Agenelo Mascarenhas wrote on GoaNet in response to Luiza D'Mello's disgust at the naked sadhus at the Kumbh Mela.
[your cultural upbringing is showing. In a semitic setup, showing skin and sex are taboo. christians have inherited semitic traditions. a quick observation of the clothing of nuns, monks and priests will tell you a lot. catholic women wore a black veil to church. the marriage dress has a veil too. all point to covering the skin.
worshipping in the nude is neither immoral nor amoral. simply put: the morals involved are not of semitic origin.]
I quote from http://www.geocities.com/boydallen/naturism_god_satan.html
Please read the quoted Bible section first and then the explanation.
Genesis 3:1-7
Satan taught us to be ashamed of what God has created when he conned us into taking what is not ours and disbelieving God. When we did that, we have been teaching our children that they are evil and as soon as we are born, we are evil and are to be ashamed of ourselves, even long after we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. That lie has kept us from fully accepting Jesus in faith and we continue to struggle with our own ways of dealing with sin just as Adam and Eve did. We continue to hide instead of "Walking in the Garden" "Just As I Am" to be "Clothed with Righteousness Alone". Are we clothed in fear or righteousness?
Genesis 3:8-24
In Effect, God was saying, "So, you don't like the bodies I gave you? You are ashamed of my greatest creation? Ashamed of My Image? You mean you don't like the Godly living skin I created for you? Then you will be condemned to wear the skins and image of a dead animal until the Ultimate Sacrifice comes to wash away the sins you have committed and only then will you be freed from this curse."
Don't forget, God did not cover us with just clothing, he covered our natural living skin with unnatural dead skin of a dead animal! Instead of being clothed with life and righteousness, we are clothed with death and evil. Do you really want to stay that way?
Death came between us and God. We put on clothes in shame to hide from our very own Creator. Therefore God used our own invention against us. He used it to separate us from Him. But, as an extra reminder, He used a sacrificial skin, the skin of a dead animal to hang over our bodies to remind us of our shame, which is not really our bodies, but our sins. Now that the Ultimate Sacrifice, whom later proved to be Jesus Christ, came and became our sacrifice, we no longer have a "sacrificial skin" to cover us, (it was "broken" and in a sense useless) but instead we are now "clothed with nothing but Righteousness alone"
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As far as other religions go....
For an interesting explanation on Linga & Yoni (male and female genitalia) worship in the Hindu religion visit.
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/tantra/
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