Is “Go Topless Day” a religious recruitment campaign?

In the coming weeks, you are sure to be made aware by the internet that August 26 is “Go Topless Day” in the United States and other countries. What you may not realize is that the movement is a project of a rather quirky American religious sect.

They don’t exactly hide the fact. This is on their homepage:

“We are a U.S.-based organization founded in 2007 by spiritual leader Rael and we claim that women have the same constitutional right that men have to go bare-chested in public.

“As long as men are allowed to be topless in public, women should have the same constitutional right. Or else, men should have to wear something to hide their chests”

- Rael, founder of GoTopless.org and spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement”

Raelian movement? From Wikipedia:

Raëlism (or the Raëlian Church) is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël.
The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim. Members of this species appeared human and when having personal contacts with the descendants of the humans they made, they were mistaken for angels, cherubim or gods. Raëlians believe messengers, or prophets, of the Elohim include Buddha, Jesus, and others[2][3][4] who informed humans of each era.[5] The founder of Raëlism, members claim, received the final message of the Elohim and that its purpose is to pacify and inform the world about Elohim and that if humans become peaceful enough, they wish to be welcomed by them.

It later adds, “Susan J. Palmer, a sociologist from Canada, has studied the movement since 1987and says the movement intentionally stirs a moderate level of controversy to maintain membership.” In other words, boobies sell.

It seems like a pretty freewheeling sort of cult which members may or may not take entirely seriously as they enjoy the licence explore hedonism (like The Church of the SubGenius).

Nonetheless, their stand on strict nudity laws in countries like the United States (although some areas allow it) and online networks like Facebook is fundamentally egalitarian: either both men and women should be free to expose their nipples, or neither should be.

See a (censored) video and photos of their topfree protests, after the break.