Among many of the
restrictions placed on a Jehovah's Witnesses' life, there is one that I think many people either look over, or simply do not know about (it's not something you'll hear them
preaching). That something is
masturbation.
According to one of the scriptures of the
New World Translation of the holy
bible, a man called Onan (or something to that effect) was
smote down after "spilling his
seed upon the ground" instead of following Jehovah's request to marry his dead brother's wife to produce more offspring. Many take this as a sign that masturbation is against Jehovah's will*.
Please excuse me if that quote isn't 100% accurate, my bible accidentally got burnt during the recent "Book Burning for Satan" family event.
As you can imagine, this 1 restriction itself makes it very hard for many young men and women to stay "
pure" when they are young JW's. At least 1
female I knew during my time with the
religion (which has since ceased, although my dad is still a
church nut) said that the "no masturbation" restriction didn't apply to females, as they technically don't spill any seed. Interesting
food for thought. (This also incidentally occurred before we both committed blasphemy (by using the lord's name in vain) as well as breaking the "
sex before
marriage is wrong" restriction).
Also an addition to the previous WU (as
KMQ hasn't been seen for 2 months) is an explanation on why JW's are so '
fanatical' in distributing their magazines.
One of their beliefs is that the world will not be restored to a
paradise until every man, woman and child has been called on or "heard the word of god." As you can probably understand, getting to the tribes of the
Amazon rainforest or treckin' through outback
Australia where there's a house once every 200 miles, just to get told to
fuck off, it's much easier to use a bottle or plane. At least that way they can't be abused (or
beheaded if your in the vicinity of
India).
Having been forced into this religion as a very young child, as well as having a father who still pressures me to "rejoin," I may have a slightly biased view against this religion. So smite me ;)
*Thanks sfc for pointing out the correct story. Also noted that this story can't really be used against masturbation, as Onan was killed for not following directions, NOT for having a bit of a stroke, however, I included it instead of another for 2 reasons. 1) I can remember that one, (5 years out of the religion makes you forget things), and 2) My father always emphasized the spilling his seed part of that story to discourage me from masturbation (he failed)