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Santa Monica circumcision ban backer drops ballot effort

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Circumcision for boys is a religious rite in Judaism and Islam, a matter of men's health to some, a cultural custom to others. But to "intactivists" it's a form of genital mutilation that should be banned. No exceptions.

The latter was the original argument behind Jena Troutman's push for a ballot measure banning circumcision in Santa Monica, but now that it's been linked to some anti-Semitic commentary in a similar effort in San Francisco, Troutman says she's dropping the proposal.

JTA, a Jewish news wire, carries a story from the Jewish Journal (hat tip to Religion News Service Daniel Burke for this). It says, in part:

"It shouldn't have been about religion in the first place," Troutman told the Jewish Journal. "Ninety-five percent of people aren't doing it for religious reasons, and with everyone from the New York Times to Glenn Beck focusing on the religious issue, it's closing Americans down to the conversation...."

In the interview, Troutman also distanced herself from MGMbill.org, a San Diego-based organization led by Matthew Hess, the author of the Foreskin Man cartoon, which has been roundly criticized in recent days as anti-Semitic.

His proposal, making it a misdemeanor crime to circumcise a boy before he is 18 years old, had no religious exemptions. Hess has written that

As far as the anti-Semitism charge, I might understand such an accusation if our proposed legislation applied to everyone except Jews. That would be like saying we care about all boys except the Jewish ones.

But that was before the San Francisco Chronicle found nasty cartoons of knife-wielding rabbis leering over baby boys in a set of cartoons he co-authored.

Still the controversy raises some serious culture-clash questions and not for Jews alone, given that, worldwide, Muslims are the largest group to circumcise boys.

DO YOU THINK think there should be a ban, one with religious exceptions or no such ban on parents' choices for their sons?

'Go the (bleep) to Sleep' goes with God
USA misses Top 10 countries in 'happiness rating'