This is an interesting Washington Post article. It says that increasing numbers of American Christians are circumcising their baby boys for religious reasons -- and in the home, by a mohel no less. I think that Paul put to rest any theological justification for circumcision, although he circumcised Timothy.
Before we found out that we were having a little girl, I researched the subject and determined that there was barely any medical justification for infant circumcision, and certainly none to offset the potential risks.
Well, enough of the serious talk. This is Locusts & Honey after all. Here is a great clip on circumcision from the Mel Brooks film Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
[YouTube Link]
What do you think of the practice of routine infant circumcision?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
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7 comments:
First son had a circ. After reading an article in Mothering mag titled, "Where is my foreskin", I declined on the next two boys. Third son got a raging infection and had to be circed in surgery at one year old. Middle son felt like he didn't match husband and brothers, and begged in his journal at school (i do not lie again), to be circumcised. All men in the Vyne home match now...
When my son was born, the pediatrician was all revved up to perform the circumcision. My wife and I asked him one question which stopped him in his tracks:
We asked, "can you give us one single reason why this procedure is medically necessary?"
He had no answer.
I see no value in electing to perform surgery on an infant for the sake of cosmetics.
It's not medically necessary and shouldn't be done on infants. Christians in the USA are the only Christians worldwide who do it. Because it's not common any more where I live, most of the men I know including my partner are uncut and have never had any problems. It's usually mis-management (over cleaning etc) that causes the problems.
No medical reason, no Christian reason.
My kid has never gotten ribbed about this. Then again, he does go to a hippie Montessori school.
We did not circumcise our son as an infant. Unfortunately, he ended up being non-retractable, and had several painful bladder infections as a small child. He was circumcised for medical reasons at age 8.
Don't know what I would do if faced with the decision again with a second boy.
UTI's in infant boys and girls and the elderly are caused from dirty diapers and not from having a prepuce. Boys can be treated the same way as girls, circumcision is not necessary. That's a bad reason to cover up your own mistakes.
There are manual methods to prevent and clear up tight foreskins. The doctors can't make money by them, so you don't hear about them.
The only reason Christianity exists is because a bunch of rebel Jews wanted to replace the sacrifice of circumcision with a ritual cleancing called baptism.
Their own bible says that Jesus sacrificed His life in fulfillment of the laws of Abraham, making circumcision of infants unnecessary. It also says that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised then Jesus' sacrifice will profit you nothing and He will lose value with you. I think some people are trying to make Jesus out to be the false Messiah to prove themselves as the chosen race. Many Christians are falling from grace with nature.
If done for religious reasons, it is clearly wrong. It's just a cultural thing to do.
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