Circumcision

~ Just think about it ~

Genesis 17:10-14 God said to Abraham, “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Due to these few verses in Genesis, countless thousands of people - babies and boys - are dead - dead simply because their parents, were believers in the God of the bible or were brought up in a particular religious tradition, decided to have their penis's mutilated FOR NO GOOD REASON!

Here is the only history lesson I have to offer (note - this just scratches the surface):

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~ Julius Katzenstein: 8-days-old, bled to death after circumcision, 14 December 1856, New York

~ Myer Levy: 8-days-old, bled to death after circumcision, 18 April 1858, New York

~ Aleck: Died from circumcision June 10, 1910, Island County, Washington

~ Michael Julian Baldwin: infant boy, 4-days-old, hemorrhage after circumcision. 21 August 1927 Monroe County, Indiana

~ Roland Albert McCarty: infant boy. Death by infection of circumcision wound. Died 1932, Jacksonville, Florida

~ Baby boy Lebeau, death by circumcision, April 1942, Quebec

~ Bruce Wechsler: infant boy, staph infection following circumcision. 1957, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

~ Chino Burrell: 7-months-old, death by circumcision, 9 June 1974, Toronto, Ontario

~ Boma Oruitemeka: Death by circumcision, severe hemorrhage. 1990, London, England

~ Raju Miah: Death by circumcision. July 1991, Birmingham, England

~ Nui Jia Yuan, 4-years-old. Death by asphyxia following circumcision. March 26, 2003, Singapore.

~ Bennett Ntazina, adolescent boy. Death by circumcision. December 2003, Jan Kempdorp, South Africa.

~ Infant twin (by herpes virus, circumcised by Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer who had herpes and performed metziza by mouth [sucking the blood] on baby's penis) New York, New York, USA, October, 2004.

~ Dontsa Lwane, 19 (by suicide after botched circumcision of Dec 11, 2004) Gqebenya, Lady Frere, South Africa, January 8, 2005.

~ Wandile Lwane, 21 (Dontsa's brother, by suicide after learning of Dontasa's death) Ezibeleni, Queenstown, South Africa, January 9, 2005

~ Jacob Christian Holliday. Circumcision damaged already-defective heart, requiring heart transplant at age two. Death resulted from cancer caused by immuno-suppresant drugs and resultant cancer at age 4, 20 October 2005, Orlando, Florida

~ Patrick Hoho, 58 (hacked to death by his circumcision victim), Port Elizabeth, South Africa, July 3, 2006.

~ Sello Ntsie, 18 (beaten to death at a circumcision "initiation school" before he could be circumcised), Zuurbekom, near Westonaria, South Africa, July 5, 2006.

~ Siyabonga Radebe, 14 (beaten to death at a circumcision "initiation school" before he could be circumcised), Zuurbekom, near Westonaria, South Africa, July 5, 2006.

~ Infant boy. Death by bleeding following circumcision in Creswell, Oregon, February 2007, Sacred Heart Hospital, Eugene, Oregon

~ Amitai Moshe, died 2 weeks after a ritual circumcision at Golders Green Synagogue, London. February 9, 2007.

~ Celian Noumbiwe, boy, nine weeks, death by circumcision, bled to death, 22 February 2007,  Berkshire, United Kingdom

~ Kulideep Kumar Vishnubhai Patel, 10-year-old boy, death by circumcision, 18 November 2007, Unjha, Gujarat, India

~ Infant boy, 18-days-old, death by circumcision, 18 November 2007, Pilar District, Tarragona, Nigeria.

~ 18-year-old male, death by circumcision, November 2007, Gxulu Village, Umtata, South Africa.

~ Obosee Prince Aseh, boy, 2-months old, death by circumcision, hemorrhage, 5 June 2008, Treviso, Italy.

~ Gino Erojo, 11-years-old. Death by infection following circumcision, 3 August 2008, Panciao, Manjyod, Negroes Oriental, Philippines.

~ Beasley Allen Terrebonne, age 48, death by suicide after botched circumcision and resulting depression. 23 December 2008, Thibodaux, Louisiana

~ Eric Keefe, 6-week-old infant boy, death by blood loss following circumcision, 14 July 2008, Indian Health Service Hospital, Rosebud, South Dakota

~ Yogama Boya, 18-year-old male, death by circumcision, July 2008, Qumbu area of Transkei, South Africa.

~ Johnson Killed, Age 2 years and 7 months. death by circumcision. 22 July 2008, Bari, Italy.

~ Jayvas Carson, full-term baby, born 15 Novmber 2008. Circumcised 28 November 2008 by Dr. Rachel Carson of Coeur d'Alene Pediatics. Died at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital, Spokane, Washington, 1 January 2009 after long series of complications that started with the loss of blood due to his circumcision.

