Autobio of Jim C. Cunningham
I
was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Halloween night, 1953. Despite ten years of
Catholic education, by my late teens I had lost my faith. Extensive foreign
travel and studying the great books at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, led to a dramatic "reversion" to Catholicism in 1973.
Disillusioned
by conventional Christianity because it was more conventional than Christian, I
seriously reexamined all of my assumed values, striving to conform them to
Christ. While studying the Fathers of the Church and their routine custom of
mixed, group, nude baptism, I asked what was considered unaskable: "Why
wear clothes?" I discovered that convention required always covering the
body because it regarded the body as negative, if not intrinsically evil.
Seeing that this was not the mind of Christ, I quit my educational professions
(theology teacher, guidance counselor, headmaster) and devoted myself full-time
to naturist publishing, producing dozens of periodicals and books (see naturistlife.com), sharing my insights,
developing a mailing list of nearly 6,500 people world-wide.
In
1979, after two and a half years of spiritual friendship, I married Linda. We
home-birthed five children, raising them close to nature (e.g. no TV!) in the
northern Green Mountains of Vermont.
I
have also studied at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and at the
Angelicum in Rome. I have a BA in Patristics from U. Mass.
Since
my conversion, daily Mass has been the heart of my spirituality and the Liturgy
of the Hours has been its lifeblood. I strongly emphasize the necessity of
meditating on the Word of God and having the courage to conform one's whole
life to it.
Juvenile
diabetes has resulted in my going totally blind, losing half a leg and getting
a kidney transplant after 2.5 years on dialysis. I remain productive, utilizing
various adaptive technologies. I view my difficulties as a gift, an invitation
to share Christ's cross:
"it
is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with
the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:16-18 RSV)