Multiple Orgasm in the Human Male

<< Religious Backgrounds >>

At various places in the foregoing chapters it has been pointed out that masturbation and intercourse are the chief sources of pre-marital outlet. It is, therefore, to be expected that there should be certain correlations between the frequencies of masturbation and the frequencies of intercourse, and thus indirectly of total sexual outlet. In upper and lower social levels the frequencies of masturbation do bear an inverse relation to the frequencies of pre-marital intercourse, and it might be anticipated that the suppression of one of these activities by the rules of any religious group would provide some direct impetus to the development of the other activity.

Tables 126-127. Masturbation and nocturnal emissions in males
as related to religious background

Religious Group	Cases	Masturbation and Religion						Nocturnal Emissions and Religion
		Total Population			Active Population			Total Population			Active Population
		Mean Frequency	Median Freq.	% of Total Outlet	Incid. %	Mean Freq.	Median Freq.	Mean Frequency	Median Freq.	% of Total Outlet	Incid. %	Mean Freq.	Median Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active	89	1.30 ± 0.22	0.50	52.9	70.8	1.83	1.13	0.022 ± 0.007	0.00	0.9	21.3	0.10	0.067
Protestant, inactive	481	1.58 ± 0.10	0.89	51.1	88.1	1.79	1.08	0.057 ± 0.010	0.00	1.8	26.0	0.22	0.078
Catholic, inactive	106	1.66 ± 0.20	0.93	52.6	85.8	1.94	1.21	0.035 ± 0.010	0.00	1.1	23.6	0.15	0.076
Age; 16-20
Protestant, active	91	0.77 ± 0.11	0.34	28.6	81.3	0.95	0.49	0.14 ± 0.04	0.01	5.0	52.7	0.26	0.077
Protestant, inactive	493	0.94 ± 0.06	0.46	28.4	85.8	1.10	0.60	0.14 ± 0.02	0.02	4.4	56.6	0.26	0.087
Catholic, inactive	105	1.04 ± 0.13	0.49	30.9	84.8	1.22	0.72	0.17 ± 0.03	0.03	5.0	57.1	0.30	0.16
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive	234	0.60 ± 0.07	0.18	18.7	62.4	0.96	0.50	0.15 ± 0.02	0.03	4.6	59.0	0.25	0.087
Catholic, inactive	60	0.61 ± 0.15	0.20	18.9	66.7	0.91	0.42	0.21 ± 0.04	0.07	6.6	65.0	0.33	0.23
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active	93	1.75 ± 0.19	1.32	68.2	87.1	2.01	1.60	0.16 ± 0.05	0.00	6.3	40.9	0.39	0.15
Protestant, inactive	375	1.88 ± 0.11	1.13	55.8	90.4	2.08	1.35	0.14 ± 0.03	0.00	4.1	40.0	0.35	0.10
Catholic, inactive	103	2.22 ± 0.23	1.46	58.8	95.1	2.33	1.57	0.13 ± 0.04	0.00	3.4	35.0	0.36	0.15
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active	95	1.15 ± 0.14	0.58	45.9	88.4	1.30	0.72	0.18 ± 0.03	0.06	7.3	71.6	0.26	0.10
Protestant, inactive	315	1.20 ± 0.09	0.66	34.4	88.9	1.35	0.83	0.22 ± 0.02	0.06	6.4	72.7	0.31	0.10
Catholic, inactive	101	1.56 ± 0.18	0.89	36.1	91.1	1.71	1.03	0.18 ± 0.03	0.04	4.1	60.4	0.29	0.17
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active	547	1.88 ± 0.08	1.42	75.6	80.8	2.33	1.88	0.34 ± 0.03	0.12	13.6	70.7	0.48	0.29
Protestant, inactive	1471	2.40 ± 0.06	1.82	78.8	84.7	2.83	2.30	0.33 ± 0.02	0.02	10.8	68.0	0.48	0.27
Catholic, devout	132	1.96 ± 0.25	0.96	81.9	78.8	2.49	1.61	0.30 ± 0.04	0.15	12.4	75.0	0.40	0.27
Catholic, inactive	165	2.33 ± 0.21	1.65	78.4	80.6	2.89	1.98	0.32 ± 0.04	0.10	10.8	65.5	0.49	0.31
