Persecuted for Good Nudity

In May of 2002 I was removed from being Pastor of Grace Bible Church of Anaheim California because of my belief in “Good Nudity” and practice of naturism / nudism. Here is the story.

Background

Judy and I were invited to Grace Bible Church in 1993 at a time when the church was dying a slow death.  The prior pastor was a friend of mine who had served the Lord for 10 years at the church.  He watched it go down from over 100 to 40 people.  When he left I was asked to step into the pastoral role and served without pay for over 3 years.  During that time we retired debt and refurbished the church building.  I left my full-time job in the computer field in 1997 to work part-time at the church and part-time as a computer consultant.  In 2000 I was able to leave the computer field completely and devote my entire time to Grace.  At this point the church was over 100 people again. I had established a Bible Institute to train local men and women who could not leave their job and attend a formal Bible College.

About this time I had completed over four years of detailed research into the topic of simple nudity – i.e. nudity in health, art, and life (see “Good Nudity” for more details).  As a result, in March of 2000 my wife Judy and I had our first experience at a nudist resort in Palm Springs.  From that time forward our lives changed and I must say for the better (but that is another story).  I then wrote my paper “Good Nudity” in 2001 and gave it to my church board.  The next meeting I asked for feedback and all said they had not ever thought of the topic in that way.  The following board meeting I told the board that we had been visiting clothing optional places for the past year.  They all said that while they wouldn’t do it they had no problem with Judy and me enjoying social nude recreation.  One of my associate pastors did question me about “lusting” and “arousal” and I shared in detail how simple nudity – good nudity – actually has a positive effect in a man’s life and the feared arousal or lust just doesn’t happen.  I suggested that he and his wife visit a clothing-optional place with us and he’d see (no pun intended) for himself.  He replied to all of our surprise, “I already asked my wife and she said, ‘No.’” We all had a good laugh.  The topic was raised no more in subsequent board meetings as it was considered a non-issue.

A Crisis in Leadership

Fast forward to October of 2001.  One of my associate pastors, Rene Pena, was discovered to be a woman living as a man.  You read that correctly – a woman.  I’ve written a detailed account of how things went down and you can read it here.  (The cable TV channel Showtime has also produced a documentary about this person’s quest for wholeness called: “The Opposite Sex: Rene’s Story.”  I was contacted by Showtime productions and ultimately consented to being filmed for this documentary regarding transsexualism and gender reassignment surgery.  This was all after our departure from Grace.)

It was a powerful event in our lives as we came to grips with the fact that Rene was not a man.  To say it was the most unbelievable situation in my life would be an understatement.  It changed our world as well.  My wife Judy and I treated Rene and Rene’s “wife” Wona like they were our family.  There was nothing I didn’t share with Rene about our lives as we worked together in the ministry of Grace Bible Church.

Rene was part of our church leadership with whom I shared our research, discovery and ultimate participation in naturism.  I can vividly remember Rene’s reaction, almost a nervous fear, when I shared with the men the joy and spiritual health I was experiencing in social nude recreation.  I did not know why Rene had such a reaction until Rene’s deep secret was revealed.

Discussions with Former Leadership

As Rene reacted to being found out, Rene tried to discredit the church leadership.  Rene threatened me with, “I’m going to tell everyone that you are a nudist.”  To which I replied, “Rene if we were living in the NT times we would have known if you were circumcised or not.  You would not have been able to deceive people about your gender.  You situation proves we need more good nudity in our society.”  Rene also verbally attacked Associate Pastor Jesse, Senior Elder Dan, and an Executive Board member.  As Rene attacked me, Rene told others, especially former church leaders, about my being a “nudist.”  This resulted in a series of meetings with Rodney Stearns, a former leader, who wrote a lengthy paper against social nude recreation.  I wrote a response to Rodney (which you can read here) and we then had another series of meetings with him and the other inactive former leadership of the church, Ron, Chuck, and Dan P.  At the conclusion of these long meetings, the consensus was to allow Judy and I to continue our naturism under the following restraints: no teaching or preaching naturism from the pulpit; and no teaching or promoting naturism on church property.  I wholeheartedly agreed.  That final meeting in December of 2001 was one of great joy by all men.  We hugged and heaved a sigh a relief that we could move ahead.

The “non-denominational” Denomination

However, enter the denomination – Grace Gospel Fellowship (GGF).  My history with the GGF goes back to 1972 when I attended their school, Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids Michigan.  I had always been supportive of the GGF and was on the National Council as well as the pastoral representative for the West Coast.  The GGF is an organization that takes pride in that it is not a denomination – rather a “fellowship” of local churches.  By their own admission they claim to not have any outside influence on local churches.  This is not so as you will see.

