Hello Mormon friends,
I am a 83 yer old man who was unfortunately raised as a Roman Catholic. I relate to virtually all the stories of the young men who have experienced traumatizing guilt over masturbation. I lived in SLC for about 20 years and have had both Mormon and non-Mormon male friends and woman friends. As a young boy having being taught that masturbation was a mortal sin (bad enough to be destined to hell!) I suffered major trauma and guilt regarding my inability to stop masturbating. The Catholic Church controls its members by guilt. It looks like the Mormons are expert at this as well.
Over the years I have come to understand that without a doubt all the worlds religions are man made. It is extremely difficult to reject indoctrination that is instilled when you are a child especially with your parents whole-hearted participation,. I gave up believing when I was 24 years old, but it took me 20 years to get over the guilt about giving up the “invisible man in the sky. I still suffer from depression. I think to give up Mormonism may be the hardest of all religions except for maybe Islam.
The peer pressure and family rejection must be overwhelming. The promise of reunitement with family in the “Celestial Kingdom” is probably impossible to overcome.