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CLICK HERE FOR TERMS OF SERVICE (effective September 24, 2023)

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:52 pm
by Naturist Christians
OUR CORE VALUES
Naturist-Christians.org is committed to educating the public in the area of international, family centered, naturist core values that are consistent with Christian principles of love and respect for all.
  • It is Christian in that it is committed to the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the four gospels and epistles of the New Testament.
  • It is naturist in that it supports the right to live life nude while not appealing to deviant sexual impulses.
  • It is international in that it is inclusive of all nations where naturists reside. All persons are welcomed without regard to nationality, ethnicity, or the place you call home.
  • It is family-centered in that it seeks to uphold and strengthen wholesome family values and relationships.
  • It is natural in that it supports living and being exactly as God created us, not for the purpose of drawing attention to one’s self.
  • It defends the right of all persons to be clothes free, shame free, and accepting of their body, and of parents to raise their children with those values, seeking a healthy balance of self-esteem and respect for others.
Naturist-Christians.org seeks to build up the self-esteem of their fellow naturists, and all members should seek to do the same, with courtesy and respect in all conversations.

TERMS OF SERVICE
By using this site, you agree to these Terms of Service. These terms of service may be changed or modified at any time, with or without notice. Please review them periodically.

By submitting a post on these forums, you agree that all posts are subject to moderator approval. In nearly all instances and whenever possible, posts will be left exactly as written. In rare cases, a post may be edited to remove unacceptable material; in that event, every effort will be made to maintain the author’s intent, while removing only objectionable content. If the original intent cannot be preserved through editing, the post may be removed. Appeal requests can be sent to TheTeam@Naturist-Christians.org.

PREAMBLE

Naturist-Christians.org was founded in Florida by Continuing Care, Inc. a Quaker-sponsored 501(c)(3) religious corporation in accordance with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

We welcome everyone regardless of their faith experience, but we expect that all content will be consistent with non-sexual naturist principles.

COURTESY AND RESPECT
  • Please treat one another with the respect you would like to receive in return. If you are in disagreement with a post, address the context of the post, not the poster.
  • Please offer grace to those on a different faith journey than yours. While this site was founded by a Quaker organization, it is their fundamental principles and ideals of inclusion that are the policy of Naturist-Christians.org.
  • Please avoid stating or implying that another member or group of members who have identified themselves as of one faith or no faith are to be considered lower than you. Regardless of your faith you will be accepted with respect.
  • Please do not make another member's experience on this site miserable. This includes making false accusations or persistently attacking them in the open forums.
HARASSMENT AND VULGARITY
  • Do not use profanity or foul language.
  • Do not promote illegal activity.
  • Insulting, belittling, mocking, goading, personally attacking, threatening, or harassing any members or groups of members will not be tolerated.
If you feel you have been harassed, do not respond in-kind. Alert staff to the situation by utilizing the report button. Do not report another member out of spite.

PRIVACY, CONFIDENTIALITY

Naturist-Christians.org and Continuing Care, Inc. believes that your privacy is important. We are committed to preserving your privacy and will not under any circumstances sell, trade, or rent any personal information that is collected from you. Information regarding your registration is stored in a secure location; access is limited to the NC staff. Information provided to us is used solely to identify and serve you.

Do not publicly disseminate personally identifiable information such as credit card information or personally-identifiable contact information such as email address or telephone number. Due to the fact that the forums on this site are purposely left open to search bots to improve the visibility of the site for such search suppliers as Google, Yahoo and others, you may wish to use a pseudonym as your name on this site. Others may feel comfortable using their own names. Please use care when choosing your username.

We do encourage all subscribers to provide a general location such as a state or large city nearby. Members from other than the United States should list their country and, when reasonable, identify the general area where they live. You need not be specific, especially if you live in a small town.

Financial contributions of $250 or greater sent by regular mail or through electronic means will receive a receipt by return mail or email from Continuing Care, Inc.