Jewish, Orthodox	58	1.56 ± 0.26	1.03	79.3	72.4	2.15	1.47	0.25 ± 0.06	0.09	12.5	77.6	0.32	0.18
Jewish, inactive	601	2.34 ± 0.12	1.58	80.6	80.0	2.93	2.16	0.41 ± 0.03	0.15	14.1	75.4	0.54	0.29
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active	557	1.50 ± 0.07	1.00	65.0	85.6	1.75	1.33	0.41 ± 0.02	0.27	17.9	92.5	0.45	0.30
Protestant, inactive	1513	1.95 ± 0.05	1.41	67.8	91.5	2.13	1.62	0.42 ± 0.02	0.24	14.5	91.7	0.45	0.28
Catholic, devout	136	1.53 ± 0.19	0.75	63.3	87.8	1.82	0.95	0.48 ± 0.06	0.30	19.9	94.1	0.51	0.32
Catholic, inactive	168	1.65 ± 0.15	1.06	58.7	86.3	1.91	1.50	0.43 ± 0.04	0.26	15.3	91.1	0.47	0.30
Jewish, Orthodox	59	1.18 ± 0.19	0.64	59.4	78.0	1.52	0.93	0.37 ± 0.06	0.23	18.6	89.8	0.41	0.28
Jewish, inactive	607	2.09 ± 0.11	1.41	70.2	88.1	2.38	1.68	0.44 ± 0.03	0.24	14.9	86.2	0.51	0.31
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active	384	1.10 ± 0.07	0.60	54.5	83.6	1.32	0.81	0.42 ± 0.03	0.26	20.8	90.1	0.47	0.30
Protestant, inactive	1000	1.46 ± 0.06	0.80	55.6	90.3	1.61	0.93	0.36 ± 0.02	0.20	13.8	86.9	0.42	0.26
Catholic, devout	94	0.82 ± 0.12	0.36	45.1	78.7	1.04	0.52	0.48 ± 0.07	0.31	26.6	90.4	0.53	0.34
Catholic, inactive	125	1.10 ± 0.15	0.50	39.4	81.6	1.35	0.75	0.40 ± 0.05	0.24	14.3	88.0	0.45	0.29
Jewish, inactive	331	1.58 ± 0.12	0.73	51.4	86.4	1.83	1.03	0.40 ± 0.04	0.19	13.1	81.0	0.50	0.29
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active	100	1.00 ± 0.14	0.49	54.3	82.0	1.22	0.72	0.41 ± 0.05	0.27	21.9	95.0	0.43	0.29
Protestant, inactive	279	1.32 ± 0.10	0.63	51.8	88.2	1.50	0.81	0.29 ± 0.02	0.17	11.2	85.3	0.34	0.24
Jewish, inactive	104	1.02 ± 0.21	0.38	31.2	79.8	1.27	0.57	0.31 ± 0.06	0.12	9.6	75.0	0.42	0.24
Married Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active	91	0.22 ± 0.04	0.04	6.9	60.4	0.37	0.21	0.17 ± 0.03	0.053	5.2	67.0	0.25	0.12
Protestant, inactive	280	0.34 ± 0.04	0.08	8.9	69.6	0.49	0.24	0.19 ± 0.03	0.051	5.0	67.9	0.28	0.10
Jewish, inactive	86	0.45 ± 0.10	0.07	11.4	64.0	0.71	0.28	0.13 ± 0.03	0.033	3.3	60.5	0.22	0.09
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active	123	0.27 ± 0.06	0.05	10.1	64.2	0.41	0.10	0.16 ± 0.02	0.067	6.1	78.9	0.20	0.09
Protestant, inactive	346	0.33 ± 0.03	0.08	9.6	71.1	0.46	0.24	0.16 ± 0.02	0.056	4.7	71.7	0.22	0.09
Jewish, inactive	109	0.25 ± 0.05	0.04	7.0	57.8	0.43	0.21	0.17 ± 0.03	0.043	4.7	66.1	0.25	0.09
Age: 31-35
Protestant, active	109	0.22 ± 0.06	0.03	9.7	59.6	0.37	0.09	0.17 ± 0.02	0.073	7.6	78.9	0.22	0.10
Protestant, inactive	270	0.29 ± 0.04	0.08	9.5	71.1	0.41	0.21	0.14 ± 0.02	0.050	4.6	72.2	0.19	0.08
Jewish, inactive	84	0.20 ± 0.05	0.01	6.5	52.4	0.37	0.14	0.12 ± 0.04	0.017	4.0	56.0	0.21	0.08
Age: 36-40
Protestant, active	73	0.22 ± 0.07	0.02	11.2	54.8	0.41	0.09	0.16 ± 0.02	0.079	7.9	75.3	0.21	0.16
Protestant, inactive	187	0.27 ± 0.04	0.07	9.6	71.1	0.38	0.17	0.12 ± 0.02	0.042	4.4	66.8	0.19	0.08
Jewish, inactive	62	0.14 ± 0.05	0.00	5.1	41.9	0.34	0.10	0.11 ± 0.03	0.028	3.9	61.3	0.18	0.07
Individuals with, at least, a single experience in a particular five-year period of their lives.

