From: conditt@tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Paul Conditt)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Sexuality (was: Re: REFRESH)
Date: 18 Nov 92 08:36:06 GMT
Organization: Applied Research Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin

In article <Nov.15.22.15.38.1992.23926@geneva.rutgers.edu> belgarath@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes:
>Hello, Can anyone tell me if it is against the Christian religion to
>masterbate?  Please answer over the net and not directly to me, thanks.
>                                          In His Name
>
>
>[Almost all Christian groups teach that it's wrong.  These days I
>don't think it's considered a reallyserious wrong.  But most
                                                     ^^^^^^^^
>Christians consider that sexuality was intended by God for use in
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>marriage, and only there.  There's not a lot of explicit Biblical
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>evidence on masturbation.  The story of Onan (Gen 38) used to be
>cited, but that's not really masturbation, and Onan's offense was
>something else -- he was trying to avoid his responsibility as
>brother-in-law.  --clh]

I'm not going to address the issue of masturbation, but the comment 
made by CLH, although extremely accurate, raises some very interesting
and disturbing issues in my mind.  In my experience as a single 
Christian and also as one who tries to minister to people with sexuality
issues (homosexuals, sex-addicts), I have found that this attitude has
done a lot of damage to Christians.  The effects of it are far-reaching
into the Christian community.  The problems related to sexual sin that
exist in the church are numerous.  We have adultery, pre-marital sex,
extra-marital sex, homosexuality, pornography addicts, child-molesters,
frigid wives, impotent husbands, teenagers who are very sexually active,
singles who carry a tremendous amount of guilt for having sexual thoughts
and possibly acting them out.  The list goes on and on and on.

God created us as sexual beings.  Although we start experiencing our
sexuality at early ages, it slaps us in the face at puberty.  My
experience with being educated about my sexuality is I think common to
many Christians.  Sexuality was considered something that didn't come 
into play until you were married.  Definitely, sexual acts were not 
something that you should even *think* about until you were married.
While I whole-heartedly believe that God intended sex to be something
that is reserved for a marital relationship, to ignore the fact that we
must deal with our sexuality before we're married is, IMHO, asking for
the problems I listed in the above paragraph.  

I believe that it is urgent that we, as a Christian community, start
addressing some of these issues.  The ideal place is to start in the
home with your children.  (That's easy for me to say since I don't
have any).  It seems like that if we talk about sex in the church or
even just among Christians outside of a "church" setting, we're asking
for sexual relations to begin among all involved parties.  I, as a single,
need to be able to talk to people about how my sexuality should be 
expressed and what a godly view of it is.  I don't think that God
intended for me to completely repress something that he's given me and
then expect me to live up to this standard of chastity before marriage.
And I'm not condoning pre-marital sex.  I think that one way of helping
people to remain chaste, and remain faithful in marriages, is to get
these issues out on the table, discuss them and benefit from other's
experiences and ideas.  

I hope that I've made myself clear.  It's difficult to discuss such
an emotional and close-to-home issue without letting my feelings cloud
my speech.  I'd be very interested in hearing what others on the net
feel about the issues and questions that I've raised.  God made us
multi-faceted beings and for us to ignore and repress such a large part
of all of us is asking for trouble.  I'd like to hear other's ideas on
how to deal with sexuality in a God-glorifying manner.

Paul Conditt