catapult magazine

If you saw the link to http://www.xxxchurch.com on *cino today, you might have seen the “save the kitten” campaign. It is designed to reduce the practice of masturbation around the world. The Christians responsible for the website talk about the kittens and then give their own take on masturbation, supposedly from a Christian perspective. What do you think of their argument?

I kind of like your explanation Jonner, though it turns a 180 from my previous posts on this. I do believe that there can be an element of selfishness in it, this seems to point to a more common and shared understanding of eachother.
It makes sense. The concept of say no say no say no, until the marriage night when it’s supposed to be yes yes yes, is just not practical. Sex can be, and often is, awkward and messy at the beginning instead of the (often assumed) beauty that you mention Jonner.
Interesting thoughts. Hmm.

Seems as if one of the things that we are trying to wrap our minds around here is a good definition of sex. So, if anyone is still involved with this topic…I have always imagined sex being mostly about being known. In fact, some theologians suspect that in heaven we will have sex with everyone, no longer having to save ourselves for one person.

That sound interesting mike….its as if you are saying that sex was really something that was meant for everyone to enjoy together. And, once the dangers of sin are removed from the equation we can return to the original design of how God intended it to be.

Thats right mike. Maybe heaven with its lack of selfishness, secrets, and shame will be a place where we all truly know each other.

Man, that mike guy wouldn’t let me get a word in!

Hegel thought one of the reasons early Christianity failed to achieve the community they wanted was because they were afraid to share “everything”, including wives and husbands. Hegel probably wouldn’t have liked communism either, then.

This idea of sharing eachother in heaven sure turns the selfishness debate on its head. Adultery is typically a selfish act because it thinks of one’s own pleasure over the trust that one’s spouse has in you. But if you take sin (selfishness) out of the picture (and if you don’t equate sin with sexual desire), then heavenly “swinging” seems feasible.

However, I know that some Christians tried this in the early days of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and elsewhere in the CRC and I don’t think it worked so well (although I never read any accounts by the people involved in that). Perhaps James Schaap and The Banner could document that strange time in CRC history.

Yeah, its not as if this vision of heaven has much applicatoin yet. I do think that it sheds some light on the original design of things. That, perhaps there is something deeply connected with being known in the sexual encounter that is most important. And, because of the danger of this sort of knownness we now carefully save ourselves for only one person. So, perhaps its a safety issue that will one day be removed.

Another way of looking at it though is that a sinless person, a person living in a heavenly context, would be completely satisfied with knowing, and being known by, only one person. Perhaps single people in heaven will be satisfied with being single and being known by the Creator God and will be just as happy for married people as married people are happy for single people.

The Church can be one big happy family without having sex with all its brothers and sisters.

Yeah…I think I like that. The other option tends to freak more people out though. I like that too.

I didn’t have time to read this whole discussion… unfortunately… I see the sun coming up and i have to be somewhere later today :) After reading what I could… I wondered if anyone has heard of the book “Every Man’s Battle”… or “Every Young Man’s Battle”… I would recommend if you were interested enough to read this discussion the book would be a good read… the authors have a very interesting approach to the issue and are very open about their own experiences… we did an interview with an artist in the magazine my wife and I publish as well… Christian hiphop artist who struggled with masturbation and shared how it affected him and his marriage with his wife… we have a bit of a feature online plus links to the books if you want to check it out http://www.feedstop.com/omb

I believe what I most liked about the book was how they show their own pratical decisions … and how their relationship with God and others was affected… good and bad during their struggles… etc.

…. hope you take time to find the book…. or just visit http://www.feedstop.com/omb and read the first chapter to start…

I didn’t have time to read this whole discussion… unfortunately… I see the sun coming up and i have to be somewhere later today :) After reading what I could… I wondered if anyone has heard of the book “Every Man’s Battle”… or “Every Young Man’s Battle”… I would recommend if you were interested enough to read this discussion the book would be a good read… the authors have a very interesting approach to the issue and are very open about their own experiences… we did an interview with an artist in the magazine my wife and I publish as well… Christian hiphop artist who struggled with masturbation and shared how it affected him and his marriage with his wife… we have a bit of a feature online plus links to the books if you want to check it out http://www.feedstop.com/omb

I believe what I most liked about the book was how they show their own pratical decisions … and how their relationship with God and others was affected… good and bad during their struggles… etc.

…. hope you take time to find the book…. or just visit http://www.feedstop.com/omb and read the first chapter to start…