This, however, proves not to be so. The least frequent experience in masturbation is found among the more devout members of each and every one of the religious groups (Table 126), and these are the very groups which have the lowest rates of total outlet. The incidence figures for masturbation are not constantly different, but the mean frequencies are always lower for the more devout groups. This is true for both single and married males of every age group on which there are sufficient data and, strikingly enough, it is true of every educational level in each religious group. Masturbation occurs with the lowest incidences and frequencies among Jewish males who are Orthodox and among devout Catholics, and it occurs with the highest frequencies among religiously inactive Protestants. In some age and educational groups the masturbatory rates of the active Protestants, the devout Catholics, and the Orthodox Jews do not average more than two-thirds or three-fourths as high as the rates of the inactive members of those same churches. Even in those segments of the population where the differences between devout and inactive groups are more minor, it is significant that they always stand in the same order: the religiously active persons masturbate less frequently than the persons who are less concerned with their religion. At the other end of the picture, the males who most often masturbate are the religiously inactive Protestants, sometimes the non-church-going members of the Catholic faith, and in some cases the inactive Jewish males. The religious codes, both Jewish and Christian, have been the prime source of the taboos on masturbation.

Since masturbation has always been severely condemned in Orthodox Jewish codes, and is similarly condemned in Catholic and some Protestant codes, it is not surprising to find in the case of the female, just as we did in the case of the male, that adherence to a religious faith may lower the incidences of masturbation.

Among the females in our sample, religious connections seem to have had an even greater effect upon the incidences of masturbation than they did among the males. In the high school, college, and post-graduate groups on which data are available, masturbation had ultimately occurred in an appreciably smaller number of those females who were religiously devout. In the non-religious groups the accumulative incidence figures had ultimately included some 10 to 25 per cent more of the entire sample (Table 35f).

Table 35f. Accumulative Incidence: Masturbation to Orgasm
By Religious Background

Age	Protestant			Catholic			Jewish
Age	Dev.	Moder.	Inact.	Dev.	Moder.	Inact.	Moder.	Inact.
Percent
5	1	1	3	1	3	4	1	2
10	7	7	12	5	8	15	6	10
15	17	19	26	15	21	33	17	23
20	26	31	39	25	33	46	31	39
25	37	41	50	32	45	51	44	50
30	43	48	58	37	43	58	47	56
35	49	51	64	42		67	51	62
40	48	57	67					62
Cases
5	1265	1186	1098	395	157	171	575	995
10	1250	1172	1088	390	153	170	574	985
15	1214	1156	1076	384	151	170	572	978
20	918	924	969	283	114	145	332	688
25	565	588	735	176	76	106	185	411
30	423	435	549	123	51	79	135	292
35	336	315	417	77		52	76	203
40	236	211	272					127
Table based on total sample, including single, married, and previously married females. At least, a single experience in a particular five-year period of their lives.

In some of the most devout groups, as few as 41 per cent had ultimately masturbated; in some of the least religious groups as many as 67 per cent had had such experience (Table 35f).

As we previously found for the male, there are relatively few distinctions between the accumulative incidences of masturbation among the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish females of the same level of devotion. Inactive Protestant groups have much the same masturbatory histories as inactive Catholic and Jewish groups. Devout Protestant groups are close to the devout Catholic groups, and the limited data indicate that still fewer of the devout Jewish females in the sample had ever masturbated. It is the degree of the religious adherence, rather than the code of the particular sect, which most affects the pattern of sexual behavior.

