Free Republic

White Double of the Second Class OUR NEWBORN KING and Savior is eight days old today; the Star that guides the Magi is advancing towards Bethlehem and, five days hence, will be standing over the Stable where our Jesus is being nursed by his Mother. Today, the Son of Man is to be circumcised; this first sacrifice of his innocent Flesh must honor the eighth day of his mortal life. Mysteries abound on this day: let us not pass one of them over, but honor them with all possible devotion and love. But this Day is not exclusively devoted...

“On the Eighth Day of Christmas: The Circumcision and Name of Jesus” (Luke 2:21) On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . the circumcision and name of Jesus? Huh? What? Yeah, well, that’s what happened on this day. On the eighth day of Christmas, God’s true love gave to me--and to you, to us--the circumcision and name of Jesus. That’s what our text says, the Holy Gospel for this day, Luke 2:21, which reads again as follows, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the...

The Danish Medical Association (Lægeforeningen) has recommended that no boys under the age of 18 be circumcised in Denmark. The association released its recommendation on Friday, saying that circumcision should be “an informed, personal choice” that young men should make for themselves. In a press release, the group said that when parents have their male children circumcised, it robs the boys of the ability to make decisions about their own bodies and their own cultural and religious beliefs. …

The mother of a four-year-old son, Heather Hironimus, tearfully signed an order allowing for the circumcision of her boy, so that she could be released from prison. The event has stirred a national debate about the necessity of circumcision, and the question of whether all children should be allowed the right to bodily integrity. Hironimus was imprisoned after she fled with her son, attempting to avoid the fulfillment of an agreement with the boy’s father that would see him circumcised. She’s now taken center stage on the issue, with anti-circumcision activists rallying to her cause, raising $50,000 in legal bills...

As Christians around the world got ready to contemplate the innocence of the child Jesus, last week the Russian Orthodox Church took on a UNICEF paper that says children have LGBT rights.The Patriarch’s Commission on the Family of the Russian Orthodox Church released a scathing statement criticizing a UNICEF position paper that urges countries to protect LGBT rights because, it says, it is in the “best interests of children.” The Commission turns the tables on UNICEF and says: “Placing children to be raised by same-sex couples is a gross violation of the rights and interests of a child.”The Orthodox Commission...

In the first week of public comments on a federal proposal to encourage male circumcision in the U.S., most people are telling Uncle Sam to leave the foreskins alone. “His body, his choice” and “Foreskin is not a birth defect” are among the hundreds of negative comments in the Federal Register against a proposed policy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise that males of all ages be circumcised for health reasons. The strongest objections were for infant circumcision, since it is a “human rights” violation for a male to permanently lose a piece of his body...

A judge in Alabama issued an order Wednesday throwing out the lawsuit filed by Johnny Lee Banks Jr. and his wife against a hospital and doctors he says injured him. . . . Banks says he awoke from what should have been a routine circumcision to realize his penis was gone. The hospital and doctors deny any wrongdoing.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa may turn to an Israeli circumcision device to reduce the number of young males who die in botched initiation ceremonies, provoking an outcry from union allies of the ruling party who support sanctions against the Jewish state.

The Obama administration’s anti-Semitism monitor has added an issue to his office’s portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe. Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to warn European governments that moves to ban ritual circumcision could lead to the demise of their countries’ Jewish communities. “Because circumcision is essentially universal among Jews, this can shut down a community, especially a small vulnerable community,” Forman said. No European country has outright banned the practice, but there is increasing pressure to do...

Don’t get me wrong, as a Jewish person, I support with every fiber in my body the requirement, even the need for Jewish parents to circumcise their sons. But over the years, I’ve read tons of evidence proving both sides of the circumcision debate, and I have had no use for them. The only valid reason I see for the brutal attack with a sharp knife on a defenseless infant is if God said so.

There are few reported complications after boys are circumcised during their first year of life, but the risk rises considerably if the procedure is performed later in childhood, according to a new analysis published on Monday. Previous research found wide variations in the rates of complications following male circumcisions. Those studies were often small and based on patients from a single hospital. For the new study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers used data from U.S. insurance claims for babies younger than one year old, children between ages one year and nine years and older children 10 years and older....

A new medical review published by Mayo Clinic makes the strongest case yet for cirumcision. Is it time to take the decision out of parents’ hands and make the procedure mandatory? The choice of whether to circumcise one’s son—a decision both aided and hindered by a deluge of readily available information on the Internet—is an increasingly fraught one for parents. A quick Google search for “Should I circumcise my baby?” retrieves millions of articles, blogs, and academic papers all weighing in on the risks and rewards associated with the surgical removal of a newborn’s foreskin. Now, a new review published...

<p>President Shim'on Peres sent a letter to Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of the Council of Europe, Monday, urging the council to reconsider its recent decision against circumcision.</p>

Israel against the Council of Europe: The Foreign Ministry is calling on the Council of Europe to immediately rescind a resolution calling male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children.” In a harsh statement, the ministry said: “This resolution casts a moral stain on the Council of Europe, and fosters hate and racist trends in Europe.” …

A motion to ban the circumcision of males younger than 18, unless for medical purposes, has been presented to the Swedish parliament. Two members of the right-wing, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party brought the motion forward on Tuesday. Their party, which holds only 20 of the 349 seats in parliament, argues it is the next step after Sweden’s ban on female genital mutilation. …

A German court has forbidden a woman from having her six-year-old son circumcised because of a risk of psychological damage. The decision comes a year after a similar ruling sparked an international outcry. In July 2012, a court in Cologne said religious circumcision of male infants was tantamount to grievous bodily harm, a criminal act subject to prosecution—prompting furor around the world. In response, German lawmakers were forced to clarify that circumcision was legal. But now a court in Hamm in North Rhine-Westphalia has said a woman was unfit to decide whether doctors performed the religious rite on her six-year-old...

AFP - Botched circumcisions killed 30 young men and landed almost 300 more in hospital during traditional initiation rites in a South African province, the health department said Sunday. The 30 deaths in rural Eastern Cape province occurred during the annual season when young males undergo a rite of passage into manhood. Ten other youths were hospitalised after being rescued from a forest on Sunday, said provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo in a statement. "The ten initiates' private parts are rotten. They are badly damaged. Their condition is scary," he said. A further 293 young men were undergoing hospital...

Over the last few years there have been a number of studies suggesting that male circumcision may protect against HIV infection. Several possible reasons have been offered by experts as to why circumcision offers protection against HIV infection. Now here's one more reason... A study led by Lance Price of the Translational Genomics Research Institute suggests that a significant shift in the bacterial community or microbiome of the penis as a result of circumcision could explain HIV protection. The researchers found that in men who were circumcised, the total bacterial load under the foreskin was 33.3 percent less than those...

One of Germany’s 16 states has declared circumcision legal, but only if performed by doctors — not, as required by Jewish law, by mohels. Berlin, Germany’s capital and itself a state, is the first to declare the practice legal following a Cologne court ruling in June that non-medical circumcisions on children amounted to a criminal offense, according to DPA, a German news wire. National legislation is pending to legalize circumcision. State Justice Minister Thomas Heilmann made the announcement Wednesday, saying he felt it necessary to allay fears in this “difficult transitional period,” the Associated Press reported.