Circumcision Invades Africa
By Gus Tyler
Circumcision has a long and fascinating history. The latest chapter is being written in Africa. The Wall Street Journal reports “circumcision dramatically reduces the risk of contracting HIV.”
In some areas, such as Kenya, the circumcision rate is a high 80%. While Kenya is an exception, there is good reason to believe that ultimately the practice of circumcision will spread.
In the history of circumcision one of the most intriguing stories involves Moses, the patriarch who led the Jews out of Egyptian slavery. Moses was married to an Ethiopian woman named Ziporah. Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron were unhappy about the marriage and said so openly.
Moses’ wife gave birth to a son. Naturally, the question of circumcision arose. Moses was not particularly interested. Moses himself had not been circumcised. The reason was his parent’s attempt to save him from an Egyptian edict that Jewish male children were to be exterminated — an early attempt at what we now call genocide. His parents put him in a little floating tub and dropped it in a stream adjoining the pharaoh’s estate. One of pharaoh’s daughters fell in love with the infant and he grew to manhood in the royal palace.
While Moses was not interested in circumcision, his wife was. With a sharp instrument, she circumcised the child and then smeared some blood on Moses’ toes.
Another fascinating story is the tale of Jews at the time that the Greek despot Antiochus Epiphones ruled Israel. Some upper-class Jews converted to the Greek religion. To avoid any misunderstanding they underwent a most painful bit of surgery to restore the foreskin.
July 17, 2007, 1:50pm
Sweden Discovers God
By Gus Tyler
Sweden has long had the reputation of being a super-secular nation. Less than 3% of the population attends church. But, within the last few days, it seems that God has made His presence known in Sweden.
It all began when a Swedish hotel guest checked into his room and found that the room was outfitted with a copy of the New Testament. He protested to the hotel chain. The chain ordered all Bibles removed from their hotels. A conservative bishop called for a boycott of the hotel’s chain. A former young radical who is now a devout Christian and host of a popular talk show denounced the hotel’s action in newspaper columns and on television. A young Evangelical Christian organized an electronic letter-writing campaign, asking the hotel chain to justify its action in banning the Bible while running ads for pay porn.
The Scandic hotel chain bowed to the pressure. It put the Bible back into guest rooms.
All this has been going on in a nation that made history when it announced that it had “a third way” to go in the battle between socialism and capitalism. In essence, it proposed to accept the capitalist concepts of production and exchange while pressing for the socialist concept of national income distribution.
Sweden was doing very nicely until in the post-World War II era world manufacture went global. Products once “made in Sweden” were now being made in China and India for Swedish companies.
Sweden found itself in a hole. And, as the old saying goes, there are no atheists in a foxhole. When nothing seems to work, people turn to prayer.
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