Circumcision Protestors Need To Cut It Out

Gabriel Dalcomune/PantherNOW

Melanie Arougueti/Staff Writer

On Thursday, Jan. 31, men and women walked around our university’s main campus dressed in white clothes with bloodstains on the groin area, and holding picket signs reading, “I want my foreskin back.” 

Despite the protesters’ concerns about the supposed inhumanity of circumcision, the positives outweigh any concerns when it comes to trauma.

Bloodstained Men and Their Friends are the non-profit organization in question. Besides visiting our campus, they also hung around the Brickell area last week, standing by the Super Bowl traffic to protest against the circumcision of boys in the United States. However, that isn’t all they were protesting.

As an earlier PantherNOW article pointed out, one of the signs read, “cut bagels, not penises.” This is a flamboyant attack on the Jewish community, of which I am part of, who traditionally circumcise their boys at eight days old.

We understand that the lawn near the Graham Center is for freedom of speech, but we should be able to draw the line at hate speech and stereotypes.

Another one of the organization’s main concerns is doctors and hospitals making money off of circumcision. What they forgot to point out, as they bullied Jews for eating bagels, is that Orthodox Jews do not usually get doctors in hospitals to perform the circumcision. Instead, they get someone called a “Mohel,” or a Jew trained in circumcision. They are also by donation only.

Not only does this organization target Jewish and Muslim beliefs—it also goes against many medical and professional health organizations who say that circumcision prevents infections and other health risks. 

Some of the main health benefits include “a lower risk of HIV, syphilis, human papilloma virus and genital herpes, lower risk of cervical cancer in sexual partners and lower risk of penile cancer over a lifetime,” according to John Hopkins Adolescent Medicine Specialist Arik Marcell.

While opponents of circumcision are often quick to compare it to the process of female genital mutilation, this could not be more of a fallacy. Circumcision has proven health benefits, while the latter only inflicts harm.

We should focus on how to protect our children from many things, but circumcision is not one of them. Perhaps the Bloodstained Men and Their Friends should consider some of these facts the next time they shame entire religions for their belief system.

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1 Comment on "Circumcision Protestors Need To Cut It Out"

  1. The vast, vast majority of intactivists (those who believe infant / child circumcision is an issue of human rights) are not anti-semitic at all! In fact, I personally know of many persons of Jewish ethnicity who are now against infant circumcision and instead support a brit shalom, a peaceful naming of the child event, welcoming him into the Jewish family, without physical circumcision.

    Indeed, the writer of the article and very likely few other readers are aware that the Jewish rabbis themselves changed their method of circumcision in about 140 CE to be the “laying bare of the glans.” Before this, only the TRUE BIBLICAL FORESKIN was removed, the part that naturally extends beyond the head of the penis. This is a FACT admitted by the Jewish Encyclopedia itself and the change was made to make it far more difficult for Jewish people not happy with their circumcisions to “restore” their foreskins through stretching exercises in order to participate in ancient games with the Greeks. This is historical fact that can be verified. In fact, of concern to both Christians and Jews is the fact that circumcision was practiced in ancient Egypt BEFORE it was practiced in Judaism.

    While I understand the sentiment that some claim that circumcision of a child is absolutely required to be Jewish, why should the human rights of a child be violated? He can decide for himself at or after the age of 18 if he wishes to be circumcised. The Apostle Paul was a Jew, was he not? He called circumcision a form of mutilation in Philippians 3:2.

    Indeed, a careful reading of Exodus 4:24-26 in the Pentateuch (old testament) demonstrates very plainly that circumcision was a BLOOD SACRIFICE FOR SIN under the old covenant in the Bible. Since Jewish people are not sacrificing animals to God today as an atonement for sin (in the absence of the temple), why do they insist the blood sacrifice of circumcision must be continued?

    The so-called medical benefits of circumcision have been debunked over and over again, but in the United States, there is a multi-million dollar windfall for American medicine. Please check out the new documentary called American Circumcision on Netflix to find out how widespread, non-religious, circumcision got started in the United States. Also, please check out my website about circumcision in the Bible – https://CircumcisionInBible.WordPress.com God bless!

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