Porn, porn and more porn!

[Neo-Scholastic]

This comes up pretty regularly. I wonder why so many are so interested in defending porn and masturbation. Don't you want to, you know, have real sex with a real woman?

I'd bet the married Christians here are getting more than the atheists here, but we're called repressed because we prefer real sex to jacking off to internet porn. 

Yes, but....the question for Christians, and I think it is a legitimate question, is whether or not masturbation clearly falls into the fornication category. The only clear biblical reference to masturbation is Onan spilling his seed and even that seems to be more about him using the pull-out method to avoid his marital obligation. What is clear in several places is that cultivating lust is clearly sinful. To my mind there is a BIG difference between a teenager relieving him- or herself to release pent up sexual energy and a married 40-year old secretly salivating over the Story of O. The teen isn't cultivating lust; it's already there! It's just a matter of keeping kids away from graphic materials that will permanently warp their sexuality.

I would also add that I have great sympathy for people for whom finding a partner is extremely difficult, such as those who are severely disfigured. Such people still have needs. In the absence of a clear biblical prohibition, I don't see why they should be expected to comply with prudish Victorian era attitudes about sexuality. Similarly I do not have a problem with the husband rubbing one out to collect sperm for artificial insemination of his wife, even if that means looking at pictures of women with staples in their abdomens.