3 Comments

David Nickol
August 10th, 2012 | 11:30 am

Regarding The Sacred Rite of Circumcision
I wonder if part of the divide isn’t between those (who would almost certainly have to be Jews, Christians, and perhaps Muslims) who see circumcision as a sacred rite because they believe the account in Genesis 17 is literally true (or at least that it is God’s will that Jewish men be circumcised) and those who don’t believe that. The latter would not necessarily be outside Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but could be people who simply have a different interpretation of the Hebrew Bible.

Animal sacrifice was once sacred, too, and yet I don’t think many Christians or Jews in the 21st century would want to engage in it.

George
August 12th, 2012 | 10:38 am

David,

I agree that probably has something to do with it. I also think there is more than bit of a clash of ingrained cultures happening. As I understand it, circumcision was a common tradition among many ancient Semitic peoples, but a non existent practice among ancient European peoples.

So, it makes sense to me that 1.Muslims and Jews think nothing of circumcision and have worked it into their religious tradition. and 2.The largest outcry against circumcision seems to come from northern European countries.

Also, I’d reorder the religions in your statement to say, “…Jews, Muslims, and perhaps Christians.”

Most forms of Christianity that I am aware of do not require circumcision. The rite seems to have a much larger significance in Islam than in Christianity.

Blake
August 12th, 2012 | 6:22 pm

Animal sacrifice was once sacred, too, and yet I don’t think many Christians or Jews in the 21st century would want to engage in it.

I also don’t think many Americans would respond well if a tiny group of activists took it upon themselves to use government force to “make” people be vegetarians, relying solely on the argument that their beliefs are self-evidently superior and therefore religious liberty doesn’t matter.