RELEVANT POSTS

Political discussions are to be avoided. Under the Internal Revenue Service rules as well as the US Law, churches, church facilities, church publications or church websites are not to advocate or support the candidacy of any candidate for public office. This also applies to all tax-exempt organizations whether they are churches or merely charitable organizations. While a minister or church member certainly has the right to his/her own political beliefs, they must not be published in or on anything owned, operated or controlled by the religious or charitable entity. The use of this website to advocate the candidacy of any candidate could jeopardize the exempt status of Continuing Care, Inc. and is therefore prohibited. Any such postings will be summarily removed, and the poster may be banned.

Respect and become familiar with each forum's Statement of Purpose. We recognize that sometimes postings on one forum overlap another or actually belong in another forum. So please try to place your posts under the proper forum. The administrators do reserve the right to move a post to a more appropriate forum including deleting it if it does not conform to these Terms of Service. Any post which violates the fundamental guidelines of respect will be removed. The decisions of the moderators are final.

Remember that this is a naturist site, not a site for discussion of any differences of theology from various Christian perspectives. We recognize that our subscribers may have strong views as to their own faith, but this is not a place for presenting theological debates on matters other than naturism. However, such posts which are not directly related to naturism may be posted in the Non-Naturist Forums. Posts that meet this standard but are not directly related to naturism may be posted in the Non-Naturist Christian Discussions forum.

COPYRIGHT LEGALITIES, SPAMMING AND ADVERTISING

Do not publicly release the contents of a member's private communications without permission.

Members shall not make posts which violate the copyrights of others or promote another work as your own. If you wish to use a part of someone else’s work please give appropriate credit. Under existing law in the United States, one is allowed to use portions of matters copyrighted, particularly if one is not gaining profit. Please limit quotes of any copyrighted material to no more than 10% of the total work you are quoting from. Provisions of court decisions are to be found elsewhere for your guidance.

Do not advertise commercial products or services. This prohibition includes begging or soliciting donations or financial support (charitable or otherwise, for any reason) anywhere on the site.

Do not attempt to draw members away from this site to another site.

IMPERSONATION

Be truthful about your identity. Don't impersonate other members. This does not preclude your use of a pseudonym for your name.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS & ACQUAINTANCES

You are encouraged and welcomed to invite other naturists, friends and others who might be interested in naturism or wanting to learn more about naturism to register for the site. We also invite those of you who wish to be active in helping to maintain the site to write to us sharing what you might be able to do. Please send all requests to TheTeam@Naturist-Christians.org.

If you would like Naturist-Christians.org to send an invitation to some of your friends or others but do not want to be identified, send a message to TheTeam@Naturist-Christians.org and we will send a general invitation. If you wish, you may send us the wording that you would like to be sent.

PHOTO GALLERY AND PERSONAL ALBUMS:

The Gallery and Personal Albums are used to depict family-oriented naturism. Therefore, many of the photos will be those which can be found on the Internet which depict naturist activities. We encourage our members to submit such photos which they find appropriate as well as photos taken by our members.

Do not attempt to post any photos which could be considered sexual in nature, or posed photos of a single person which do not encompass a naturist activity or naturist scenery and are suitable for all audiences. The decision posted below from the US Court of Appeals provides appropriate guidelines.

You must be a registered "User" and have posted at least one active post in the forums before you can upload personal photos to the personal albums. Your first post should be an introduction in the Tell Everyone about Yourself forum.

All images are subject to the review and discretion of the site moderators and may be removed. However, any questionable photos (not clearly in violation of law and not in violation of the above principles) will be hidden and reviewed by several moderators. Usually, the poster will be contacted by a moderator of the site once a decision is made.

AVATARS

A member may use a photo of herself/himself as an avatar as long as it is not sexually provocative nor does it appear to emphasize the genital area. Photos emphasizing the genital area are not approved, for example (but not limited to), photos with the subject seated with the legs apart taken from directly in front of the genital area even though the entire body is depicted in the photo. This standard applies to both males and females. The judgment of photos for appropriateness is necessarily subjective. All avatar photos are subject to the review and approval of the Administration Team. The decision of the Team is final.

NOTE: Image attachments and links to off-site images in forum posts must comply with these terms.

