more of the broad canyons that follow the Colorado River

Considered naturism was a amazing,

wherever it goes.
Favorable thing well worth removing
For an hour, the burning congarments for---certainly more benetinued, never relenting. I felt
like an
ficial than the simple amateur pasIf someone had come
Built-in, close part of nature. I
time of swimming, which is considalong clothed, I 'd
felt so right being there without the
ered a perfectly fine time to remove
have believed they were
artificial covering of clothing sepa- breaking this sacred place.
garments.
Standing me from God's creations. If
Eventually, he pulled out the big
someone had come along clothed, I
Firearms. He asked me if I could
would have felt they were breaking this holy spot.
Picture President Gordon B. Hinckley
I ended up hiking about two miles before turning back. The
doing things naked. (I could not, but there were many other
Strong burning eventually subsided, giving hunger and thirst a
things I couldn't envision him doing, either.) He asked what I
chance to kick in. I fought to get back. My legs became
thought the prophet would say if I asked Nude Advertising and Marketing the Northeast
Naturist Festival on Main Street USA about nudism.
wobbly as I suffered from dehydration, and it took all my enI have no notion what he had say,
but I'm not certain he'd condemn
ergy to return safely to my vehicle. As I walked, I understood
it. And I told my bishop as much.
that---albeit unintentionally---I'd been fasting from food and
I finally determined to play my trump card. I bore my testidrink when that experience had hit
me.
mony of the encounter I had in Moab---how the Nature of the
I had planned on staying another day or two in Moab, but
Lord had observed to me that naturism is a positive thing. I
anything after that encounter would have been anticlimactic. I
knew he could not resist my powerful affirmation of account.
returned home at the same time, eager to share my encounter with my
He could resist it. He told me my spiritual experience was
family and naturist buddies.
Deceit from Satan and dismissed it.

There was no doubt in my head I'd had a religious experiMy bishop decided he needed to
escalate the issue to the
ence that testified of the existence of God. But I also believed it was
Position president. I met with the president and my bishop toa divine avowal of my approval
of nudism, and a
gether, but I said as little as possible. I knew it'd be a
calling of forms to share my beliefs with others---to go ahead
waste of time. The stake president clarified that if my inspirawith the plans I Had been
contemplating.
tion was in contradiction to his inspiration and that of my
bishop, I should consider myself on precarious ground.
ND NONE TOO shortly! Just a few weeks afterwards, my
By that point, I had studied, meditated, observed, experibishop called me in to his office. He
had found out I did
enced, and prayed for three years about nudism. They had
things nude.
spent, at most, an hour or two, praying---merely praying--I knew he wouldn't comprehend any more than I understood
making no attempt to study or comprehend naturism. I could not
before I learned about naturism, but I also understood that, because
understand how that place me on unstable ground.
it was so clear and evident to me, I could explain it.
I suppose that was the day I learned that living the life of an
It didn't work. To him, I was indulging in perverted things,
LDS naturist requires living a double life. As a naturist, you reand I needed fixing.
veal your beliefs on nudity to fellow Latter-day Saints at your
First he played the modesty card---the one that underlies
own peril. It is one of those topics for which reasonable discussion
every Young Women's lesson and permeates the BYU honour
seems hopeless. The concept of nudism is so foreign to the
code. I explained my view that modesty is a comparative thing
orthodox Mormon mindset that there is little common ground
Transforming from circumstance to circumstance, from culture to
to build on..
culture, from time to time. I described that modesty is in the
I anticipated that disciplinary actions would be brought
heart and in the mind, not in the amount of material we drape
against me, but nothing ever happened. I eventually went
over our bodies. I explained to him how nudism had helped
away from that ward. My former bishop kindly made sure my
diffuse the extreme lust I could feel at the sight of an appealing
next bishop understood I was a naturist, but I moved twice more
female because the body had been divested of its puzzle and
and managed to escape Naked Girls Reading - Who Doesn't Love A Nude Reading? .

titillation.
Though I escaped, buddies of mine in the LDS naturist comPossibly feeling which he was
losing ground in the discussion,
munity (yes, there's a community) haven't always fared as
A
well. One buddy stood before a stake-grade disciplinary council
and made a heroic attempt to describe naturism. When he ended, they declared they could
not come up with a viable
reason to condemn naturism, but they just didn't feel right