The Master Speaketh:

I have decided to post a few thoughts in response to the previous thread's heated debate here, rather than in the comments section, because I can. Lest you who are weary of contention worry, though, I have no intention of continuing the fight here. If you want to add to the rants for or against circumcision, you may do so in the comment section for yesterday's post. So:

1. I did suspect that even the mere mention of snip-snipping would spark controversy, but I was curious to see what people had to say. I must admit, I was surprised by a few of the passionate responses, particularly from a few people who, when I've asked them before about their feelings on circumcision, said with a shrug something like, "Oh, well, I'm not circumcised so I probably won't circumcise my son." Nor did I expect such--ahem--explicit reasoning from those people. And by "people," of course, I mean Th.

2. Don't expect me to announce our decision on either the naming or the snip-snipping here. The latter because I'm not ready to be crucified by whichever side we choose to ignore, and the former because once Baby Fob becomes a real person anonymity will be of utmost importance, which is why Foxy J never ever uses S-Boogie's real name on her blog and why I would never ever link here to an article with my real name on it.

3. Neither Foxy nor I has any Hawaiian ancestry, but I grew up in Hawaii and my family still lives there and there's a chance Foxy and I will someday and our children have many brown cousins with whom they have to compete for native authenticity. Hence the Hawaiian middle names.

4. I am aware that "fear of God" in scripture-speak is not the same as our usual definition of fear. The LDS Bible Dictionary, in fact, defines Timothy as "honored by God" or something. However, I suspect that etymologically we're talking about the same word here--I don't speak Latin but I know in Spanish temer means "to fear," hence Timo "fear" and teo "God." I like the Timothy scripture because it plays on both positive and negative connotations of fear and because it is in Paul's epistle to Timothy. I do like Edgy's Jeremiah scripture and reasoning for Ephraim, though.

5. While I am not particularly concerned about future comparisons to myself or his peers, I do worry about being able to teach Baby Fob adequate foreskin hygiene. And while I have pointed out to Th. that there are aesthetic concerns whether he recognizes them or not, I'm not sure my personal penile aesthetic preference is a good reason to snip.

6. I'm not going to touch (no pun intended) the sinfulness (or not) of masturbation here. If anyone wants to on your own blog, you're welcome to.

7. I'm sure Filob will be disappointed that no one voted for Ruttiger.