~ Bradley Dorcius, boy, 7-months-old. Death by circumcision, October 2009, SUNY Downstate Hospital. Brooklyn, New York

~ Kaan Otuk, boy, one-month-old. Death by circumcision anaesthesia overdose, 31 October 2009, Çukurova State Hospital, Adana, Turkey.

~ Sonke Foca, male, 19-years-old. Death by dehydration following circumcision, 11 November 2009, Butterworth, Transkei, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.

~ Goodluck Caubergs, Baby - Bled to death after circumcision. Oldham, England, April 17, 2010.

~ Saijad Hossain Mimu, 6-years-old. Death by lidocaine anaesthetic overdose, 25 September 2010, Safapur, Amirbad Union, Bangladesh.

~ Joshua Haskins, 7-weeks old. Died 19 hours after having circumcision followed by prolonged bleeding, despite having congenital heart defect and being in intensive care. October 6, 2010, Indianapolis, Indiana

~ Jaamal Coleson, Jr., toddler, of Brooklyn, New York. Died at Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan, New York City after a circumcision on Tuesday, May 3, 2011.

~ James Connor, infant, Born at Pittsburgh, Friday, November 25, 2011. Died Saturday night, November 26, 2011. Death by bleeding after circumcision.

~ Angelo Ofori-Minhah, age 28-days, of Queen's Park, Northamptonshire, England, died on February 17, 2012 after being circumcised by Rabbi Mordehai Cohen on February 15, 2012. The cause of death was bleeding, exsanguination, and heart failure, according to the medical report. The infant was reported to have lost three-quarters of his total blood volume.

~ Two boys, Arif, age 4 and Azhar, age 3, in Rakasipet, Bodhan, Andhra Pradesh India. The boys died on Monday, April 30, 2012 after a circumcision a few days before by a rural medical practitioner at Masjid Colony in the Rakasipet area due to uncontrolled "overbleeding".

~ Infant boy, age two-weeks. Circumcised Sunday, 6 May 2012 in a doctor's office on the east side of Oslo, Norway. Died of complications Tuesday, 8 May 2012.

~ Braden Tyler Frazier. Born February 25, 2013 at Lodi, California. Died March 8, 2013 at Sacramento. Circumcised on the ninth day of life at Sacramento, California. Died on the eleventh day of life of hemorrhage and convulsions, secondary to circumcision.

~ Gugeluthu Molakapa, age 4, brain dead after a circumcision at Germiston Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 2013.

~ Dec. 2021 - A toddler has died and his baby brother was left in a serious condition after undergoing circumcisions at a Perth clinic.

“The death of the two-year-old boy is being treated as non-suspicious and a report will be prepared for the coroner,” a police spokesperson said. “It can be confirmed the boy underwent a medical procedure at a registered medical centre prior to his death.”

Circumcision is banned at Australian public hospitals unless it is required for medical reasons.

~ March 2022 - A 13-year-old died in Lucena, Quezon after he bled out following his circumcision on Saturday.  According to a report the bleeding never stopped after the surgery done at a free circumcision event at their community.

The victim's grandfather said the boy was brought on Monday to the hospital, where he died the following day.

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Now take a breath and a few quiet moments and just contemplate the horror and absurdity of what you have just read.

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Israel and many Muslim countries have the highest circumcision rate - 90% of their males have the procedure performed.  The US is not far behind with 75%..  Canada averages 31%. 

Death by circumcision is difficult to track.  Often the reported cause of death may be "hemorrhage" or "infection" even though they are the direct result of a circumcision. 

Note - Jewish law allows parents who have had three sons die from circumcision to leave the fourth son intact.  Gee thanks . . . I guess . . . ?

OK God, what the heck were you thinking ???  Why couldn't you have prescribed something considerably less violent to the human body than the forced slicing-off of the skin from a little boys penis?  I mean, YOU put the damn skin there in the first place, so there can't be anything wrong with it.

You know what this looks like to me - it looks like some of God's early followers (inventors) came up with some barbaric ritual that would permanently identify (scar) them as being followers of god, and God, knowing full well the damage this would do to so many millions of little boys over the thousands of years, didn't have the power, the integrity, or the existence to correct this.  

I'm sorry, but that's what it looks like to me.

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Christian, please honestly consider one final question:  We can now see that the physical ceremony of male circumcision has, in the past, and will continue in the future, to pose a risk of death to those who participate in it.  

Christian, force yourself to sincerely contemplate this question - would an all knowing and all loving God invent such a practice - or - is it more likely the invention of primitive humans who were obviously NOT all knowing nor all loving?

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com