Violence, Children and Women (Pantheon)
There seems to be a theme of violence in the news this morning, and before I attempt to wrap my head around the concept of idol-worship (stay tuned!) I want to talk about violence.
The first regards a local story on WSB of an investigation into child abuse because of a Santeria ritual. A daycare called the police after finding cuts on a 4-year-old girl’s chest. Apparently the cross-shaped cuts are made as part of a religious ritual in order to boost the girls strength. This isn’t a ritual I think I would do, but it doesn’t sound particularly horrible. Then again, I was one of those kids whose arms and legs were often covered in cuts and bruises from my tomboyish antics, so my perspective may be different.
What concerns me is that this is only being investigated as child abuse because it’s an uncommon ritual in the US. If the daycare called to report suspected abuse because an infant’s foreskin had been cut of in a religious ritual, we wouldn’t give the claim any merit. Yet this young girls cuts will heal in a week or so, and the male infant will have his sexual health impacted for the rest of his life without ever having been given a choice. Our priorities seem to be out of alignment here.
Read more at Pantheon
