Something that I have thought is interesting for years is how the Church handles the subject of masturbation.

As Calvin points out, other than the since removed Talk by Packer, there is very little official guidance on the subject. https://twitter.com/calvinjburke/status/1382020649040834561

Growing up I also looked into this subject, looking at various articles, handbooks, etc about the “sin of masturbation”.

Now it’s been years so I won’t be able to find all of the sources, but what I found interesting is that most of the time masturbation was not described as bad

Rather masturbation was usually given the qualifier “it can lead to worse things”. It was implied if you masturbate then you’ll probably have sex, and even without Packer’s talk it was often hinted that masturbation might “make you gay”

But again, masturbation itself was not described as a serious sin. AND YET, most bishops/mission presidents/etc will instill this huge sense of shame in young men and often will put them through the repentance process if they’re doing it (I say men because the Church has this

weird imbalance where they somehow act like women don’t really masturbate). Of course masturbation is often associated with porn which the Church constantly decries, although I could go on another thread about the issues with how they address porn but I digress

Really I guess my point is that although masturbation does not get a lot of “official” condemnation and direction from the Church, for some reason it is often treated as if it is a gateway sin that needs immediate and strong correction

To add some humor to this thread, apparently in my mission when some elders were “struggling” with masturbation they would remove the doors to the bathroom so that their companion could keep them accountable

Which I just thought was funny and an invasion of privacy