Nakedness, Eros and Religion

Three things have been drawn to my attention just in the last 24 hours that have to do with nakedness.

First of all, last night a friend suggested that much of the art displayed on my site of a certain nature. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” I agree. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I love art, including fine-art nude photography and other kinds of art that explore the beauty and wonder of the human body. Some of the art my friends do is nude, erotic, or naked. Whatever. I appreciate it all. So you will be seeing more of it on my site without apology.

Secondly, several have questioned what the pictures have to do with my posts. Sometimes they are closely related, other times not. I say, “Does that mean that in an art gallery all you can talk about is art?” Or, “When you talk theology, does that mean there can be no art present in the room, and if there is, must it pertain to the topic at hand?” Of course not. My blog’s tag says, “David Hayward artfully bares his soul…” That’s why there’s art present on my site, and it often has nothing to do with what I’m saying. Like my livingroom or my study, I have art present in the room, even when I’m talking about theology or wine.

Thirdly, on a more urgent note: someone living in my city whom I’ve never met or heard of called my church study today asking for me and wanted me to confirm whether or not I was the author of nakedpastor.com. I said I was. She very apologetically asked if I was aware that my tag “naked”, when clicked, led to porn links. I told her I wasn’t aware of that. I explained, like I have before, that my site is about me baring my soul and is not about pornography. I used that tag to help people find me as well as a way of broadcasting the confessional nature of my site. She was aware of that but wanted to draw to my attention that people could access some pretty nasty pornography through my “naked” tag. I told this very courageous and concerned person that I promise I will not use the “naked” tag again. It’s really not necessary anyway. She said she’d been alerted to my site from other Christians who couldn’t believe my site was a portal to pornography. Of course, any tag can be underhandedly used to access porn and I have no control over that. But I certainly have control over this one. So, from now on, “naked” will not be used as a tag word at the bottom of my posts. I’m grateful she had the nerve to call me.

The very non-erotic photograph is the creation of my friend Mark Hemmings.