leave it the patrons of this establishment.”

“Boss, they can’t really see the painting.”

“I know.  I am not going to let them either.”

“Then how are they going to have a basis for a decision?”

“I will simply ask them to vote on the concept:  Should the theology pub keep the nude painting of Miss Wine on the wall over the bar based purely on the idea of it?”

Tequila looked at me blankly for a second and then smiled.

Thanks for stopping by the theology pub All Things Rabyd.  Read responsibly or have a designated driver as theology is much like alcohol.  Please don’t forget to leave your opinion about the painting of Miss Wine on this post.

Blessings.