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Nudists blame competitors for ouster

Natura Family Naturist Village's president says other nudists are prejudiced against its Christian premise, hence its national charter suspension.

By JAMES THORNER
Published February 27, 2005

Between their naughty nightie nights and Erin Go Bragh-less St. Patrick's Day parties, Pasco County nudists aren't known for their bashfulness.

So when the American Association for Nude Recreation decided last week to oust one of its members for posting provocative photos of naked children on the Internet, a furor was bound to erupt. And it has.

And the plot thickens: The member that was removed, Natura Family Naturist Village, is avowedly Christian. It suspects its competitors are using the photos to attack its religious brand of nudism.

"Christ has forewarned us that we would be persecuted for his sake," Natura president Bill Martin told his supporters in an e-mail last week.

Martin, a Quaker, has been raising money to build a 200-acre bare-skinned resort at a 50-year-old nudist campground north of State Road 52. Delays, mainly because of six lawsuits between Martin and other property owners, have plagued the project.

Another blow fell earlier this month. The nudist association, based in Kissimmee, suspended Natura's charter.

AANR, like a Mobil or AAA Guide, is a major source of information about nudist clubs. It has thousands of members and represents more than 270 clubs.

The association deemed some of Natura's Internet photos and articles "sexually exploitative." Association members singled out photos of a naked teen girl posing explicitly in a bathtub and a nude woman performing yoga with her feet behind her ears. Also mentioned was a Natura article about erections.

Martin has tried to pull photos that were considered objectionable. But based on his philosophy that nakedness is next to godliness, he makes no excuses for the majority of the 24,828 images on the Web site.

"We have taken down every single photo that anyone can look at in the wrong way," Martin said.

Of the photos that remain, models span all ages and include half-developed boys and girls posing without parents. The material has drawn loads of lookers. Martin counts 16,587 registered members.

Though the photos are free, Natura requests donations. It offers easy payments through one of seven credit cards.

As for the erection article, it's meant to help young men who are fearful that their bodies would react the wrong way should they undress in front of the opposite sex, Martin said.

"If you can't speak about human nature, I don't know what you can speak about," Martin said. "Erections have got to be addressed. It's a major concern of teen males."

Martin chalks up his troubles to anti-Christian prejudice. He suspects his ouster was engineered by Natura's soon-to-be competitors in the nudist trade, many of whom Natura alleges promote a sexualized atmosphere at their clubs.

Some of the association members whose vote in January led to Natura's removal live, and in some cases work, at other Pasco nudist resorts.

They include Elf Anderson, a self-proclaimed ecumenical minister known for officiating at ceremonies in which nude couples renew marriage vows.

Martin has antagonized other nudists with his strict brand of Christianity that leaves little room for debate over the definition of morality, Anderson said.

"We're not concerned about him taking our members, but we are concerned about the impression he gives to the public about us," Anderson said. "He's so out of balance. We're all for wholesome family nudism ... but he's just way off the scale."

Paradise Lakes, one of North America's biggest nudist resorts and a target of Martin's criticism, disavowed any involvement in the controversy.

"We had nothing to do with his ouster. I heard about it after the fact," Paradise owner Joe Lettelleir said.

Not that he's shedding tears over the suspension. Lettelleir said he was "frosted" when Martin slammed his resort as some sort of Sodom and Gomorrah only months after trying to enlist Lettelleir as a business partner in Natura.

"From what I have seen and heard, I don't think some of Martin's actions, activities and materials fit the AANR requirement," he said.

Martin said he met Lettelleir only once and that he never tried to enlist the Paradise Lakes owner as an investor.

"I absolutely deny that," he said.

Natura vows to keep its photo pages up and running to illustrate the innocence of the naked form. Americans, Martin said, suffer from hangups about nudity that Europeans have jettisoned.

He runs through a gallery of nude religious historical figures, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to Jesus and John the Baptist in the River Jordan.

"You go back to the old saying "A picture's worth a thousand words,"' Martin said. "Until you get pictures like this as common as they are in Europe, you'll never get people to accept naturism."

As for the other nudist clubs he blames for his dismissal from the association, Martin said he plans to spill the beans on the way they do business.

He recently tweaked the association for accepting "strip joint" quality advertisements from the likes of Paradise Lakes and then coming down hard on Natura for photos he considers less racy.

"I have kept quiet for six months. I'm not going to keep quiet anymore," Martin said. "I will expose everything that's wrong with these clubs."

[Last modified February 27, 2005, 00:13:19]