naked

I was shocked to learn, a couple of years ago, how many people not only have naked pictures of themselves, but also have them stored somewhere online. This unpalatable factoid came to light as part of news reporting on a hack of celebrity cell phones and the subsequent release of their salacious snaps.

Is modesty truly dead in this country? I wonder. There’s a small Christian liberal arts college in my town; modesty doesn’t seem to be a concern for many of those students. Or for a lot of other people who are old enough to know better.

I know I sound like a prude, but my reading this morning in the book of Lamentations made me consider the question. Lamentations 1:8 reads “Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, for they have all seen her naked; she herself groans and turns away.”

This is metaphor, of course, for spiritual unfaithfulness. But I wondered if readers today would understand the shame. Why should being seen naked give anyone the right to despise anyone else? Why should the naked person groan in embarrassment and be unable to look people in the eye? Go to the beach, and you’ll see all the unabashed near-nudity you can stomach.

It’s an important question, because shame is a key part of recognizing sin. To lose my sense of shame means I no longer see my sin for the horror that it is. Oh, I’m still ashamed of literal nudity, but do I still feel mortified at spiritual nakedness? Those times when my lifestyle doesn’t look any different from the world, when I compromise God’s standards to go enjoy our current culture - does it bother me when others know?

I can’t remember the last time I felt embarrassment, let alone shame. Is that because I don’t do shameful things anymore? I’d like to think so. But I do a lot of things now that I would never have done in the past - things like travel or visit the grocery store on Sunday, skip church on vacation, or watch violent movies. Is that because I was wrong before?

Those things don’t bother me much now, but  I’m afraid if I search my soul I’m going to find out I’m just a lot more comfortable showing a little metaphorical skin than I used to be. And I’m afraid I’ll find more serious standards are being compromised too.