Many people have emailed me to say the following:
"I want to convert to Judaism, but I don't want to be circumcised or have my son circumcised. What do I do."
In reponse to that, we have added this section.
Our primary response is that Judaism is in the heart, not the penis. If you love Judaism and its values and traditions, and you want to live by them and raise your children by them, then that is all that is needed to convert. Humanistic and some Reform rabbis will be satisfied with that response.
However, many Rabbis are not progressive enough to be able to accept that. And the fact of the matter is, if you want to convert to Judaism, they hold the keys to the clubhouse. So we formulated a secondary response to appease those Rabbis.
Circumcision is a bloodletting ritual. That is the key to it. In "Covenant of Blood," Lawrence Hoffman explains that..."The rabbinic notion of blood is that it saves/provides salvation...If boys are born circumcised, they must still have a token drop of blood in the ceremony, drawn ritually, from their already circumcised penis.
When an already circumcised man converts to Judaism, the Rabbi simply takes a drop of blood from his penis. So obviously, that is all that is needed. So our position is, if the Rabbi insists on a bloodletting ritual, then ask him if he'll do the ceremony by only taking a drop of blood from the penis, instead of the entire foreskin. The bloodletting, not the mutilation of the penis, is what provides the salvation that the entering into the covenant is supposed to ensure. (Granted, JAC does think that bloodletting rituals are barbaric and outdated too, but we don't hold the keys to the clubhouse, the Rabbis do.)
If the Rabbi won't do it, then find a Rabbi who will. No club membership is worth mutilating your sexual organs.