POLICY ON PHOTOGRAPHS

We are including as a fundamental portion of our Terms of Service the following ruling of the United States Court of Appeals. Any photos which are not in conformity with this decision will not be approved and will be deleted.

The decision of the United States Court of Appeals on October 23, 2000, regarding naturist photos is the established law of the United States. For background, the US Customs had confiscated several hundred naturist magazines from Germany and France depicting photos of families, including children and teens, as being pornographic. The defendants sued and lost in the lower court. They appealed. The US Court of Appeals overturned every paragraph of the lower court's decision. They found that family naturism was a legitimate alternative lifestyle and protected by the Constitution of the United States.

The following statements are excerpted from the decision. The full decision can be found at US Court of Appeals rulings on Naturist Photos. In it, the Court held that:
All of the magazines contain numerous photographs of nude persons, including adult males and females as well as nude minors and nude teenagers. To the extent that the photographs are of children, they are primarily focused on children's activities, not on the children's bodies. Children are shown swimming, boating, exercising, playing with beach balls, having picnics, swinging on jungle gyms, building sand castles, riding bicycles, playing guitar, riding horses, and playing such sports as tennis, volleyball, miniature golf, and baseball.

The magazines depict nudist children in various geographical locations, such as Canada, Hawaii, Brazil, France, Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Australia. We are of the firm conviction that the District Court clearly erred in finding that these magazines appeal to the prurient interest because they contain photographs of nudist children around the world engaged in activities typical of children.

…The trier of fact should look to the following factors, among any others that may be relevant in the particular case:
  1. whether the focal point of the visual depiction is on the child's genitalia or pubic area;
  2. whether the setting of the visual depiction is sexually suggestive, i.e., in a place or pose generally associated with sexual activity;
  3. whether the child is depicted in an unnatural pose, or in inappropriate attire, considering the age of the child;
  4. whether the child is fully or partially clothed, or nude;
  5. whether the visual depiction suggests sexual coyness or a willingness to engage in sexual activity;
  6. whether the visual depiction is intended or designed to elicit a sexual response in the viewer.
There are many photographs of nude women and girls, and several of the photographs of boys do show their genitals. However, they are neither being 'exhibited' nor 'shown off.' The fact that their genitals are visible is incidental to their being nude, but it is not the focal point of any of the photographs.

Moreover, in our opinion, even a most conservative, strait-laced, and puritanical viewer of the photographs could not responsibly claim that the photographs are 'lewd' or that they give the impression that the subjects are 'sexually unchaste or licentious.' It is true that the subjects in some of the photographs are posed for the camera, but they are not posed in a way 'suggestive of moral looseness.' All of the photographs are of smiling, happy, and playful subjects, and none can be deemed lewd by any standard.
The Supreme Court explained:
The First Amendment protects works which, taken as a whole, have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, regardless of whether the government or a majority of the people approve of the ideas these works represent. The protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people.
Nudists are members of an alternative community, and photographs champion nudists' alternative lifestyle. Publications dedicated to presenting a visual depiction of an alternative lifestyle have political value similar to the political value of articles criticizing government regulations.

Therefore, at Naturist-Christians.org, we encourage and promote the exchange and dissemination of nudist photographs, but hold firmly to a line prohibiting the use of sexual or prurient images in our forums and galleries.

Re: TERMS OF SERVICE (effective November 1, 2017)

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 12:34 pm
by Guest48
November 1, 2017 - Several revisions to Terms of Service
August 4, 2018 - Clarification language reference Avatars added
July 12, 2022 – Clarified language in Preamble
July 14, 2022 – Posting disclaimer added, spelling and grammar corrected.
September 24, 2023 - Updated language, condensed Court of Appeals, removed marketplace coverage.
January 10, 2024 - Removed this:
[TO BE ADDED LATER AS NEEDED: Merchandise orders will be sent to you in an envelope from Continuing Care, Inc. Personal information including name, address, phone number and credit card number (if used) is encrypted using secure software. This ensures that all information passed through the Internet can only be read by our system.]