In some parts of North Africa which are now Christian, circumcision is still performed at age 12 or 13, as a boy enters manhood. In such places the foreskin is seen as a "female" element (as females have folds of skin and men, in their culture, do not) and it is removed after the end of childhood when the boy becomes a man and no longer needs it. There too it is a major rite of passage and something which the boys look forward to and compete over (who took the pain most like a man!). It actually sits better with me than newborn circumcision as it's done with the foreskin's owner's informed consent, BUT i can see that it would be difficult even for a 13 year old to go against his on culture and also that fulfilling the covenant goes way beyond a consent issue so please no-one feel i am attacking religious practice!
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