Why don't Hernia/Prostate/Pelvic/Breast exams break the Law of Chastity?

[NOWmormon]

I don't get it.

[moksha]

Perhaps because these exams are medical procedures that exist apart from LDS moral regulations.

[Just This Guy]

They are functional and not done for pleasure.

[Hagoth]

They are functional and not done for pleasure.

They only cross the line if you start enjoying them.

Perhaps the same should go for non-medical touching. It's ok as long as you can convince yourself you're not having fun.

[document]

Mormons generally do accept that doing things under the advice of a medical professional is OK. However, this is not always true when it comes to some things:

- I have a single LDS friend with a twisted tube in his plumbing. It infects very easily and his doctor has told him repeatedly that he needs to keep fluids flowing through his plumbing in order to avoid infection. Infection means one week on his back feeling like someone is kicking him in his groin. As he is single and abstinent from sex, the only way to keep fluids flowing is to regularly masturbate. He was concerned and consulted his bishop who gave him an absolute NO. So it means twice a year it gets infected and he is on his back.

- My mother has advanced rheumatoid arthritis and a friend suggested she look into medical marijuana as part of pain management. She didn't consider it (she doesn't take pain medication anyway) but she did ask her bishop if it was an option if her doctor suggested it. The answer was an unequivocal NO.

- I had viral meningitis about a decade ago which required me to have a spinal tap. Afterwards, when I was in the hospital bed the doctor ordered me to drink black coffee more than usual for the next couple of days. It turns out caffeine naturally boosts spinal fluid generation and is a recommended action after either a spinal fluid leak or a spinal tap. I told him I would not drink coffee and he said, "I hate to give caffeine pills", but at my insistence that I would not have coffee, he said caffeine pills were "OK". So I took two days of caffeine pills instead of coffee.

So, when I first read your post I thought you were being sarcastic, because Mormons have always thought that medical advice, prescriptions, or procedures were outside the bounds of various laws. However, I realized that this isn't true and with all things in Mormonism it is played by ear and it just part of the unwritten order of things.

[Corsair]

This subject reminded me of one of the more "uncharitable" thoughts I have had since leaving orthodox LDS belief. There was a guy in my ward who developed prostate cancer and it generated the thought that regular masturbation might have helped him avoid this issue. He had obviously not been drinking sufficient green tea or black coffee either.

Obviously, cancer is a jerk, and is something that everyone is going to get eventually. Aside from a few prominent carcinogens, assigning blame is rarely a useful activity after an oncologist has delivered bad news. Before my mother passed away, a few of my siblings and I tried to get her to use medical marijuana. I doubt it was going to change the outcome, but it would have helped with symptoms before that point. Those coffee drinking, alcohol imbibing, cigar smoking, plural marrying, early LDS leaders have persistent standards that afflict Mormons to this day.

[SeeNoEvil]

They are functional and not done for pleasure.

They only cross the line if you start enjoying them.

Perhaps the same should go for non-medical touching. It's ok as long as you can convince yourself you're not having fun.

I had a friend who took care of an 86 year old man who was bathed regularly by my female friend. He apparently felt so guilty about the touching by someone other than his wife during the baths that he confessed to a bishop. Must have been cleared as the baths resumed.

[DPRoberts]

If they do beak the LOC then I went on my mission unworthy.

I had my missionary physical at the BYU student health center. Most of the exam was done by a nurse practitioner who was a young-ish woman. This had me a bit worried about the more, ahem, personal parts of a usual physical. So I was relieved when she said she was done and that the doctor would finish up the exam. Big sigh of relief, but short-lived. To my shock and horror the doctor who came through the door was a middle-aged woman. Yes, this was BYU. She did the usual checks on my male bits and I was as very tense through the whole thing. But I didn't confess it to my bishop. If it happened at BYU it must be OK.

[Hagoth]

If they do beak the LOC then I went on my mission unworthy.

I had my missionary physical at the BYU student health center. Most of the exam was done by a nurse practitioner who was a young-ish woman. This had me a bit worried about the more, ahem, personal parts of a usual physical. So I was relieved when she said she was done and that the doctor would finish up the exam. Big sigh of relief, but short-lived. To my shock and horror the doctor who came through the door was a middle-aged woman. Yes, this was BYU. She did the usual checks on my male bits and I was as very tense through the whole thing. But I didn't confess it to my bishop. If it happened at BYU it must be OK.

When I was at the MTC the doctor there was a very attractive 30-ish woman. Another missionary told me he had to see her for an unnamed issue that required dropping his Gs around his ankles. He claimed that in the process of the examination he became aroused, and that this was remedied with a painful whack to the offending organ with a cold spoon. I can't verify the details, mind you, since I wasn't in the room.

I'm all for smashing the glass ceiling but you have to wonder why an organization that is famous for the thickness of its glass -and this was in the days before even black men could be missionaries - would make that particular hiring choice for a group that was made up of, at the time, 95% sexually oppressed and mostly virginal teenage boys. The cold spoon treatment was this kid's first experience of being touched by a woman. I can't help but wonder if he ended up with an unhealthy obsession for cutlery-oriented bondage.

[oliblish]

When I was at the MTC the doctor there was a very attractive 30-ish woman. Another missionary told me he had to see her for an unnamed issue that required dropping his Gs around his ankles. He claimed that in the process of the examination he became aroused, and that this was remedied with a painful whack to the offending organ with a cold spoon. I can't verify the details, mind you, since I wasn't in the room.

I'm all for smashing the glass ceiling but you have to wonder why an organization that is famous for the thickness of its glass -and this was in the days before even black men could be missionaries - would make that particular hiring choice for a group that was made up of, at the time, 95% sexually oppressed and mostly virginal teenage boys. The cold spoon treatment was this kid's first experience of being touched by a woman. I can't help but wonder if he ended up with an unhealthy obsession for cutlery-oriented bondage.

I heard a very similar cold spoon story on my mission. But it supposedly occurred at a clinic in Japan. The story went on to talk about how whenever that missionary moved into a new apartment he would open the freezer and find a spoon left there for him.

[Red Ryder]

I've heard that story in regards to the temple initiatory. Only instead of a cold spoon, it was a 90 year old man's oiled up shaky hand!

[NOWmormon]

I've heard that story in regards to the temple initiatory. Only instead of a cold spoon, it was a 90 year old man's oiled up shaky hand!

LOL
and gross

[Hagoth]

I heard a very similar cold spoon story on my mission. But it supposedly occurred at a clinic in Japan.

It's probably floating around in many versions. But I did personally visit the doctor in question and I can attest that she was very attractive and gave me the tingles when she probed my abdomen. That was probably as intimate as I had been with a woman up to that time.

Did you have an elder in your mission who conferred the priesthood on an inanimate object (usually a beer can or stop sign) and later died suddenly and mysteriously? We did, but it was just before our time and no one had actually met him, of course.