All of these calculations have been based, perforce, on the degree of religious adherence which was current at the time that each subject contributed a history to this study. A high proportion of those who were religiously inactive at the time they were interviewed had been more religious in their earlier years. Nevertheless, even though this change in devotion could not be taken into account in the calculations, the incidences of masturbation shown for the early adolescent years and for the later teens distinguish the females who ultimately became inactive in their church affiliations, from those who were destined to remain devout. The differences between the two groups in their middle teens, for instance, were almost as great as the differences in the late thirties. This provides some evidence that females may to some extent match males in having their patterns of overt behavior established while they are in their teens.

The active incidences of masturbation among the various religious groups show that more of the religiously inactive groups and fewer of the religiously devout groups were masturbating (Table 36f). The differences were usually least for the younger age groups, and greatest for the older age groups. If they are not devout, older persons seem to become increasingly independent of religious influences on these matters.

Six of the seven devout Catholic groups and the two devout Jewish groups on which we have data show lower active incidences of masturbation than those shown for the corresponding, devout Protestant groups. The religiously inactive Catholic and Jewish groups had active incidences which were two to three times as high as those in the devout groups.

Although the degree of adherence to a religious faith may constitute a prime factor in preventing females from beginning masturbation, it seems to have little effect on the frequencies with which they masturbate after they have once started such activity (Table 36f). The total number of orgasms had by the average (median) female in the sample was surprisingly uniform throughout all of the religious groups. Technically phrased, the statement is that the degree of adherence to a religious faith shows an inverse correlation with the accumulative incidences, and an even more marked inverse correlation with the active incidences, but it shows no clear-cut correlation with the frequencies of masturbation in the active sample.

We have already pointed out that neither age nor educational level was of much importance in determining the rate of masturbation among the females in the sample. It is, therefore, especially significant to find that after the female had once started masturbation, her religious devotion usually ceased to have any particular influence on her. Just as with some other types of sexual activity, moral conflicts are often strongest among those who have never had sexual experience. After experience, most individuals find it difficult to understand why the acceptance of such activity should have seemed such a momentous matter.

Among the single females in the sample, with a few exceptions in certain of the age groups, masturbation had provided a larger proportion of the total outlet of the more devout Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups, and a smaller proportion of the outlet of the less devout groups (Table 36f). For instance, in various groups, masturbation had provided 80 per cent of the outlet of the more devout females against 63 per cent of the outlet of the corresponding, inactive group; and, in other groups, 98 against 93 per cent, 58 against 38 per cent, and 54 against 45 per cent. This was similarly true of some of the married groups, but in a larger number of them the less devout had drawn more heavily on masturbation as a source of outlet.

While masturbation may be a religiously condemned source of outlet for the devout, unmarried female, it may seem less sinful than premarital petting to orgasm and pre-marital coitus; and the limited number of devout females who had reached orgasm from any source before marriage had evidently chosen to depend on masturbation as a primary source of outlet. After marriage, since the objections to coitus had disappeared, masturbation was relegated to a minor position ( 5 to 16 per cent) in the lives of the religiously inactive groups in the sample, and to a still less important position (4 to 11 per cent) among the religiously devout groups (Table 36f).

Table 36f. Active Incidence, Frequency, and Percentage of Outlet Masturbation to Orgasm
By Religious Background

