Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - If you are into your religion, is it a sin to masturbate?

fifthchild · 09-04-2003, 05:06 AM

I have a few things I would like to bring to this party. I was raised a Catholic in a small town, went to Catholic schools all my life. I no longer consider myself Catholic and sex and masturbation are two of the things that took me to this path.

The oft-quoted passage about Onan is relevant (why do you think it's called 'onanism'?) but a more appropriate passage is one of Jesus' parables. The one about the farmer who throws his seed and only the seed that falls on the fertile ground will grow. It was supposed to preach the message of spreading the word of God, and falling upon the ears of the willing. Reading this I realised there was a connection between the number of times we heard that parable in primary school and the lack of discussion about masturbation in the one hour (yes, one hour) of sex-education I had in my 12 years of Catholic education.

A lot of Catholic education is propoganda, I feel. This is not given as a fact but as experience. For the longest time, I felt the most overwhelming feeling of guilt about jacking off. The topic never came up in the schoolyard (I found out years later that it was somewhat common in most normal schools) and the bigget insult was to call someone a 'wanker'. Maybe I just gave away my location with that.

When Monty Python sang, 'every sperm is sacred', they were only half joking. Catholic dogma is indeed Catholic law and you would surely be able to find the writings of a long dead Bishop or Pope on the topic, condeming it. Even if there is nothing offical written, it's the most onspoken rule of Catholics.

Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes sees the author recounting boyhood sermons in Ireland, home of the Catholic schoolboy, where the priest would stand at the pulpit and intone in his mightiest voice his condemnation of the boys who had drowned the week before as they had died with mortal sins on their souls... As would ALL OF YOU if you did not CONFESS AND LEAD A CLEAN LIFE! This had the same effect as the slightly more subtle approach of my childhood. What was the sin dirtying the hands of more teenage boys than any other? It wasn't likely to be pre-marital sex, that's for sure.

My friend Phet is a born again Pentecostal Christian. He once told me that in his church's eyes, any form of lust equalled adultary. Think about that. Fantasising about the cute girl in your biology class during a sleepy Tuesday afternoon lecture was a one-way ticket to hell for him. THis explains why he got rid of all his porn. Five boxes of CD-Rs, in the trash.

I kind of regret never asking him about jacking off. But only kinda.

09-04-2003, 05:06 AM	#76 (permalink)
fifthchild Upright Location: the suburbs	I have a few things I would like to bring to this party. I was raised a Catholic in a small town, went to Catholic schools all my life. I no longer consider myself Catholic and sex and masturbation are two of the things that took me to this path. The oft-quoted passage about Onan is relevant (why do you think it's called 'onanism'?) but a more appropriate passage is one of Jesus' parables. The one about the farmer who throws his seed and only the seed that falls on the fertile ground will grow. It was supposed to preach the message of spreading the word of God, and falling upon the ears of the willing. Reading this I realised there was a connection between the number of times we heard that parable in primary school and the lack of discussion about masturbation in the one hour (yes, one hour) of sex-education I had in my 12 years of Catholic education. A lot of Catholic education is propoganda, I feel. This is not given as a fact but as experience. For the longest time, I felt the most overwhelming feeling of guilt about jacking off. The topic never came up in the schoolyard (I found out years later that it was somewhat common in most normal schools) and the bigget insult was to call someone a 'wanker'. Maybe I just gave away my location with that. When Monty Python sang, 'every sperm is sacred', they were only half joking. Catholic dogma is indeed Catholic law and you would surely be able to find the writings of a long dead Bishop or Pope on the topic, condeming it. Even if there is nothing offical written, it's the most onspoken rule of Catholics. Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes sees the author recounting boyhood sermons in Ireland, home of the Catholic schoolboy, where the priest would stand at the pulpit and intone in his mightiest voice his condemnation of the boys who had drowned the week before as they had died with mortal sins on their souls... As would ALL OF YOU if you did not CONFESS AND LEAD A CLEAN LIFE! This had the same effect as the slightly more subtle approach of my childhood. What was the sin dirtying the hands of more teenage boys than any other? It wasn't likely to be pre-marital sex, that's for sure. My friend Phet is a born again Pentecostal Christian. He once told me that in his church's eyes, any form of lust equalled adultary. Think about that. Fantasising about the cute girl in your biology class during a sleepy Tuesday afternoon lecture was a one-way ticket to hell for him. THis explains why he got rid of all his porn. Five boxes of CD-Rs, in the trash. I kind of regret never asking him about jacking off. But only kinda.