I spend a great deal of time writing, speaking, and answering questions about religion, so I tend to encounter the whole spectrum of doubts and problems (as well as the best that we have to offer) as I get to know people across the world and the church. As I have interacted with other Latter-day Saints on questions of religion, I have noticed a certain tendency that I find especially disturbing. Specifically, I have noticed that some Latter-day Saints like to ask some variation of the “Is [blank] a sin?” question, which is usually accompanied by phrases like “It isn’t expressly forbidden by the general authorities,” or, “it isn’t spelled out in the scriptures (or the policy or manuals of the Church),” with the implication that unless it is spelled out explicitly as a sin, then it must be OK to do. I have also noticed that the same people often also ask about what the minimum requirements are for any given commandment in order to get into heaven, or avoid hell. These individuals tend to be preoccupied with what exactly constitutes a sin in the eyes of God and the church. This attitude can only be called legalism, and it can be very dangerous.
“Legalism: Noun. usage: strict conformity to the letter of the
law rather than its spirit.” (http://thesaurus.infoplease.com/legalism,
n. d.)
Case in point, the following question was posted in a
Facebook discussion group for Latter-day Saints in order to solicit responses for a
podcast:
“I got into a downright weird conversation with someone on
whether or not the LDS Church teaches masturbation as breaking the Law of
Chastity.
His defense was that there isn't a section in the Aaronic
Priesthood Manual or some such work (you know - the Fifth Standard Work) about
masturbation and so it isn't a sin” (Joe Rawlins, Facebook post, April 9, 2015).
In response, one person stated that she has never viewed a
proscription against masturbation to be part of the law growing up, and that
she still doesn’t, and then she posted a link to the Wikipedia definition of
the Law of Chastity (as taught by the LDS church).
Another person posted a talk from President Spencer W.
Kimball which specifically stated that the law of chastity forbids “all sexual
relations outside marriage,” including masturbation, to which the first person
replied that she did not see anything expressly forbidding the practice in the
youth booklet.
Several individuals argued back and forth about whether or
not pornography addiction is an actual or fictional condition, and others made
statements criticizing the church’s stance on the subject as being a relic of Victorian
era hang-ups about sex, and/or misconceptions about the sin of Onan (as it is
often referred to) in the Bible, even going so far as to post a link to an
article from Wiktionary defining onanism (see Genesis chapter 38 if you really
care to know more). There was also a protracted argument among several individuals concerning the severity of the sin, and its ranking in comparison to the severity of certain other sins. Of course the crux
of the entire argument had to do with the fact that teachings forbidding the practice
of masturbation are not clearly spelled out in scripture.
This whole argument is an example of the irritating legalism
that has crept into the attitude of many church members: "If it isn't specifically spelled out,
then I don't have to do it, and if it isn't expressly forbidden then I can do
as I please." Or, more subtly,
ranking or defining sins so that some seem less severe than others, or finding ways to fulfill the bare letter of the law without concern for the spirit of the law. Legalism is a problem for members of the
church because it can cause us to miss the whole point of the gospel (and commandment
keeping) and the atonement of Jesus Christ, and cause us to become lost in a
maze of petty bickering over tiny points of the law. Worse, "by looking beyond the mark" (see Jacob 4:14) we may cause ourselves (and others) to "stumble" and "fall" because of confusion over what is and isn't sin.
