I grew up in Utah and went to a pediatrician named Glen C. Griffen who had authored numerous books about maturation and sexual development published by LDS publishers which I was given to read. Those books, and the writings of President Kimball, and other talks in General Conference (there was a particularly horrible one by Vaughn J. Featherstone, and another by Boyd K. Packer) did deep and lasting damage to my sensitive soul. It simply should not be that a young boy of nine or twelve or fourteen should be made to feel as though he is guilty of some of the most dangerous and darkest sins known to humanity simply because he engages in self exploration and masturbation. What those leaders of my youth taught me was scientifically wrong (even by the standards of the time) and spiritually damaging. I know that they were men with good intentions, but they are now rightly remembered as having also done great harm. They did do great harm to a great many young people with their over-the-top shaming and railing against practices that are rightly seen as normal developmental experiences. They don’t lead to homosexuality (as was alleged), nor to a loss of one’s worthiness. God knows, I thought I had offended God in the worst way. I then saw my body as a terrible foe, a monster that I had to live with night and day and somehow try to manage or God in his eternal heaven would condemn me for my filthiness. It’s just wrong. And the truth needs to be told of the years of self-hatred, shame, and depression that such teachings inflicted on countless young men and young women who were guilty of nothing more than being normal human beings.
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