Clothing and Modesty for Christian Women

We must remember that modesty in the Bible means not showing off with fancy clothes and jewelry. Nudity is the most humble and modest thing of all, to the point that it's a sign of poverty sometimes. And sometimes, it's a sign of piety.

Nudity and modesty as it relates to Biblical standards is something about which that I, as a Christian, still remain ambivalent.

On the one hand, Adam and Eve were nude with each other in the Garden of Eden and this was considered acceptable. Once they committed sin and then began feeling shame over their nudity, that was when God gave them clothing. Some Christians believe that this would be due to the fact that they could now experience sinful lust over one another, but that explanation doesn't entirely make sense because Adam and Eve were already a couple and functionally married in God's eyes, so lusting after each other would not have been wrong. The better explanation seems to be that the shame they felt over their nudity was what they were doing wrong.

And that being said, thousands of years of Christian tradition does not teach that nudity itself is sinful, but rather that lust is sinful. Because of this, modesty (through covering up the body) is usually encouraged in Christianity because it is seen as a way to prevent the sin of lust. But does it work? In countries where women are covered up almost entirely, plenty of sexual crimes still occur frequently, so it seems to be a poor deterrent in many cases.

I often wonder what Western society would be like if nudity was more casually accepted in public. People might assume that it would lead to degeneracy or increased sexual crimes, but I doubt it. There could be a small spike in that sort of thing at first, but after a while when people are accustomed to nudity and it's no longer "taboo" or "naughty", I think sexual crimes would actually decrease.

Always nice to get your opinions on these topics, awayness. :)

After commiting the first sin, Adam and Eve both put leaves over their "privates" and hid in the bushes. When asked by god, they said they were hiding because they are naked. So I agree, only through sin the body become and object of lust and therefore prone to more sin.

On the other hand, in the Garden of Eden they were protected from the influence of weather or animals/insects. I may repeat myself here, but wearing clothes for me is not only a matter of modesty, but also of warmth and protection. In summer, when it is hot, I also like to wear as little as possible, but most of the year it's more cool here, and I don't see the need for excessive heating when I can just put on some proper clothes.

I think it's true that people desire most what they don't have, so maybe the more nudity gets "normal", the less the (female) body gets objectified. I think if guys she bare $%!@ all the time, they will stare less at cleavages. The other way round it's a greater pleasure to show your body to someone if they are still curious. You and your body might be less of interest if you show off all the time.

A common misconception! Read the text more carefully, it does not say they covered any particular parts of their body, and more importantly, it doesn't say that, once covered, everything was fine. Like they could walk around and everything was okay now that they're not naked.

No, it says that they made coverings and then hid. I think it's clear that what they made were essentially duck blinds. It wasn't any particular part of their body that was exposed, it was their whole selves. They were trying not to be visible at all, hiding because they had done wrong. For most of history that's what the word naked or gymnos or whatever means. Like literally visible, exposed to the air.

I only have a German bible and it says "Sie hefteten Feigenblätter aneinander und machten sich einen Schurz" (Gen 3,7) In my understanding, a "Schurz" is something you tie around the waist that covers your privates. Only then did they notice god was aproaching and they hid.

True, the real reason they hid was because they were ashamed of their sins and not of their naked bodies.