THE "SIN" OF MASTURBATION

It is possible for many to masturbate to orgasm without thinking of sex. When the mind is empty it cannot do any harm even if fantasy does. If fantasy does harm, then all sex is wrong except strictly for the production of babies. But there has to be something sexual there however slight to be able to reach the orgasm. Christianity objects to sex not just because of the fantasy but also because of the physical act. Sex would still be a sin if it were possible to have it without any eroticism at all.
 
Solitary masturbation might be a sin because sexual activity is something that you do with another person. Masturbation does not look very natural when it involves organs that are for giving away to another person but nature is unbalanced anyway so who gives a damn if it is natural or not?

In the past, it was thought that masturbation, under the euphemism of self-abuse, could make you go blind or mad or make your palms hairy. All sorts of lies were told to prevent people having some fun. It was obvious that masturbation feels like sex and sex does not harm or cause unwanted pregnancy it was safe and indeed safer than sex. Masturbation is almost universal and if people did it more there would be fewer catching sexual transmitted disease. It is better then sex for at least you are in full control. Mutual masturbation is the best form of sexual activity for sex pleasure has a lot to do with mystery and it still makes the other person’s body a mystery. The mystery can be exciting.

The Church has to hold that masturbation is an unnatural sin which is the reason it is immoral. So it would be more immoral than adultery for adultery is more natural (page 461, Vicars of Christ). The Church might reply that adultery might be more natural but it is anti-social and harmful which means it adds up to being as vile as masturbation. But that is false for adultery need not be harmful say when the transmission of disease is avoided and when it is totally discreet. An adulterer who commits sins such as being careless with venereal disease and who does not mind if his home is torn apart by his affairs is committing two additional sins to adultery. They are not part of his sin of adultery. Adultery is a sin on its own. That is why it is foolish to accept the Church’s attempt to look sensible when it makes masturbation worse than adultery. So this natural law morality garbage makes it better for a man to have full unprotected sex with a woman carrying HIV than for him to just have oral sex with her which reduces the risk of transmission. A rapist who wears a condom is a bigger sinner than one who doesn’t (ibid, page 461). The Church is embarrassed about these teachings which is why so few know about them. It should tell them what it really thinks even if it drives them away. Honesty requires that.

To say that masturbation is unnatural is to say it is wrong to make love to yourself. So it is okay to do it to someone else in marriage meaning that anything sexual outside of marriage is unnatural. The Church says that masturbation is as sick and abnormal as sending flowers to yourself. Obviously if the Church is right it would have to be. Sending flowers to yourself should make you happy. So it is not the act that is bad or good but how it makes you feel that determines that. If you feel bad about masturbation, you should refrain from it until you learn to accept it as wholesome. It doesn’t but that does not make it wrong to send the flowers to yourself in itself. The Church says masturbation is wrong in itself meaning that its immorality has nothing to do with your feelings. The implication is that masturbation is evil just because it is masturbation. It is sinful just because the Church thinks it is unnatural. What is natural matters more than what brings happiness as if happiness were an unnatural sin! It is certainly unnatural to put rules before happiness.

The negativity of the Church towards masturbation shows that the Church opposes self-esteem of masturbators. It is trying to make anybody who masturbates feel bad about it and the benefits it gives. To attack the self-esteem of others over something harmless or relatively harmless is intolerable.

By condemning masturbation and all those other harmless things or things which can be made harmless the Church is claiming that it knows best. It should just say it thinks it but not be so dogmatic.