Age	Religious Group	Single								Married
		Males (Ed.Level 13+)				Females (All)				Males (Ed.Level 13+)				Females (All)
		Ac- tive incid. %	Active median freq. per wk.	% of total outlet	Cases in total sample	Ac- tive incid. %	Active median freq. per wk.	% of total outlet	Cases in total sample	Ac- tive incid. %	Active median freq. per wk.	% of total outlet	Cases in total sample	Ac- tive incid. %	Active median freq. per wk.	% of total outlet	Cases in total sample
Adol.-15	Protestant
	Devout					17	0.4	83	1218
	Moderate	80.8	1.88	75.6	547	18	0.4	81	1147
	Inactive	84.7	2.30	78.8	1471	24	0.5	91	1063
	Catholic
	Devout					15	0.4	80	382
	Moderate	78.8	1.61	81.9	132	20	0.4	83	150
	Inactive	80.6	1.98	78.4	165	32	0.5	63	169
	Jewish
	Devout					15	0.4	98	107
	Moderate	72.4	1.47	79.3	58	17	0.5	92	571
	Inactive	80.0	2.16	80.6	601	23	0.6	93	978
16-20	Protestant
	Devout					23	0.4	62	1197					17	0.3	5	92
	Moderate	85.6	1.33	65.0	557	26	0.3	58	1133					20	0.4	8	97
	Inactive	91.5	1.62	67.8	1513	35	0.4	66	1065					28	0.4	9	139
	Catholic
	Devout					20	0.4	58	372
	Moderate	87.8	0.95	63.3	136	27	0.3	54	139
	Inactive	86.3	1.50	58.7	168	41	0.5	38	160
	Jewish
	Devout					21	0.4	82	107
	Moderate	78.0	0.93	59.4	59	23	0.5	68	571
	Inactive	88.1	1.68	70.2	607	31	0.4	60	972					28	0.3	5	118
21-25	Protestant
	Devout					28	0.3	54	604					23	0.1	4	318
	Moderate	83.6	0.81	54.5	384	32	0.3	43	615	60.4	0.21	6.9	91	23	0.1	4	309
	Inactive	90.3	0.93	55.6	1000	40	0.4	45	675	69.6	0.24	8.9	280	33	0.2	6	392
	Catholic
	Devout					22	0.3	29	196					20	0.5	11	86
	Moderate	78.7	0.52	45.1	94	32	0.3	37	57					21	0.4	8	53
	Inactive	81.6	0.75	39.4	125	48	0.4	33	91					28	0.4	5	67
	Jewish
	Moderate					30	0.6	54	192					22	0.3	7	145
	Inactive	86.4	1.03	51.4	331	43	0.4	44	396	64.0	0.28	11.4	86	31	0.2	5	319
26-30	Protestant
	Devout					37	0.3	56	221					27	0.2	5	331
	Moderate	82.0	0.72	54.3	100	45	0.3	46	249	64.2	0.10	10.1	123	24	0.1	5	336
	Inactive	88.2	0.81	51.8	279	49	0.4	38	309	71.1	0.24	9.6	346	40	0.2	8	413
	Catholic
	Devout					23	0.3	29	79					27	0.3	10	84
	Inactive													34	0.4	6	58
	Jewish
	Moderate													29	0.3	7	140
	Inactive	79.8	0.57	31.2	104	52	0.4	39	110	57.8	0.21	7.0	109	36	0.2	7	275
31-35	Protestant
	Devout					39	0.3	40	121				109	32	0.1	5	264
	Moderate					48	0.3	54	127	59.6	0.09	9.7	270	32	0.1	6	253
	Inactive					59	0.4	35	159	71.1	0.21	9.5		44	0.2	10	315
	Catholic
	Devout													24	0.4	9	63
	Jewish
	Moderate													29	0.3	7	102
	Inactive					63	0.5	36	51	52.4	0.14	6.5	84	36	0.2	8	199
36-40	Protestant
	Devout					37	0.4	36	76					33	0.1	7	200
	Moderate					58	0.3	57	77	54.8	0.09	11.2	73	28	0.2	7	175
	Inactive					60	0.3	32	102	71.1	0.17	9.6	187	49	0.2	12	232
	Jewish
	Moderate													33	0.3	7	58
	Inactive									41.9	0.10	5.1	62	34	0.3	8	132
41-45	Protestant
	Devout													29	0.2	10	125
	Moderate													31	0.3	12	110
	Inactive													52	0.2	16	128
	Jewish
	Inactive													29	0.3	8	79
46-50	Protestant
	Devout													29	0.3	10	72
	Moderate													21	0.3	11	52
	Inactive													52	0.2	15	62
Individuals with, at least, a single experience in a particular five-year period of their lives.

The objections to masturbation have originated from religious creeds which go back to the most remote beginnings of our Western European-American civilization. Elsewhere in the world masturbation may be looked upon as a childish performance, or as evidence of the incapacity of an individual to make socio-sexual adjustments; but few other peoples have condemned masturbation as severely as the Jews have. The Talmudic references and discussions make masturbation a greater sin than non-marital intercourse. There were excuses for pre-marital intercourse and for extra-marital intercourse with certain persons under the Jewish code, but no extenuation for masturbation (Bible, Talmud passim). The logic of this proscription depended, of course, upon the reproductive motive in the sexual philosophy of the Jews. This made any act which offered no possibility of a resulting conception unnatural, a perversion, and a sin. Whatever other sources may have contributed to the Christian church’s objections to masturbation, certainly the Jewish traditions must have provided a considerable impetus to the perpetuation of this taboo in the Christian religion. In the Orthodox church today, the Jewish boy is definitely affected by the old-time Hebraic laws on this point, and the often lower rates of the religiously inactive Jewish boys indicate that even they are not entirely free of the ancestral codes.

