Norwegian nurses seek brit milah ban

[Cyriacus]

They should make sure there's an exception for Jewish babies. It's a religious freedom issue.

Jews do not really have a long, continuous history in Norway. In 1687, King Christian V expelled the then-tiny community of Jews, mostly descended from Sephardic Jews who were given refuge fleeing from Spain and Portugal. The ban remained in force until 1851, when the Norwegian parliament lifted the ban and granted Jews entry the country and rights on par with dissenting Christians; the ban was lifted mainly due to persistent pleas by the liberal poet Henrik Wergeland, who famously wrote the indifferentist quip "I die a deist, an honest worshiper of Allah." Wergeland was also noted for the comment "All religions have a gentle and loving heart."  Even then, after Jews were permitted entry to the country, a synagogue was not organized until 1892, when a minyan, or a quroum of ten male adult Jews, was achieved in the capital of Norway, a prerequisite for communal religious observances in the Jewish faith.

Is it really important that a nation's laws be adapted to conform to the demands of a small, marginal population? Is it really important that Jews be allowed to settle every country of the world at all times, and have the law made to accommodate their religion on matters like animal slaughter?

If Muslims do not have a valid presence everywhere in Europe as a minority in the minds of nationalists and conservatives, as an alien group with little historic connection, why do the Jews?

[SCG]

I don't care if there's only one Jewish baby in Norway, he should be the exception. Jews (as a religious or ethnic group) have been circumcising their boys at 8 days for a very long time. We Christians aren't bound by it, but Jews still are (or think they are). Now, let's turn the tables. How would you all feel if Catholics in a nation with a Catholic minority were told they could not baptize their infants? How would it be if they proposed expressing our faith by performing a "symbolic ritual" of baptism - but don't use real water. How many Catholics are there in Norway, I wonder? Look, I'm not against educating people about the dangers of circumcision....and I'm not even against a ban. Let the hospitals ban the practice. But let the rabbi do his job! And let the Catholic priest do his.

[loggats]

I don't care if there's only one Jewish baby in Norway, he should be the exception. Jews (as a religious or ethnic group) have been circumcising their boys at 8 days for a very long time. We Christians aren't bound by it, but Jews still are (or think they are). Now, let's turn the tables. How would you all feel if Catholics in a nation with a Catholic minority were told they could not baptize their infants? How would it be if they proposed expressing our faith by performing a "symbolic ritual" of baptism - but don't use real water. How many Catholics are there in Norway, I wonder? Look, I'm not against educating people about the dangers of circumcision....and I'm not even against a ban. Let the hospitals ban the practice. But let the rabbi do his job! And let the Catholic priest do his.

Baptism doesn't involve cutting pieces of flesh off the body. There's a big difference here SCG, let's not pretend there isn't. There is a level of barbarism (there I've said it) involved in blood rituals of this sort - the kind of thing that should have ended with Christ.

[Chestertonian]

Really, fisheaters?  Are we still talking about this?

[SCG]

Baptism doesn't involve cutting pieces of flesh off the body. There's a big difference here SCG, let's not pretend there isn't. There is a level of barbarism (there I've said it) involved in blood rituals of this sort - the kind of thing that should have ended with Christ.

Should have ended with Christ, just as all of Israel should have accepted him as Messiah, but they didn't. What are we to do until they do? I think kosher slaughter is horrible. From what I've read it's been banned in Denmark. What's next? As for female circumcision, I don't know how to respond to that, except to say that God didn't make a covenant with Abraham to circumcise girls. I'm not saying I don't have conflicting feelings. But what are we suppose to do? What about Christian faith healers who want to withhold medical treatment from their children? JWs who don't want their children to have blood transfusions? Or traditional Catholics who don't want their kids vaccinated? It's easy for me to say FORCE them to get vaccinated! Where does it end?

[austenbosten]

Really, fisheaters?  Are we still talking about this?

Yeah this is getting pretty tiresome

- Israel
- Circumcision
- Geocentrism

Three things FE will never stop babbling about, it's getting about as predictable as a Jimmy Akin defense piece.

[loggats]

Really, fisheaters?  Are we still talking about this?

Yeah this is getting pretty tiresome

- Israel
- Circumcision
- Geocentrism

Three things FE will never stop babbling about, it's getting about as predictable as a Jimmy Akin defense piece.

My list has none of those... the FE topics that never die are:

- Same Sex Attraction
- Sedevacantism thinly veiled as "rad tradom"
- Venom directed towards Pope JP II/Benedict/Francis