It seemed to me that the Church was trying to distance itself from past teachings about the evils of masturbation. They removed the word from the For the Strength of Youth manual, and, to my knowledge, it hadn’t been addressed for many years in any general conference talk or Church magazine. They had never announced a change in policy, so there were many bishops and other local leaders that still considered it sinful and asked about it in youth interviews, but the general Church leadership seemed to be avoiding the topic. I was optimistic that the upper leadership had realized that the previous position on masturbation was contrary to the current consensus of the professional medical and mental health communities, and that this teaching that masturbation was sinful would slowly be forgotten, just like similar teachings about birth control, oral sex, miscegenation, etc.

Then the March Ensign was published, and in Ted Callister’s article on morality, he very clearly states that “The Lord condemns self-abuse.” Ted even throws in a couple of quotes from Packer’s little factory talk. Callister’s article makes it clear that the Church is still teaching this outdated and harmful doctrine. Will this encourage progressive bishops who did not consider masturbation a sin and didn’t ask about it in interviews to start asking about it?

Before Callister’s article in this month’s Ensign, I couldn’t find a reference anywhere in any Church magazine specifically condemning masturbation since the 80s. Have I missed any?

Beats me.

Beats the bishop too!

That was so bad, it was good.

Make jokes like that and the SP will tell you to beat it.

Well, there was this, last month. It was the mormon video that went round the world! http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/03/byu-to-undergrads-masturbation-is-like-warfare.html

The church understands very well that you can control a person completely thru sex. So this is one of the things that they are less willingto cave on and on the other side, the thing they use their most epic scare tactics about.

Self abuse:

Sitting in a three hour block bored silly while your brain rots.

Working on your "calling" while you ignore your kids.

Feeling worthless because you are gay.

Feeling stilted because you are woman.

Letting your heritage be trampled because you are "Lamanite."

Sitting in a court of love allowing someone to judge you.

Et----cet---er---a!




That is self abuse. And yes, it should be stopped. And yes, any god worth his salt would condemn it.

Very well put! +1000

if you're abusing yourself, you're doing it wrong

I once bled when doing it (There's a lot of blood vessels there!), since I had no idea what I was doing and was repressed in almost every knowledge.

I would argue that being forced to be ignorant can easily cause self-abuse!

When I saw eqq whites come pulsating out of Mr Happy I was admittedly shocked and thought WTF. When did I eat raw egg whites? How did they get there?

Oh that's what sperm is. Had no idea it was a double tap. I thought sperm was something in your pee and you had to urinate inside a female to make a baby. I once dreamt that I was having sex with my friend's hot sister and I forgot to pee inside of her so I jumped back on and fortunately woke up at that point.

It's a good thing I learned about sperm in the privacy of my bathroom or I would have traumatized some poor woman.

I wonder if there have been mormons who never "meditated" that have tried to pee inside someone.

Sorry for the visual.

BBAHAHAHAHA! i thought the same thing when i was younger!!! But self abuse? I thought was shoving things in your butt that were sharp and what not

What normal, healthy, well adjusted people refer to as "self-pleasuring," Mormon Cultist call "self-abuse".

Self-abuse is a very strange term for masturbation. Masturbation is more of an act of pleasure, unless you have some very strange guilt issues.

I am starting to interpret 1 CORINTHIANS 6:9 as those who simply do not care for themselves or the irresponsible will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If my definition is correct, then my fellow saints who follow the Word of Wisdom by not drinking beer, but enjoy snacking of sugary crap may be the ones condemned. I am not the fittest guy around, but if I were Bishop, I would be telling the heftier saints to drop a few tons during worthiness interviews.

Our sons were all just asked if the masturbate by the bishop. I can't get my head around a grown man asking boys if they play with themselves. It's unbelievably perverted. Thank god we left the Morg.

Utah has as much child porn coming out of it as southern california (20-million + people)

Even better than the "self-abuse" nonsense, is that this talk further paints TSCC into a corner in regards to same sex marriage.

To quote Callister's words:

"Some would have us believe that the Church’s stand against same-gender physical relationships is a temporary policy and not an eternal doctrine. Such a belief would be at odds with the scriptures, with the words of modern prophets, and with the plan of salvation, all of which teach the necessity of eternal marriage between a man and a woman as a condition to exaltation. A same-gender relationship is inconsistent with God’s eternal pattern that husbands and wives not only have children in mortality but also have eternal increase in their exalted condition."

Hear that, folks? The prophet is NOT going to have a revelation saying the gays are okay! Keep digging yourselves into that hole, Tad.

"If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." (Brigham Young)

Track record speaks for itself ;)

msp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed
> mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the
> penalty, under the law of God, is death on the
> spot. This will always be so." (Brigham Young)
>
> Track record speaks for itself ;)


Well I am living proof that all that is a crock of rassist poo.

I'm still here alive with fond memories of my sweet black Shirley and old Brigham is dead and nearly forgotten.

heh heh

This pretty much puts it all into perspective.

http://carlsagan.tumblr.com/post/49363632963?utm_campaign=SharedPost&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=TumblriOS

Oh I loved that! That's some serious brain power being animated right there.

This is a great article regarding self-abuse, or self-harm:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10348593/Toxic-childhoods-blamed-for-22000-self-harm-cases.html

ANYONE who calls masturbation self-abuse is ignorant and a moron. Tad whatever his name is fits the bill.

It really does beggar beliefe that this should even be an issue still.

I wpuld say that this really is tantamount to child abuse on behalf of this sick organisation. The saheer mental damage cause to kids over the years is phenomenal. it really is.

How much longer can it be before somwe child brings a legal action against them!

The next time someone asks about your "self-abuse" aka onanism, you should reply that no, you did not offend the Lord by spilling your seed on the ground rather than impregnate your brothers wife. That was Onans sin- disobeying the Lord.

I was asked by my bishop during a temple recommend interview if I "practiced self abuse". I had never been asked about it in that way and I started laughing.

He wasn't amused.

Was he curious? Pervert.

I'd love for my Bishop to just dare ask me this question. It would not be pretty.

Hang in there strawberry. It takes some time to dissociate sexual pleasure from Mormon mis-teachings. Just keep doing what you're doing...maybe even increase your frequency...and those guilty feelings will subside, promise!! :)

I had the whole guilt deal told to me...didn't work.

Ron Burr