“WHAT ABOUT THE HOSPITAL NUDITY PROBLEM?”

My short answer is simple…. It didn’t take me long in the nursing field to learn that our cultural ideas about nudity aren’t based on reality, but on a ridiculously false and sordid imagination. Naked anatomy becomes a problem only where unreal or irrational expectations make it one. By itself, the nude body doesn’t create the lustful thinking that preoccupies American culture. Jesus said that lust comes from an impure heart (Matthew 15:19), which is exactly what our society mentally nourishes by proclaiming the naked body an indecency.

So, based on Christ’s teaching, lust is never a direct result of merely seeing the opposite sex in an unclad condition. In the same way, our human dignity isn’t lost just because the opposite sex see us au naturel. Normal, non-sexual nudity ̶ so common in healthcare ̶ confirms these two statements. Your own hospital stay might provide a convincing example of this. If males are among your caregivers, and you find yourself without the embarrassment you anticipated, congratulations! You will see firsthand why my own experiences with female nudity have failed to produce the trouble our sex-crazed society predicts.

The human body, designed by our Creator in the precise appearance and form He meant for it, is not the problem. Society has artificially created a problem by fostering a lewd view of nudity that God never intended. However, the social problems arising from that view are real and sometimes devastating. All our lives we’ve been trained to think of nudity as a sexual issue. How refreshing to find it’s really a non-issue!

I often correct patients who say, “I guess this is where I lose my modesty.” I tell them, “Not at all! You’re as modest now as the day you were born.” True modesty is an attitude, both in mind and in behavior, not a state of dress or undress. Modesty can be lost by trying to attract attention through suggestive body postures or facial expressions, or even through wearing certain kinds of clothing, but not by simple nakedness.

Believe me, I’m not saying this because of growing numb to nudity through years of exposure to it. My work as a male nurse has in no way blinded me to God’s artistic beauty in the naked feminine form. I simply know the wholesome reality of appreciating such beauty without the lustful thinking that our culture grooms us to have and then declares unavoidable. Nor is my experience, and that of millions of others, just so much psychological wishful thinking. On the contrary, this surprising discovery about human nakedness is a healthy mental emancipation from warped thinking. Our culture has persistently sexualized and pornified the human body. But most people are liberated from this “vain imagination” almost instantaneously upon their first exposure to the “naked truth.”

I could say more. This is my short answer to “What about the hospital nudity problem?” My long answer (on another web page) gives a more thorough explanation. Since the popular, sexualized view of the body directly contradicts my own experience with nakedness, this area has been one of much personal thought and ongoing research. What I’ve learned historically, culturally, psychologically, and theologically, has unanimously confirmed the viewpoint expressed above. These discoveries and insights deepened my own appreciation for God’s original will in creating us in a nude condition. They have also expanded my understanding of how important our physical embodiment is in God’s plan. The human body, so exploited by society, is actually a realm of spiritual insight and celebration, when understood from a godly, creational perspective. If this short answer is insufficient and unconvincing, or if you are interested in learning more about why I believe as I do, study “My View On Nakedness” or read my book Meeting at the River.

by Rev. David L. Hatton, RN. Originally Published July 2008.