Religious objections to our laws

I had the temerity to suggest on a public forum that male circumcision was a barbaric practice. That raised a lot of hackles and you cannot imagine how long that thread lasted and how hard it was to get people to stop posting and move on. I happen to earnestly believe that genital mutilation is barbaric for males and even more so for females, although far more males suffer at the present time. Now, many states have enacted laws with stiff punishments for those involved with female genital mutilation. People entering the country are warned about the law and given explicit information about what will happen to them if they disobey the law. Female genital mutilation cases open the opportunity to press equal protection claims in the courts because females are clearly being favored by such law. Such a legal shift might sidestep the contentious first amendment religious freedom claims that are at the heart of so much abuse of children by religious objectors and their defenders.

Hypocrites claim humans are the perfect creation of a god, then set about remodeling his handiwork. If I understand the religious justification, the Jews insist on this blood sacrifice rite to prove their fealty to god. The surprising thing is that even secular Jews insist on doing this because of tribal pressure to conform. It is clear that Jewish parents, who do not suffer, use there male children as instruments to maintain their standing in the tribe. Well, I say why not slice off one of your ear lobes instead? Why wouldn’t that work as a blood sacrifice rite? Find another way to please your god if you have to. Just leave your child out of it until he is old enough to make adult decisions for his own benefit.

Fortunately, the international trend seems to favor laws against circumcision of both males and females. The Canadian medical system will not pay for the procedure any longer and stricter laws apply. At least among civilized people attitudes are changing, and this is the first step in any civil rights campaign. The really good news is that as the religious justification is defeated in courts, the decisions will pile up and eventually legislatures and courts will strengthen the hand of child rights advocates in other areas where children are abused because of religious objections. Right now there is not enough momentum so we are still at the stage where education and persuasion are needed.

The only reason circumcision is not outlawed in the United States (either by law or by popular outcry) is because society defers to the religious sensibilities of Jews (and perhaps Muslims) because it is after all a religious rite. For generations, we have been taught not to question the religious rites of others lest they question ours (or worse question our lack of religion) and then we get into huge interminable non-productive fights. Over dogma. Looking at circumcision scientifically and dispassionately we can see there may be a case for male circumcision perhaps, perhaps in Africa and other parts of the world where men are not educated about personal hygiene and prevention of STDs and AIDS. Here in the US education, condoms, soap, and water is all that is required.

However, we have the Oregon Supreme Court case of a young 12 year old boy that was told by a lower court that his father could have him circumcised: http://www.nysun.com/article/65926 I think four Jewish groups leaped to the defense of the father. Not the boy mind you − the father. The boy never appeared in court to testify. The lower court was completely disinterested in hearing what he had to say about his own penis. Such a stark example shows how absolutely stone deaf we are to the plight of children. Fortunately the Oregon Supreme Court issued a ruling that turned the case back to the lower court with instructions to question the boy. So far no final ruling on this so far as I know.

Abandonment of the child is the common thread that runs through all of the injustices heaped on helpless children. Jurisdictions permit practices for supposed noble religious freedom reasons, but in reality there are hidden and selfish parental motives if you dig deeply enough. In the case of the Amish you don’t have to dig that deep. Amish communities have been allowed to survive through statutory exceptions especially carved out for them in the law. If these exceptions were not granted do we really believe that a cultic group like this would still be functioning in our midst? Remember their history. The Anabaptists were violently suppressed at gunpoint by angry Swiss where they originated. They have had several hundred years to make their case for continuing to exist and that is long enough, in fact it is too long. So let’s revoke the statues that permit them to abuse their children and overturn the Yoder Supreme Court decision. If the Amish are on to something really great they will flourish and we will all be riding around in horse drawn carriages and reading our bibles by candlelight in a matter of years.

We must stop allowing religious objections to interfere with teaching about science, sexuality and human reproduction. Even the liberal state of California permits parents to shield their children from sex-ed and sex bias education which secular children are able to profit from to build better, healthier lives. Systemic inequalities are thus built in to state policies. If your parents are obstinate enough and stupid enough you get the shaft. Sorry kid. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled:

In essence, under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy. Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation. Our nation’s history includes a fundamental commitment to promoting mutual respect among citizens in our diverse nation that is manifest in the First Amendment’s prohibitions on establishing an official religion and restricting the free exercise of religious beliefs on which plaintiffs base some of their federal claims. Our history also includes instances of individual and official discrimination against gays and lesbians, among others. It is reasonable for public educators to each elementary school students about individuals with different sexual orientations and about various forms of families, including those with same-sex parents, in an effort to eradicate the effects of past discrimination, to reduce the risk of future discrimination and, in the process, to reaffirm our nation’s constitutional commitment to promoting mutual respect among members of our diverse society. In addition, it is reasonable for those educators to find that teaching young children to understand and respect differences in sexual orientation will contribute to an academic environment in which students who are gay, lesbian, or the children of same-sex parents will be comfortable and, therefore, better able to learn.

Case 1:06-cv-10751-MLW Document 36 Filed 02/23/2007 Page 4 of 38

Besides circumcision there are the other medical exemptions that are carved out for Jehovah’s Witnesses (12 million) and the Christian Scientists (estimated at 194,000 in 2001 but there is little confidence in the true number) on strictly free exercise of religion grounds. Many of these children suffer and die (statistics are difficult to locate). Do we have a constitutional form of government or a Christian theocracy? If we are a theocracy then we had better start following the Koran and all the other religious texts if we want to be fair. We are either neutral or we are not. Favoring Christian or Jewish bible texts doesn’t look neutral to me.

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