The Catholic boy is told that masturbation is a carnal sin, particularly because it is so often accompanied by erotic fantasies which represent an improper use of functions which should be reserved for contacts which might lead to reproduction (Davis 1946). Some priests go to considerable lengths to impress a confessant with the idea that masturbation is one of the more serious sins, and earlier church writers sometimes specifically declared it more sinful than fornication (Northcote 1916).

Through most of its past history the Protestant church has been as severe in its condemnation of “self-abuse” as either the Jewish or the Catholic groups, and some Protestant clergymen maintain such attitudes today. However, many Protestant clergymen now accept medical, psychologic, and biologic opinion that masturbation does no physical harm. Perhaps as a result of this, we find the religiously active Protestants of the better educated groups more often involved in masturbation than the devout Catholics or Orthodox Jews. Some Protestant groups now lay less emphasis upon the physical harm supposed to result from masturbation, and attach more importance to the undesirability of allowing oneself to become subject to such a habit. Whatever the issues, however, the record is clear that religious influences do succeed in reducing both the incidence and the frequency of masturbation among the more devout members of each church group.

Nocturnal emissions represent the one type of sexual outlet to which there is a minimum of religious objection. One might, therefore, have anticipated that there would be higher frequencies of nocturnal emissions among males who are more closely allied to the church; but this is not consistently so. What differences there are between the frequencies and the incidences of emissions among religiously more active and religiously less active groups, are quite minor (Table 127). The means differ from the medians calculated for the same groups, nearly as often as the averages for devout groups differ from the averages for inactive groups.

This result is significant. Persons who are interested in moral interpretations in sex education insist that the frequencies of nocturnal emissions rise to sufficient heights to provide all of the necessary sexual outlet for a boy who abstains from other sexual activities. But although the record indicates that those who have been most interested in the church have actually reduced their total outlets, the frequencies of nocturnal emissions in these groups have not been raised. The relative importance of the emissions is raised by the reduction of the rates of total outlet, but the absolute frequencies of the emissions are not altered.

There are only minor differences in the emphases which the several religious groups have placed upon sexual morality. The strictly Orthodox Jewish code and the strict Catholic interpretations differ somewhat, but both of them accept the reproductive philosophy of sex, and both of them consider sexual activities which do not offer the possibility of fruition in reproduction as morally wrong. Consequently both of them vigorously condemn masturbation, and both of them attach a tremendous importance to the value of virginity at the time of marriage. The Jewish church maintains its stand on the basis of Biblical and Talmudic interpretations. The Catholic church more often bases its interpretations on a natural philosophy which may be re-interpreted from time to time but which has always emphasized the abnormality or the perverseness of sexual behavior which occurs outside of marriage.

These restraints on sexual activities are well recognized among devout Catholics, and often have major effects on the personalities of these individuals. Devout Catholics are restrained in regard to the frequencies of their total outlet, and in regard to their acceptance of any variety of sexual outlets. Non-devout Catholics are much more active sexually. As the church might well contend, the Catholics who are most active sexually are those who are not good Catholics. There will be persons who will suggest that the higher rates of sexual activity among non-devout Catholics depend upon the fact that many poorly educated and immigrant groups belong to that church; but it should be pointed out again that all comparisons between religious groups have been made for populations that are homogeneous in regard to five other biologic and social items, and that Catholic groups of particular educational levels have been compared only with other groups of exactly the same levels. We have no sufficient data for explaining these high rates of sexual activity among the non-devout Catholic groups.

The intermediate positions of the Protestant groups are again in line with our understanding of the intermediate effectiveness of the control which the Protestant church attempts to exercise on sexual behavior. There are, of course, considerable differences between Protestant sects on this matter and often greater differences in the interpretations of sexual moralities among clergymen of the same sect. In general, the more literal groups of the Protestant church make sexual appraisals which are close to those of the Talmud and of the Catholic natural law; but a more liberal portion of the Protestant clergy is inclined to re-interpret all types of sexual behavior in terms of the total social adjustment of the individual.

