The WHOLE Network: Accurate Circumcision & Foreskin Information

Catholicism & Circumcision

2/1/2011

Catholics are not to circumcise:
http://www.catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/

Catholic Teachings on Circumcision (Printable Pamphlet) http://www.catholicsagainstcircumcision.org/Catholic_Brochure.pdf

The Morality of Circumcision According to the Catholic Church:
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/03/morality-of-circumcision-according-to.html

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Gonnen - Protect the Child
http://www.gonnen.org

Israeli Association Against Genital Mutilation
http://www.britmila.org.il

Jews Against Circumcision
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org

Questioning Circumcision, A Jewish Perspective by Ron Goldman., Phd.
http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/

Beyond the Bris: Jewish Intactivist Parenting Blog - A web-based multimedia project that puts real faces and voices to the current Jewish movement against male infant circumcision. This dynamic site is being created by, for, and about Jewish people with original content and great links to existing web resources.
http://www.beyondthebris.com

Ending Circumcision in the Jewish Community? by Moshe Rothenberg
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/rothenberg.html

Being rational about circumcision and Jewish observance by Moshe Rothenberg
http://www.noharmm.org/rationaljew.htm

The Kindest Un-Cut Feminism, Judaism, and My Son's Foreskin by
Professor Michael S. Kimmel
http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/kimmel1/

Ronald Goldman, Ph.D. On Alternative Rituals
http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/ritual.htm

A Jewish Woman Denounces Circumcision by Laura Shanley
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/miscarticles/circarticle.html

Jewish Circumcision: An Alternative Perspective by Jenny Goodman, MD.
http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/goodman1999/

A Case for Bris without Milah.
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish.html

Circumcision: A Jewish Feminist Perspective by Miriam Pollack
http://www.noharmm.org/pollack.htm

The Jewish Roots of Anti-Circumcision Arguments by Lisa Braver Moss
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/moss.html

One Rabbis' Thoughts on Circumcision by Rabbi Nathan Segal, February, 2007
http://www.rabbinathan.com/writings/circum.shtml

Bris Shalom by Rabbi and Cantor Steven Blane (New York)
http://www.officiant.org/brit-shalom

Brit B'lee Milah (Covenant Without Cutting) Ceremony
http://www.nocirc.org/religion/Naming_ceremony.php

Bris Shalom Ceremony by Norm Cohen
http://www.nocircofmi.org/BrisShalom.pdf

Brit Shalom Celebrants
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish-shalom.html

The Ohara's have their book Sex As Nature Intended It translated into Hebrew, and run an Israeli blog covering intactivism in Israel.
http://www.10harmfulways.com/
http://10harmfulways.blogspot.com/

"Betty Katz-Sperlich is a Jewish woman living in New Mexico, USA. A registered nurse, she is co-founder of Nurses for the Rights of the Child. She refused to circumcise her son, now aged 13.
"I've been called anti-Semitic by non-Jewish people. But as a Jew, how could I not speak up against Jewish circumcision? I would be letting Jewish babies down."
Jenny Goodman, from north London, also refused to circumcise her son. She is a doctor and a psychotherapist as well as a Jewish feminist. "I know at least a dozen non-circumcised boys whose parents are identified as Jews," she says. She adamantly opposes circumcision, claiming that it is physically and psychologically damaging to the child and violates human rights: "It also violates the most important of medical ethics, above all do no harm."
Opposition to male circumcision in the UK had its first big breakthrough 18 months ago with the controversial Channel 4 documentary It's a Boy!, by Jewish director Victor Schonfeld. It slammed the practice of Jewish circumcision as unnecessary and barbaric, with potentially horrific consequences. Mr. Schonfeld claims that public consensus against it in the UK is growing."
Nursing Times, 2/19/1997, p. 12-13. (UK)

"Once at a protest a woman stopped me and said proudly (through tears!) “I’m Jewish and I have two sons who are not circumcised. They thank me every day.” This is an exact quote. I always bring up the brit shalom ceremony and that many of the most outspoken advocates against circumcision, throughout history, have been Jewish."
- Barefoot Intactivist
Going Bare: An Exclusive Interview with Intactivism's Favorite Runner, March, 2011
http://www.beyondthebris.com/2011/05/going-bare-exclusive-interview-with.html

"There is no reason and I don't think I have the right, even as a parent, to cut a normal part of his body....Eventually I think religious people, too, will stop doing it."
- Kasher
Co-founder of one of the biggest Jewish Intactivist groups in Israel.

