In Genesis 17, we find God making an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his ancestors:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.
….
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.
One sign of this covenant between God, Abraham, and future generations required all living males to have their foreskins — the retractable roll of skin covering the end of the penis — removed. Going forward, all male babies, including those of slaves, were to be circumcised on the eighth day. Anyone male not circumcised was cut off from “his people.”
I wonder if God, the Father, warned Jesus before sending him to earth to atone for human sin.
God, the Father: Jesus, after we impregnate your mom, Mary, and you are born, you will have to have your foreskin cut off, without anesthesia, with a sharp rock.
Jesus: What the fuck, Dad? Is that really necessary? That’s really going to hurt!
God: Yes, my Son, your circumcision will be a sign of the covenant between Me, Abraham, and the Jewish people.
Jesus: Dad, why can’t we just issue covenant certificates, signed by you, me, and Ghost?
God: Absolutely not! Certificates will end up lost, but cut off a man’s foreskin? He will never forget that. Every time he pees, has sex, or takes a shower, he will be reminded of the covenant. Awesome, right?
Jesus: Shakes his head, wondering if Dad has dementia.
For thousands of years, countless Jewish, Christian, and Muslim male children have had their foreskins ritually and painfully removed. Why? Because God allegedly said to do so. It is 2025. Circumcision — which is genital mutilation — has no medical purpose, yet millions of boys are circumcised anyway. According to Google, over eighty percent of American males are circumcised, whereas only ten percent of male Europeans are. Anecdotally, this suggests that the more religious a culture is, the more likely they are to practice circumcision. For example, take Africa’s devoutly religious population. Over ninety percent of males are circumcised. That said, I suspect the practice is so deeply rooted in some countries that parents have their male babies circumcised, not out of religious conviction as much as conforming to societal norms.
Let me be clear, mutilating the genitals of children is child abuse. The United States could end circumcision by banning the practice. Hospitals and doctors could stop performing unnecessary, elective surgery on male infants, and insurance companies could stop paying for the procedure. Overnight, parents would stop circumcising their boys. Bruce, but what if parents want to circumcise their son for religious reasons? Sorry, but that’s not a justification for having unnecessary elective surgery performed on your children. Female genital mutilation is often done for religious reasons, yet the practice is universally condemned. It is irrational, then, to support male genital mutilation, but condemn the same practice for females. Both practices need to come to an end immediately.
What I want to know is why God didn’t create males without foreskins to start with? If his creation is intelligently designed and finely tuned, why is it necessary for practitioners of the three Abrahamic religions to have their male babies’ foreskin removed?
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Bruce: “What I want to know is why God didn’t create males without foreskins to start with?”
Me: Chef’s kiss for that question!
Also me: Isn’t a “covenant” a two-way contractual agreement? However, when it comes to the biblical god, it sounds more like: “Do as I say, or else”… which is absolutely NOT a two-way contract.
I was circumcised shortly after I was born, but at that time it was considered a societal norm. Growing up I never knew that my penis had been modified until I heard of the practice at my fundy school. It was a strange idea to me, but the puplit thumpers at chapel and church spoke of it as though it was a normal thing to do. When both my sons were born I made it clear that I did NOT want them circumcised, and rather let them decide later if that’s something they want to do.