The Most Unkind Cut
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What if I were to tell you that a new trend is being practiced in the United States by the parents of newborn baby boys, wherein they are giving the children nose jobs so that they can look more like their father, or that the parents are cutting off the earlobes of the babes so that they can be cleaner? What if you had just given birth to a beautiful, cooing baby girl and the nurse walked in and cheerfully asked if you’d like to mutilate her genitalia before her noon feeding. In either one of those situations, no doubt you’d be disbelieving and outraged at such a suggestion! But everyday thousands of babies across the United States suffer a similar fate when their parents decide that a baby boy should not have a foreskin and so they practice routine circumcision. Circumcision, put simply, is cosmetic surgery, in that it involves changing the appearance of your child’s body for aesthetic reasons.
The United States is the only country in the world that routinely practices the circumcision of their newborns. Across the globe elsewhere, circumcision is rarely practiced unless there is a medical or religious reason to do so. Here in the U.S., the vast majority of parents opt to have the procedure done, although the number of parents refusing the pointless procedure is on a rapid rise. Most parents typically don’t think about circumcision as an issue while they shop for cribs and have baby showers and select names…it’s just something you “do” if you have a son, so when asked in the hospital after the delivery if they want their child circumcised, they blindly accept the procedure without questioning it’s purpose. However, in the future when asked why they decided to go through with it, the most common reasons given to justify the procedure might surprise you.
When asking my friends why they decided to circumcise their sons, the most common reasoning is that so the child can “look like daddy.” They don’t want the child to feel or look different than his father, brother or peers and be teased. Is this really a problem? Do men really sit around comparing how they look and then teasing the ones who look different? No, of course not. And what sort of justification is this anyway, to look like their daddy. Nobody will ever walk up and say, “Oh how cute….Junior got his daddy’s penis!”. Following the same thought process, if your child is born with your grandfather’s nose, are you going to have a nose job on him so he can look more like his father? Or perhaps his lips are too thin like Aunt Beatrice and he needs collagen injections to fatten them up to look more like your husbands. In a world possessed with appearances, how far are we willing to go?
Another common answer that I receive when I question is that it’s dirty. This often ties in with the Biblical argument that God told men to have themselves circumcised. The uncircumcised penis is not dirty. People confuse smegma, a lubricant naturally produced by the glands in the head of the penis, with dirty. It is the same sort of lubrication that a woman’s vagina provides, a natural way to keep drying out from occurring. If the man bathes daily and washes himself daily as he should then the penis is not dirty. Yes, he will have to push his foreskin back and wash underneath, adding an entire 30 seconds to his shower, but that really shouldn’t be such an inconvenience. As far as the Bible calling uncircumcised penises dirty, it isn’t true. Nowhere in the Bible do they actually come out and say they are dirty. The Old Testament states that at the time of Abraham, circumcision was established as a covenant between God and the Hebrew people. (Genesis 17: 10-14) There are many speculations as to the reasons and background of this particular practice. Many historians believe that the early Hebrews practiced a simple gashing of the foreskin rather than the more drastic and traumatic practice that is done today with clamps and scalpels. Circumcision was also practiced by many other primitive tribes, well before the time of Abraham. Its actual beginnings were Pagan in origin. Besides, I’d like to point out that the men in the Bible ran around in robes in the desert with no protection of underwear underneath and didn’t bathe frequently, so yes, they most certainly were dirty. In the New Testament, circumcision is mentioned infrequently, the most notable of which is Jesus having his follower Timothy have his penis circumcised only so that he could be more easily related to by the Jewish groups Jesus was going to speak to. Christians are not bound by Old Testament practices. Many people now realize that there were many customs and practices that were common in Old Testament times, such as using animals as ritual sacrifice, taking multiple wives or impregnating servants, which may have made sense to those people at that time, but have little relevancy or acceptability today. As the old adage goes, “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.”
When the Gospel was to be spread to the Gentile world, during the time of St. Paul, circumcision of Gentile converts was a matter of intense debate. Circumcision was dangerous, painful, and culturally repugnant to the Greeks and Romans. Early Christian church authorities quickly decided that circumcision was unnecessary.
“For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we can wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” Galatians 5:1-6
“It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:12-16.
“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evil-workers, look out for those who