Pat Robertson: A Little Nudity on TV Can Be OK

"The human body is not essentially nasty."

Pat Robertson, who has surprised some people by being more broad-minded about marijuana and the transgendered than you might have expected, isn't necessarily offended by a little nudity on TV:

If you're not able to watch the clip, it consists of Robertson responding to this question from a 700 Club viewer:

I have recently discovered that my pastor and his wife watch a show on cable TV that contains nudity. Even secular critics have called it pornographic. I have been unable to return to their Bible study since hearing this. Am I overeacting?

Robertson's reaction:

Yes, I think you are. You know, listen: The human body is not essentially nasty. I mean, God made us without clothes. And you look at that famous statue of David that's considered one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance, and here's David, and he doesn't have any clothes on at all. You've got the Venus de Milo and some of those others…the Sistine Chapel, Adam has got no clothes on, and that's the famous artwork of God touching Adam….

The body is not essentially pornographic, and I think to make it so is a mistake. It's what's in your mind. I don't know what your pastor's watching, what show it is. Maybe it's got some redeeming qualities. But I sure wouldn't turn him off just because he's watching a few clips of nudity on TV. I don't know what show you're talking about, some of them are real nasty…

CO-HOST: It depends on how pornographic it is.

ROBERTSON: Exactly. It's just: The human form per se isn't necessarily dirty. It's what our minds make it.

In 1985, by contrast, Robertson warned that "We're not too far away from full frontal nudity and sex acts on television." I suspect he still objects to televised "sex acts," but he seems to have come around on the nudity question.

[Via Pat Roberton's Vault, which notes that Robertson also intro'd a recent story with the line "You probably saw the blockbuster cable series Breaking Bad."]