Hi peeps! Haven't been posting here for quite some time, I really miss talking to you guys actually. Anyway, I am really in love with my GEK1045 module, Intro to World Religions. It's so exciting and makes me think. Sometimes, I wonder why I didn't become an Arts major; I like writing essays, and I like readings on certain topics, if they interest me.
So anyway, I digress. Coming back to the point, I just want to discuss about certain things here which I hope to get some views on this. I'll just give a basic background beforehand. We're currently on Judaism this week, next would be Christianity. So anyway, about Judaism, the lecturer told us that babies of 8 days old have to be circumcised. According to him, it's a really painful procedure, and may have psychological effects as well (he said he went to google it and found that circumcised kids have a low threshold for pain).
As you know, circumcision is a permanent thing - you can't reverse it. He later went to the topic of the freedom of conversion and apostasy (converting out), which links to the aforementioned topic of circumcision. In Judaism, it's a sign that you've been welcomed to the Jewish community and have accepted the Jewish faith, ie you're officially a Jew. However, at the age of 13, young males (and females, I think) are required to go through a ceremony, where they are asked to declare their devotion to the Jewish faith (not sure if they are allowed to say no).
Question he posed to us was: since circumcision is a permanent one, does it violate the human rights to one's own body? Does it also violate the right of one's freedom of choice to a religion?
It's interesting to see arguments in relation to this, and I wonder what the Bible says regarding this controversial topic. On one hand, is human rights and freedom of choice. On the other, tradition.
I would also like to end off with a court case brought up in Finland in 2006, where a father sued the other parent for ordering the son's circumcision. Judge in this case ruled that "even a life-long tradition does not invalidate a child's right to his own body."
Interesting.. I wonder what does the Bible say about this?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Human rights, conversion and apostasy
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1 comment:
maybe we can start by thinking:
1) why in the ot there was circumcision? Why did God commanded that?
2) Do christians still need circumcision?
Though these two questions may seem irrelevant to mj's questions but after we ponder and understand the intention of circumcision then we can probably answer mj's questions. Do pose things/ discussions that u ve found regarding this. But only things that are beneficial and ll build one another up in our faith k.
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