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reillan -> RE: SWIMMING AND SWIMSUITS...nor not? (5/28/2008 1:18:53 PM)
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After a considerable amount of inquiry into the Bible and into Christian philosophy regarding these types of issues, here are the rules I've created for myself:
1) If there's no specific Biblical law related to the issue, then it's up to the individual person to determine its sinfulness.
2) If you want to do it because it gratifies a sinful nature of your own, then it's sinful.
3) If you do it around anyone you *know* will have sinful thoughts because of your action, it's also sinful.
So, for instance with this line of argument:
Swimming is not specifically banned in the Bible. There are passages that refer to modesty that can be interpreted multiple ways, there are passages that refer to nakedness that can be interpreted multiple ways, there are passages referring to people being in the water (ie, for baptism) that may promote certain forms of water immersion (especially baptism, obviously), and there is the fairly clear equation that lust=sin that is very difficult to misinterpret (although many try!).
So, the individual person must examine swimming and determine if it violates any of those things: if you feel that it's immodest to be clothed in less than full plate body armor, then obviously swimming in less would be a sin, although swimming in more would not be and there are swimsuits made for that (see: burkini!). If you feel that it's immodest for women and men to be in mixed company for any reason at all, you have more issues to deal with, but obviously mixed swimming would be a sin regardless of how it's done. If you believe that nakedness is a sin then there would not be any time you should be naked in a pool around others. If, however, it's a lust issue, then you simply must avoid any kind of situation that would cause you to lust.
But let's say those things aren't true: let's say you feel it's possible to be modest when wearing a bikini (as one person said, she found one that was modest! I'm guessing it was Land's End). Let's say you're used to seeing people in their swim suits so rampant lust isn't something you have a problem with either. You might lust when you see someone particularly attractive in some way, but you feel you would lust regardless of how much of their body you were seeing, and thus you are completely convinced that swimming is not a sin.
Then it's not!
Of course, you'd better be completely convinced: if there's any doubt, then you're sinning.
Finally, take the example of the Bible Study + swim. We used to do this a lot when I was in high school, and it was mixed and, as a young teenage boy who had been raised in a very protected home, I certainly lusted over some of the girls in the Bible Study. Had I felt comfortable telling my youth group that I was struggling with that sin (and there's a whole 'nother issue with talking to your brothers and sisters in Christ about your sins), it would have been the responsibility of everyone there not to swim in or wear normally attire that would trigger my lustful desires. We are called upon to help each other through our sins, to become stronger, rather than to weaken each other.
What all of this means: Those of you who believe swimming in less than a burkini in mixed company is wrong: you're correct. Those of you who believe swimming nude in mixed company is fine: you're also correct.
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