General Handbook 38.6.7
"Donating or Selling Sperm or Eggs
(churchofjesuschrist.org, 2020)
Those of you who have read this may find this policy perplexing. All the other policies that are considered “serious sexual sins” are followed by guidelines for counseling, membership restrictions or a membership counsel.
I found this curious because in
order to do sperm donation, only a male can do it and masturbation would be
required to make the donation. Is this suggesting that masturbation is not a
sin? Perhaps not, but perhaps not. The link "38.6.9" puts this in the context of decisions regarding sperm dissemination be reserved to married couples only.
In the context given, I can see why
it would be strongly discouraged. Sperm and ovum donation has the potential of creating
a family history quagmire for the child born through this medium, but that it
is only “strongly discouraged” and not considered an action that would affect membership
or even temple worthiness does make reason stare at any church cultural taboos around
masturbation in marriage.
I looked up masturbation in the current
missionary interview questions, guidelines for grounds for missionary to be
returned from a mission, and this general handbook for masturbation’s effect on
worthiness and found almost nothing. The only mention I found of masturbation
itself was in 36.2.4.1, which is under items that a membership council is not
held for.
Do these omissions suddenly mean the
church has relaxed its standards regarding masturbation? No. Masturbation is not a cut and dry issue that a
Law of Moses type of moral policy can be created for. To do so would come to close
to claiming sexual foreplay in marriage (aka masturbation) would be a sin –
which the leaders of the Church have been clear that it is not. There isn’t
just one type of masturbation, as I spoke about in my article The Seven Types
of Masturbation. - https://eternalmarriagebed.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-seven-types-of-masturbation.html
Someone may ask, if masturbation outside
of a tool used inside a married sexual relationship is immoral and affects
worthiness, why isn’t it in the baptism, missionary or temple interview questions?
It is!
In his talk “Pornography” Elder
Dallin H Oaks alluded to this principle when he said “Some have
suggested that [profane erotica] should be a separate question in the temple
recommend interview. It is already. At least five different questions should
elicit a confession and discussion on this subject if the person being
interviewed has the spiritual sensitivity and honesty we expect of those who
worship in the house of the Lord.” (Pornography,
Gen Con. Apr. 2005)
The” For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet
clearly points out that arousing sexual feeling in our own bodies when we are “unmarried”
is breaking the law of chastity. I always found this a wise distinction - especially
when considering the touching, scratching, grooming, medicating, lotioning or washing the sexual parts of our
bodies – these activities should never be conflated with masturbation. Yet,
many members of the Church of Jesus Christ mistakenly do.
Multiple talks by general
authorities, including President Spencer W. Kimball, have been given on the
spiritually destructive nature of masturbation outside of marriage. Even secular
teachers such as Dr. John Gray and evangelical minister Mark Gungor have spoken
on the detrimental effects psychologically and to relationships that
masturbation has on an individual. They describe how this practice weakens an
individual morally, emotionally and spiritually.
There is no scientific support of
course, because science has never been able to develop a scientific method to
measure the spiritual or the influence of the Holy Ghost as a guide to breaking
God’s laws. So, we should take care not to base or question our faith on the
ever-changing standards of science and secular philosophy.
When it comes to masturbation and
how it affects worthiness, it is wise to seek out all that has been written on
it by the church’s general authorities and to follow the Holy Ghost’s guidance,
as well as the spirit of why we respect the sacredness of sexuality and the
context of the general authority's talk. We keep our expressions of sex sacred to earn God’s trust
with sacred things, so he can entrust us with more, and to maintain spiritual
peace in ourselves and our marriages. After all, a goal of marriage is to be able to keep having sex in a happy marriage for eternity, and to get this, we have to demonstrate we can be trusted to treat our sexuality as sacred.
