Let's Go Back to the Bible

Too progressive to be shamed!

There was a time when a lack of clothing on a person’s body in public evoked a sense of shame-shame within that person’s heart, shame within his family and friends, shame felt by others for him, shame felt by others for his family and friends. In fact, the Bible speaks of such shame from nakedness, in both literal and metaphorical contexts. It was prophesied that the Egyptians would be led away “as prisoners…naked and…uncovered, to the shame of Egypt” (Isa. 20:4). In fact, “nakedness” and “shame” were so tied together in Scripture, that they were used interchangeably in some passages (Isa. 47:3; Nah. 3:5; Rev. 16:15).

How is it that we have progressed and advanced so far as a human society (as if this is a good thing) that showing or seeing private (yet, exposed) body parts (whether fully or partially) has not only become accepted but even expected? How is it that we (as individuals and as a society) no longer “know how to blush” (cf. Jer. 6:15)? Is it because we are just so “advanced” as a people now, or is it because we are “adapted” to man’s way rather than God’s?