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From: jsast@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Johann)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Biblical Sexual Morality
Message-ID: <Mar.25.02.49.50.1991.6705@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 91 07:49:51 GMT
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Organization: Society for the prevention of cruelty to the male race.
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> [As far as I know, the usual citation is Gen 38:8 ff, where Onan is
> condemned for "spilling his semen on the ground".  However there was a
> specific context there.  Onan had accepted the reponsibility of
> raising up children for his dead brother, and this was a violation of
> that responsibility.  Does anyone know another citation?  --clh]

I have heard this passage used before concerning masturbation and I
personally believe it to be incorrect.  More than likely, Onan was
practicing the method of birth control known as "withdrawl". (Ineffective,
yet probably the height of technilogical development at that time :-))
The reason God punished him was because it was his responsibility to raise
children in his brother's name by his brother's wife.  He, obviously,
was not willing to take the responsibility.

-Jon Anderson