Masturbation & Sacraments

Thinking about masturbation – there is no flourishing (shalom) in it.

At its best, its kind of a relieve valve that takes some of the pressure off. But it is never more than faux sex (to use Lauren Winner's term), by virtue of it being a sexual act with oneself. It can tingle the nerves and press the buttons to generate some kind of response, but the sacramental aspect of sexual intimacy is absent: there is no gift from the Other.

(It's curious to think about the sacraments experientially – water for baptism (wet, cold, a shock to the system); bread & wine for the Lord's Supper (eat, drink, it satisfies our appetites). But both are gifts, given by God, but offered to us freely, gladly, by an appointed Other. The "otherness" in the sacraments seems much neglected in our theology.)

At best, masturbation is nothing more than emotional junk food: chips, candy. Nothing inherently wrong with those things, but much that can go wrong if you indulge regularly, with very little nutritional good. Whereas the practice of saying No to chips, candy, junk food, etc. can be very good for us. It develops discipline, aids health...