I posted this article I wrote on circumcision and wanted to open it up for discussion here. I received a lot of emails about it that I am going to post here that I found really insightful. Some of the most interesting information is......
- Penn Jillette & Teller's show, "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" which airs on Showtime....an amazingly powerful episode that you can watch online, speaking out very strongly against circumcision!!! Some things you'll learn:
- how to restore your own foreskin (naturally!)
- that hospitals sell your baby's foreskin to cosmetic companies!
- the foreskin has sexual function for both male and female
- conformity is the only reason to circumcise. (and of course that's not a very good reason!)
Watch this show here- A correction. I compared circumcision with female mutilation which is apparently much much worse. However there are certain similarities. Read more at bottom on this topic.
Some interesting emails that I received in response to my circumcision article.....
Hi Jinjee. In college I did a research/speach about this topic. My son is 12 and I didn't have him circumsized and he's fine/clean/healthy. As far as the research, I found out that it is a religious practice by Jews and that Western Medicine calls it something like neccessary for the sake of hygiene.
My arguement was that why did God gives us eyelids? Did He make a mistake? They are to protect our eyes, so is the foreskin on a male's genitals.
It is a socially excepted procedure and some parents are like "so why didn't you have him circumsized", then I must explain that God makes no mistakes we do. Just like hysterictmys (oops) and other unneccesary procedures that really rake in the money.
Also, I did read somewhere that most of the sexual assaultants are circumsized. Go figure. Okay great topic. :)
hi Jinjee, I love the things you write.
Pls note that male circumcision is NOT at all like female circumcision. Female circumcision is traditionally done to young girls, not babies. It is rarely done in hospitals (educated doctors would never perform such a procedure). Most female circumcision is practice out in the village by the village witchdoctor. It is often done with glass or rusty knives. A large part of the vaginal area is cut including the labia, and then the girl's innards are often scraped. After that the girls are sewn up with nothing or with thorns.
A large proportion of girls get infections and die because of this procedure. Or if they don't, when they first have sex the sex is so painful you can imagine, painful as in you think you are going to die and you do pass out painful. If the girl hasn't already died from the initial procedure, the likelyhood of her dying from her "deflowering" is highly likely because she is often partially or completely sewn up (like a purse) and the skin is ripped in order to have sex. The loss of blood and onset of infection is so high that the girl now woman (hopefully) often dies at this point.
I can understand why you are against male circumcision, and your point comparing it to female was not the point of your post. But you should know that your claim that female and male are alike, is exactly what those who are for female circumcision use to say "its not that bad". Unlike male circumcision, female circumcision is a death wish.
heather haxo phillips
Dear Jinjee,
I love all the inspirational and valuable information you share daily with us, Sister Jinjee, and so I humbly take issue with you in singling out that female circumcision takes place in Ethiopia. Though I know you probably are already aware of the fact yhat this same puritan method of dealing with female masturbation has caused female circumcision to be a little known fact a solution of even modern Americans, it goes back at least to the Victorian age even in Euriope, so tho it is still a critical issue in many places in Africa and the Middle East, it is certainly not confined there and so, as it is with boys, the issue is a universal issue with girls. Thank you much for putting this out there and for everything else you and Brother do for tthose of us seeking the way of wholeness.
Peace,
Upesi Mtambuzi
Thank you to the above women for educating me on this issue!
Hello Jinjee,
You might confer to the readers of your blog that there is a great deal of difference between the circumcised and intact male. You can think of the circumcised male as having no feeling in his fingers. Men were born with foreskin for a reason. Sex is much better and much more natural with an intact male. Unfortunately those who are circumcised don't know the difference. And then they tell us that a circumcised penis is somehow more attractive than a natural and intact one. This is all BS. Also they talk about the cleanliness factor… more BS. I'd opt for an intact male any day… and would never in a million years allow my son's foreskin to be ripped off with or without anesthetic! Please pass it on. I have much more information to provide on this subject.
All the best to you and your family! May God bless you for having and sharing your good sense.
Catherine
Here is the original post and my article, excerpted from my last blog.....
I'm glad you asked me about the circumcision question. It is one of those backwards dyslexic things mankind came up with: "Hey, let's keep the penis clean by cutting off the foreskin!" - the Universe answers: ....Ummm, guess what? The foreskin is there to protect and keep the penis clean! Duh!!!
It is kindof like the way we came up with "Hey, let's kill the food with heat before we eat it so that it won't have any germs and won't decompose!" ----Um, yeah, but when you take out the death force, you also remove the life force! Hello!!!
Here is an article I wrote about circumcision a few years ago....
"The Circumcision Question"
by Jinjee Talifero
11/29/05
Antiquated Practices
Is cicumcision necessary? When we didn't have access to hot and cold running water in our homes and a bath was an annual affair circumcision may have been served a purpose preventing infection. However now that most people in our part of the world wash daily there is no need for such a barbaric practice.
