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[Truth Sets Free]

Should Christians ever masturbate?

[jimwalton]

Well,I don't know anyone who says Christians should masturbate! Maybe your question is more on the order of, "Is it wrong for Christians to masturbate?"

Interestingly enough, the Bible says absolutely nothing about masturbation, so we are left to speculate and pontificate.
Gen. 38.9 is a passage and story that includes coitus interruptus, but that's not the same thing. The only other text that gets close to the subject of masturbation is Mt. 5.28 where Jesus talks about the dangers of lust. But I'll come back to that.

As far as the medical community is concerned, Katchadourian and Lunde say: "Currently no informed person should have any real concern about the deleterious effects of masturbation in a physical sense. Whatever concerns exist pertain to psychological and moral issues. Psychological judgments in this regard are based on the motivations behind the practice, the degree of dependency on this outlet, and the extent to which the practice excludes socio-sexual relationships."

Christian opinions span the whole gamut, since the Bible doesn't teach on it. Pastor Charlie Shedd (he and his wife wrote books about sex) says, "Masturbation is a gift of God." Dr. Jay Adams, Christian psychologist says exactly the opposite: "Masturbation is clearly wrong since it constitutes a perversion of the sexual act." Lewis Smedes takes more of a middle road: "The mood today is that masturbation is all right; only the guilt is bad. I do not want to dispute the modern attitude. ... The young person...needs to learn that the feeling of emptiness after masturbating is not guilt, but only incompleteness. In this way masturbation can be accepted, along with its frustrations, as a temporary plateau for his sexuality. It is not morally wrong, but neither is it personally sufficient." John White, pastor and teacher, says, "It is better to masturbate than to burn. I am glad that the younger generation has been relieved of a burden of guilt and fear that once haunted so many of us.... Masturbation is not a good thing, but neither is it a heinous sin." Dr. James Dobson weighs in with: "It is my opinion that masturbation is not much of an issue with God. It's a normal part of adolescence which involves no one else. It does not cause disease, it does not produce babies, and Jesus did not mention it in the Bible." Gary Collins and David Seamands claim, "It's high time we stop making such a 'big deal' out of masturbation and give it the well-deserved unimportance it merits."

[Truth Sets Free]

So, as an anonymous internet person who clearly has researched (or at least looked into) this subject with some modicum of open-mindedness, what personal opinions have you formed or come to personally on the matter?

[jimwalton]

My personal conclusions? There's nothing wrong with masturbation. The Bible never says it's wrong, or says anything about it. Dr. James Dobson says that 90% of men admit to masturbating, which leads us to the conclusion that 10% are liars.

A greater problem, biblically speaking, is where it crosses from release into lust. Lust is a subject the Bible does speak about, at least a little bit. When we start treating like things or like sex objects instead of people is demeaning, and that's where the problem lies. Even in that, the problem isn't with masturbation but with lust.

[Truth Sets Free]

I asked another person what lust was... and i guess he assumed I was being facetious or something? But if you don't mind enlightening me, I'd appreciate a well-thought out definition.

[jimwalton]

Technically, the Greek word means an inappropriate appetite that is uncontrolled and magnified. It's a craving. When it is used negatively in the Bible (since we can have cravings that are good) it is a craving after something that leads to moral wrong. Desire is not in itself evil. What's wrong is exerting the desire at the negative expense of another, letting our wills be dominated by immorality, creating a wall between ourselves and God. In the case of sexual lust, it's treating a woman as an object for our enjoyment rather than as being of value in herself. Pornography is like that. It takes something human, real, and beautiful, and distorts it, cheapens our sexuality, and isolates it for commerce and profit. Instead, sexual desire is meant to be lived and expressed in the context of a healthy, integrated relationship. Lust smears. It's misdirected good.

Therefore, lust is actively imagining someone as a sexual object with the intentional selfish pursuit of stimulating or satisfying illicit sexual desires. It’s not just a glance, but a visual and mental pursuit; it’s not just a thought, but a nurtured desire. If you are reading or viewing sexually explicit material, you are nurturing lust—training your mind to think of other people as sexual objects. It is dehumanizing and degrading.

[Truth Sets Free]

Why do you think the pornography industry is as big as it is now?

[jimwalton]

Well, one is there is money to be made, and people will inevitably be drawn to money. Second, the Internet makes porn so much more lucrative than it ever could have been via print media. Third, our culture is hyper-sexualized. Fourth, people are weak.

[Truth Sets Free]

Do you think it will get "worse" or better, considering current generations and the youth?

[jimwalton]

My opinion is that it will get worse. First, kids are being raised very secular. Second, biblical literacy is way down. Third, Christian students are ill-prepared for the kind of intellectual persecution that will hit them in college. Fourth, the pull of the culture is strong.