Masturbation - am I going to hell?

Remote? Lust is almost always the catalyst and the fuel for masturbation. Masturbation is just one physical manifestation of what's already happening in a person's mind. It's very much directly linked. Interwoven, even.

I don't believe Jesus was preaching to control or restrict people's behaviors. Not directly anyway. I believe He was teaching about an entirely different mindset -- about becoming a different kind of person, not just doing different things. He's talking about becoming the kind of person who doesn't look at members of the opposite sex that way; rather to look at them as brothers and sisters. And all Arkie jokes aside, I can assure you to even attempt to look at my little sister that way makes me physically nauseous. It can be done, but it takes a kind of transformation, and not an easy one. It takes a lot of time and God's help.

Widowed sister-in-law.

 

I don't think about anyone when I masturbate. I just do it.

 

All I'm doing is sleeping. The rest of the stuff just happens.

Can you sin in your sleep?

 

that's very strange.

 

No, not really. Sorry, but to a lot of people I know, it's just a bodily function that has to be attended to or you'll release anyway - very much like urinating or bowel movements. And yeah, it can be that darned clinical. You don't have to have anyone in mind to be aroused. I spent a good year of high school disproving that and walking awkwardly down the hall.

 

I have to agree here, not always of course, but sometimes it's like a good stretch, or scratching an itch.

 

"Sex is great, sex is grand. But when you can't get sex, there's always your hand."

The condemnation of any and all sexual expression "without a license (marriage)" is one of monotheism's most fundamental flaws. "He who looks upon a woman with lust in his eye commits sin in his heart." Garbage. A man who looks upon a woman with lust in his eye is alive and healthy with all systems go, and should be happy in that truth.

It's undeserved guilt and suppression over stuff like this that creates warped sexualities and emotional problems, NOT erotica, sexually charged music, or good old fashioned lust.

 

:whippin

 

Sure you can. Your potential for sin in your sleep is directly proportional to your ability to make choices in your dreams. Sin is all about the mind.

 

If the body will regulate itself on 'autopilot', so to speak, why does it "have to be attended to"?

Certainly. The mind doesn't have to be engaged, but as we grow older it most often is. Of course, arousal can be a product of a hormonal spike (a la puberty), and of course those instances are exactly as you say -- clinical bodily functions, just like urinating, breathing, or digestion. But seriously -- when's the last time you were on your way to the office and for absolutely no reason at all became erect? I'm betting it's probably never happened in your adult life, or if it has, it's only been once or twice at most.