Growing up Laestadian — Part 26
I learned about masturbation from a minister at youth camp
Being kept out of sex education classes at school, I was pretty ignorant about sex. It wasn’t until fourth grade that I learned that Laestadian moms and dads were like any other parents — they had sex. Prior to that, I thought Laestadian babies were created through divine intervention. I thought we were that special.
Ironically, it was from a Laestadian minister at summer youth camp that I learned about the Big M — masturbation.
I was in junior high then. The minister told us in plain language: Masturbation is wrong. Do not do it. It is sin.
What, I wondered, was masturbation? And why was he so emphatic about it? Why did he act like this was something we all knew about — or should know?
I did not dare raise my hand to ask. Instead, I waited until I got home to look it up in our handy encyclopedias. We had not one set of encyclopedias at home, but two, and I had learned all sorts of interesting things about horses and historical fashion and various countries and continents. Could the encyclopedias also inform me about masturbation?
As it turned out, they could! The World Book was too staid to say anything, but the newer set — whose publisher escapes me — contained…
