(RNS) A pack of lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides, including a nude congressman, took a booze-fueled, late-night swim in Israel’s Sea of Galilee last summer, Politico reported on Sunday (Aug. 19). Which raises at least one question: Is skinny-dipping at the biblical site sacrilegious?
Not really, Christian leaders and Holy Land experts said.
“Conservative Christians, obviously, aren't for getting naked in public or drunk anywhere,” said Russell D. Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
“The location of the Sea of Galilee, however, doesn't make the story any more offensive to Christians than it is to the general public.”
Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas, the skinny-dipper, apologized for his “spontaneous and very brief dive,” which occurred during a congressional junket. The freshman GOP lawmaker is a Methodist, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Pundits pounced, saying that the incident could cost the GOP in this fall’s elections. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said the story of Republicans “messing all over this holy site” will reverberate “from pew to pew, family to family, preacher to preacher,” especially within the GOP's conservative Christian base.
Even Mitt Romney, the likely GOP presidential nominee, denounced the denuded dip in Galilee. "I think it's reprehensible," Romney told New Hampshire’s WMUR-TV.
Still, most Christians likely see Yoder’s actions as immature -- and a waste of taxpayer dollars -- “but not as some intentional act of religious desecration,” Moore said.
When Christians travel to Israel, they often insist on visiting two places, said Todd Bolen, a co-author of the blog Bible Places and a veteran Holy Land tour guide: Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee.
The pilgrims want to see and touch the water where Jesus performed some of his most memorable miracles. Christ recruited four of his apostles, walked on water, calmed a raging storm, and fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish on or near the Sea of Galilee, according to the New Testament.
A sign at a Catholic church at Tabgha, the purported site of the miracle of multiplication, declares that “this is holy ground,” said Bolen, who has taught biblical archaeology, history and geography in Israel.
But the Sea of Galilee, which is really a lake, holds no religious significance for Israelis, most of whom are Jewish. In fact, it’s a source of drinking water and the site of watersports like sailing and jet skiing for tourists staying at the resorts that line the coast. Even Christian tour groups often swim and take boat rides on Galilee. “I’ve water-skied on it,” Bolen said.
So, while the Sea of Galilee remains a significant site for Christians, it doesn’t demand the same reverence as Calvary, where Christ was crucified, or the Via Dolorosa.
Now, if congressmen start skinny-dipping in the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, they might have a blasphemy problem, Bolen said.
Anselm | Aug 21, 2012 | 7:45pm
I realize there are complexities around representatives of the U.S. government misbehaving in another country etc…
However, I must admit, I find it a little refreshing that a group of politicos has enough ‘sponteneity’ to go skinny dipping (is skinny dipping really so bad?).
As the prepackaged election cycle gears up and candidates seem to spend all their time ‘being on message’ and hyper-image conscious, I can’t help feeling that some sponteneity (and dare we say, authenticity) might be useful in actually knowing who the candidates are, or if they are really people at all and not just ‘brands’.
Of course they had to go and ruin it by simply aplogizing and denouncing themselves: spoil-sports.
David | Aug 21, 2012 | 7:56pm
The sacrilege comes from people who make a public display of their piety while behaving like drunken frat brats when no one is looking. These people are fond of looking down on the behavior of others. They is nothing remarkable about them. There is nothing godly about them. They are just sinners like the rest of us. Perhaps they should take the log out of their own eyes before they parade themselves as paragons of virtue before our eyes. Their blasphemy comes from invoking the name of God to promote partisan political purposes.
Liz | Aug 22, 2012 | 10:45am
Yes, I absolutely believe such behavior to be sacrilegious which is defined as profaning anything sacred.
Christians revere this as a very holy place where Jesus performed many miracles.That anyone is not shocked and horrified by this immoral,sacrilegious behavior shows just how far our society has sunk. May God have mercy on this man.
Ellis Froeschle | Aug 22, 2012 | 10:54am
Everyone should skinny dip at least once! There is nothing like it! It is one of God’s many gifts, and it hurts no one. If you can do it in the very waters where Jesus once swam, all the better! However, I have always felt sorry for those who need the dis-inhibition of alcohol to do such joyful and spontaneous things.
Hank | Aug 22, 2012 | 11:06am
Clearly the Political Pundants don’t understand a thing about Christianity. In their myopic view of the world, they think Christianity is religious, therefore Christians think and act like other religions. What a bunch of fools…
JMJ (initials understood) | Aug 22, 2012 | 4:28pm
Sad to say, he’s my congressman, never trusted the guy in the primary. He will be primaried out for this
Geoff | Aug 22, 2012 | 5:50pm
I’ve not only skinny dipped in the Galilee Sea, I’ve peed in it. Big deal. Want to get all holy about it, God created the entire world, and you’re committing blasphemy every time you “use the facilities”. So hey Liz…think about that next time you’re headed for the bathroom. You’re about to drop a big steaming pile on God’s major construction project…
The real story…Why did the FBI waste even more tax dollars “investigating” and attempting to turn this into a crime when no laws were broken, and no criminal complaint was made? That’s a real story, and not one the mainstream media is going to pursue…
Frances Sullivan | Aug 22, 2012 | 8:12pm
I am very sad they disrespected Jesus by doing this. I don’t know if it’s true but they said my local congressman took part in it. All sincere Christians need to pray that respect for God be restored.
Jan | Aug 22, 2012 | 9:39pm
Oh my someone skinny dipped in the river. WHAT !!! it’s the end of the world. Get real all you who think you are so holy. Now lets see, at the time of Jesus there were no bathrooms, right !! when people were in boats where do you really think they went when they had to do their thing , even with Jesus in the boat, or maybe they were not normal, do you think.?? What about bathing. I would think a lot of people did their bathing in the river. Do you really think they took a bath with their cloths on, or just maybe they took a bath and washed their cloths at the same time. LOL . Everything under God’s green earth has been put in that river, most of it bad. But OH!! skinny dipping that is worse of all, and it was done in private. I love Jesus with all my heart and soul but please people get real. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and this is what you are concerned about. WOW!!!
Mr. Max | Aug 22, 2012 | 9:52pm
As a right wing, pro-life, limited government, traditional marriage, low tax and strong military ultra-conservative Christian, I must say it is good to see at least one politician practicing complete transparency, and exposing the light of truth on himself. My only question: this is news?
Chris Johnson | Aug 23, 2012 | 9:20am
Hmmmm, seems I remember a story about some fisherman on that particular body of water being naked. I think his name might be Peter. Okay, okay, so he throws his clothes on before he gets into the water, but still…
pete | Aug 23, 2012 | 2:14pm
The Sea of Galilee is a lake. Not a baptismal font. Thousands of people live there and it is a major tourist destination. People are going to get naked in it, get drunk, and generally party in it. It is not magically sacred, and I’m not even sure how swimming naked is all that immoral.