I find that many people, members of the church or not, do not really understand why masturbation is something that you should want to avoid. Even those who understand the evils of pornography (and the way it reduces men and women to the status of objectified wet holes, the carnal equivalent of the McDonald’s Happy Meal) still do not understand why a person should want to abstain from masturbation. Most Christians today understand that the only scriptural passage which seems to say that masturbation is a sin isn’t actually about masturbation and non-Christians don’t understand why they should care. After all, it doesn’t take long, feels good, and doesn’t hurt anyone, right? So what could possibly be wrong about it?
Well, rather than try and explain it myself, I thought I would share an insight from one of the foremost and influential Christian theologians of the 20th Century – Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis. In a letter he wrote on June 6th, 1956 to one Keith Masson (and which can be found on pgs. 292-293 of Yours, Jack, a collection of his letters), Lewis explains why masturbation should be avoided by those seeking a higher level of existence in this life. And one of the best things about his argument here is that it isn’t religiously based. His argument is psychologically and sociological – it is about who and what you want to be and how that impacts others through the life you choose to read. As a result his ideas are just as applicable to the non-Christian as they are to the Christian and to the atheist just as much as they are the theist.
Without further ado, here is Lewis’s explaination:
6/3/56
Magdalene College
CambridgeDear Mr Masson –
There is, first, a difference of approach. You rather take the line that a traditional moral principle must produce a proof of its validity before it is accepted: I rather, that it must be accepted until someone produces a conclusive refutation of it.
But apart from that: —I agree that the stuff about ‘wastage of vital fluids’ is rubbish. For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival. Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity. In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself. Do read Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell and study the character of Mr. Wentworth. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.
The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce, art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions et cetera which ought to be sought outside in the real world—e.g., picturing all I’d do if I were rich instead of earning and saving.
Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres. After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of ourselves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is to be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison.
Yours
C. S. Lewis
Afterword
There is much in life that drags us back into selfishness and greed and then reinforces our dwelling there. This in turn makes us self-righteous, selfish, and anti-social. Our concerns are not attuned to the wants and needs of others or to the building of our communities and the betterment of society. Instead we grow concerned only with our own satisfaction and pleasure, though we often dress those vanities in the motley garb of goodness their true nature never changes. In a world focused on reducing us, disabling us, making us weak through carnal security and subservient to those who fee dour vices, masturbation is one more thing that teaches us to seek the abundant life not in the service of our fellowman but in the service of our own lusts. It is one more thing that teaches us to love the prison of our own base desires instead of liberating us and empowering us as agents unto ourselves. It helps to debase our concept of love and corrupt our understanding of others. Feeding it, instead of conquering it, leaves us no better than we began – natural men doing natural things because our instincts and animal urges tell us to do them. Instead of being more human it makes us more like an animal.
The common support for masturbation among the people of the world is no surprise as the best they have to offer you is the prison of your desires – you were born this way and cannot be anything else. Whether you’re a religious person or merely a philosopher you’ll recognize just how poisonous and meaningless such a belief is when it comes to finding and living the abundant and joyful life. The truth is the exact opposite of the world’s blandishments. You can be better, you can be more. And any idea that tells you otherwise, any thing that stops you from doing so, any action which prevents your progress, should be recognized for what it is – garbage – and be discarded as such. And that is why one should work to conquer his or her lusts and abstain from masturbation and everything connected with it. It may seem like a small thing, but it is only by doing the small things that we gain the power and ability to do the great things.