"Interestingly, a large percentage of the active intactivists (those who believe that all human beings deserve their basic right to bodily integrity) are Jewish men and women. Jewish physician, Dr. Fleiss, and historian, Dr. Hodges, wrote the excellent book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision and Dr. Ronald Goldman (also a Jewish man) authored both Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective and Circumcision, The Hidden Trauma : How an American Cultural Practice Affects Infants and Ultimately Us All."
- DrMomma.org, June, 2009
* http://www.drmomma.org/2009/06/circumcision-jewish-fathers-making.html *

"I believe circumcision is a major mistake...The code of the Jewish law is called "halacha" (the way). Within the Code, there is a provision that if a mother looses a son because of circumcision, she is NOT obligated to circumcise her next son. I extrapolate from this, the inter-connection of my human family, that enough deaths and maiming have occured because of circumcision. Therefore - circumcision is no longer a requisite! Just as we no longer practice the animal sacrifices in the traditional temple, so let us not sacrifice an important piece of our mammal in the temple of tradition. "
- Rabbi Natan Segal, 2007
Rabbi of Shabbos Shul, Marin County, California, U.S.A.
Ordination: 1977 Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Yeshiva B'nai Or Philadelphia, Pa.

"As a Jewish person and a circumcision opponent, I support the efforts of San Franciscan’s to ban circumcision. Their work is bringing this important human rights affront to the national stage."
- Rebecca Wald, J.D., Jewish Mother and Intactivist Activist
http://www.beyondthebris.com/2011/05/my-take-on-san-franciscos-proposed.html

"As a Jewish grandfather, I want to assure young couples about to bring a child into the world, that there are other members of the Jewish "older" generation, including other Jewish physicians, and even some rabbis, who feel as I do. If your heart and instincts tell you to leave your son intact, listen!"
- Dr. Mark D. Reiss, of Doctors Opposing Circumcision speaking to Rabbi Nathan Segal's Congregation on Kol Nidre eve.

"I am calm and comfortable in the knowledge that no one will ever take a knife to this baby's flesh in the name of religion... I am confident that my people have such an abundance of life-enhancing, life-affirming and mind-opening traditions, that our identity and sense of cultural self-heed will happily survive our outgrowing of circumcision, a cruel relic which has always felt to me like an aberration at the heart of my religion."
- Dr. Jenny Goodman
Challenging Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective (UK)

"as recently as the mid-nineteenth century, in Eastern Europe and Russia there was a widespread move to stop the practice... Led by women--what a surprise!--who thought the practice barbaric and patriarchal, the movement eventually even convinced Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, who refused to allow his own son to be circumcised."
- Michael S. Kimmel, Professor, SUNY Stony Brook
TIKKUN, Volume 16, May/June, 2001.

“You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves” (Leviticus 19:28)

"Sari Singerman, 37, and her husband, Moses Goldberg, 35, did not circumcise their son, Julian Zion. The couple said it's about time Jews against circumcision speak out -- even if it means stirring up controversy at the Petaluma Hebrew school where Goldberg is principal."
- A Few Jews are Breaking with Tradition and Having Alternative Birth Rights Instead, By Lisa Fernandez, Mercury News, San Jose, California, Saturday, 6/12/2003

"Coming from a European background... where many Jews reject a brit milla as an archaic and barbaric ritual... This author grew up in France in a traditional Jewish family. Not a single male of her generation or her children's generation within her large family (or in her circle of Jewish friends) was ever circumcised."
- Nelly Karsenty
Humanistic Judaism, 1988; 16(3): 14-20.

