What kind of church did you attend? You said "parochial school," which is a Catholic term. I have never heard of a school, Christian or otherwise, talking about the dangers or masturbation or what have you, as often as you describe. That is seriously an odd case, and I'm sorry you had to deal with such an extreme view.Scott wrote: ↑Mon Oct 02, 2023 7:31 pm How did your religion view masturbation and sex, if you grew up with any sort of religious affiliation? My parents' church ran a parochial school which I attended and graduated from. Masturbation was portrayed as sinful and especially discouraged. The school handed out booklets on the "evils" of MB which said never to MB, and if you do sin and MB, stop immediately and never MB again. One booklet had a drawing of a sickly-looking fellow in purple ink who had evidently succumbed to the temptations of MB. (The school also conducted Powerpoint type presentations on these topics.) Wet dreams weren't mentioned much, but were acceptable and encouraged, but perhaps embarrassing if your mom did your laundry. Sex was portrayed as a rare, limited occurrence. Premarital sex was particularly frowned upon. Sex was to be reserved for marriage only. Even then, sex was only to occur when the married couple specifically wanted to get pregnant that particular day. It was not to be for pleasure. Thus, if a couple had 4 children, I was taught that meant they'd had sex a total of 4 times during their marriage, for example. I was age 12 to 14 when this sex ed curriculum was taught. They also had us listen to anti-MB anti-sex recordings made by Dr. James Dobson, who is now age 87. It seemed MB and sex were quite evil, to be avoided at all costs, after listening to Dobson's recordings. I remember my 7th grade teacher stopping one of Dobson's recordings that was getting a bit detailed about the evils of MB and sex, and skipping to Dobson's next recording.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dobson
Despite this school's extreme views on MB and sex, they weren't entirely wrong in that MB does indeed have drawbacks and WD indeed have advantages.
What did your church and/or school teach about masturbation, sex, and wet dreams?
Even in the 80s, James Dobson took a very moderate position on masturbation, as expressed in his famous book on raising boys. I wonder what they had you watch because his general position on the topic was it's not a big deal, don't turn it into one, the main thing is to avoid porn.
The topic was never talked a lot about at the churches I went to, but they generally too a similar position as what I just described. They were more concerned with porn and avoiding premarital sex.