Religion: The Preacher & the Nudists

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The Rev. Braxton Bragg Sawyer stepped into an Oklahoma City bookstore one day and came out with a crusade. Inside he had found a group of teen-agers giggling over nudist magazines. Baptist Sawyer was alarmed to see Satan in this unexpected quarter. "Nudists!" he said. "I had preached for 20 years without ever using the word nudist."

Dr. Sawyer hurried home to Fort Smith, Ark. (pop. 47,942) and went to work, getting bills drawn up to outlaw this "national menace," thundering against it over his radio program. To get his point across, he played a tape-recorded "confession of a 13-year-old nudist girl." Nudist Norval Packwood, executive director of the American Sunbathing Association (with more than 15,000 members), wrote to Evangelist Sawyer and invited him to the A.S.A. national convention at Battle Creek, Mich, "to learn the real truth about nudism." Last week, as the nudists shucked their clothes at Battle Creek, the Rev. Braxton Bragg Sawyer girded his loins for a fight.

Armed with a movie camera, color film, a tape recorder and a public-address system, he headed into the camp in his station wagon. The way wa's barred by a score of bare-chested male nudists (trousered for the occasion) and one comely, sun-suited female, Mrs. June Lange, the convention's pressagent. Like all other visitors, Mrs. Lange explained, the reverend doctor must take off his clothes so he could feel at home.

Without shedding even his coat, 42-year-old Preacher Sawyer grabbed his movie camera and made for the camp gateway. One nudist tossed a neat block and Sawyer's burly bulk (5 ft.11 in., 225 Ibs.) hit the dust (see cut). Nudists rallied to revive him with a first-aid kit. a camp chair and a sandwich. A few minutes later, he tried again, fell even harder. Next day Preacher Sawyer came back, once again found the gate guarded. Said he earnestly: "I intend to intensify my campaign ... I give them credit for being as sincere as I am. When public sentiment has decided the issue, I am ready to shut up . . .But there are times when Samson has to take the jawbone of an ass and whip a pack of Philistines."