Because people were finding out about our naturism via gossip and the threats from Rene, my wife decided to tell her sister.  Her husband was a GGF pastor and was getting ready to attend the annual Pastor’s Conference.  We chose to tell them so they would not be “blindsided” by the news of our naturism.  My brother-in-law then told another member of the GGF Council who evidently took the word to the Council.  I then got a 5-minute call from then President of the GGF, Ken Parker, telling me that this is a problem and asking if I would I step down from my position on the National Council.  I did and also stepped down from my position in our West Coast region.  I never dreamed that the GGF would put pressure on the former leaders to take action against me or the church would lose its affiliation. 

The Plan

We, the Elders and Executive Board, met and decided that we must bring everything to the congregation – in particular that the GGF was calling for me to step down from being their pastor.  So we held a church family meeting where the following was shared:

Dear Church Family,

We have received a letter from the GGF which suggests that Pastor Jeff change his views and correct his public statements regarding nudism and naturism.  If he does not and if we do not remove him from being our Senior Pastor then we will no longer be an affiliated church.

We (and former Elders) have met and discussed this topic thoroughly.  The consensus was to allow Jeff & Judy to practice social nude recreation as a freedom in Christ and they agreed not to promote it from the pulpit.

However the suggestion by the GGF that Pastor Jeff be removed from office causes us to want to bring this situation to your knowledge and ultimately to have you, our church family, vote to remove or affirm him.

To this end we have put together this packet of information.  We want you to make an informed decision regarding this issue.

We have attached a copy of the letter from the GGF; a copy of a paper that Jeff & Judy have put together documenting their journey into naturism.  They also have an informal Bed and Breakfast for traveling naturists, which they advertise on the web.

We want you to read these and prayerfully consider the matter.  We will be having two Question and Answer meetings that will allow you to ask Jeff & Judy or the Executive board any questions that you might have.  We will then have a Church Family Meeting specifically for the purpose of removing or affirming Pastor Jeff & Judy as leaders in our church.

Dates:  Question & Answer #1 – Thursday May 9^th @ 7:00pm

Question & Answer #2 – Sunday May 19 @ 7:00pm

            Church Family Meeting Vote after 2^nd service – Sunday May 26.

I also read the following statement to the congregation on that my last Sunday:

Last year I taught you the truth of “Good Nudity.” 

At our Thanksgiving testimony service I said: “I have learned the joy of Good Nudity and the joy of skinny dipping and that social nudity is not lewd or sinful.  That apart from Christ, my marriage & kids, Good Nudity has impacted my life in ways I would have never guessed.

Now with people discovering and having problems that I practice and enjoy the freedom that the truth of Good Nudity enables, a decision is being forced upon you all.  With this aspect of my growth in Christ and private freedom being made public, it brings to you more than what you may be comfortable with having me as your pastor.

So I desire to tell and share all that we’ve experienced so that you may make an informed decision either to ask me to leave our church or to affirm my ministry and freedom in Christ.

My vision has been to build a family of faith one person at a time that is characterized by humility, total honesty, and a radical dependence on God; and church full of compassionate friends.  If you want me to leave, I’ll leave.  I love you all in Christ.  

Our plan was to put the issue to the people.  Let them ask questions, learn more about naturism, and then decide if they still wanted me to be their pastor.

At the conclusion of this congregational meeting well over 75% of the people came up to me and said that this is ridiculous.  The GGF has no right to tell us what to do and that they are behind Judy and me.  It was very powerful to be affirmed by the people whom I had either led to Christ or discipled in their faith.

Ungodly Legalism, Pressure, and Actions

The pressure from the GGF, especially the leaders of a sister church in Arizona, was tremendous.  There were letters written calling me names and even stating that I was “pimping” my daughter!  It should have been an opportunity for them to “minister” to me an “erring brother” but instead it was like the topic lanced a boil and the puss of their carnality and legalism went out everywhere.  At no time in my life have I ever suffered such ungrace, and this was from people who claim to preach grace!

Unknown to me, the former leaders held clandestine meetings and plotted how they might remove me as Senior Pastor.  I really believe that they felt that the congregation would support us and they’d lose face with the GGF.  The pressure from these inactive, former leaders and the GGF continued upon everybody.  Finally, it reached the man who was instrumental in ordaining me, Pastor Bob Hill, causing him to revoke my ordination (surprisingly and uncharacteristically without any dialog, warning or consultation with the other men who signed the ordination certificate).  Now the former leaders had something that they might use: a church constitutional technicality.  The constitution stated that the pastor must be an “ordained man.”  With my ordination removed, the inactive leaders grabbed a hold of this point and used it to terminate us.  They called a meeting at 6:00pm on that Thursday night and met with Associate Pastor Jesse and Ted without Senior Elder Dan.  Dan was told the meeting would be at 8:00pm.  In that 6:00pm meeting they drafted a letter of dismissal and when Dan arrived they wanted him to sign it, which he refused.  Pastor Jesse and Rodney came to my home at almost 9:00pm and handed me the letter.  My question to them was: “What sin are you accusing me of?”  They both were caught off guard and all Rodney could say was: “Jeff, it is over…” 