Similarly eating meat was necessary during the cold seasons or drought when fresh food was not available. But these days we have access to fresh food all year long so there is no need for eating meat, a secondary food.
What a Welcome
When the first thing a baby boy experiences in this world is the chopping off of his most sensitive body part is it any wonder that our men are desensitized to the point where they can go to war and kill other human beings? "What a welcome!" says Frederic Leboyer in his wonderful book "Birth Without Violence". Leboyer also says that no anesthesia is used because doctors are taught that "babies don't feel pain". Any Mother who hears the screams of her baby undergoing this surgery knows otherwise.
Long Term Effects of Circumcision Considered
Could it be that the desensitization of the male member that results from circumcision contributes to an inability to be fully satistfied and therefore leads to the insatiable appetite for pornography in the western world?
From a naturalist standpoint if a penis is meant to feel certain things during intercourse and then doesn't feel them wouldn't that leave a man frustrated? From this standpoint is circumcision in many ways a male version of the female genital mutilation that we protest so strongly against in parts of Africa and the middle east? Note that women attain sexual pleasure without their clitoris even though the clitoris is the most sensitive part of the female sexual organs.
Dr. Kellogg of Kellogg cereal fame dictated that circumcision should become routine in hospitals in America because it would reduce the desire to masturbate as the penis would be less sensitive. A sick and twisted puritanical idea, however well-intentioned.
The Biblical Standpoint
Many people still circumcise because they are led to believe that the bible instructs it. I searched the bible for "circumcision" on biblegateway.com and I read through all the references to circumcision in the bible as well as the chapters they were referenced from. The text in the bible on circumcision is mostly very situation-specific and could be interpreted in many different ways. For instance to me the strongest and most pertinent passages about circumcision say that circumcision of the body makes no difference to God. Here is one of those passages from Romans 2:29
"A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God".
The Medical Standpoint
It turns out that circumcision doesn't help prevent infection but rather contributes to numerous problems especially with infants! Here is one of several revealing articles from the scientific and medical community.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF UROLOGY, Volume 80, Number 5: Pages 776-782,
November 1997.
Variability in penile appearance and penile findings: a prospective study.
R. S. VAN HOWE
Department of Pediatrics, Marshfield Clinic, Minoqua, Wisconsin, USA
Click Here to ReadPatients and methods The study comprised a consecutive sample of 468 boys whose consultation with a physician included a genital examination in a primary care paediatric practice in rural northern Wisconsin.
Results Circumcised boys under 3 years of age were significantly more likely to have a partially or completely covered glans, a reddened meatus, balanitis, or trapped epithelial debris, and less likely to have a fully exposed glans than were circumcised boys of 3 years or older. Among the 238 boys under 3 years, those circumcised were significantly more likely to have non-cosmetic problems, including coronal adhesions, trapped epithelial debris, a reddened meatus, preputial stenosis (phimosis) and balanitis than were boys with a foreskin. Findings in the circumcised group under 3 years included: fully exposed glans (n=78, 35.6%), partially covered glans (n=67, 30.6%), adhesions (25.6%), completely covered glans (20.1%), entrapped desquamated epithelial debris (24.7%), reddened meatus (19.1%), balanitis (15.5%), and preputial stenosis (0.9%). Only two genital examinations in boys with foreskins revealed pertinent findings. Coronal adhesions develop in circumcised boys at 2-6 months of age and usually resolve by 24 months. The degree of skin covering the glans after neonatal circumcision peaks at 6 months of age.
The circumcised penis requires more care than the intact penis during the first 3 years of life. Parents should be instructed to retract and clean any skin covering the glans in circumcised boys to prevent adhesions forming and debris for accumulating. Penile inflammation (balanitis) may be more common in circumcised boys; preputial stenosis (phimosis) affects circumcised boys and intact boys with equal frequency. The revision of circumcision for purely cosmetic reasons should be discouraged on both medical and ethical grounds.
End Male Genital Mutilation!
~ it doesn't prevent infection
~ the bible doesn't require it
~ it decreases sensitivity
~ it is not natural
~ the medical community makes around $60,000,000 a year from circumcision. (1.25 million circumcisions multiplied by the approximately $50 operation)
~ celebrated physician Dr. Dean Edell is opposed to it. See his shocking article
here~ Dr. Spock is now opposed to it
~ American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new recommendations saying that they do not recommend circumcision as a routine procedure.
~ Mothers Against Circumcision have an excellent website with a huge amount of information
here~ This is a human rights issue
~ This is an ethical issue (causing pain to newborns)
I hope this article will help raise awareness of this issue. I hope it will inspire some to action. And I hope that it will help expecting mothers make the decision to leave their boy children intact and without trauma on their first day of life!
Jinjee Talifero
Co-Author of "The Garden Diet"
TheGardenDiet.comDr. Dean Edell also takes a stand against circumcision!
here and
hereNote: New studies also show that circumcision causes the penis to become uncomfortably dry and cracked in elderly men.
Wake up!!!