MASTURBATION:

Evangelical Christian, Liberal Christian,

Wiccan and medical views

Quotation:

"...Alfred Kinsey...interviewed thousands of men in the 1940's, and concluded that 95 percent masturbated. In 1960's, William Masters and Virginia Johnson raised that figure to 99 percent." - Dr. Harold Litten, "The Joy of Solo Sex." 16

Dedication

This essay is dedicated to the past U.S. Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders. When asked a question about sex education in public schools, she stated: "perhaps masturbation was something that should be taught." Within hours, she was asked to resign.

Overview

According to the FAQ of ALT.SEX.MASTURBATION, masturbation is "sexual activity involving only one person." 1 Other widely used emotionally neutral terms are: "self-stimulation," "auto-eroticism" and "self-pleasuring." Two negative terms which are not in wide usage are "self-abuse" and "onanism." There are hundreds of euphemisms such as "jacking off" (N/A term) and "wanking" (UK term), "beating the bishop," "milking the lizard," "spanking the monkey," "jizzing," "spooging," "shooting your wad,"etc.

Masturbation usually takes the form of rubbing one's genital sexual organs with fingers, hands, and/or objects (e.g. a pillow). The optimum technique varies from person to person. Feelings of excitement build quickly. If continued, they will often produce an orgasm, and (in men) an ejaculation of semen. An orgasm is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as "a frenzy; great excitement; especially the climax of sexual excitement." To those who have experienced an orgasm, no explanation is needed; to those who have not experienced one, no explanation would be sufficient to describe the feelings. How-to instructions are available on-line. 12

Current medical statements about masturbation

Physicians have made major changes over the past few centuries, in their beliefs about masturbation. In the 18th and 19th century, masturbation was incorrectly linked to "general debility, consumption, deterioration of eyesight, disturbance of the nervous system, and so on...Polluting and debilitating for the individual, it had a destabilzing effect on society, as it prevented healthy sexual desire from fulfilling socially desirable ends--marriage and procreation, which was the foundation of the social order." 18 More details are described below.

Some negative factors have been cited:

among males, frequent and vigorous masturbation can produce skin abrasions. This can be avoided by using a lubricant such as KY jelly, Aqua-Lube, saliva or even soap and water.

it does take time away from other activities. Some younger teenagers masturbate a few times a day. 12

prolonged sexual arousal in males without an ejaculation can cause pain due to blood congestion in the genital area. This is often called "blue balls". It is easily avoided and dissipates after a while.

Past Christian opposition to masturbation:

Some religious groups have condemned masturbation because it is done by one person and thus cannot lead to pregnancy. It has been called an "unnatural act" for this reason.

Others stress that God created sex with the intent that it be enjoyed between a married couple: one man and one woman. Physical closeness promotes emotional closeness. Again, masturbation is a solitary practice. Religious opposition to masturbation has softened greatly in recent years. We expect that it will eventually be ignored.

Liberal Christian beliefs about masturbation

One comment that Jesus did make about sexual fantasies is contained in Matthew 5:28, which states:

"...whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (KJV)

That is, a person who fantasizes about making love to another person has committed a sin equivalent to adultery. This passage is important here, because fantasies are often present when a person masturbates.

Masturbation may be considered to be composed of five components. A liberal Christian might analyze them as follows:

manually touching one's genitals: The human body is a magnificent structure, and no part of it is inherently dirty, evil, or untouchable. Extreme closeup photograph (say, a 1/8" square piece of skin) in the area of the foreskin, penis, clitoris, vulva, palm, chest, or neck will show basically the identical structure. If skin throughout the entire body has the same construction and is formed from identical materials, how could one part be untouchable and the other touchable? A religious liberal would probably conclude that touching one's genitals is not considered an evil or sinful act.

enjoying the feelings arising from manual stimulation: There are many forms of body stimulation that generate pleasurable feelings: luxuriating in a perfumed bath, lying on the beach and feeling the sun's rays beating down on you, manually stimulating the genitals, experiencing a sensual massage. In each case, some external agent stimulates nerve endings which in turn generate pleasant feelings. The only difference with masturbation is the intensity of those feelings.

Masturbation and the Bible:

Two Bible passages have been used in the past to condemn masturbation. One from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) described Onan. This led to the term "Onanism" being used as a synonym for masturbation. But further analysis indicates that neither passage has any connection to the subject. Onan's "crime" was to use a primitive method of birth control. The second passage, from the Christian Scriptures, refers to a unknown behavior. The meaning of the original Greek word has been lost.

