Circumcision: is it moral?

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jrabs said:
My fiancé stopped visiting this forum based on threads of circumcision and as heated as they get.🤷 Not sure why people get so emotional over a personal parental decision.

What he told me was that few men chime in on the topic - and that the passion is usually from women. Interesting as that is. Why would that be I wonder?
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It’s weird. I have no idea why either. I find it’s mostly women who get all worked up about circumcision,spanking, “attachment parenting”, “whole foods” & the like.
It’s a free country & there’s no one right way to raise a child. We need to take a deep breath & be thankful for that freedom.
 
Cracker_Mom said:
It’s weird. I have no idea why either. I find it’s mostly women who get all worked up about circumcision,spanking, “attachment parenting”, “whole foods” & the like.
It’s a free country & there’s no one right way to raise a child. We need to take a deep breath & be thankful for that freedom.
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Yes, I agree. You may be new to the CA forum ( and welcome) but I see you’ve read many a thread. 😃
 
jrabs said:
My fiancé stopped visiting this forum based on threads of circumcision and as heated as they get.🤷 Not sure why people get so emotional over a personal parental decision.

What he told me was that few men chime in on the topic - and that the passion is usually from women. Interesting as that is. Why would that be I wonder?
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Because, even as I defend circumcision with one hand, I’m holding onto the family jewels with the other 🙂
 
Circumcision is a parental decision. I did not think I would have a son of mine circumcised either until I talked with my sister who is a surgical tech. She said they do a lot of circumcisons on males well beyond the baby years for various medical reasons and that if she had a son she would have him circumcised to save her son from having to go through it at an older age. Also I have had two nephews who had to go through circumcision at age five and six for medical problems, I think it had to do with urinary problems and they did suffer for a few days. Other nephews had no problems so far not being circumcised. So there are benifits to circumcise and not to circumcise. No one is being evil in making a decision one way or the other. We as parents do what we think best for our children under the Magerserium of the Church.
 
jrabs said:
Yes, I agree. You may be new to the CA forum ( and welcome) but I see you’ve read many a thread. 😃
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Actually I haven’t read too many posts but being a “veteran” mom I’ve run into these issues & heated opinions many a time, especially since we used to homeschool.
 
Circumcision is NOT a Christian-held belief inasmuch as salvation is dependent upon it. St. Paul vividly preached that, after Christ, circumcision had no relevance.

Jesus instituted the New Covenant. That meant Mosaic law was pre-empted and the sacraments then were the instruments to salvation.

Cicumcision is NOT a sacrament…baptism, is believed to replace circumcision as an identifying “mark” as to being among God’s people. Baptism is a SPIRITUAL allegiance to God in the Trinity whereas circimcision is a physical and visible proclamation during the Old Testament.

If a christian were to be circumsized thinking that it would solidify his nexus to God he would be, in a sense, be saying that “…I don’t think baptism is enough…” And thereby minimizing the sacrament which is Divine and spiritual in favor of a physical mark. And that flies-in-the-face of Confirmation. It then becomes a lack of assuredness of Baptism and Confirmation. Not a firm position for a Catholic to take, IMO.

It could be a redundancy or it could be a hidden statement of “doubt.” (Circumcision, that is.)

Jesus, the Son of God and Second Person in the Holy Trinity commanded us to be BAPTIZED. The New Testament is essentially an internal (spiritual) connect with God and that is where the heart is.
 
Andruschak said:
Child Abuse Begins With Circumcision:mad:
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I look at all the Old Testament laws even though Moses and God made them religiously significant they were all also for significant for the health and well being of the Jewish people. A few examples might be the ceremonial hand washing, the prohibitions on certain types of foods, etc… It seems to me that God knows best, and yes I do wash my hands before I eat or prepare foods not as a religious thing now but as a health thing.

When my middle boy was born in Massachusetts the nurses were very obnoxious in trying to force me into not circumcising my son. It was a religion with them and I broke one of their commandments when I insisted that my son be circumcised like his father. My experience with the anti-circumcision crowd is that they are as Nazi’s forcing their narrow Gnostic views on the population.

My father when he was around 50 had surgery on his prostate and the doctor insisted that he be circumcised for medical reasons.

Child abuse is physical abuse, torture, consistent psychological harm or teaching the children that homosexuality is an acceptable societal norm. Child abuse is not circumcision.
 
roymckenzie said:
I look at all the Old Testament laws even though Moses and God made them religiously significant they were all also for significant for the health and well being of the Jewish people. A few examples might be the ceremonial hand washing, the prohibitions on certain types of foods, etc… It seems to me that God knows best, and yes I do wash my hands before I eat or prepare foods not as a religious thing now but as a health thing.

When my middle boy was born in Massachusetts the nurses were very obnoxious in trying to force me into not circumcising my son. It was a religion with them and I broke one of their commandments when I insisted that my son be circumcised like his father. My experience with the anti-circumcision crowd is that they are as Nazi’s forcing their narrow Gnostic views on the population.

My father when he was around 50 had surgery on his prostate and the doctor insisted that he be circumcised for medical reasons.

Child abuse is physical abuse, torture, consistent psychological harm or teaching the children that homosexuality is an acceptable societal norm. Child abuse is not circumcision.
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Yup, I would agree to most of the above. I don’t know about “Nazis”, though.
Many folks seem to turn things like circumcision, “whole foods”, homeschooling, breastfeeding, & the like into almost a quasi-religion.
My thought is you can be a good Catholic & not have to embrace all of the above. Educate yourself on the choices you have as a parent & make your decision. We are free to do that as Catholics.
 
