General Wm. Slater Hollis, Ph.D., J.D.

Existing law in Brevard County, Florida, is “no nudism” on any of our public beaches. Nudism supporters are trying to change that law. As you may know, the editor of the Florida Today, Oct. 22, 1995, supports a change in the law to allow nudism, using as the stated reason the dollar costs of enforcement of the nudity law.

The editor is mistaken about the dollar costs and ignores the moral costs. Good leadership and management knows, as you have probably experienced in real life, that if a firm position is taken on “no nudity” on the beaches, “the word” will be out to nudists through nudist organizations worldwide after the first few offenses and speedy convictions. As a consequence, there will be almost zero costs of enforcement because there will be almost zero nudists defying the law. Further, good police management will reduce the costs of any law enforcement. There are moral costs that extend from the nudists themselves to the public officials and to the community as a whole.

God’s standard: Godly rulers know that the Bible is given to us as examples for our admonition that all men and women might be enriched: I Tim 1:9,10; “The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient … for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers …”; viz. the law is made to keep the bad from harming the good and the innocent and/or their families, directly and/or indirectly.

General Hollis is the author of the book: The Character of Christ with Ed McAteer, National President of The Religious Roundtable.