I pick the Host up in Vancouver and we stay with our friends Canadian Artist and Canadian Journalist, who had a baby seven weeks ago. Canadian Journalist was our bridesmaid.
While we're there they have the boy circumcised. Unfortunately I get to see the bloodstained gauze while he's being changed.
Like our other Anglo-American friends, we're sure we wouldn't have our son circumcised. It's fairly standard for North Americans, i understand, and Canadian Journalist intimates she feels it's a Christian thing as well. I don't follow the logic - Christians are not Jews, they're not the Chosen, and surely it's problematic to pick and choose doctrines from the Old Testament.
My favourite political blogger Andrew Sullivan, the British-born American Sunday Times columnist, calls it infant genital mutilation. Those who are not circumcised he calls 'the intact'.
