Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: James.Quilty@comp.vuw.ac.nz (James William Quilty) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Masturbation, Wet Dreams, and keeping your eyes to yourself Message-ID: Date: 5 May 91 02:38:48 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science, Victoria University, Wellington, NewZealand Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Our moderator poses: |> --Chuck |> |> [My impression of the passages Robert cited from Lev. is that they |> were primarily talking about involuntary actions, and so described a |> situation that was not exactly sin in the sense we think of it. On |> the other hand, it does seem that people were expected to avoid |> getting into an unclean state where possible. I'd be inclined to |> infer that masturbation would be viewed by those who put together lev. |> as at least undersirable. --clh] Does this mean that in this day and age, where patriachal power systems are being questioned that we must agree with these people who say that masturbation is 'undesirable' ? The reason for much of the 'uncleanliness' laws with regard to sexuality is geared for the patrilineal system to keep men in power ! - I am trying to prepare a posting on this and related matters, so this is just really a 'tithe' of what I want to say ! Look for my posting (when I finally get it finished) later (if you're interested :-) I know the "Hite Report" (by Shere Hite) has some interesting observations to make on the subject and gives futher references... Jim [I'm sorry if I left the impression that I was condemning masturbation. When writing as moderator, I am typically not proposing specific viewpoints, so much as trying to point out where there are additional things that you might want to take into account. That was true here. I was simply trying to criticize what I saw as an over-simplified presentation of the meaning of Lev, while suggesting a more indirect way that one could still try to make use of Lev. Clearly there are things other than the Lev. holiness code that a Christian needs to consider, which may lead to a different conclusion. --clh]