FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Did Mormon leaders ever teach that masturbation can cause someone to have a homosexual orientation?
Did the church ever teach that masturbation can cause someone to have a homosexual orientation?
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
Questions
- Did the church ever teach that masturbation can cause someone to have a homosexual orientation?
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
Answer
No. This is not and has not been a teaching of the Church.
Detailed Analysis
The church rarely talks about sexual orientation. The church is much more interested in learning to control out thoughts, feelings and behaviors than sexual orientation.
President Kimball did say that masturbation could lead to the practice of homosexuality. Many other leaders have also cautioned about preoccupation with sex and about arousing sexual feelings that should only be expressed in marriage. Masturbation arouses sexual feelings outside of marriage. This could lead to sexual acts performed outside of marriage. If a person has opposite-sex attractions, it may lead to the practice of heterosexuality outside of marriage, which is considered just as much of a sin as the practice of homosexuality. Likewise, masturbation could lead a person with same-sex attractions to engage in homosexual relationships.
Another way to say it is that masturbation can lead to other forms of sexual activity, both heterosexual and homosexuality.
== Notes == None
Further reading
FairMormon Answers articles
FairMormon web site
External links
Printed material