P.Z. Myers / Bill Donohue
Posted on 07/16/2008 1:43:16 PM PDT by NYer
.- University of Minnesota at Morris biology professor P.Z. Myers has repeated his threat to desecrate the Eucharist, saying “I have to do something. I’m not going to just let this disappear.”
Speaking in an interview with the Minnesota Independent, Myers characterized the Eucharist as a “cracker.” He said that the vitriolic responses he received from self-described Catholics had strengthened his resolve.
“I have to do something,” he said in the interview. “I'm not going to just let this disappear. It's just so darned weird that they're demanding that I offer this respect to a symbol that means nothing to me. Something will be done. It won't be gross. It won't be totally tasteless, but yeah, I'll do something that shows this cracker has no power. This cracker is nothing.”
According to Myers, a minority of the threats even directed anti-Jewish remarks at him. Myers was in fact raised Lutheran.
When the Minnesota Independent asked Myers how his proposed action differed from U.S. military personnel’s reported abuse of the Koran, Myers responded:
“There's a subtle difference there -- maybe an important difference. I don't favor the idea of going to somebody's home or to something they own and possess and consider very important, like a graveyard -- going to a grave and desecrating that. That's something completely different. Because what you're doing is doing harm to something unique and something that is rightfully part of somebody else -- it's somebody else's ownership. The cracker is completely different. This is something that's freely handed out.”
Myers claimed the furor generated by his threat was a result of the weakening state of religion. “This is them lashing out. It's a disparate ploy to be relevant and to be important again... They're looking for somebody to take their ire out on.”
Last week Myers had threatened to desecrate the Eucharist in response to a Florida incident in which a student senator allegedly held a consecrated Host hostage.
“Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers?” Myers wrote on July 8 on his blog Pharyngula. “…if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I’ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won’t be tempted to hold it hostage… but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web.”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a Tuesday statement criticized Myers for showing deference to Islam but not Catholicism in Myers’ Minnesota Independent interview.
Donohue cited Myers’ 2006 remarks on a Danish controversy surrounding derogatory depictions of Mohammed, in which he said the cartoons “lack artistic or social or even comedic merit, and are presented as an insult to inflame a poor minority.”
Donohue continued: “He even went so far as to say that Muslims ‘have cause to be furious.’ (His italic.) Worthy of burning down churches, pledging to behead Christians and shooting a nun in the back…”
“We hope Myers does the right thing and just moves on without further disgracing himself and his university,” Donohue stated. “The letter I received from University of Minnesota President Robert H. Bruininks makes it clear that school officials want nothing to do with his hate-filled remarks. It would also be nice if Myers’ fans would cease and desist with their hate-filled screeds.”
In a Friday Catholic League statement Donohue said that Myers’ remarks and the reactions of Myers’ supporters has prompted Thomas E. Foley, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, to voice concern for Catholics who are attending the September convention.
“Accordingly, Foley has asked the top GOP brass to provide additional security while in the Twin Cities so that Catholics can worship without fear of violence,” Donohue said.
The Florida incident which provoked Myers’ desecration threat happened in June when Webster Cook, a student senator at the University of Central Florida, reportedly received a consecrated Host at a campus Mass and took it back to his seat to show his curious friend. When confronted by a Catholic leader who reputedly tried to retrieve the Host, Cook left the church and stored the Sacrament in a plastic bag. He returned the Host on Sunday July 6 and apologized, but said he was motivated by his opposition to the Catholic campus group’s use of student funds.
Catholic students in an official complaint charged Cook with disruptive conduct, while Cook responded with an official complaint concerning alleged physical force.
According to wftv.com, Cook is now pressing charges against the University of Central Florida Catholic Campus Ministries for hazing, alleging the Catholic group violated an anti-hazing rule against the forced consumption of food. The rule is normally applied to fraternity initiations.
Cook has also charged the Catholic group of violating the school’s underage alcohol policy by serving communion wine to underage students.
Anthony Furbush, an officer in the university’s Student Government Association (SGA), has filed an affidavit of impeachment against Cook, alleging that he violated SGA ethics when he announced that he was an SGA official during the Mass. He claimed this status as a reason he did not have to leave the Mass when asked. If impeached, Cook would be stripped of his SGA position.
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
Sounds like he’s just trying to get more pupils in whatever classroom he occupies. Just looking for attention.
If he were to threaten to desecrate a Moselm holy item, his shoulders would be preparing a nice goodbye letter to his head.
The difference is that if you violate a koran, you may get hurt. You may get a knife in your chest. You may get your head separated from your shoulders.
If you violate the eucharist, you may get your name in the papers. You may get an interview. You may get to brag to your friends and kid yourself if for only a moment that you're important.
And somewhere a few christians will pray for your soul. Maybe even someone close to you, your mom or grandma. Or someone from the church where you've insisted on making a fool of yourself will take it on themselves to start praying you into the kingdom.
Big difference.
Alright. You got your 15 minutes you pathetic loser. A freaking college professor, you define the word “drone”. So go back to your miserable worthless existence. No one will notice when you are gone.
I’ll give you some “crackers” to desecrate if you will give me the opportunity to educate you - in a dark alley.
After all, you mean nothing to me, you’re just a fragging Liberal.
Techically he is right. There is NO POWER in a CRACKER.
The power is Christ. The cracker is just a cracker and SYMBOLIC of His flesh. Nothing changes the cracker. It will always be a cracker.
I was raised and remain a Lutheran and this child obviously is acting out his grievance at being forced to go to church.
The thing to remember is that God in His infinite wisdom and patience understands this child's motives and what drives him. God will judge him and deal with him as appropriate. It is not for us to do so. All we can do is pity the poor child, lost and confused and abandoned by himself.
If he did this to anything Jewish or Moslem, he would be accused of hate speech.
Does anyone remember when a guy was fired from his university positions because, when he was participating in a group joke, he made a noose out of his hoodie drawstring, threatening to hang anyone who didn’t turn their papers in on time? (Everyone else in the room was saying the same thing, they just didn’t use the words hanging or make a little noose).
I say this man should be prosecuted for a hate crime. I don’t believe in them, but heck, they never listened to me over other cases, so what sauce for the goose is what’s sauce for the gander.
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A$$H@ !!!
Yup... We don’t want to make “the cracker” into an idol.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Oh wait, I'm not muslim. ..never mind.
I don't suppose he'd care to explain why he "has to do something" about this. And while I don't personally regard this item as anything other than a cracker, I think it's a whole lot less "weird" of Catholics to regard it as something else, than of Mr. Myers to head off into cyberspace asking that somebody "score" him a consecrated wafer, and then claim that he "has to . . . treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web" because "they're demanding that I offer this respect to a symbol that means nothing to me". Ummm, somehow he missed mentioning where anybody demanded that he do anything at all with regard to these "crackers". Has somebody been scattering them in his path as he walks to class and demanding he alter his route to avoid stepping on them?
"Ye men of Freeper Republic, take heed to yourselves as to getting excited over this pagan, for he'll get his 15 minutes of fame and then it was dispersed, and he will come to nought. But if this act is truly against God, He will deal with it and ye shall not have to fight for Him."
He can rationalize this however he wants. Being a liberal professor, I’m sure he’s accustomed to rationalizations. But the fact remains that he wouldn’t dare insult Islam in any comparable way. He knows it. We all know it. He simply wouldn’t have the guts.
P Z. Meyers is an annoying little zit on the backside of university life who’s found a way to get his fifteen minutes of fame. He’s loving all this attention. Why are we giving it to him?
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