On the grounds of an “emergency measures” they usurped the active board of the church, reinstated themselves, ended our pastoral relationship, and thus prevented the congregation from discussing the issue and voting.  While we could have fought this constitutionally illegal move and the church itself could have ordained me if they voted to keep us, we saw the inactive leaders’ and GGF’s fervent determination to remove us.  We chose not to fight and accepted their termination. 

Conclusion

The letter of termination was illegal.  They were not the leadership of the church.  They had all retired from the Executive Board over the years.  Yet because they were under pressure from the GGF they felt “emergency measures” were needed.  I had already decided that a fair treatment of the topic was far beyond their abilities, and the peer pressure from the GGF was enormous, so it was better not to fight such an illegal move.  They felt that I was tearing the church apart, but in fact they were the ones doing so.   

So, the Q&A meetings and the Church Family Meeting vote never happened because the former leaders prevented it.  They did not realize that if the church had voted and did not want us to be the pastor, we would have stepped down.  Judy and I had poured our lives into Grace Bible Church as we served Christ.  The church was vibrant and growing.  It was a picture of the surrounding community – multi-ethnic. 

Sadly the former leaders acted with such carnality that they spread vicious rumors about us (one was that we had nude pictures of our daughter on our website – what a lie), called the city to report our informal Bed and Breakfast for traveling naturists, contacted as many people as they could and encouraged the spreading of rumors that called into question our honesty and integrity.  They even held out the carrot of “Senior Pastor” to Associate Pastor Jesse and he was carried away with pride over the thought of being the main Pastor.  Consequently, the next Sunday a meeting was held to inform the congregation why we were dismissed.  I understand from those who attended that it was a very brutal meeting, lies were told and the majority of the people who were supportive of us the week before were now in essence saying: “crucify him, crucify him…”

The carnality of these leaders was punctuated at the very end.  I had one final expense report that I filed after I was terminated.  It was for various approved expenses that I incurred while serving the church.  They denied payment on several hundred dollars of dental expenses.  When I picked up my final check I was shocked to see that my expense report was minus these board-approved expenses.  The reason I was told was that they did not approve these expenses – this was because they were not on the (official) board that had originally approved them over a year prior.  As I said, I was stunned.  One would think that they would feel shame over not paying what was due.  They must have concluded that I was lying when I turned in the expense report – how sad.  Even scripture exhorts us to “suffer wrong” in giving others the benefit of the doubt (1 Cor. 6:7).

Afterwards a few people asked me: “Was it worth it?  Losing a church?” etc., etc.  What they did not see at the time was the core concept of GRACE was at stake.  If grace is not extended – even in disagreement – then there is no grace.  In this whole confrontation there was no grace.  Also, for me the truth of Good Nudity was being challenged, not that people have to become nudists or naturists, but that they need to view the body as God does – “behold…it is good” (Gen. 1:31).  Every time people visit the Doctor and have to disrobe, every time they view simple nudity in art and life, and every time they exit the shower and see themselves in the mirror nude – the truth of Good Nudity is present.  Present-day Christianity has not developed a Biblical “somatology” (theology of the body) that answers the simple questions of nudity in life.  I hope and pray that my sacrifice and contribution will be remembered as a starting point in the overall discussion.  I can tell you from our personal experience that there are many Christians who enjoy clothing optional recreation.  Since the start of our involvement in naturism (2000) we’ve personally met numerous pastors and active lay-people at clothing optional resorts.  We’ve also had many stay with us at our clothing-optional spa.  This is all kept quiet because of the fear of being rejected by other Christians.  I fully understand and accept this clandestine attitude.  I however had to tell the blessings  that God brought into my life because of Good Nudity.

As a result of these events Fellowship Bible Church was started and it's website (www.ExperienceGrace.com) to disseminate my writings.  I was then re-ordained to the ministry by Fellowship Bible Church.  

Postscript

It has been several years now since the events described here happened.  At first I wanted to lash out and respond.  But I didn’t think it would be wise (or godly) and I didn’t have “release” in my spirit about it.  Now I do.  I don’t know if it matters anymore, but it matters to me to set the record straight – at least from my perspective.  I do pray that all involved will never forget the questions and challenges that still must be answered on the topic of simple nudity.  

“Let not your good be evil spoken of…”  (Rom. 14:16)

 

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