Masturbation is a sin.

[Foreigner]

To summarize:

Protestant: It is a good form of sexual release, much safer then being with a prostitute.

Jewish: It’s a sign of immaturity.

Catholic: It’s a sin.

I wonder how that same group of chaplains would answer that today?

Will B.

Topic: ON SEXUAL FANTASIZING by Jesus

You have heard that it was said, `YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. "If your** right eye **makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

*If you look at a woman lustfully cut out your eye.

Jesus continues…*

If **your right hand **makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

If you_______________________ cut off your hand.

---

TOPIC: Adultery

You have heard that it was said, `YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’;

Fantasizing is Adultery

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Your Right Eye and Lust

If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Your Right Hand and Lust

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

Why do you think he brought up the hand in the context of adultery and marriage et al?

 

[teachccd]

No, TeachCCD is right…it is grave MATTER not grave SIN. For it to be sin, conditons have to be met. If one does this activity at 5 years old, he didn’t sin! If one does this in his/her sleep unconciously, there is no sin! If it were grave sin, it would always be actual sin when done, even when a person has no control over their actions. This is not sound teaching.

According to the Church, it is not always sinful, as you say above.

Thank you…

 

[teachccd]

No, because you left out the third part, full consent of the will. Whats done in one sleep is not sinful because you do not meet that third condition.

The 5 year old presumably has not met the age or reason and is not capable of having full knowledge of what he’s doing.

It is always grave matter, but all the conditions have to be met to incur the guilt of mortal sin.

Exactly

 

[gmags2003]

I think I might emergency personnel.

 

[Gertabelle]

The important thing was that I kept going to confession. It is important to keep up the fight, even if you have fallen.

 

[wjp984]

I am not saying that one should masterbate and it’s no big deal but my guess is it is not a sin which will send one to Hell but one which will send one to Purgatroy. People probably will have some sort of punishment where they have to resist some sort of urge for a long period of time that is incapable of sartisfaction, perhaps longer than the the time spent doing this sin, and then once they no longer are attached to the sin will be allowed into Heaven. I just don’t see this as a Hell bound sin. I could be wrong and one could be rolling the dice on the matter but it just does not seem very merciful to send someone to Hell for this sin.

 

[rlg94086]

I am not saying that one should masterbate and it’s no big deal but my guess is it is not a sin which will send one to Hell but one which will send one to Purgatroy. People probably will have some sort of punishment where they have to resist some sort of urge for a long period of time that is incapable of sartisfaction, perhaps longer than the the time spent doing this sin, and then once they no longer are attached to the sin will be allowed into Heaven. I just don’t see this as a Hell bound sin. I could be wrong and one could be rolling the dice on the matter but it just does not seem very merciful to send someone to Hell for this sin.

You have a strange way of wording things wjp984. What you are basically saying is that masturbation is never a mortal sin…only venial. (Dying in a state of mortal sin is how one gets to hell…all the rest of us go to Purgatory on our way to Heaven…depending on what you believe about Limbo…but that is a whole 'nother subject. ).

The Church gives us guidance in this area:

**2352 **By *masturbation *is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. “Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.” “The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.” For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of “the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.” (to be cont’d)

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.

…okay, so it is a grave sin…

**1857 **For a *sin *to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

…so, if we masturbate with “full knowledge and deliberate consent,” then we have committed a mortal sin.

So,…
Catechism of the Catholic Church:

*2352 (part 2)***To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

IOW…you can go to hell due to masturbation, if it is a mortal sin, which it may or may not be, depending on moral culpability. Clear as Mississippi mud, eh?

Now, what does that mean for your everyday Joe (and Joanne)? Masturbation is a grave matter, so don’t do it. If you do, stop it…and confess. If you are having trouble stopping, get help - either pastoral, psychological or both.

 

[rlg94086]

I thought I would painstakingly (because I can’t cut/paste ) share some of the thoughts of Gregory K Popcak, PhD on the subject (Popcak, Gregory K. Holy Sex! A Catholic Guide to Toe-Curling, Mind-Blowing, Infallible Loving. New York. Crossroad Publishing. 2008.):

There is a notion that mastubation is fine because it’s done in private and for one’s own pleasure. This statement always struck me as a little absurd. Suppose someone said to you, “Having a few drinks at a party can be fun, but getting sloshed alone is even better. After all, so long as it’s done in private and for my own pleasure, what’s the harm?” Most people would think the person who made such a claim was odd at best, and more than a little sad. Now, imagine that same person writing a book called The Joys of Drinking Alone, and moreover, imagine that book being reviewed in the New York Times Review of Books as “a taboo-breaking homage to one man’s brave love for solitary boozing.” Crazy, huh? Except that’s exactly what has happened to masturbation. It has gone from being viewed with suspicion by religious and secular people alike (Freud had especially harsh things to say about it at one point) to being something that people are applauded for admitting they are addicted to, as they publish how-to manuals to convert other potential addicts. (p311)

