This post explains why masturbation is not “onanism”. Therefore it clarifies why neither solo sex nor Synergy-style lovemaking was ever a sin.
Might this course correction make solo sex a lot less fun for those thrill-seeking folk who heighten the intensity of their climaxes by risking eternal damnation? Perhaps, but it’s time to correct the record for good.
As it turns out, some early Church authorities, misled by St. Augustine, got the wrong end of the stick entirely. Below are the facts about “onanism”, as explained by the late Father Henri-Marie Féret, a brilliant, highly regarded Dominican.
Féret explained the truth about “onanism” as part of his defence of the “reserved embrace”, another term for Synergy. (See: Epilogue – “Art D’Aimer et Vie Spirituelle Chrétienne” by H.M. Féret.) Some Church scholars had condemned non-orgasmic intercourse on the grounds that it was, in their view, similar to the crime of Onan. Féret boldly corrected their error.
Onan’s crime
In Genesis, God punished Onan, who spilled his seed on the ground rather than ejaculating into his brother’s widow. Yet what was Onan’s actual crime?
The traditional clerical position was that engaging in an “incomplete act” was the crime. In Onan’s case, this was intercourse without ejaculation within a vagina. According to these clerics’ logic, the reserved embrace was necessarily a crime as well because lovers avoided ejaculation.
In contrast, Father Féret took the position that the Catholic Church had misunderstood Onan’s crime. Féret asserted that the fault for which God slew Onan, was neither about seeking erotic pleasure while refusing to attempt procreation, nor foregoing ejaculation, i.e., contravening the finality of the sexual act.
Indeed, Genesis doesn’t address an ejaculation requirement at all. Think about that for a moment. It means Synergy was always perfectly acceptable. In fact, there’s even a good argument to be made that sex without orgasm was at the heart of early Christianity, until Church authorities dumped it.
But back to the ill-fated Onan. His actual crime was that he refused to submit to the law of his tribe. The conventions of his community, i.e., the family of Juda, called for him to create an heir for his childless dead brother.
Why did he choose to spill his seed on the ground instead of fertilising his sister-in-law like a good member of the tribe? Certainly not because he preferred non-orgasmic intercourse.
He did it to protect the rights of his own heirs. By refusing to impregnate his elder brother’s wife, Onan made it possible for his own children to inherit more.
For this bit of family planning, Jehovah struck him dead. But the punishment (just a tad excessive?) was in response to Onan’s deliberate selfishness and disobedience to divine and family obligations (Genesis 38:8-10). Ostensibly Jehovah viewed Onan’s act as not only a failure to respect family law but also a defiance against His covenant plan, resulting in immediate divine judgment.
The important point is that Onan’s “sins” were selfishness and wilful disobedience. They had nothing to do with where semen might, or might not, end up.
Thus did Féret shatter the misguided legalism of his colleagues.
Unnecessary misery
Imagine all the unnecessary angst the Church authorities’ faulty analysis has caused over the years. Any ejaculation without seed ending up in a vagina has foolishly been presumed a “sin”.
Catholic teens learning about their bodies, and ideally learning to regulate them sensibly, have been guilt-ridden for no legitimate reason. Alas, guilty feelings increase the risk of any “rewarding” activity becoming compulsive.
Likewise, Catholics who wanted to explore Synergy were discouraged by the pronouncements of misinformed clergy, although the practice serves both as a path to greater marital harmony and as a natural method of birth control.
St. Augustine was the poisonous font from which the tragic misinterpretation of Onan’s crime bubbled. (More on Auggie’s flawed reasoning here.) It’s a shame that Father Henri-Marie Féret wasn’t around to educate St. Augustine.
