http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...894_story.html
COMMENTARY: Questioning cir cision isn’t anti-Semitic
By Ronald Goldman| Religion News Service, Published: October 18
RNS () — Earlier this month the Council of Europe agreed on a nonbinding resolution in support of “children’s right to physical integrity.” The purpose was to reinforce the protection of children’s rights, oppose violence against children, and promote children’s participation in significant decisions that affect them. Forced genital cutting of male and female children was mentioned among examples of violations.
The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is an international organization that promotes cooperation in the areas of human rights, legal standards, and democratic development. The vote on this resolution was 78 to 13, with 15 abstentions.
Days later, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with traditional Jewish groups, denounced the resolution. The ministry statement said the resolution “fosters hate and racist trends,” denied that cir cision causes any harm, and strongly objected to any comparison between cutting of male and female genitals.
Others called the resolution anti-Semitic, a violation of religious freedom, and a “thinly disguised attack” on European Jews. This predictable reaction calls for a response.
For one, the Israeli ministry does not speak for all Jews, European Jews, or even all Israelis. The Jewish Cir cision Resource Center represents Jews around the world who question ritual cir cision.
Here are some relevant facts.
* Jewish cir cision is not mandatory; it is a choice. Some Jews in North America, South America, Europe, and Israel do not cir cise their sons.
* Cir cision is a topic of debate in the Jewish community and has been questioned historically and in various Jewish publications in recent years.
* In actual practice, most Jews cir cise because of cultural conformity, not religious reasons.
* According to the “Encyclopedia Judaica,” ‘’any child born of a Jewish mother is a Jew, whether cir cised or not.”
* According to Jewish values, the human body must not be altered or marked, and causing pain to any living creature is prohibited. Some Jews believe that cir cision is not ethical. Jewish values place ethical behavior above doctrine.
By rejecting any merit in opposing arguments, defenders of cir cision suspect a hidden motivation. They also fail to differentiate between reasonable criticism of this specific practice and a more general unjustified hostile at ude.
It is possible to question the actions of a person or group without being categorically opposed to the person or group. Are those who question an American government policy anti-American? Questioning an action that one believes to be harmful is more likely to be motivated by good will than ill will.
Jewish authorities avoid the resolution’s central issue. They do not claim that children do not have a right to physical integrity, nor do they claim that cir cision is not a violation of physical integrity. Jewish authorities tacitly admit they have no direct response. Their verbal attacks on the resolution appear to be intended to intimidate critics.
Cir cision is an exception to accepted principles like the Golden Rule; adults would not tolerate cir cisions forced on them. If cir cision were introduced today, we would be horrified, as some are horrified when they first learn about the procedure. If any other body parts of children were cut off, we would adamantly object.
Religious freedom has its limits. For example, when a child’s health depends on medical treatment that a particular religion otherwise prohibits, courts may overrule the religious freedom of the parents for the safety, health and welfare of that child. Many people recognize that a child’s safety, health, and welfare are adversely affected by cir cision, and they feel empathy.
The harm starts the moment an instrument penetrates or clamps a healthy, natural, functioning body part — any body part. The belief that male genital cutting is unlike female genital cutting does not withstand scrutiny. Though cir cision defenders routinely deny harm, common sense and dozens of studies confirm significant physical, sexual, and psychological harm. We owe it to the children to be open to examining this harm. Medical opinions in support of cir cision are explained by psychosocial factors, serious omissions, and medical and cultural bias.
Jews have been cir cising their sons for thousands of years, but this does not justify or reduce the harm. It perpetuates it. Research on cir cision, trauma theory and clinical experience support the view that cir cision is traumatic. An iceberg of underlying emotional factors contribute to a compulsion to repeat cir cision trauma, generation after generation. “What’s done to children,” the saying goes, “they will do to society.”
We need to pay attention to and trust our intellectual, emotional, and ethical conflicts about cir cision. The world is gathering its courage to protect children. We need to continue this effort and work together with compassion, understanding, and persistence, for the children.
(Ronald Goldman is executive director of the Jewish Cir cision Resource Center and author of “Questioning Cir cision: A Jewish Perspective” and “Cir cision: The Hidden Trauma.”)
