JemCheeta wrote:Gen. 38:8-10 - Onan is killed by God for practicing contraception (withdrawal) and spilling his semen on the ground.
Boy. I'm liking this 'God' guy less and less as time goes on.
Well, here's another interpretation of the passage, from David Guzik:
3. (8-10) Onan's refusal to raise up offspring for Tamar
a. According to the custom of levirate marriage (later codified into law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10
), if a man died before providing sons to his wife, it was the duty of his brothers to "marry" her and to give her sons. The child would be considered the son of the brother who had died, because really the living brother was acting in his place
i. This was done so that the dead brother's name would be carried on; but also, so that the widow would have children who could support her. Apart from this, she would likely live the rest of her life as a destitute widow
b. Onan refused to take this responsibility seriously; he was more than happy to use Tamar for his own sexual gratification, but he did not want to give Tamar a son that he would have to support, but would be considered to be the son of Er
c. Onan pursued sex as only a pleasurable experience; if he really didn't want to father a child by Tamar, why did he have sex with her at all? He refused to fulfill his obligation to his dead brother and Tamar
d. Many Christians have used this passage as a proof-text against masturbation; indeed, masturbation has been called "onanism." However, this does not seem to be the case here; whatever Onan was doing, he was not masturbating! This was not a sin of masturbation, but a sin of refusing to care for his brother's widow by giving her offspring, and of a selfish use of sex
God didn't like Onan's abuse of Tamar, and his shirking his responsibility.
I prefer to choose interpretations that upset me the most, as it gives more more to argue against. 
