And so here we are again on this subject, the purposes of masturbation. One of the purposes we have not talked about much up to this point is, of course sexual pleasure, and another we have referred to in the past, but perhaps in a different context, is sexual performance. The latter will be explored more in a subsequent post.
The biggest thing we have to take note of in the context of sexual pleasure is that it is inherently related to a bigger context of how our bodies respond to touch, which in itself has to be recognised as a key mechanism of sexual arousal. Do we as individuals, own the pleasure that our own bodies can generate, just for ourselves, or as many conservative evangelical (particularly complementarian) commentators would have it, these stimuli and sensations are only to be used between a husband and wife? We can certainly, as individuals, recognise that touch on our skin is a key sexual arousal trigger. The problem with concepts that these things are only to be shared by a married couple is that we are unable to get through even the most rudimentary and basic task of everyday life without touching our own bodies at some level, and achieving some degree of arousal. Therefore it must be inferred that no distinction should be made between different types of self touching, and in there is the key assumption that as individuals we will spend some time exploring our own bodies at least at the point of where we first become aware of our own ability to create and enjoy sexual pleasure for ourselves.
Sexual pleasure is extremely relevant not just in the context of whether we as individuals should be able to create and enjoy that in our own body as a solo activity, but also for the degree of personal satisfaction we get from it. We can state unequivocally from within our own team knowledge and experience that males find masturbation as an activity brings with it a high degree of personal satisfaction, and it makes a lot of sense for Christian guys to masturbate regularly. In fact we recommend that singles in particular masturbate every day, and perhaps even two or three times if they have a fairly high sex drive, as many do. We also think Christian women will benefit from regular masturbation, but the average frequency is probably much lower. However understandably we do tend to minister to those who have a higher sex drive and who may also benefit from daily or multiple daily sessions.
The overarching focus or theme of of this post, therefore, is to emphasise that masturbation for sexual pleasure is a very reasonable and important purpose of masturbation as a whole. As in other aspects of our body with activities which give us pleasure, such as for example food and drink, the pleasure that we receive from sexual stimulation is intended to be an incentive to undertake the physically and spiritually healthy activity of masturbation, provided that the same principles apply, namely that it is to be enjoyed in moderation, without enjoining any sinful activities such as any form of lust or gluttony. Hence we suggest the frequency is to be somewhat analogous to that related to meals. The key purpose of sexual stimulation for any individual is to be able to nurture and nourish their sexual and spiritual body, whereas food and drink consumption nourishes their physical body. During masturbation, the spiritual component is satisfied by engaging with God’s Spirit, whereas within a marital sexual encounter it is more of a three way process of the husband and wife engaging with each other as well as each of them individually engaging with God. Both are equally valid in a marriage and masturbation by either spouse can be practiced where one of the 3-Ds needs to be undertaken for the benefit of their own sexuality in a time of personal devotion in order to strengthen the marital relationship. For the single person, of course, this will constitute the entirety of their sexual practice for the purposes of the 3-Ds in developing and maturing their own sexuality prior to entering a marriage or if having ended a marriage and looking forward to a future one, or for those who are undertaking lifelong celibacy, remaining in that state whilst also achieving sexual purity. We believe that masturbation is a healthy activity when commenced by Christian men and women at the onset of adolescence and for as long thereafter as sexual pleasure is important to their daily lives. We believe it is highly beneficial to encourage adolescents to masturbate as they develop awareness and maturity in their sexual development which masturbation makes a significant contribution to.