Even though the differences between the sexual philosophies of these three religious groups are not great, one might have expected greater differences than those which actually exist between the histories of the adherents of the three groups. With one exception, there are surprisingly few differences between the behavior of equally devout or non-devout members of the three religious faiths. The one exception lies among the Orthodox Jewish males. Of all religious groups they are the sexually least active, both in regard to the frequencies of their total sexual outlet, and in regard to the incidences and frequencies of masturbation, nocturnal emissions, and the homosexual. They are closer to the males of other groups in regard to pre-marital petting and pre-marital intercourse.

This relative inactivity of the Orthodox Jewish males is especially interesting, in view of the diametrically opposite opinion which recently stirred a considerable portion of Europe against the Jews as a race. It is further significant to note here that while the non-Orthodox are much more active than the Orthodox Jewish males, the sexually most active groups are religiously non-active Protestants or Catholics as often as they are Jewish.

These data on the lower frequencies of sexual activity among the Orthodox Jews will occasion no surprise to those who understand the pervading asceticism of Hebrew philosophy. Non-devout Jewish groups, even including those who observe none of the Orthodox customs and who may be removed by several generations from ancestors who ever attended the synagogue, may still be controlled to a considerable degree by the Talmudic interpretations of sexual morality. There is a general opinion that Jewish groups discuss sexual matters publicly with less restraint than most other groups, and this opinion may provide some basis for the general impression that Jews are sexually more active. It has been notable, however, in a high proportion of our Jewish histories, that the freedom with which they record the details of their own sexual activities and the freedom with which they discuss those details, not only with us but with many of their fellows and with utter strangers, has surprisingly little relation to the extent of the overt activity in their individual sexual histories. The influence of the several thousand years of Jewish sexual philosophy is not to be ignored in the search for any final explanation of these data.

The differences between religiously devout persons and religiously inactive persons of the same faith are much greater than the differences between two equally devout groups of different faiths. In regard to total sexual outlet the religiously inactive groups may have frequencies that are 25 to 75 per cent higher than the frequencies of the religiously devout groups. Among religiously inactive males there are definitely higher frequencies of masturbation, pre-marital intercourse, marital intercourse, and the homosexual.

The church, however, exerts a wider influence on even non-devout individuals, by way of the influence which it has had throughout the centuries upon the development of the sexual mores of our Western European-American culture. The religious codes have always and everywhere been the prime source of those social attitudes which, in their aggregate, represent the sexual mores of all groups, devout or non-devout, church-going or non-church-going, rational, faithful to a creed, or merely following the custom of the land. It is, of course, often contended that social attitudes are the product of experience and that the wisdom thus acquired becomes the basis of the formalized systems of ethics which are recognized by various religious bodies. In theological terms, such systems are ascribed to divine revelation. Whether the religious, social, and legal systems came before the social experience, or the social experience before the formulations of the rules of behavior, is, however, a matter that needs careful historical investigation before any final conclusions are reached.

In an older day, when church courts had authority over the life and death of each and every individual, departures from the expressed sexual codes made the culprit painfully aware of the source of the sexual mores. In the present day, when most of the population refuses to recognize the jurisdiction of religious courts, the influence of the church is more indirect; but the ancient religious codes are still the prime sources of the attitudes, the ideas, the ideals, and the rationalizations by which most individuals pattern their sexual lives.

No social level accepts the whole of the original Judaeo-Christian code, but each level derives its taboos from some part of the same basic religious philosophy. Whether sexual acts are evaluated in terms of what is right or wrong (as the upper social level puts it), or of what is natural or unnatural (as the lower social level considers it), the Hebraic and Christian concept of the reproductive function of sex lies back of both interpretations. The lower social level’s taboo on nudity has a long history in Jewish codes and in Catholic church rulings, and the upper level’s freer acceptance of nudity is in direct violation of church opinion. On the other hand, the upper level accepts the church’s restrictions on pre-marital and extra-marital intercourse, while the lower level largely ignores the religious objections on those items. Particular individuals may come nearer to accepting the whole of the sexual code of the particular religious group to which they belong, but the patterns of every social level depart at some point from every church code.

These apparent conflicts between the religious codes and the patterns of sexual behavior may lead one to overlook the religious origins of the social patterns. Nevertheless, the individual who denies that he is in any way influenced by church rulings still stoutly defends the church’s system of natural law, recognizes certain behavior as normal and other activities as unnatural, abnormal, and perverse, or considers that certain things (but only certain things) are fine, esthetically satisfactory, socially expedient, and decent for a mature and intelligent male to engage in. In so contending, he perpetuates the tradition of the Judaic law and the Christian precept.

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