“The practice of masturbation was indulged in by many young people in church schools. In 1886, the polygamous leader of Salt Lake City’s Fourteenth Ward, Bishop Thomas Taylor, “was excommunicated for masturbating with several young men in southern Utah” (O’Donovan, 1994, p.135). Michael Quinn’s extensions of power)ġ883 meeting of the LDS First Presidency with stake presidents who received special instructions about “Masturbation … self-pollution of both sexes and excessive indulgence in the married relation” (p. The following year, the 1871 School of the Prophets minutes recorded Apostle Daniel Wells as stating, “a great many of our young men abusing themselves by the habit of self pollution.” He regarded this as “one great cause of why so many of our young men were not married, and it was a great sin, and would lead to insanity and a premature grave” (p. Apostle Lorenzo Snow says that “plural marriage would tend to diminish the evil of self pollution and the indulgence on the part of men was less in plural marriage than in monogamy.” Smith tells Salt Lake School of Prophets about “the evil of masturbation” among Utah Mormons. No known early Mormon doctrinal statements from this period exist specifically on the topic.”Įarliest quotes I can find about masturbation.ġ8 June,1870 – First Counselor George A. For the first pioneer Mormons however, the question of masturbation was never discussed in the church press and the Mormon prophets took no official doctrinal position. “During Brigham Young’s day, Mormons were unabashed and outspoken in discussing sexual health and morality issues such as adultery, fornication, and prostitution in print. “In fact, the literature of Mormonism appears to be entirely absent of any statements on the topic at all until the late nineteenth century.“ “Brigham Young finally went public with the secret plural wife doctrine in the 1850s in Salt Lake City, but even then, he still said nothing about masturbation.“ “ Smith chose not to speak on the subject at all and early church members’ questions were left to be answered by popular secular or medical opinion.” “That fear was even used by some to justify polygamy, at least in the twentieth century, when some fundamentalist Mormons still taught that any loss of semen in men was hazardous and dangerous.” When the Boy Scouts were founded, one of the major dangers boys were warned to avoid was masturbation. These records offer no indication of any official ‘prophetic’ or ‘revelatory’ church statements on the issue, but rather that masturbation became a topic of concern and discussion in private top leadership councils. Prior to the 1950s the sparse church literature specifically mentioning masturbation generally agreed with moderate views of secular medical authorities. Rather than focusing on abstinence supervision as is practiced today with current church youth interviewing policies, lessons instead warned parents that they could create emotional problems in their adolescents by an “unintelligent” over response to their masturbation (Bush, 1993)… During this time masturbation did not always carry the same onus that it does in the popular Mormon literature of today. Official church manuals endorsed secular books about sexuality and suggested that sexual interests be guided rather than inhibited. Below are select highlights from the above article with my own commentary.ġ920s – 1930s manuals did not forbid masturbation, just over masturbation.
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