"I should like to suggest to my fellow Jews that perhaps the time has come to redeem the foreskin itself, rather than sacrifice it. Surely some substitute might be found for this rite, ... that would be preferable to this assault upon and mutilation of a newborn infant..."
- Professor George Wald, M.D
Harvard University Professor, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine

"...it would be anti-Semitic of us if we didn't defend Jewish babies along with other children. We respect what is beautiful in every religion or culture and speak out against what is brutal. All cultures and religions are capable of evolving."
- Mary Conant, R.N. and Betty Katz Sperlich, R.N. (a Jewish mother), founding members of "Nurses for the Rights of the Child" (http://www.nurses.cirp.org), America's largest union of Nurses who refuse to participate in circumcisions.

"I was raised as a Jew and yet I never even considered circumcising my sons. Reason told me that God or nature doesn't make mistakes. Obviously there is a vast intelligence behind all of life, and just as our eyes have eyelids to protect them, foreskins must serve a similar purpose.
When all is said and done, circumcision is really a human rights issue. What right do any of us have to permanently remove a normal, healthy, sensitive part of another person's body without their consent? I have no problem with an adult male who chooses to be circumcised. I do have a problem with an adult who makes that decision for a child. I have known too many men, both Jewish and Christian, who resent the fact that they were circumcised."
- Laura Shanley
A Jewish Woman Denounces Circumcision

"...support can be found from many Jewish sources for the view that circumcision of infants is unethical and should therefore be abandoned... Now is the time to lay the knife aside and to move forward into the 21st century with a form of ritual that is truly welcoming and that is truly purely symbolic."
- J. Goodman, MD
Jewish circumcision: an alternative perspective. BJU Int 1999; 83 Suppl 1:22-27.

"AS AN INCREASING NUMBER OF AMERICANS - including a sizable number of American Jews ( http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish.html ) - question the act of male circumcision , a group of San Francisco activists are advocating to ban circumcision... Many of the leading activists against circumcision around the country are Jewish."
Jerusalem Post, Challenging the Circumcision Myth, April 10, 2011
"In Israel, opposition to circumcision has happened in just two decades, and now these “rebels” number in the tens of thousands, according to Ronit Tamir, founder of Kahal, a support group for parents who choose not to circumcise their children."
Jewish World, 3/11/2010.

A man writes an open letter to the mohel who performed his circumcision:
http://blog.shealevy.com/2011/05/17/an-open-letter-to-mohel-michael-henesch/

Questioning Circumcision -- A Jewish Perspective
http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/

An intact Jewish American woman decides to not cut off part her son:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/1998/10/26feature.html

A cut Jewish man writes a letter to his newborn son:
http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org/letter.htm

Circumcision: A Source of Jewish Pain
http://www.jewishcircumcision.org/spectator.htm

Counseling Couples in Disagreement about Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective?
http://www.notjustskin.org/sites/notjustskin.org/files/counsel.pdf

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Christianity & Circumcision

2/1/2011

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Biblical Circumcision Information:
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/07/biblical-circumcision-information.html

Christian Parents and Infant Circumcision
http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/peron1/

Christian Parents and the Circumcision Issue (Printable Pamphlet) http://www.coloradonocirc.org/files/handouts/Christian_Parents_and_the_Circumcision_Issue.pdf

Christians: Baptism, Not Circumcision
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/02/christians-baptism-not-circumcision.html

Fish Eaters: Circumcision
http://www.fisheaters.com/circumcision.html

Germany Bans Religious Circumcision: Why Don't Christians Circumcise?
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/explainer/2012/06/germany_bans_religions_circumcision_why_don_t_christians_circumcise_.html

Is circumcision a requirement for salvation for Christian males?
http://tinyurl.com/2nhdns

Rachael's Little World: What the Bible Really Says About Circumcision
http://rachaelslittleworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-bible-really-says-about-routine.html

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Mormon & Circumcision

1/31/2011

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The Book of Mormon on Circumcision
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/07/book-of-mormon-on-circumcision.html

Mormonism and Circumcision
http://www.coloradonocirc.org/files/handouts/Mormonism_and_Circumcision.pdf

Parenting "Decision" #32: Circumcision; A Response
http://prattlingsacanadianfamily.blogspot.com/2011/02/parenting-decision-32-circumcision_10.html

