TMM: Christians and Masturbation

Much as I might bemoan the state of theology as taught and practiced (e.g. in catechesis) in the Catholic Church, it's worth occasionally recalling that the problem is more widespread than this. Consider, for example, this post which shows up in my newsfeed--and which will presumably become comment fodder for IT columnist JQ Tomanek--about Christians and masturbation. Note well that the group of folks being drawn upon may or may not qualify as evangelical experts (a few professors though none of theology, and a few writers/bloggers/authors), but on the other hand I would be led to assume that these are some reasonably well-taught evangelicals*. I'm not claiming that this is a universal problem, mind you (it is, after all, an evangelical who is bemoaning this post), but if we poll a set of 7 well-informed, and the majority basically write "No problem here--there's nothing wrong with masturbation," it does tend to speak poorly of the movement's ability to maintain some semblance of continuity.

I'm not, incidentally, saying this with a tone of Catholic triumphalism. The Catholic Church has had similar problems of leadership, at least in the West, and our leadership problems are not all behind us. Indeed, 2 for 7 might be a reasonable batting average for the Catholic Church as well, though those 2 are easily identified as being orthodox and faithful, the 5 as being dissident, heterodox, or outright heretical.

To the post which sparks all of this, I saw two reasonably good answers--that is, two answers which left masturbation as a sin, rather than trying to justify it one way or another. Most of the other responses were some variant on 'It doesn't really matter what we do with just our bodies--masturbation is a part of healthy sexuality which grants us release from sexual tensions...' That fornication, adultery, homosexuality, etc can be justified with the same neo-gnostic lines of reasoning apparently escapes from these "Christian intellectuals."

Indeed, Matthew Lee Anderson, a contributor to the Mere Orthodoxy blog and a writer, wrote perhaps the shortest and most straightforward response of the lot of them**. His response is short enough to quote the whole thing:

If our ethic is to be Christian, then it must be qualified by the cross and resurrection of Jesus. That is to say, the pattern for our lives and actions must be shaped by a love that treats pleasure as the (sometimes delayed) fruit of our sacrificial self-giving for others, rather than a good without qualification.

If we disconnect the experience of sexual pleasure from the moment of giving ourselves for another, to another in love, we fundamentally distort the meaning of the human body in its sexual dimension.  In the auto-eroticism of masturbation, we pursue a particular sort of satisfaction or a particular experience of pleasure.  But it is through the mutual self-giving in love that our humanity is established (whether in sex or beyond), rather than the abstract experience of pleasure or the fulfillment of a craving or felt need.  However enjoyable it might be, masturbation fails to fulfill this form of human sexuality, and as such is corrosive to the integrity of our persons and our intimacy of the Spirit.

In writing this, I think that Mr Anderson cute right through the smoke and mirror erected by the other respondents in their much longer responses. This cuts through the lie that masturbation is there to free us from sexual repressions, a lie which runs through the other 5 responses. Masturbation--whether we talk about the purely physical act or the mental actions which might accompany it (cf Matthew 5:28)--does not set a person free from sexual repression. Rather, it creates a prison, one which may later prove to be filled with the very suffering that he wanted to escape when he began.

C.S. Lewis, that great lay theologian who is much beloved by Evangelicals and Catholics alike, writes in one of his letters that

"For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: send the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival. Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity.

In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself."

Far from aiding a man in taking up his cross, masturbation causes him to cast that cross aside. But he will not find freedom when he does so, but rather a cage as cunningly crafted as any snare set forth by Satan. Those who lead men into this prison--whether they be Catholics, Protestants, or nothing at all--have done no favor to those who sought their advice. They would do well to reflect on Christ's admonition concerning millstones, recorded in all 3 synoptic Gospels (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:2, Mark 9:42). This warning is not meant only for the legalistic pharisees who bind heavy loads (Matthew 23:4), but also for those who would take it upon themselves to erase the smallest letter of the Law (see Matthew 5:18) for the sake of self-indulgence, or who would lighten the loads by casting aside the cross.


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* I assume all are evangelicals, since the source in the feed was a self-identified evangelical (Dr. Anthony Bradley, who has a variety of PhD and master's degrees from a variety of Protestant universities/seminaries) who was lamenting that these are the voices of evangelicalism. The good professor writes,

"When young Roman Catholics gather to discuss this issue, they'll explore in light of Pope John Paul II's Theology of The Body. Young Evangelicals, a list of "intellectuals" who have no background in theological ethics. And then we wonder why young evangelicals looking for good direction on issues like this convert to Catholicism. Embarrassing."

It will be interesting to see if/how the Protestant intellectuals--evangelical or otherwise--adapt (or respond to) the Theology of the Body to their own theological traditions.

**The other post which did not attempt to paint masturbation as a "healthy alternative" to sex or an "important dimension of" sexuality was Ms. Ann Broadway.