Hasa Diga Eebowai wrote:Maybe we should ask all the people who have been Bishops or Stake Presidents whether they asked on a regular basis if the members in their ward were masturbators.
I think DrW and Jason Bourne have been Bishops do we have any more?
Thanks,
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I on purpose did not ask that question though I knew fellow bishops who did.
As a youth I was not asked though I know others who were. However, once, as a teen, when due to enormous guilt and self loathing, I confessed it on my own it was a topic of regular discussion. But not before I confessed it.
As a bishop, were there teens that spontaneously confessed to you of their masturbation, without being questioned? How did you handle such confessions?
Why did you feel guilt/self loathing about masturbation in the first place?
Why did you think it was a 'sin' or something that needed to be confessed to your bishop? For example, why confess that to the bishop rather than the postal carrier who delivered mail to your home, if you felt the need to unload it, you needed catharsis?
There's a reason you approached the bishop in the first place. Why?
Before I understood that the church frowned horribly on it I did not worry about it. Once i was taught that sex sin was next to murder, that masturbation was a sex sin, that it could lead to homosexuality, that I thought I was the only one of my friends doing it, when I heard the BKP factory talk-I heard it real time the first time he gave it, and so on, I figured better clear it up and quit doing it. Confession and asking my bishop to help me conquer this seemed the thing to do for a good LDS boy.
When youth confessed it I told them unless it was habitual and getting in the way of other important things, or if it was part of a porn habit, that they should not fret about it. I told them the church did not encourage it but it was a minor thing and not the level of confession.
More than prophets/scripture were the rank and file Mormons who helped me feel masturbation was a horrendous sin. My YM counselors, bishopric members, my peers, my dad.
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)
Jason Bourne wrote:Where the hell did my avatar go?
I can't see your avatar. All I see is a red X. You need to redownload it. That's what I did. Shades did something to screw the board up and avatars got lost in the shuffle.
Shulem wrote:But does bcpsace know we know he is a troll? Surely he isn't that stupid. There is no way on god's green earth that bcspace can possibly stand people like Joseph Fielding Smith and call himself a good Mormon. What a joke!
Paul O
*****I did some quick deleting. I thought I was in the telestial forum!!!!!!!!!
I think he knows we know, but he's pretty sure we forget once in a while. I know I forget, but he always reminds me.
Runtu wrote:I think he knows we know, but he's pretty sure we forget once in a while. I know I forget, but he always reminds me.
Well, it's burned in my brain now that bcspace is a troll. I'll never forget it no matter what he says. He's burned all his bridges and there is nothing he can say to sway me otherwise. I can only imagine how much he dislikes Joseph Fielding Smith's teachings.
I lean pretty far to the believing side of the spectrum. I'm not obsessed with masturbation itself but I am currently obsessed with the church's position on masturbation. I'm angry about it. I was never asked about it by any bishop but I did voluntarily confess it. I was flat out neurotic over the issue of masurbation. I prayed all the time over the issue. My guilt and desire to obey were at odds with a powerful need for release. I finally quit but kept masturbating in a half-awake mode at night. I felt so guilty that I could not control it. I even tried tying my hands to the friggin bed.
Now I'm just angry about how the church made me feel. I have not masturbated in years. i enjoy an active sex life with my wife. My wife had the same experience as me. She confessed at the age of 12 and felt horrible, it was a traumatizing experience for her. Like me, she never could quit (now I thank God I married a woman with a sex drive). I feel like I was abused. I feel like my wife was abused and harrased.
They can't produce a single scripture on the subject. They can't produce a single revelation on the subject. Joseph Smith never said a word about masturbation. The idea that it is a sin seeped into Mormonism from the surrounding culture of the 1800's. It's just a crazy neurotic tradition left over from the past.
It's so deeply engrained into the tradition now that they will never admit they are wrong. I feel a need to fight for justice though.