Is Masturbation a "Gift of God"?

Over the years, I've read and enjoyed a couple of old books by Christian writer and preacher, Charlie Shedd (namely, Letters to Philip and Letters to Karen), but I am very disappointed with one I've come across here at the house entitled The Stork Is Dead, written in 1968 for teenagers about sex. Mrs. Billy Graham wrote a blurb for it, saying, "Thank God for a book that tells it like it is about sex as God meant it to be."

Yet in the book he has a chapter called "Masturbation - - Gift of God," in which he explains how to evaluate whether your fantasies are okay, how masturbation "can be an important part, a very personal, strengthening part of your self-identity," that "teenage masturbation is preferable to teenage Intercourse," that "you will need some release," that "masturbation is a gift of God," that you should "thank God for it and use it as a blessing."

This unenlightened, dangerous, and sinful advice quite naturally leads to his next chapter, "Doing Wrong the Right Way," in which he advises teens who choose to fornicate with each other to "go somewhere. And the place I recommend is right down to the drugstore. For safety's sake, go together! I believe in double protection for unmarried teenagers. That means you both use something." He includes a thank-you letter from just such a young unmarried couple who took his advice.

I understand well, as we all do, how difficult it can be to remain pure in our over-sexualized culture. But the illuminating truth about sexuality needs to be taught, exemplified, and respected. Christians do us no favors by compromising. Acceptance of masturbation leads to all kinds of further confusion, misunderstandings, and deviancy - - and heartache, broken spirits, and broken homes.

The truth is that the sexual act belongs in the exclusive context of marriage between a man and a woman, who are responsible for caring for any children that may spring forth from their union. The act serves to both unite the married couple and say yes to the possibility of new life. It's for bonding and babies, love and life. If this natural purpose is frustrated or severed by masturbation, fantasies and fetishes, pornography, prostitution, fornication, artificial contraception, abortion, hooking up, fellatio for its own sake, homosexual or polygamous "marriage," pedophilia, bestiality, incest, etc., or any other such perversion of what is clearly natural and intended by God according to how our bodies and souls have been made, then trouble will ensue for us individually and for our culture.

Just as an automobile needs to be operated according to its nature in order to work properly, so it is with our own selves, as composite beings of body and soul. We have to operate according to our design or we will crash and burn.

This is not to say that we have no hope if we are guilty of some or all of these sins. Our Lord Jesus is faithful to forgive our sins and save us from them if we will just repent and confess them. Not only will He forgive us and thereby declare us clean, He will - - if we let Him - - give us the grace we need to actually be clean. It is never too late on this side of the grave to start living the pure life required of us. And any purity we obtain is credited to His work.

There is plenty of other junk in the Charlie Shedd book. As we sort through all the excess books in our possession, this one will skip the Goodwill box and go straight to the trash bin, where trash belongs.