Topic: Is masturbation a sin?

Date originally posted: July 16, 2004

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:   Is masturbation a sin?

Answer: 

Thanks, Brendan, for your question about masturbation. Before trying to give a simple "yes-no" kind of answer, let me remind you of a couple of other things that can form something like a "backdrop" against which an answer to your question might be best understood.

So, first, the Church teaches that sin has two basic dimensions: objective and subjective. I don't want to claim that I know everything there is about this philosophical concept, but in simple language (which is usually the best kind of language for me to use!), this distinction between "objective and subjective" might be put in the following way:

Objective: In an absolutely perfect world the objective dimension of sin (or most anything else for that matter) would be about all that would 'count.' Objective means something like "the way 'it' really is."

Subjective: But since we don't live in an absolutely perfect world (as you may have noticed!), the individual circumstances of a person have to be taken into account in order to understand the full meaning of a person's words and/or actions. Subjective, then, means something like "the way 'it' really is FOR THIS PARTICULAR PERSON IN THIS PARTICULAR CONTEXT."

The combination of objective reality AND subjective reality is, more or less, what constitutes the 'reality' for any human being. God is the ultimate Respecter of human beings. God makes us and enters -- through and in Jesus Christ -- into our 'reality.' And when God enters into our 'reality' (made up of the objective and subjective dimensions of our experience), God respects who we are. God does not condemn or mock us for being, so to speak, composite beings who need both the objective and the subjective dimensions to make-up our own 'reality.'

So what does all this mumbo-jumbo mean about masturbation?

Well, it goes something like this:

In the objective reality, masturbation is sinful.

In order, however, to understand the full 'reality' of your question, we have to take into account the subjective dimension of the individual human person who asks the question...or who is the one doing the masturbating.

And the answer to the question will vary from person to person, depending on the subjective reality which is part of what constitutes the total reality -- the objective and subjective in combination -- of the person.

Now, the Church teaches that in the objective realm masturbation is always sinful.

But, for example, if a person is in adolescence when the harmones are raging and sexual stimuli abound, we could make the case that masturbation would be, at worst, a venial sin or, perhaps, no culpability would accrue to the person at all.

However, if a man were married and he chose to masturbat as a way of depriving his spouse of conjugal (sexual) intimacy, then that situation would be far more serious.

So, there you have a context for trying to understand the answer to your question. Perhaps you can try to examine the subjective reality of your own life and answer the question in a way that takes account of the Church's objective teaching in the context of your own subjective reality.

And remember: God loves you a whole lot!