No doubt about it, a growing number of modern Americans are convinced that it’s time for government officials to do some cutting and snipping in the pages of the holy books that define some of the world’s major religions.
“What you have here is an assault, by a popular referendum, on a central ritual in a recognized ancient religion,” said Marc Stern, associate general counsel for legal advocacy at the American Jewish Committee. While the current initiative may seem brazen, “it’s really nothing new. It’s easy for historians to find sources showing how the Greeks and Romans mocked the Jews for practicing circumcision.”
[blockquote]”The theme that runs through all this is the conviction that parents must yield to what society thinks is best for their children, even in matters of faith. … These cases keep coming up and all kinds of religious believers are starting to realize that.”[/blockquote]
This is nothing more or less than tyranny. We need to restore the concept of limited government, at all levels, or parish.
Go and get a job, you people. There is apparently an entire society who sole purpose is to find a new trendiness and then cry it up. L
Well the one thing we don’t want is for people to have to resort to back alley circumcisions. What we want is for it to safe, affordable and rare.
I am deeply conflicted on this subject. On the one hand I strongly support freedom of religion and fear it is under attack as never before in this country. On the other hand, what if any limits do we put on that freedom? Traditionally libertarians would argue that one’s rights end at the tip of their neighbor’s nose. But what about the tip of their kid’s johnson? Do parents have the right to maim their children in the name of freedom of religion? What about female circumcision performed by some fundamentalist Muslims? Some years ago there was a major hue and cry over what was universally described as a barbaric act of mutilation. Yet many of the same voices that rose against that practice are now rising in defense of male circumcision.
This is a tough one for me. As of right now I am leaning, if only slightly, in favor of the ban.