Sex

[TLC]

As I understand it Asceticism and Gnosticism basically taught that anything physical was evil thus anything physically enjoyable was also evil. Obviously they totally ignored the Song of Solomon! Many teach that masturbation is wrong because of Genesis 38:9. However Onan was not masturbating. He was fulfilling a promise by having intercourse with his dead brother's wife. He failed in the promise due to selfishness or greed, perhaps both. Of course Onan was of a forbidden lineage for Israelites and that is another whole issue.

We have a lot of freedom in Christ. Scripture never teaches against masturbation. Enjoy the gifts of God.

[cathym]

Yeah, the only time masturbation was brought up at all, as far as I recall, was to explain that the sin in the story of Onan was not masturbation, but not doing his duty by giving his dead brother an heir.

[B.H.]

Doesn't it say in Moses's Law that if a man has a seminal emmission he is considered unclean. Now the term unclean does not necessarily mean in a state of sin---people who touch a dead body or a woman on her menstrual cycle was unclean as well. Of course a man could have a seminal emmission through other means than masturbating too.

[agricola]

Yes that's right, BH. A wet dream made a guy ritually unclean for a while - not long though - maybe a day? It meant he couldn't enter the inner courtyard around the sanctuary.

come to think of it, that probably was a nice self-correcting mechanism keeping rowdy teenagers out of the sacred spaces!

[GuitarHero]

If you can control peoples' sexual activity...their most primal urge... you can control everything else about them. Let that sink in for a moment.

[Ashes]

^^ Wise words.

I find it horrible that so many Christians say they hope that medical scientists never find a cure for HIV. They are still stuck in the year 1015.

I've been seeing a guy for about 6 months now. I'm 28 years old and my mom still tries to guilt me out of spending any time alone with him, because God forbid we do anything resembling sexual activity.

[Tsathoggua]

If you can control peoples' sexual activity...their most primal urge... you can control everything else about them. Let that sink in for a moment.

So true!

[KLP]

I have never heard of anyone hoping against a cure to any disease, much less HIV. Sure the some folks have used famine against some other group of people, but they knew the cure, they were just withholding it. I am sure there is a whacko here and there, but I have never met anyone who actually actively wants disease to spread and even remain uncured. And Westboro Baptist is only a few people, they are about the only ones that come to mind of people who would think about not curing a disease.

[chrisso99]

The only time masturbation came up in Church when I was a kid, they said it was only ok if you weren't thinking about having sex while you were doing it, because if you were thinking about sex, you were lusting which was definitely always a sin. If it was just the mechanical act to relieve physical symptoms, it was ok. I remember thinking that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I wasn't doing that type of activity yet, even though I was 15 or so. I knew I didn't believe in this silly religion at the time, but I didn't yet feel free enough to behave that way. What kind of whack job (pun not actually intended but still delightfully tacky) thinks it's even possible to ask teenage (or any age) boys not to lust? It's literally an ingrained part of our DNA. You can't just turn it off.

[Ivy]

Yes that's right, BH. A wet dream made a guy ritually unclean for a while

Were they on some kind of honor system to tell some leader if they'd had an incident?

Kind of interesting how open people were back then about their bodily functions and fluids. "Well, Aaron had a nocturnal emission last
night so he's got to go and ritual wash". "Tabitha's unclean right now so she'll be out in the menstrual cave for the week."