Is God going to send you to HELL   for Masturbating ?

Do you believe that Santa knows if you've been naughty or nice, and that is going to determine how well he is going to treat you next Christmas?         Do you believe that God is watching to see which boys and girls are succumbing to the temptation to masturbate, and which are not, and that is going to determine whether you go to heaven or hell?         Most Christian boys and girls outgrow the first belief pretty early in life, but many don't outgrow the second until much later, if ever!  But it's not their fault!   It's the fault of clergy who perpetuate a doctrine with not a shred of biblical support, in contravention to the example and teaching of Jesus himself.         When I challenged such a clergyman on this score, he quoted me this passage from Matthew 5:30.  "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell."  If there is any accuracy at all to statistics that show that the majority of boys, if not girls, cannot overcome the urge to masturbate, then clergy who believe that masturbation is a sure ticket to hell should be performing amputations as regularly as rabbis do circumcisions!         The only scripture that anybody can find to even appear to condemn masturbation is this passage (which is why masturbation is sometimes called "Onanism") : Genesis 38: 6 – 10   "Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn son; her name was Tamar. But Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.  Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother." But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother's wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.  What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also."         If the Lord is always displeased with masturbation, why is his displeasure only expressed this one time, when Onan engaged in it, not for the purpose of pleasuring himself – which is why people do it 99.99% of the time – but only in order to "spill his seed", and thereby frustrate the demands of a biblical law which nobody believes in any more?  This is the law the Jews of those days had on the books, and which Onan broke: Deuteronomy.25:5 – 6           "When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.  Her husband's brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband's brother to her, and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel."         Why are so many clerics so intent on torturing young people with the fear of hell over masturbation?  Jesus never condemned masturbation.  What he DID condemn was the tendency of many clergy to put burdens on people.  The sharp contrast between Jesus and such clergy is dramatically illustrated in this story : { John 8 : 3 – 11 }           "As Jesus was speaking, the Jewish leaders and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and placed her out in front of the staring crowd.  "Teacher," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.  Moses' law says to kill her.  What about it?"         They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, hurl the stones at her until she dies.  But only he who never sinned may throw the first!" Then he stooped down again and wrote some more in the dust.  And the Jewish leaders slipped away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until only Jesus was left in front of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, "Where are your accusers?  Didn't even one of them condemn you?"  "No, sir," she said.  And Jesus said, "Neither do I.  Go and sin no more."   in order to better understand the Catholic Church's problem with homosexuality, we urge you to read our churchvsex.html chapter, which shows how this issue fits in with that institution's huge problem with sexuality as a whole. (Much the same is true of other conservative Christian churches.)         Do you have clergy who are loving and understanding, as Jesus was?  Or do you have clergy who are stern and judgemental, like the clergy in this story?  Notice how the Gospels say that these clerics were motivated – not by honest belief in the bible – but by a desire to trap Jesus in a misstatement.  "Conservative" clerics who tell you that you will go to hell for masturbating may not actually want you to go to hell.  But neither do I believe that they are motivated by an honest desire to promote the teaching of the Bible – because the bible says little or nothing about masturbation. –   However, the more people like you that they can convince that they are in peril of loosing their eternal lives, unless they depend entirely on the priests who supposedly have "the keys of heaven and hell", the more power and authority that gives them, and power is the next best thing to wealth; people who have it love it.         Jesus knew all about this problem and obviously considered it a much greater problem than masturbation. He never said a word about masturbation, but he addressed the threat of power-hungry clergy many times, and went into great detail when he did, as in this example : { Matthew 23:1 – 34: }   " Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.  They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.         They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.         But you (Christian clergy) are not to be called rabbi (meaning "teacher", or "doctor"), for you have one teacher, and you are all students.  And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.  The greatest among you will be your servant.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.         "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.  For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. . .         "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.  It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.  You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  You blind Pharisees!  First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.  So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.         "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors.  You snakes, you brood of vipers!  How can you escape being sentenced to hell?  Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar."         To learn WHY Jesus was so much more concerned about the arrogance, the faithlessness and the hypocrisy of the clergy and other religious leaders of his day, (and why his preaching to and about them drove them into kill him in order to shut him up), go to http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/clergysins and to "Who killed Christ and Why?         If only every young person threatened by clergy with hell fire and brimstone would join in a great campaign to preach what Jesus preached to the clergy, then maybe they could be persuaded to get around to preaching what Jesus preached – not a "Gospel of Private Parts" – but a message of love and service which he called "Good News to the poor".  The very thorough study of the Gospels recommended above shows that Jesus wasn't very concerned about what young people or even average adults did in the privacy of their own homes, he and the other great prophets of the bible were concerned about what people with power, either religious or secular, did publicly.  Why have so many "churchmen" made "Christianity" into a campaign against masturbation, birth control, abortion, dancing, homosexuality, etc. instead of the "Good News of the Poor" (and warning against riches) which God intend it to be?  To see what Christ was all about, what he expected his disciples to preach after he was gone, see www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/Challenge

P.S. :  Please don't expect the clergy who are ignoring Christ's preaching to them to publicize this web site in the church circles which they control.  Our voices are stifled by the religious establishment as soon as it recognizes the threat that we represent ot them – just as Jesus said would happen. –   These people will only be reached (and stifled themselves),   if and when people like yourself help get the word out about "Liberals Like Christ", who challenge so-called "Christian" preachers to preach.