I Corinthians 6:9: Paul lists a series of activities that will prevent people from inheriting the Kingdom of God. This verse has been translated in many ways among the 25 English versions of the Bible that we have analyzed. One of the condemned behaviors is "malakoi arsenokoitai" in the original Greek. Malakoi means soft. It was translated in both Matthew 11:8 and Luke 7:25 as "soft" (KJV) or as "fine" (NIV) in references to clothing. The meaning of arsenokoitai has been lost. Some sources in the early Church interpreted the phrase as referring to people of soft morals; i.e. unethical.

That may well be the correct meaning, because presumably people from that era would have still known the meaning of the word arsenokoitai. Others in the early Church thought that it meant "temple prostitutes" - people who engaged in ritual sex in Pagan temples. Still others thought that it meant "masturbators." At the time of Martin Luther, the latter meaning was universally used. But by the 20th century, masturbation had become a more generally accepted behavior.

So, new Biblical translations abandoned references to masturbators and switched the attack to homosexuals. The last religious writing in English that interpreted 1 Corinthians 6:9 as referring to masturbation is believed to be the [Roman] Catholic Encyclopedia of 1967.

Each translator seem to take whatever activity that their group particularly disapproves of and inserts it into this verse. To compound their error, they have not the decency to indicate by a footnote that the actual meaning of the word is unknown, and that they are guessing.

Conservative Christians tend to be very concerned about their own salvation and that of their family and friends. It is a pity that one of the behaviors that will cause a Christian to lose their salvation is currently unknown. They might fear inadvertently engaging in the activity and thus having to spend eternity in Hell,

Genesis 38:6-9 This passage describes how Tamar's first husband Er was killed by God because he was wicked. Under ancient Jewish law, Er's brother Onan was required to have sexual intercourse with Tamar. Their first son would be attributed to Er. Because any offspring would not be considered his child, Onan decided to use a common and relatively ineffective contraceptive technique to prevent any conception. He employed "coitus interruptus". That is, he disengaged from Tamar just before he ejaculated, and "spilled his semen on the ground." (NIV) God was displeased at this action and killed Onan as well.

In the late 18th century, a Swiss physician named Tissot believed that alterations to blood flow during sexual activity can lead to nerve damage and insanity. He believed that masturbation was especially hazardous in this respect. 11 A contemporary American physician, Benjamin Rush, also viewed the practice as dangerous to mental and physical health. He wrote several widely read articles on the subject. In the 19th century, Kellog invented cornflakes as one part of a diet that he felt would lessen the sex drive and diminish the practice of masturbation. Dr. Graham invented the Graham Cracker for the same reasons. A widely used textbook "Diseases of Infancy and Childhood" described masturbation in its "Functional and Nervous Disorders" chapter until 1940.

"a very degrading and destructive habit...There is probably no vice which is more injurious to both mind and body...it retards the growth, impairs the mental faculties and reduces the victim to a lamentable state. The person afflicted seeks solitude, and does not wish to enjoy the society of his friends; he is troubled with headache, wakefulness and restlessness at night, pain in various parts of the body, indolence, melancholy, loss of memory, weakness in the back and generative organs, variable appetite, cowardice, inability to look a person in the face, lack of confidence in his own abilities...[Eventually] there will be an irritable condition of the system; sudden flushes of heat over the face; the countenance becomes pale and clammy; the eyes have a dull, sheepish look; the hair becomes dry and split at the ends; sometimes there is pain over the region of the heart; shortness of breath; palpitation of the heart; symptoms of dyspepsia show themselves; the sleep is disturbed; there is constipation; cough; irritation of the throat; finally the whole man becomes a wreck, physically, morally and mentally.

Some of the consequences of masturbation, are epilepsy, apoplexy, paralysis, premature old age, involuntary discharge of seminal fluid, which generally occurs during sleep, or after urinating, or when evacuating the bowels.

Among females, besides these other consequences, we have hysteria, menstrual derangement, catalepsy and strange nervous symptoms." 14

Other supposed dangers from excessive masturbation were believed to be insanity, nervous disorders, hair growth on the palms, damaged eyesight. [The latter gave rise to the famous question: "Can I do it just until I need glasses?"] More recent false rumors are that masturbation will cause acne, shorten a bout with the flu, reduce the size of a male's penis, etc.

A review of medical opinion in the 18th and 19th century about masturbation is available. 19