Quote (Goomshill @ 26 Mar 2012 04:59)
I'm no psychologist, but I trust to the opinion of qualified professionals and doctors from Freud to Kinsey to modern schools of thought.
The big two offenders that get seen in abnormal sexual development and self destructive tendencies are traumatic childhood experience and sexual repression
To put it lightly, its something that the church has ahem, struggled with. And something they should be carefully reevaluating, to help as many people as possible.
Biblically, the important message seems not to be utter abstinence, but to use yourself responsibly- and thats a great message. Be fruitful and multiply. Be not obsessed with sex. But regular, safe and responsible masturbation need not be a sin, that precedent is with Church alone
Genesis 38:9 is frequently quoted, but lets be reasonable- is the offensive action being referred to the 'spilling of the seed', or the 'cheating his brothers wife maliciously'? He wasn't even spilling his seed in the conventional sense anyway. The bible's silent on the issue
To put my own worthless anecdotal evidence to it, we had a kid back in my high school years, big tall strong korean guy who could have been quite popular- but he was fervently christian and strove towards ridiculous paragons of chastity and such. He took it to the point where he was flagellating himself any time he slipped up and gave into temptation, and more disturbingly actually told us about it, in his holier-than-thou. But it was easy to see it drive his stress levels beyond scary, manifesting itself as violent outbursts- he would snap at a feather's touch and try to physically attack people (fortunately, he was big, but I was bigger, on one occasion). He was never able to be there to be a helpful neighbor or good samaritan
Jesus tells us not just to be at peace with our neighbors and our god, but have peace upon our own hearts that he gives us. And repression and traumatizing experiences will trouble a man more than anything- the more we try to pray away the gay, or body slam our lustful thoughts, or punish ourselves- the more they will manifest violently and do more harm. The same pre-sexual revolution era when we dare not even talk about sex, was also a time when a wife could expect a swift belt buckle to the face if she refused, when brothels ran rampant. I need not even delve into the problems the church faces right now. He who is not at peace with himself cannot be at peace with the world- a carnally obsessed mind is death, a spiritual mind is life and peace- and he who is under control of the flesh cannot please god; who is more under control of his thoughts, he who stressfully represses himself to the breaking point, or he who safely and responsibly comes to peace with his body, that he may better focus his time on other things?
No man can master his body by denying it, for the lord gave it to him, and to deny your own body is to deny what is god-given. Live at peace with it, or live in turmoil and strife
The Bible makes it clear that your body is a temple, and not to defile it. It makes it clear that lust is a sin. It makes it clear that spilling your seed on a prostitute is better than on the ground (eg; paid sex > masturbation, and it is quite clear that sex outside a marriage is also a sin, this is used to illustrate how bad masturbation is in the eyes of God, worse than sex outside of marriage).
There are plenty of studies that show Freud is a crackpot, and his ponderings have absolutely not been proven. That you trust man over the word of God shows which side you've chosen. Additionally, many have written books about the "zen" of being free from sexual desires and lusts and not masturbating and abstaining from all sexual behavior and thoughts. This flies directly in the face of pseudo-psychiatry.
Regarding your silly anecdote, the Bible also says that you are to repent sin in like kind for the offense. If it is between you and God, you do not broadcast it. For him to be openly broadcasting these things shows another underlying issue, completely unrelated to sexual desires, not least of which his lack of understanding of the scripture in that regard. Your anecdote is spurious, at best.
You are wrong. Not everyone does it. Argument ad populum is no argument for morality. It is quite clear from scripture that these acts are sinful, and no mincing of words will change that.
Romans 6:6 (NASB) - knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;and it continues:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
In fact, read all of Romans 6.