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Islam and Circumcision

1/31/2011

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Circumcision - Does the Qur'an Approve it?
(original article can be found here, at QuranicPath.com)

1) Prophet Ibrahim & circumcision:

Circumcision of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) is actually not in the Qur'an. The Qur'an deals extensively with Prophet Ibrahim, his name alone is mentioned sixty-seven times. Yet the Qur'an says nothing of him being circumcised or being commanded to do so. Rather it was his faith in Allah and devotion to Him alone which is stressed throughout the Qur'an and which is to be followed. The Qur'an deals with Prophet Ibrahim's construction of the Kaba and other matters - but does not say he was told to cut off a part of his private parts. There is an important reason why as we shall see shortly.

“They say, ‘Be Jews or Christians and you will be guided.’ Say, rather adopt the religion of Abraham, a man of natural pure belief. He was not one of the idolaters.’ (Qur’an 2:136)

We follow the way of Ibrahim by following the religion communicated in the Qur'an, not the Bible where this injunction is found, teachings of Allah in the Quran supersede them:

"Allah wants to clarify to you the way of those who went before you and guide you to it, and to forgive you - Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." (Qur'an 4:26)

2) Allah tells us that He has created human beings perfectly:

In numerous Verses of the Qur'an, Allah tells us that He has created everything, including human beings, in the most perfect form. In the following verse, Allah explicitly states this with regards to the human creation:

"We have indeed created man in the 'best of moulds'." (Qur'an 95:4)

This means when a baby leaves the mother's womb, he or she is in the most perfect of shape down to the finest detail. Nothing needs alteration. With regards to the development of the baby, Allah states the following:

"Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the 'Best of all Creators!' " (Qur'an 23:14)

Notice that Allah states that He is the best creator - the resulting completed creation of the baby is thus in its optimal form.

In another verse, Allah states:

"The work of Allah who has 'perfected everything' (He created)." (Qur'an 27:88)

Also in two other Verses, in relation to human beings, Allah says the following:

"The One Who has 'perfected everything' He has created and began the creation of human beings from clay" (Qur'an 32:7)

"Allah is the One who made the Earth a habitat for you, and the sky as a structure, and He designed you, and has perfected your design. " (Qur'an 40:64)

Closer look at 32:7

الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَهُ وَبَدَأَ خَلْقَ الإِنْسَانِ مِنْ طِينٍ

"The One who has PERFECTED EVERYTHING HE HAS CREATED and began the creation of mankind from clay" (32:7)

In this verse Allah states He has أَحْسَنَ everything He made. The word originating from حَسَن (good) is in superlative form, when applied in this manner, it means the infinitely highest form of حَسَن. Thus, the translation is "PERFECTED" everything (the same goes for 40:64). "Everything", translation of كُلَّ شَيْءٍ means EVERYTHING Allah has made, stars, moon, plants, animals, the human being. Thus the male genitalia is perfected by Allah.

40:64 is in direct reference to human beings ("perfected your [i.e. human kind's] design").

All these verses tell us that Allah creates human beings, male and female, perfectly in the mother's womb. The design of the foreskin on the male is an intentional act of creation. Allah did not make a 'mistake' in designing the foreskin of the male. He does not need mankind to take a knife and start cutting off bits from all males, as if though it is a 'corrective procedure' to a design flaw.

"You will not see any flaw in what the Lord of Mercy creates." (Qur'an 67:3)

The proponents of circumcision say there are reasons such as hygiene and other benefits behind them doing this. This is actually an insult against Allah. Because, had it been 'better' in anyway to not have the foreskin, Allah would have designed all male babies without that bit of the foreskin - as Allah states, he has perfected His creation as is stated in several verses in the Qur'an. As per the Quranic understanding, medical research shows that the foreskin serves numerous useful purposes and is designed intentionally by Allah to serve these purposes.

Another site explaining circumcision & Islamic perspectives:
http://www.quran.org/khatne.htm

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Catholicism & Circumcision

Judaism & Circumcision

Christianity & Circumcision

Mormon & Circumcision

Islam and Circumcision

Religion & Circumcision

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