Incorrect. The reason Catholics disapprove of men beating their meat every now and then is because they feel an odd compulsion to prevent a member of their society from experiencing the slightest amount of joy or satisfaction.
Nice try. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. The Catholic Church’s teaching on masturbation, and all of Protestantism’s teaching until the 1930’s I might add, is rooted firmly in scripture. If you come on to the world’s largest Catholic website to throw around tired remarks like that then don’t expect to be taken seriously. One would assume that anyone who presumes to know what cumpulsion an organization such as the Catholic Church operates under should also know a thing or two about the Bible to back that assumption up. To that end, actually reading the Bible and knowing a little about it helps.
God’s law as given to Israel through Moses upheld the traditional Jewish understanding of how important it was to have a male heir and to perpetuate the family name and blood line.
"When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband’s brother shall go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her. The first-born son she bears shall continue the line of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. If, however, a man does not care to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and declare, ‘My brother-in-law does not intend to perform his duty toward me and refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel.’ Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and admonish him. If he persists in saying, ‘I am not willing to marry her,’ his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, saying publicly, ‘This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother’s family!’ And his lineage shall be spoken of in Israel as ‘the family of the man stripped of his sandal.’ (Deuteronomy 25:5-10)
Perpetuating the family name and having a male heir was so important that if a married man died without a son, his brother was responsible for raising his heir with his dead brother’s widow. The surviving brother would incur the expense and bear the responsibility for caring for the widow and raising the son but the son would not be counted as his. Instead, the son would inherit the estate of his mother’s deceased husband. The God given penalty for not doing so was public humiliation.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Unite with your brother’s widow, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother’s line.” Onan, however, knew that the descendants would not be counted as his; so whenever he had relations with his brother’s widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother. What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too. (Genesis 38:8-10)
Onan disobeyed God’s law but was punished far in excess of what God’s own law demanded. God himself set the punishment of public humiliation for not raising his brother’s heir yet God did not mete out the punishment which his own law demanded. Instead God handed down the harshest punishment, death. Why?
Because when man and woman unite in sexual union, man brings the sperm, woman brings the egg and God brings the spirit. Without the spirit, the sperm may penetrate the egg but there is no conception. Without the spirit, there is no life. This is why sexual union between husband and wife in the context of a committed relationship is a holy act. When man and woman unite, God is present in a special way. Man and woman bring the created parts necissary for a human body but God alone brings the spirit created in His image required for that body to be alive. In so doing, God allows man and woman to become participants in one of the greatest things He does, creating a human life. Man and woman thus become co-creators of human life in cooperating with God.
Under the mosaic law, Onan’s punishment made perfect sense. Any eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Onan denied God the opportunity to create a life and in return, Onan’s life was demanded of him. A life for a life.
To use a woman for your own personal enjoyment while denying God the opportunity to create a new life is an insult to God. To do so in the absence of a woman is complete selfishness and a slap in the face to the Creator of the Universe. Onan’s punishment, far in excess of what was demanded for refusing to raise his brother’s heir, bears witness to his real crime, which was denying God the opportunity to create a new life. This is not my own intepretation; it is the teaching of 1500 years of Jewish tradition and twenty centuries of Christian belief which is clearly laid out in the oldest books of the Bible for anyone who cares to read.
You can throw around intellectually vapid remarks like the Pope doesn’t want people to have fun RevJ, but you ought to be able to back up that statement with some type of argument. If not, consider thinking twice before you post such nonsense.
-Tim-
), verbal impulses – which some people substitute for physical violence – in adulthood, etc. In order to grow in spirituality we have to take control of our impulses, urges, and appetites – whatever those are and whenever they occur.
etc. etc.