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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Michael A. McGrath

I was flabbergasted that the “powers-that-be” would consider the Rev. Robert Whipkey’s jogging naked a sexual act (“Police collar priest on nude jog,” Aug. 9). The last time I read the definition of sex, as an act, I don’t recall the inclusion of the word “jogging” in it. From the definitions in the various dictionaries I possess, sex includes sexual intercourse, and anything related to the gratification of this pleasureable and reproductive activity.

To charge a Catholic priest as a “sex offender” for simply jogging nude is absolutely ludicrous.

The uptight residents in this country, and this state, should study history a bit closer. Would Jesus Christ have been arrested for leaving his clothes behind in the tomb? Would St. Francis of Assisi been arrested for going naked about his hometown, after giving his clothes away to the poor? Would the apostle Peter have been arrested for fishing naked in the Sea of Galilee? Later on, in religious history, the Adamites believed that being naked was a state of spiritual innocence. Even some of the early Quaker preachers were known to preach the Gospel in the nude.

The list goes on and on, even if we go back a couple of hundred years to the Founding Fathers of this country. Benjamin Franklin used to sit in front of his open window, as naked as the day he was born, taking what he called “air baths.” Would he have been arrrested today? Thomas Jefferson, and other members of our early government, used to go skinny-dipping in the Potomac River. Would our police officers have arrested them for indecent exposure? Even the early YWCA and YMCA used to have a rule: only nude swimming in their pools! In spite of the fact that these swims weren’t co-ed, swimsuits weren’t allowed for “hygenic” reasons.

I believe it is time for this country to just plain old grow up! I am fed up with the uptight nature of our horrendously prudish belief systems. The naked human body is God’s masterpiece, and we have been treating it like it was something evil. Maybe those who believe this falsehood should be forced to read Genesis 1:26-31 and Isaiah 5:20. When God calls something “very good,” and we call it “evil,” maybe we deserve exactly what we have gotten for our “stinking thinking.”

If the six acts of redemption performed by the Lord Jesus Christ (the Incarnation, the Circumcision, the Baptism — or Mikvah — the Scourging, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection) were all done in the nude, what is our problem with the naked human body? The answer to that, for those who have ears to hear, should be obvious.

With that being said, I believe Whipkey should be freed and left alone by the authorities. He wasn’t doing anything “wrong.” If he had been masturbating in public, or having sex in public, that would have been a different story entirely. He was just enjoying the body God gave to him in the state it was originally intended to be — naked and unashamed before his God.

Michael A. McGrath is a resident of Kittredge.

READER COMMENTS

The priest, more because of his profession, should be held accountable, WITHIN THE CHURCH. But to say he is a sexual offender? THAT IS OVERBOARD.

In fact, our society as a whole is WAY overboard on the whole sexual offender thing. Especially when all it takes to get a guilty verdict in a court room is an accusation and opportunity, NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE NEEDS TO BE PRESENTED.

I know this for a fact. My 13 year old son is a victim of this DRACONIAN system. So are 1/3 of all 1st time convected offenders. I know of 1 Denver parole officer, and 2 police officers who quit because of the amount of innocent people they were having to lock up because of this American Inquisition.

For once, I agree with Dravur.

There is no logical reason that the priest couldn't have at least worn a pair of thin shorts made of quick-drying fabric.

Just because you sweat a lot does not give you the right to expose yourself to the world in a residential area near a school -- even if it is early in the morning and you "didn't think anyone would be around."

To compound the issue -- this is not the first time that this particular priest has had a run-in with the law over this issue.

Someone needs to tell this fat sweathog that he should buy a treadmill and keep "Mr. Floppy" and his disgusting, gelantenous rolls of lard hidden from those who don't wish to see it.

Kevin,
Vermont would be a perfect place for the Priest. The judges in Vermont are very lenient. The Priest could even start raping little girls or little boys and not get any prison time.
So I think if he wants to jog nude and who knows what else his little quirks are,I wish he would move to Vermont.

I jog nude early every morning on my nearby bike path in Lone Tree and the local housewifes cheer me on. Hundreds of them!

Guys, when you're naked, your body is fee. Share it with all the gals, they love it!

Dominic go Frisk'em!

I don't think a priest jogging around nude could be considered sexual, unless he went past a playground full of little boys....

In Vermont there is a town that has no laws against public nudity. It has become somewhat a magnet for hippies and others who walk down Main Street nude. The town council recently refused to change the law, because, well, Vermonters are stubborn and relly didn't see the harm anyway.
The previous two writers seem to believe that everyone in that town should be locked up as a sex offender.
I submit that, while I would be concerned were it MY pastor jogging nude, public nudity per se is not a sexually related offense. Sex offenses, as we have been told for years, are an act of violence, and there was no violence or coercion involved by ANY stretch of the imagination.

This letter is the most assinine letter I think I have ever read in the Speakout column.

He was jogging nude. I think we have laws against being nude in public. I don't think the laws end at sundown and start again at sun rise.

God and religion has nothing to do with this freak.

If he really thinks this is okay,than I would like to know what else he thinks is okay.

As for the letter writer who thinks a priest who jogs nude is okay because somewhere in your small mind ,the Bible says it's okay.

How about letting him take your children jogging in the nude. Is that okay with you?

ummm, exhibitionism is a sexual proclivity. That's why they have nude beaches. Some people like to show off nude and this guy sounds like one of them. It still makes it sexual as he gets a sexual thrill out of it.

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