From a Catholic mother and nurse standpoint, there is no sin or perverseness in cleanliness! A lot of mothers, for whatever reason, are never taught to pull the foreskin down to clean their child’s penis. Infections are apt to happen sooner or later. It cost a heck of a lot less to circumcise a newborn than it does to circumcise an adolescent or a man, especially if it is being done due to infections at that point.
 
I have to agree with the cleanliness points but a child needs to be taught this anyways girls and boys.

Ever since I have been married many years my dh cleans himself and I do too after our relations if not before too but consider ing we are supposed to be clean and a spur of the moment happens we have a box of wipes and tissue and bacterial wipes at our bedside drawer, so that we don’t have to make a trip to the bathroom if not wanting to stop the closeness.

Urine, urea, is very toxic. Caries all the bacteria and cleanliness is something to be taught anyways.
There wouldn’t be so much herpes II or I, if more did this.
Buttttt… there still is so I just don’t agree that we should allow this circumcision as anatural process and I think Valke is right in the bible times it was just a slit and not the whole foreskin was cut off .
I think the foreskin allows the male some what a control over his person unless I am wrong about this. I am a woman so I wouldn’t know how this makes him feel.
I just think God made us with this part of our body.
examples;
Would God want a woman to have her outer labia to be cut out because it gets int the way?

God gave us an outer muscle for the anus and an inner one so we could control our bowels, look what happens when the docs cut the nerve to these.

I just believe God put us together a certain way, He also gave us wisdom teeth which we can’t really use and we have them taken out sometimes when we have problems, because they seem to serve no purpose, but get rotted because we don’t get back to them and brush well.

Now maybe some day men will get born without the extra skin if we evolve more, then I suppose they will try to transplant them back on. :rolleyes:
D.
 
Valke2 said:
When it comes to circumcision, all angles should be carefully considered before the final cut.
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:rotfl: :blushing:

You poor guys! I need to be more humble, and remember this before I get upset with my husband again. And, be happy and grateful all went well with his as a baby.

God is good!
 
The health benefits from circumcision are contested in many medical circles these days. Some even suspect that circumcision can be a detriment. I really don’t know.
 
Yikes! Please don’t lump all of us AP/breastfeeding/homeschooling parents into the same boat as the anti-circ crowd!! 😉

I’ve NEVER implied (or outright stated as seen on this thread) that those who don’t practice AP/breastfeeding/homeschooling are abusing their children. Good grief, what a horrible education tactic that is!

It’s amazing how quickly hysterical responses will shut a person’s ears down. A nice chance to calmly educate people about a differing point of view lost due to unrestrained emotions. Too bad.

FMS
 
dessert said:
…I think Valke is right in the bible times it was just a slit and not the whole foreskin was cut off …
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This can be refuted, firstly, by the name of the procedure itself. The circum- in circumcision means the skin is cut (cised) all the way around, just as the circumference is the distance all the way around a circle, not just a slit out of a circle.

And secondly, by the continual observance of circumcision as a the Sign of the Covenant observed by Jews to this day. While the amount of skin circumcised by Jews may vary, it is always practiced as a removal of some piece of the foreskin all the way around the penis. It is as unthinkable to imagine that Jews would change such an important element of their religious observance as it would be to imagine the Catholic Church changing the elements of the Eucharist to something other than bread and wine. Or if the practice was changed, we should expect to find a record of argument and debate about changing the Sign of the Covenant from a slit to an all-around cut, probably with many Jews continuing to adhere to the older, Traditional custom. To my knowledge, there is no record of any such debate and the practice of all religious Jews today is uniform: an all-around excision of some piece of the foreskin.
 
Valke2 said:
That wasn’t me that said that. It must have been someone else.
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:whistle:
You are loveable, no matter - love means not counting the costs.🙂

Plus- you have a sense of humor that I truly appreciate.

And, we are only talking about skin now. Its merely the largest part of the human body, So what the hey. Snip away.:eek:
 
I see no need for it in modern society which values cleanliness & personal hygiene.

Only 12% of boys in Australasia are circumcised. Are they dropping dead? Do we have a health crises? No.

You DON"T retract the foreskin to clean it when they are children. Its not fully retractable until they reach puberty.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians states “there is no medical indication for routine neonatal circumcision.”

I don’t think its immoral but i do think it is unnecessary.
 
Look:

God commanded the Jews to do it, therefore it is not immoral. God doesn’t command immorality.

We are no longer bound by the old Law; hence, we have no obligation to do it.

The Church does not condemn the practice; thus, it is acceptable.

I’ve seen folks in this thread suggest that the Church should change her teaching on this matter, which strikes me as odd: isn’t that what many people say about the Church’s teachings on sex, abortion, stem cell research, marriage, homosexuality, going to Mass every week, and a host of other issues?

Don’t we answer that by saying that the Church teaches infallibly on matters of faith and morals?

If the Church does not say it’s immoral to circumcise, then it isn’t immoral – period.

We can’t pick and choose which teachings (or lacks thereof) we want to accept any more than anti-, non-, and cafeteria Catholics can.

Peace,
Dante
 
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