Rite is ancient, but wrong

Article here. Excerpt:

'This is in response to Rabbi Tirzah Firestone and Rabbi Marc Soloway, who wrote a lettter to the editor to support Brit Milah and circumcision on behalf of Haver, Boulder's Rabbinic Fellowship.

Yes, rabbis are the gatekeepers and, as such, feel obliged to defend and promote ritual circumcision. However, many committed and affiliated Jews, who now understand the profound and serious pain inflicted on the newborn, the short and long term effects of foreskin removal, are no longer willing to justify this medical, sexual and ethical assault on our baby boys and are choosing to welcome their male babies with a brit shalom, a covenantal ceremony without cutting.

The real reason for circumcision can be found in Maimonides, the great 12th century Jewish physician, Talmudic scholar, and philosopher who stated:

"The fact that circumcision weakens the faculty of sexual excitement and sometimes perhaps diminishes the pleasure is indubitable. For if at birth this member has been made to bleed and has had its covering taken away from it, it must indubitably be weakened. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have explicitly stated: It is hard for a woman with whom an uncircumcised man has had sexual intercourse to separate from him (Genesis Rabbah LXXX). In my opinion this is the strongest of reasons for circumcision."'