One of the biggest problems with overcoming masturbation is the fact that many religious leaders suggest that God is 100% OK with the practice. Now, this is partly understandable because the Bible doesn’t give any explicit commands surrounding the practice. However, a very strong implicit argument can be made showing that masturbation is absolutely an unhealthy and abnormal sexual practice.

We all can remember a time in our lives when we were attempting to rid our lives of the practice. In our moments of temptation, the voices of these Christian leaders would pop up in our heads.

Hey wait a minute! Why am I trying to resist this thing that I really want to do? After all, Religious Leader X says its OK. Well maybe I’ll go ahead and do it but just make sure I don’t lust while doing it.

And with that little piece of reasoning, a strong resolve turns into a weak resolve and eventually no resolve. 3 weeks of abstinence from masturbation can turn into a total relapse.

In fact, the power of religious leaders’ opinions can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back – just when you think that you are going to be able to stay strong in your commitment, it is the very thing that sends your commitment packing.

Here are some reasons why religious leaders may have suggested that masturbation is not unhealthy or wrong:

1. They are uninformed: chances are they heard this from some other religious leader and are simply parroting that bad advice.
2. They haven’t studied the topic: a very cursory study will reveal the negative effects of masturbation. Thus it is likely they haven’t really looked into it.
3. They are struggling with the practice themselves. We don’t want to jump to conclusions but it is very possible that this may be the case.

Whatever the reason, make sure to do some study yourself and write out the reasons why you need to avoid the practice before you begin your commitment so that you don’t get sucked back into an unhealthy lifestyle just as you begin making progress.