What do you think is the reason for the church's preoccupation with masturbation?

Is it an anachronistic, outdated moral view?

Is it about control and obedience?

Do the leaders honestly see some huge danger?

And if so, what are they afraid will happen if they don't keep young men in line with respect to this issue?

Church is the medicine for its own disease.

The church still thinks its the 1950s......

+1

I think it's more then the masturbation in itself that upsets them. It's the thought process that leads to the "playing with the factory" as we all know, they themselves have had these thoughts and it has led to masturbation. Sexual thoughts and M go hand in hand especially at a young age.
They don't want their followers to, especially missionaries to think of such things. It's like letting a child have Ice-cream and then telling them they can never have any again while taking them to an Ice-cream shop everyday.

Thing is, they believe in God. Well God made human's with this desire for sex. Made our bodies react to touch, sight, feelings and then tell us, from tscc point of view, to fight against it. It's all weird. Fact is, if they just let it be and never mentioned it like other religions then they would not have a church full of frustrated teens about ready to explode, feeling guilty, not good enough, depressed, afraid, ashamed. You would have happy teens / young people at least where sex is concerned.

The cynic in me doesn't think they intend young men to obey in this area, but they realize that by saying that something that everybody does is "bad," they can create a guilt that they can use to control the people.

If all the men feel like they're sinners, and only the Morg leadership holds the keys to forgiveness, then they hold an awful lot of power.

+1

It's about codependency, I think. Teach people to be ashamed of one of their most basic functions. Tell them the natural man is an enemy to god, that the purpose of their lives is to learn how to control themselves. Shame them by allowing them to think they're the only one who can't. Once you get people to accept this and warp their minds in such a fashion, it's really easy to talk them into doing all kinds of other things that people in their right minds would consider foolish, like put the cult before their families, and pay a tenth of their income to it. After all, it's the only thing keeping them from succumbing to the evil will of the flesh. How can you put a price on that?

They will gratefully pray, pay, and obey.

Christianity in general requires one to feel guilt, because you are assumed to be flawed and a sinner. It's often difficult to find sins in children, but this one they pounce upon because it's nearly a universal, normal activity, yet easily converted to something shameful in the mind of the youngster. They like to get their hooks into them early. Control.

Control, fear, jealousy

The General Authority's point of view:


"I am chosen as God's great power holder on Earth. If I cannot exercise that control, it means that I may be wrong in my beliefs.

But I cannot allow myself to be wrong in my beliefs, so I must always assert control in order to prove myself.

The most intimate and powerful control I can assert over others is sexual. Losing sexual control over them threatens my sense of greatness from God.

To continually feel that God's power is vested in me, others must continually conform to my dictates. Masturbation is a form of rebellion at the most primitive human level. It is a private rebuke of my position from God.

Therefore, others must confess their rebellion, conform, and reassert my sense of Godly entitlement!"

Amen.

I think its about encouraging the mindset to rush into bad marriages to keep people trapped in the church.

Basing this off my own experience, if you want to experience sexual fulfilment AND be in good standing in the church, you need to be married good and proper. So you find yourself in a situation where you are dating someone you dont necessarily consider perfect for you, but ignore any red flags that pop up because you REALLY want to see what all the hub-ub is about. You rush into making life changing decisions that "the world" takes its time in deciding and find yourself in a miserable marriage with someone you arent sexually compatible with who wants to keep you trapped in a faith you no longer believe in.

Just my 2 cents.

Read about the history of masturbation hete:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_masturbation

wine country girl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Read about the history of masturbation hete:
>
> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_masturb
> ation


Yes, that's where it comes from. Plus that the words masturbation and onany were also used by some about sexual abuse of boys. Plus the gross misunderstanding of the story of Onan in the Bible.

Because it's fun........

C O N T R O L.

Don't know, I do know that M is a normal sexual behavior in folks.