Okay, male masturbation is bad, because it results the loss of seed. However, female masturbation doesn’t, nor does performing cunnilingus, for that matter. So logically, both things should be a-okay, since they’re not the “loss of life” deals that the “sin of Onan” is, but I’m guessing that they’re not okay, and I’m wondering if I’m right and what’s the reason given by the Church (if their either for or against it)?
Well, if it’s anything like it is in many Protestant traditions, it’s frowned upon because it’s a case of wilfully submitting to lustful desires, or something like that.
Pretty much. The Onanism link was used in the past, but it is hardly the main idea taught today. Catechism link.
Speaking as a 45 year old Catholic who went through 13 years of Catholic education, I have to say… I NEVER once heard the subject of masturbation brought up by any priest, nun or lay teacher I ever had. The subject was never once broached in church or in any class.
So, even if the Church has a moral problem with it, nobody’s taken much trouble to spell that out in a loooong time.
It is not because he masturbated that he sinned. It’s because he refused to lie with his brother’s wife after he was dead, as was the law. Instead, he spilled his seed on the ground, avoiding impregnating her.
And, there is this:
From Wiki.
While this happens (according to traditional Judaism) to be true, the impurity angle does not necessarily imply that masturbation is OK (and in fact it is not, but from a source other than the Onan thing); the separate mention of ejaculation regarding the impurity laws could also refer to accidental (e.g., nocturnal) emissions.
What are you talking about? Women don’t masturbate. Women have no independent sexuality. And all those vibrators I have…foot massage. They’re all for foot massage, of course.
But anyway, as Onan has been discussed, and is really a red herring, I think the real issue is you’re not supposed to have any sexual pleasure that is not within marriage and directed toward procreation. So that would go for male and female masturbation.
Of course as astorian said they don’t push the anti-masturbation thing too much anymore.
See, I never, ever understood this. If you don’t want premarital sex and all that, then I would think that masturbation was the perfect way to go. It’s the safest sex there is. And you aren’t committing any sin I can see.
The other justification I have heard from anti-masturbationists (the very thought - shudder) is God said “Go forth and multiply” in Genesis, and masturbation means you ain’t multiplying.
Yes, between married people. No, not just for procreation but also for mutual pleasure.
Masturbation wasn’t spelled out as a no-no but since sex should take place only between two married people it was understood to be off-limits.
Great Moments In History: Onan invents the “money shot”.
Catholic girls don’t masterbate.
Sister Marky de Sade told the boys in Junior High that Catholic girls don’t ever, and are totally disgusted by even the thought of, touching anthing “down there”.
[Sister Marky also informed us that since the Pope is infallible, the same infallibility applied to nuns and priests.]
Paddy McCarthy told Sister Marky that he saw Mary DeMarco sitting with her hands on her lap. Sister Marky beat the crap out of Paddy.
So there you have it.
That’s just crazy on a number of levels.
Yes, I know, but the hand jive boogey is often referred to as “the sin of Onan” (by the way did you know that there’s a generator company named Onan?), by whackjob fundies (John Harvey Kellogg springs to mind).
I think the best one is Paul in Saudi’s parrot named Onan. Parrots spill their seed all the time! 
I can corroborate astorian as a 46-year old who attended Catholic educational institutions for 18 years :eek: from 1963 to 1981, and never once heard the subject mentioned, not even in 9th grade sex-ed where we had a surreal priest telling us of nymphomaniacs he had known, “Jane the Train” and “Pam the Ram.” The only priest I ever saw who was totally at ease about sex and recommended we all get laid anytime we wanted. It’s hard to believe now how loose some areas of the Church were getting in the 1970s…
The first time I heard of Catholics making a religious issue of it was in Fellini’s movie Amarcord, which came out when I was in 10th grade. It was set in Rimini, Italy during the 1930s. A priest says, Gli angeli piangono quando ti tocchi. (The angels cry when you touch yourself.) If the movie were made today, he’d definitely be saying Gesù Bambino piange… 
!!!
My brain is exploding.
I wish I’d gone to your Catholic school instead of mine.
In the movie Evelyn, young Evelyn is sent to a Catholic girls’ school. On her first night, she hops into her bed and lies face down. A nun promptly turns her onto her back, with her arms on top of the covers, with the admonishment, “You mustn’t tempt the devil!” (or words to that effect).
My mom didn’t get it.
In my Catholic school experience, the Ten Commandments were presented in a somewhat different form. Instead of “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” which in Catholic terms (like 40 years ago!) was “Thou shall not commit adultery,” became for grade-schoolers, “Thou shall not be impure.”
I remember Sister Mary asking us if we knew what it meant to “be impure.” Sister Mary tried to bring “impure” down to our level by equating “impure” with “dirty.” Classmates tentatively offered things like “not taking baths.” My know-it-all impulse reared its head, and I offered, “Impure is putting your hands in your pants.”
Whatever points I got for knowing the right answer were offset by…knowing the right answer.
And Anaamika, there is an Onan dealership in the town I grew up in! That’s alway cracked me up!
I’m not sure I do either. The devil wants butt sex?