Continuing my "Is it all Bad?" series, I wanted to focus on masturbation. The classic reason I always hear from religious persons for masturbation being wrong is that it is all about the person doing it, it's all inward - and therefore selfish and wrong. Catechism 2353, states that it is an intrinsic evil because it's making use of the genital region in a sexual way that is neither part of married love nor open to procreation.
First the Catechism, as I don't always believe that sex need take place inside of marriage or be open to procreation (see my Fornication entry), the "official" Catholic prohibitions are not persuasive. As given the reason that church people normally give (inward & selfish), would that not make watching TV, playing video games, reading, or any other activity we often do by ourselves wrong, especially if it is a little self-indulgent and not for learning purposes. What about eating ice cream late at night while watching bad television!? And as I couldn't find anything on the American Medical Association website concerning the harm done by masturbation, I can only conclude that under normal circumstance, masturbation is fine in the eyes of God. This an another "teaching" of the Catholic Church that obviously needs to be reevaluated.
8 comments:
You might want to change your nom de keyboard. Why claim to be something you're not?
Jeff, this poor fellow is persuaded that he's "Catholic."
He's not alone in making that assertion despite massive self-written evidence to the contrary--see Russell Shaw's work on the topic--or that of James Davidson.
Your previous entry, in turn, said "if one agrees with the logic in the previous blog entry that sex need not always have the generation of children in mind, perhaps there is wiggle room for responsible sex between adults in certain situations." What happened to all those conditions and limitations, like "perhaps" and "wiggle room" and "responsible" and "between adults" and "certain situations"?
I just found your blog. The catholic attitude toward sex is shamefully hypocritical. If you have any interest my blog is Liberal Catholic Sports Music. May soon be ex-catholic. My wife, children, grandkids have always been Catholic. But enough is enough. Jack
"Liberal Catholic Sports Music"
Who Let the Dogs Out, and Can St. Francis Get Them Back
Great cat, but picture indicates you're not all there. Jack
Jackjoe
I have definitely made the conscious decision to remain Catholic, but it is difficult at times when I take into account that such Church teaching such as "no condoms" are realistically responsible for the deaths of countless thousands on the African continent.
I'm glad I found your site. I go along with the church on most things except sex, which, in many cases is simply absurd. Right now my wife and family are helping a 23 year old who was an outstanding athlete but, alas, had too much experience with girls and women. He is becomming a Catholic. That is why I am not commenting right now on my blog. If you are interested in a discussion on catholicism and sex, you might like to look at the blog "In Today's News". You might also find the story of this young man on my blog interesting. Jack
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