By the way Tex, I am still waiting for the

[BYU71]

Anyone who thinks it is a sin is also succeptable to believing and telling others "you will go blind" by committing such sin.

Sometimes leaders make silly statements. That doesn't mean they aren't great men or great leaders, they just make silly statements sometimes.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

What Mark E. Peterson said, whether masturbating in a half-sleep mode is a sin.

Half-asleep means not asleep.

You say it's not a sin, pretty soon every kids going to start drooping his eyes as he plays pocket pool.

[BYU71]

I guess my point is why would such a question be talked about publicly at all. Gee, you get into a debate over what half a sleep means.

OK, my definition of half a sleep means you are not fully conscious and are not making conscious decisions.

In order for a kid to use that as an excuse, they were half a sleep, they had to know what they were doing and decided consciously to do it and then lie about the incident.

This to me shows how silly and stupid we can get over some things.

To me lieing about you really being half a sleep or not is far more serious than the act of changing your own oil.

I don't give a crap about what my associates do in their bedroom. I care a whole lot if they are prone to lie. My hope is that ward and stake leaders are talking a heck of a lot more to youth about lieing than they are oil changing while half asleep.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

What Mark E. Peterson said, whether masturbating in a half-sleep mode is a sin.

I think the problem here is the definition of sin. I'm committing a sin right now as I type because I'm stealing my employer's time. I'll go on to commit at least 100 sins today, maybe 100 per hour. What's the problem with sin?

[non sequitur]

Do Church leaders still teach that masturbation is a sin? If so, it's just plain idiotic. Masturbation is not a sin. It is as natural as blowing your nose, and just as harmless. I have a good friend whose son was not allowed to serve a mission because he had a masturbation "problem". His problem has caused her family a great deal of heartache throughout the years, and at one point she told me how sad she was that masturbation had ruined her son's life. My response was that masturbation is not what had ruined his life, but it was the Church that had ruined his life. It's infuriating that a bunch of pinheads in white shirts can heap that kind of guilt on a young person who has done absolutely nothing wrong. It's shameful.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Do Church leaders still teach that masturbation is a sin? If so, it's just plain idiotic. Masturbation is not a sin. It is as natural as blowing your nose, and just as harmless. I have a good friend whose son was not allowed to serve a mission because he had a masturbation "problem". His problem has caused her family a great deal of heartache throughout the years, and at one point she told me how sad she was that masturbation had ruined her son's life. My response was that masturbation is not what had ruined his life, but it was the Church that had ruined his life. It's infuriating that a bunch of pinheads in white shirts can heap that kind of guilt on a young person who has done absolutely nothing wrong. It's shameful.

I'm not going to wander into the sin/no-sin minefield, but I will say that as far as I know, yes, it is still something that can delay a mission. In fact, I believe stake presidents are instructed to ask about it specifically, among other things.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

Do Church leaders still teach that masturbation is a sin? If so, it's just plain idiotic. Masturbation is not a sin. It is as natural as blowing your nose, and just as harmless. I have a good friend whose son was not allowed to serve a mission because he had a masturbation "problem". His problem has caused her family a great deal of heartache throughout the years, and at one point she told me how sad she was that masturbation had ruined her son's life. My response was that masturbation is not what had ruined his life, but it was the Church that had ruined his life. It's infuriating that a bunch of pinheads in white shirts can heap that kind of guilt on a young person who has done absolutely nothing wrong. It's shameful.

nonseq, you ask a question and then you answer it going on your rant.

Note, the quote from Mark E. Peterson came from the sixties or seventies. If one must look back that far, we can see it is not a very vital topic, don't you think?

Obviously leaders probably direct boys not to do it, but I don't believe it's a hot topic. The most recent hot topic of from about a decade ago was informing the youth that oral sex was sex.

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by Tex

I'm not going to wander into the sin/no-sin minefield, but I will say that as far as I know, yes, it is still something that can delay a mission. In fact, I believe stake presidents are instructed to ask about it specifically, among other things.

I venture to guess that nearly 100% of male missionaries regularly masturbate. It's a biological function. You might as well tell them not to fart. Sure, they can hold it in for a while, but once they get alone and the urge hits, it's a pretty good bet that they're going to cut loose.

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by Archaea

nonseq, you ask a question and then you answer it going on your rant.

Note, the quote from Mark E. Peterson came from the sixties or seventies. If one must look back that far, we can see it is not a very vital topic, don't you think?

Obviously leaders probably direct boys not to do it, but I don't believe it's a hot topic. The most recent hot topic of from about a decade ago was informing the youth that oral sex was sex.

It was a hot topic in my friend's life. They even sent the poor kid to therapy to help him resist the urge to masturbate. It's silly.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

I venture to guess that nearly 100% of male missionaries regularly masturbate. It's a biological function. You might as well tell them not to fart. Sure, they can hold it in for a while, but once they get alone and the urge hits, it's a pretty good bet that they're going to cut loose.

Again, I'm not going to wade into the sin aspects of this discussion, but I think the "biological function" line is a load of bull. I can't count number of times a variation of that excuse is used to justify all kinds of bad behavior.