Pro-social nudity, pro-social freedom: Why the Bible allows for domestic child nudity (opposing body shaming)

Many parents believe children should wear clothes, to the point of shaming them for their choice of undress. There are many levels of child undress, all of which are scorned and shamed by adult society, all because of a fake religious taboo that doesn't exist in the Bible for children. We as a country draw from the Bible and its context for understanding what taboos we should have, as we are a Christian nation. We should have taboos and norms, but the Bible explains it as different than what we have today, in the form of attachment parenting, and one way to create an attachment parenting environment is to allow nudity in the house.

Body shaming is shaming children in order to get them to wear clothing, such as punishing them for things such as nudity. So much as this is a provocation to anger, but children have a special right to nudity and body freedom under biblical law. It says in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and submission of parents, with parents prioritizing children above themselves to the point of submission, and children resting in the good works of parents, trusting them enough to be naked in front of parents. In biblical times, children were naked all of the time, yet at the same time never left the line of sight of parents. This level of nudity, which was total nudity for older children especially, brought parents down to the attachment parenting level, encouraging secure and warm attachment with mothers in the form of nourishment and sustenance, meaning breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, with fathers being friends with daughters especially on an equal level, with friendships motivated ulteriorly by parent attraction. 

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages, namely the slightest of personal offensives, including the slightest of offensive touch or shaming. Children in most Christian households are punished for running naked throughout the house, when there is no biblical basis for the manufactured infraction, and a biblical prohibition on punishing children. Yes, this commandment was lifted up from the Old Testament by the Apostle Paul to rebuke Greek Christians who were spanking children for "unchaste" behavior such as nudity. The rod verses in Proverbs are repealed verses, as they refer to a specific form of judicial corporal punishment - the 40 minus 1 lashes with the rod of correction, as a final warning before putting an errant ADULT son to death for committing a capital offense. The verses in Hebrews do not refer to corporal punishment literally, but figuratively to symbolize the endurance of hardship - the Early Church did not practice corporal punishment as a form of church discipline.

Child nudity existed everywhere in the Early Christian churches. The Early Christians were primitivists that lived a primitive lifestyle close to nature, shunning the hustle and bustle of surrounding Rome, while blending in at other times. Children were naked all of the time then, and when this happens, parents become attachment parents, on the attraction level, especially fathers. Fathers, in biblical times, were expected to be chaste and pure, and save their sexual relations for their wife, meaning for the fathers who bore the brunt of the attraction were required to abstain from parent attraction. Today, in many attachment parenting homes, children just cannot keep the clothes on while inside. They should be instructed to wear clothing outside the home. See Romans 13:1-4 KJV:

Let every soul be subject upon the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained by God. Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But, if thou do that which is evil, be afraid: for he is the minister to God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

There is no command anywhere in the Bible mandating child nudity. It merely can be legislated by a strict contextual application of the Bible, where children remained naked in the line of sight of parents in order to keep parents relating to them as an equal. Thus, children should wear clothing in public, but maybe be lax about the clothing in the privacy of their own homes. The Greek root word translated "subject" is υποτασσο (Latin: hupotasso) and here refers to a certain reverence for the law leading to cooperation, in this case meaning Christian parents, though nudity is good for the parent-child relationship, should observe laws against open lewdness and public indecency. Having your child be naked in a market next to you wasn't illegal in biblical times, but it is illegal today, and so Christians should amend their practices as to nudity in children.

In attachment parenting, the nudity of the child, alongside skin-to-skin contact with mothers, lowers the level of attachment to an equal level. Parents in ancient Israel and adjoining churches did not have an instinct for physical aggression, with parents relating to children at the sexual level, which was not felt in mothers, but was experienced connotationally as pedophilia in fathers, with fathers usually knowing quite well not to act on their attraction, due to strong sexual taboos against any sexual activity with others outside of marriage.

Neighboring cultures in the Old Testament allowed for what was called "gunning down" a child who cried incessantly and nonstop, meaning using penile strength to freeze up a crying child like a balloon. Such was prohibited in the Bible in Leviticus 18:17 (for girls) and the sodomy laws (for boys), which are both repeated by the Greek root word πορνεία (Latin: pleonektés) and refers to any adult sexual entitlement perceived by the child target/victim. The Greek root word translated "inordinate passions" in Colossians 3:5 is επιθυμέω (Latin: epithumeo) and refers to taking the first steps to have sexual relations with children, with planning an offense being the minimum criteria for inordinate affections. Thus, the taboos were strong against sexually assaulting or raping one's child, and most fathers were only attracted to their children strongly in fantasy, due to them re-channeling their sexual thoughts away from the geo-location of the child, wherever the child is. The prohibition on father-daughter sexual relations is stated as only applying to "mother and daughter", however, the Law then was interpreted broadly and flexibly, with the spirit of the Law being that only your wife can be your sexual partner, and you cannot marry your daughter - sex was equated to marriage in the Bible. Any father who did anything with his daughter, once found out, was surely put to death, in some way, in some form. Mothers simply guarded their children, especially daughters, from sexual predation from even their father, with sexual abuse - or any abuse - resulting in divorce in the New Testament (1 Cor. 7:10-11).

Children should be able to wear as much or as little as they want at home. Usually, this allowance invites children to wear nothing or next to nothing, and this works to bring parents down to the attachment parenting level with their children. The same is the case with birth nudity, meaning allowing the baby to be completely naked while being nourished with breastmilk and sustained with skin-to-skin closeness. Usually, they see adults wearing clothing, and they sort of get the message, but not quite until later. Some children with autism, usually girls, don't get it at all, usually getting the message slowly that clothing is mandatory in a public building such as a school. Usually, these children have sensory issues that make putting the clothing on a complacent issue. Sensory issues improve with age and development.

In biblical times, mothers did wear clothing outside the house, but not much clothing - usually just a sun dress slapped on quickly with nothing underneath. Usually, a naked child was co-mingled in her dress and with swaddling blankets, perhaps feeding off of her breasts. Fathers in the Early Church wore a toga to blend in with the Greco-Roman culture, meaning conforming while not conforming, not being of this world, but of the next.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them burn in the lake of fire and burning sulfur, suffering the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!