Holy Foreskin! Here's a new angle on the DU circumcision argument...

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.slate.com/id/2155745/?nav=tap3

Fore Shame

Did the Vatican steal Jesus' foreskin so people would shut up about the savior's penis?
By David Farley
Posted Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006, at 12:32 PM ET

n 1983, as the residents of Calcata, a small town 30 miles north of Rome, prepared for their annual procession honoring a holy relic, a shocking announcement from the parish priest put a damper on festivities. "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home." Not since the Middle Ages, when lopped-off body parts of divine do-gooders were bought, sold, and traded, has relic theft been big news. But the mysterious disappearance of Calcata's beloved curio is different.

This wasn't just the residuum of any holy human—nor was it just any body part. It was the foreskin of Jesus Christ, the snipped-off tip of the savior's penis, the only piece of his body he supposedly left on earth.

Just what the holy foreskin was doing in the priest's house—in a shoebox at the back of his wardrobe, no less—and why and how it disappeared has been debated ever since the relic vanished. Some suspect the village priest sold it for a heavenly sum; others say it was stolen by thieves and ended up on the relics black market; some even suggest Satanists or neo-Nazis are responsible. But the most likely culprit is an unlikely one: the Vatican.

And why not? Protestant doubt ("They couldn't let Christ's body go without keeping a piece," John Calvin quipped) and the scientific revolution, which changed our thinking from superstitious to skeptical, have taken their toll on a relic that once rested high atop the pious pecking order of blessed body parts. It's understandable that the 20th-century church began feeling a bit bashful about the idea of its flock fawning over the 2,000-year-old tip of the redeemer's manhood. Still, when I arrived in Calcata six months ago, the idea of a Vatican theft of Jesus' foreskin sounded more like a ganja-induced brainstorming session with Dan Brown and Danielle Steele. But some transplanted bohemians, a deathbed confession, and a little historical context have convinced me otherwise.

...more...

[formercia]

1. also posted here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5971908&mesg_id=5971908

[5X]

7. where it belonged. n/t

[WindRavenX]

2. is this for real?

No wonder Christianity (or any organized religion) is a joke. I swear, I can't tell this shit apart from an Onion piece.

[formercia]

8. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Relics were a great pastime in the Dark and Middle Ages. The Crusades really pumped the market when the locals in the Middle East found they could make a shekel or two ripping off some chump Crusader.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Maybe they can contact Saul for a few of his that David delivered.

1 Samuel 18:27

KJV: Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.

[baldguy]

5. Gives a new meaning to penis envy

[Kikosexy2]

13. I love...

my foreskin and so do other gay men...wheee!!!

[shadowknows69]

4. If this is going to become one of those forums where we just talk about genitals all day.

I might as well just go download porn. B-)

[johnfunk]

10. ...where Gentiles can talk about genitals!

Now that's democracy... er... um... never mind...

[leftofthedial]

6. that really cuts right to the heart of the issue

doesn't it?

[RC]

9. I think it's coming to a head.

[ret5hd]

11. just the tip...

of the iceburg

[leftofthedial]

12. Reading the article quote in the OP, I wondered what was in

the snipped portion

[Oilwellian]

14. It certainly does add a new....

wrinkle. :D

[havocmom]

15. There's a Tom Robbins book in this one

Another Another Roadside Attraction