Tim Chester, pastor and author of Total Church, is working on a new book focused on pornography. I appreciate where he rightly points out the strong, but under recognized (I would argue), influence of non-biblical secular psychologies on our culture. The same field that promotes a self-help strategy for coping with life's struggles certainly promotes a individualistic ethic when it comes to all things sexual, including masturbation. "If it makes you feel good, then it can't be bad;" that's the philosophical canker sore that psychology has promoted for decades and it's bankrupting our marriages, it's stealing our youth (how many years are devoured by the moths of pornography addiction, all in the name if self-gratification?), and distorted the gift of sexuality that God has given us. I think Chester is right to highlight the most common justification for the practice of masturbation - that it relieves pent up sexual tension. Chester remarks:
Masturbation does not relieve tension; it fuels it. Sexual temptation is not dissipated through sexual activity, except on the most short-term activity such as masturbation makes sexual temptation come back sooner and stronger. This is one reason why people think they can't stop masturbating. They get caught in a vicious cycle of desire and the temporary release of masturbating which is in fact reinforcing.
Here's the section on masturbation from Chester's manuscript. He's posted a pdf version to be downloaded for free in hopes that other's will read it and offer their thoughts. Check it out.
HT: Tim Chester
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