Circumcision – what
can and should the Church do about it?
by Mike Oettle
EVERY year during
the school holidays thousands of young black South African men and boys go off
into the bush to attend circumcision schools.
And every time circumcision schools are conducted there
are reports of youths dying, losing their manhood or suffering horribly because
the ritual has been carried out badly.
Circumcision is not a practice the Church has
traditionally become involved in. There is a deep suspicion of it because Paul
taught so vehemently against its usage among Gentile Christians.
Yet the
Church stands idly by while young black men are pressganged into attending the
ritual – youths who regularly sit in the pews of Anglican, Methodist and
Presbyterian (and other Reformed) churches, as well as Roman Catholic and many
other Christian churches.
In some parts of the country, particularly
But for the black people of the Eastern Cape, this pagan
ritual is very much part of our lives, and white people are not excluded
either, although it is an extremely rare occurrence for a white youngster to
attend circumcision school with his black friends.
Do not be mistaken, however: this is a pagan practice.
It pays honour to the shades of the ancestors, and those
taking part in it are taught to treat women roughly and to demand sexual
favours. The culture of the circumcision schools is highly sexist and engenders
rape.
Practitioners of circumcision will immediately deny this.
They wrap the rituals and teachings of the schools in such a web of mystery
that they are willing to kill anyone who reveals their secrets.
But their secrets must come out into the open, the more
so because they teach them to churchgoing youngsters.
Is circumcision itself wrong? I would say it is not,
since God commanded Abraham to circumcise his son Isaac, himself and all the
males of his household.
There are also sound health reasons behind circumcision.
And while the removal of the foreskin has clear health benefits for the boy or
man, it is women especially who gain from it.
Statistics reveal that the wives of circumcised men –
notably Jewesses and Xhosa women – have a low incidence of cervical cancer,
whereas Zulu women have a high incidence of this disease. Prostitutes also are
prone to this form of cancer.
Is it wrong for Christians to circumcise? One could draw
this conclusion from reading Paul’s letters, since he is so firm in stating
that nobody should force Gentile believers to be circumcised.
Yet Paul himself circumcised Timothy while preparing to
take that young man as his assistant on a mission into regions where they would
first visit the synagogues. Every time they visited a miqweh (Jewish
ritual bath) it would be clear to all who was circumcised and who was not.
And since attendance at a miqweh was compulsory
before attending Sabbath worship (on Friday evening and Saturday morning), and
before the high holy days, this could hardly be missed.
Paul’s stance against circumcision was a position he took
up in opposition to those who insisted that before being baptised, Gentile
believers had to be circumcised. This, he said, amounted to subjecting them to
the full burden of the Law before admitting them to the freedom of Christ’s New
Covenant.
Similarly, permitting our young men to be circumcised in
heathen initiation schools subjects them to the full burden of the pagan
beliefs of their ancestors. Through the ritual, the ancestral spirits – and who
knows what other conduits of dark forces – gain a foothold in their lives.
At the same time, there is a deeply ingrained attitude
among the tribes which practise circumcision that a male is not a man unless he
has been circumcised. Men who marry (or father children out of wedlock) without
undergoing the bush ritual – even if they have been circumcised surgically –
are subjected to extremely rough treatment, and it is not unknown for them to
be killed.
I believe it is time for the Church to take a stand on
this issue, and to say that it will circumcise its young men itself.
In so doing, the Church’s leaders must make it clear that
they are not thereby subjecting the initiates to the Abrahamic Covenant or
giving in to pagan superstition.
Rather, they would be taking an old ritual and infusing
it with new meaning.
More especially, they would have the opportunity of
teaching the initiates attitudes and approaches towards women – indeed, towards
all members of society – that are in accordance with Christian and Scriptural
principles.
There will be resistance to this proposal from many who
will say that the Church should not involve itself in circumcision.
But the alternative is to continue to allow the young men
sitting in our pews to attend pagan bush schools, to be taught beliefs that are
entirely contrary to Christ’s teachings, and to be encouraged to rape and abuse
women.
And it
will be from among these young men that we will seek to build a leadership in
the Church in years to come.
No,
building a house on this kind of foundation is building on sand.
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