Copyright: For copyright information, please check with the distributor of this item, Religion News Service LLC.
I still don't know why GodAllah wants to collect all the foreskins -- but if his followers feel they should do it, I propose they do it the way Abraham did: as an adult, by himself and without anesthetic. GodAllah will know you're serious about det covenant then.
You love yourself some male genitalia discussion, eh s>m?
It's funny because it's not mentioned in the Quran and is strictly forbidden in the Bible, yet people continue to do it to try to be like their Jewish overlords and pay shekels to Doc Shekelstein.
Judaism is satanic.
looks like i stepped in
Strictly forbidden?
Where?
I don't see anything wrong with the article. Religious freedom should have its limits, one of which being someone's foreskin getting chopped off before he's old enough to make the choice himself. If someone who's over 18 years old wants to get cir cised, there's medical technology to make it a painless procedure, so the argument that "You have to do it while the baby is young and has undeveloped nerves" is bull .
I also read the other day several babies have died this year during the rabbi performed cir cision where the rabbi sucks on the baby's afterwards. The fact it's legal for rabbis to perform cir cisions and suck on baby penis is disgusting.
Lol didnt read
Didn't read about anyone's dying from that, but a bunch got herpes.
That's pretty gross. Use a sponge, rabbi.
Gal. 5:2 "Behold, I Paul, say to you that if you become cir cised, Christ will profit you nothing!"
Gal. 5:3 "And I testify again to every male who receives cir cision, that he is in debt to keep the whole Law. You who do so have been severed from Christ. . . you have fallen from grace."
Phil. 3:2 "Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilation! For WE are the true cir cision, who worship in the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put NO confidence in the flesh!"
Col. 2:8-14 "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men...rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made whole.. and in Him you were also cir cised, with a cir cision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the cir cision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, and raised up with Him through faith. And...in the uncir cision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him. . . having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which were hostile to us. And He has taken them out of the way, having nailed them to the cross."
And there are many other examples that I don't have time to look for, basically if you're a Christian you believe that Christ died for your sins, if you're going to seek salvation through the old law then you'd better uphold all of it.
you seem a little upset for some odd reason, lashing out at several posters. trauma of being half a man too much for you to bear?
Which version is that?
Yeah I read that too and it's pretty in weird, I had no idea there was a herpes epidemic among Jewish clergymen
you seriously didn't know that tons of babies die from this every year?
I am sure there are plenty of other examples that do not forbid cir cision. Those do not.
Holding your baby boy up for a stranger suck your baby's
You're from Canada right? Please tell them how laughable this practice is to the rest of the world outside of the US.
then your reading comprehension and understanding of Christianity sucks
The last verse of the Galatians stanza says it doesn't matter eitehr way. He is talking about vanity and its pretty obvious. That was one thing about Paul, he doesn't mince words even if he is full of .
The Phillipians has him saying that he is the cir cision. Hardly a forebidding.It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be cir cised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be cir cised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither cir cision nor uncir cision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Heis saying to the colossians that again you don't ahve to be cir cised.
All you are doing is quoting the bible verses where Paul is telling Gentiles they do not have to cut their pricks to be Christians. He doesn't forbid it but he does say that Christianity is through faith alone. That goes into a more central argument in how he differs greatly with Peter and Jesus in those regards but that is a digression.
Paul was doing sales work.
Jesus: "I'm your foreskin now."
Christ IS the cir cision as you just mentioned, it's pretty clear that to seek salvation through cir cision of the flesh is to reject Christ
This next quote is not just saying that you don't have to cut half of your off to be a Christian, it is WARNING against it.
"And I testify again to every male who receives cir cision, that he is in debt to keep the whole Law. You who do so have been severed from Christ. . . you have fallen from grace."
If Christ IS the cir cision, yet you opt for other options, that is REJECTION of Christ. It is clear that cir cision is FORBIDDEN in Christianity, you are a zionist lackey, an enemy of Christians throughout the centuries and I will NOT play the part of Goy in your sick games you son of a
NIV says "you who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
KJV says "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
RSV says "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace."
Where is yours from?
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