Pornography and masturbation, are they sinful?
When someone asks whether something they’ve done is a sin or not, it means they’re already on a path, searching for truth. It’s even more important when the question concerns intimacy or our romantic choices. In life, it’s always important to ask questions and find answers to give sense to our acts. So, pornography and masturbation, are they sinful?
Symptom of suffering
The first thing we have to understand is that watching pornography or masturbating are often symptoms of something else the person is going through. Solitude, frustration, becoming discouraged, quickly lead people to emotionally compensate in ways which are of course insufficient and so create an addiction. There are also cases where we fall into certain ‘practices’ caused by a false vision of sexuality where people are considered only as objects for pleasure (including yourself).
On the ‘spiritual’ side of things
Spiritually speaking; pornography and masturbation are considered in the Bible and in Judaic-Christian tradition, as sinful, because their egocentric nature means they are purely focused on personal satisfaction. And this contradicts the human vocation: of being a gift for others. In pornography, the relationship between the persons taking part is not the fruit of reciprocal love, and the sexual intercourse is artificial and staged; in masturbation, there is absolutely no relationship between persons, and so, the other exists only as a product of imagination. For an act to be good, it must always be ordered towards the good of others and yourself. Sin is “an act or a thought which opposes Love”.
Pornography and masturbation, serious sins… or not?
The production of pornographic material is considered as a serious sin. However, sins of ‘impurity’ such as masturbation or looking at pornographic material can’t be judged as serious ‘at a first glance’; the emotional, psychological and spiritual state of the person must always be considered. To give an example, it’s very difficult for a teenager to manage their sexuality, they haven’t yet learnt about everything, and hormonal changes can reduce their freedom to choose. What is sure, no matter the situation, these sexual practices will always provoke emotional ‘disorder’ in us, which over time risks encouraging our narcissism.
How do I stop?
Every time we fall into masturbation or pornography, we’re damaging our capacity to love, so, in this case, it’s really important to make acts of altruism or generosity towards others. Charity is the best medicine for treating egoism. Of course, it can be very useful to talk about it with a priest, to confess our weaknesses and feel forgiven by God. In cases where the practice has taken root, it’s also good to talk about it with a specialist, to try and see exactly what it is that leads us to act in this way.
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