Wandering thoughts here -- then off to work --
I dunno how I feel about "addiction". To anything. As a process, I mean.
Like, take alcohol for example.
Nothing wrong with a bottle of wine. It's a thing.
Scripture doesn't say anything against drinking alcohol, as such. There were times and places where you would not drink it -- like, if you were living as a Nazerite. Then you were dedicated not to even touch a raisin or a grape leaf, as I understand it.
Scripture does come out against drunkenness.
And even that isn't so much a "take the drunk out and stone him" reaction, more a "look at that pitiful sinner, he's useless for the Lord and even to himself like that".
We think "addiction" and we mentally divorce the idea of the addicted one from the idea of fault, blame. He's helpless, he's addicted, it's a sickness, poor thing.
Well, fine, if so, but it's a sickness he brought on himself by crossing into sinful territory under his own power.
He took a neutral thing -- even a good thing, something God created -- and abused himself with it.
So it is his fault he's addicted now, and there was sin along the way, and part of his healing needs to be acknowledgment of that process.
Sorry to take such a detour --
But after that, I come back around to this: if, if masturbation is a sin, then how is it a sin?
Some people who hold that it is sinful don't have any good reason why they think so.
Some people who do have some reasons, cite Scripture to support their position -- and I'm glad they do -- but they misunderstand or misapply the passages they cite.
I'll need better than than before they can convince me that masturbation, any more than taking a bath, any more than crossing the street, any more than an innocent bottle of wine, is sinful, in and of itself.
Could sin enter into masturbation?
Sure!
Could sin enter into shopping or singing or making a cheese dip?
Sure!
We are masters at finding new ways, new frameworks, within which to sin. IMO that's a by-product of God allowing us Free Will. Sin will happen.
What are we gonna do about it?
Might occasional masturbation be a good thing, if it helps a woman who feels she is unhealthily wandering around every day -- erm -- "charged up"?
I do know that I am more likely to think things I should not about situations or strange men if I am -- uh -- fully charged.
Since I have a husband in the picture, with no health problems or job-related separation, masturbation doesn't normally enter my picture.
But I definitely understand how it could.
And I have a lot of trouble seeing it as possibly addictive -- but that it less because of physical phenomena that go along with masturbation, like release of pleasant hormones and stuff, and more because of the funny way I view addiction, I suppose.