Religious people: Why do you teach your children that masturbation is wrong?

Question

In America around the turn-of-the-century, some religious adults were so against masturbation that they forced their daughters to wear gloves made of a steel-wool-like material (like Brillo pads) at night and to put a powder on their genitals that made them painful to touch. They made their sons wear metal chastity belts at night that made it painful to have an erection. During the 1820s, some parents prevented male masturbation by piecing the foreskin with a wire and soldering the ends together. Boys and girls were discouraged from masturbation by the threat of blindness, madness and illness.

Why does this nonsense (to a lesser degree) continue?

Do YOU masturbate?
I went to a church with my religious dad once and the preacher said that masturbation within a marriage is the exact same thing as cheating... what?

Answer 1

The christian religion does indeed teach that masturbation is immoral, and while I'm sure the use of preventative tools and devices was uncommon, the threats of blindness and madness were often taught to discourage self-exploration. Thankfully, we can now look back at laugh at these ridiculous claims.

Answer 2

I think that as a society we are starting to move beyond old teaching like that. It's bad for you or it is a sin. Taking care of personal feeling on your own is more acceptable now. Today you don't have to feel shame about doing it for yourself unless someone opens the door on you. lol Back in my day we could only joke about it but would never admit that we actually did it. Today you can read about how to do it the correct way. I have to go now I am embarrassed that I talk this much.

Answer 3

The act of masturbating is an empowering act because it puts you in control of your own pleasure. When someone masturbates they are not relaying on the state, god, or their parents for their satisfaction but are finding it themselves. While this may seem like a small thing allowing anyone this kind of freedom in very restrictive societies can be dangerous.

Answer 4

Never heard that story before. Yes, I have a 'bation prob ... but ah, I found this in a book and now understand why I used to cry after orgaiming alone:

"Q; 11. Most psychologist speak of masturbation as normal, healthy thing. They even indicate that it’s unhealthy not to masturbate. Why doesn’t the Church get with it?

A: We must realize that without the perspective of God’s plan in the beginning, and without understanding that Christ came into the world to restore that plan, we’ll inevitably be looking at our experience of sexual desire through the lens of our fallen humanity. From this perspective, masturbation does seem like a “normal” and even “healthy” thing.

It’s normal to be sexually aroused, right? It’s “normal” to want to “relieve” sexual tension, right? If you have an itch, you don’t just let it drive you crazy - you scratch it right? In fact, only the oddball would choose to endure the itch without scratching it, right? So it could actually be “unhealthy” to let sexual tension build up without “relieving” it, right?

There’s a certain logic here. In fact, it’s virtually impossible to understand why masturbation is wrong within this paradigm. What’s needed - not just to understand the masturbation issue but in order to understand the truth of sexuality and, in turn, the true meaning of love and life - is a complete paradigm shift.

We’ve inherited a worldview (modern rationalism) that’s closed in on itself. We’re all a bunch of omphaloskeptics (a fancy word for “navel-gazers”). We can’t see beyond the temporal and immanent to the eternal and transcendent.

We look at the stars, and rather than pondering the expansive grandeur of the Creator, we reduce the universe to mathematical equations. We encounter another body, and rather than seeing the revelation of a person made in the image and likeness of God, we see a thing to use and consume for our own gratification. We encounter the deep waters of sexual desire, and rather than seeing our call to share in the divine mystery by swimming in the pure waters of life-giving love with an “other,” we dive headfirst into our own shallow, stagnant swamp and get stuck in the sludge of self-indulgent isolation.

As we’ve noted, sex is symbolic. It’s meant to be an efficacious sign of God’s free, total, faithful, fruitful love. It’s meant to be a human participation in the divine Communion of Persons. Yes, sex is meant to point us beyond the stars to ultimate Reality - God."

Answer 5

How do you know I teach that to my children? What they do in private is their business. I don't follow them around saying - better not masturbate, you'll go blind. That's crazy. What do you think Christians consist of? Where do you get your info. You are gravely mistaken.

Answer 6

We don't all. I was never taught that masturbation is wrong and I grew up in a Christian environment.

Answer 7

I don't know about your research?, but there is nothing wrong with masturbation ( before or after marriage ).

Religion is funny, but don't pay to much attention to it.

Answer 8

Masturbation should be taught in sex education class so there are no screw ups.

Answer 9

This act that you speak of is sin....self gratifications sex sin.

Philippians 4:8.

Answer 10

Okay, the weird stuff you talked about in the first paragraph really isn't right.

But masterbation is a sin. Lust. It's self serving. Everytime someone does something self serving or for their own filthy pleasure, their relationship with God gets a little weaker.