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Question: Did Mormon leaders ever teach that masturbation can cause someone to have a homosexual orientation?
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Questions
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- Did the church ever teach that masturbation can cause someone to have a homosexual orientation?
Detailed Analysis
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No. The church never taught that and no church leader ever taught that. 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 leads to other forms of sexuality, both heterosexual and homosexuality.
== Notes ==
Further reading
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