The author goes further into explaining five secular arguments against masturbation. I won’t retype all of the detail - instead, I will provide a snippet of each point in italics in parenthesis. Here is the list:

1. 
   *]**Masturbation is Narcisistic *(…takes something that should be a path to sanctification and comunion with others and turns it into a miserly act that is all about keeping the gift to oneself)
   ]Masturbation is Regressive (…“one step above thumb sucking.”…grown-ups deal with the problems in life by facing them and solving them)
   *]**Masturbation is Addictive **(…the more a person masturbates, the more they want to masturbate, until they feel that they have a need to masturbate or they get irritable)
   *]**Masturbation is Objectifying *(…usually accompanied by the use of pornography…teaches a person…to think that real people should act just like the models in the images, or (when pornography isn’t used) that real people exist to simply scratch the individual’s sexual itch…[this point is real key for healthy relationships - rlg] ***A personal side effect of objectifying others is that masturbation can damage the person’s ability to harmonize their arousal curve with that of their spouse)
   *]**Masturbation is Progressive **(Like any addiction, eventually you need more of it, and more extreme forms of it, to maintain the chemical high achieved by the behavior…under the right circumstances, a person can come to prefer masturbation to almost any other activity.
   (pp312-314)

1. 
   There is much more, but I thought I would give you a taste. It is a ***real ***problem/sin, not some benign pleasure that the secular world wants to lure you into believing. You need to consider this, in addition to Church teaching.

 

[outfctrl]

So the bottom line is, masturbation is a mortal sin just like Murder.

Seems a little harsh, doesnt it?

 

[Charybdis]

We like to contrast and compare, eh? You shouldn’t do that because you’ll drive yourself crazy.

Mortal sin is a complete turning away from God, regardless of what the actual thing you’re doing is. So, to get back to the original premise, if the three elements of committing a mortal sin are present, then you are totally and completely turning away from God by pursuing such an action. Hence, you are mortally sinning by choosing to masturbate…

 

[turtle18]

So the bottom line is, masturbation is a mortal sin just like Murder.

Seems a little harsh, doesnt it?

Not really. There are some mortal sins that are very hard to commit and there are some mortal sins that are very easy to commit. If all mortal sins were hard to commit, then the devil would have to work too hard. The devil wants to take you down the easiest path to hell.

At least people who commit murder know they have committed a serious wrong and they know they need to repent to get into heaven. Many people who masturbate don’t realize they need to repent because they don’t realize it is a serious wrong. Is it a “serious wrong” on the scale of murder? I doubt it but it doesn’t matter–what matters is that you recognize your sin and repent from it, instead of justifying it under the term “addiction.”

I don’t know why masturbation would get an “out” as a mortal sin when all other sexual sin is considered mortal–premarital sex, homosexual sex, adultery, etc.

 

[Matthias123]

The Church has the fullness of the truth. The Church teaches it is a grave matter. Therefore it is a grave matter. With the proper knowledge and consent it will be a mortal sin.

If you die with an unrepented mortal sin you go to hell.

To argue otherwise would be to reject that the Church holds the fullness of the truth.

Granted masturbation feels good. It has some health benefits of performing it. The problem is it is an abomination to the Lord because you are using the sexual faculties contrary to what he designed them for.

Think of it this way:

Jesus: My son, what you are about to do grievously offends me. I am afraid if you go through with what you are about to do we can no longer be friends. I will not be able to acknowledge to before my Father because I will no longer know you. You will not be able to enter my Kingdom.

Person: Heck with you Lord! It feels too good!

The person made his choice. He will have to suffer the consequences of it.

Now this is not directed at anyone who is struggling with sins against purity. Anyone who accepts masturbation as a sin and is trying desperately to overcome it is courageous. Anyone who refuses to believe masturbation is a sin because they like the way it feels is choosing to live a life without Christ.

I once refused to believe that masturbation was a sin for selfish reasons. I say to you, that you are only fooling yourself. Every time you perform the act you are killing yourself spiritually.

 

[LilyM]

So the bottom line is, masturbation is a mortal sin just like Murder.

Seems a little harsh, doesnt it?

Put it this way, mortal sin is sin which kills the soul. There are, naturally, many ways to do so, not all of which appear the same to us.

If you draw an analogy between killing the body and kiling the soul, masturbation would be like killing someone by quietly slipping some painless poison into their enjoyable frosty cold mug of beer, murder would like killing them by stabbing them violently 100 times.

One method of killing is certainly more ‘harsh’ than the other, but both do the job, don’t they? Both kill the person. The harshness of the method doesn’t matter in the end.

 

[Julian_Peters]

Thank you to all who have participated. This thread is now closed.