I stumbled across this recently while going down a different rabbit hole and it stunned me. I missed this previously. It leaves me wondering why I am circumcised. I am a bit bitter still and always about having the tip of my penis chopped off in the name of tradition, Now I see this and wonder what justification my parents could have had in reality? Was it all just peer pressure? They were southern baptists, supposedly believing in NT over OT in any conflict. This is deep in the NT:

Galatians 5:2-6

2 Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

I am an Atheist, Ex-Christian, Ex-Southern Baptist Apostate in my 40s. I talked to my mother about it, when I had a son. She said she just didn’t want me to stand out and circumcising was just what everyone else was doing. It drove home the point that my mother has never really thought for herself on any of that and much of it had impact on me. I’m thankful that my kids won’t have to go through all of that.

I’m venting because it dug up an old wound for me. As always, I’d love to hear some feedback.

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It’s not because of religion, but moreso in spite of it.

    You can thank 1870s science for it, which over several decades built up a case for its supposed health benefits and increasingly began practicing it on infants of the upper class, which in turn created a social context by which it was seen as desirable in the US as the lack of circumcision was associated with less well off classes.

    If you are interested in the quite lengthy but interesting backstory, this paper has a ton of details.