Agreed.

(Regarding 2 - I assume it was the Catholic League guy on TV all the time, Irish name, escapes me now. He is a bit much.)

Not only was offense taken... But Susan Fani, a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese called it a hate crime! Hard does one have to try for that?

Funny you should mention that. Did you miss this part of the article?

“We don’t know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was,” said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. “However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”

Stat, I saw it, that is why I mentioned it. Good thing there are lawyers to sort these things out.

She sounds like an arse and something far worse this side of the pond.

Maybe an example of nominative determination.

No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion. - Robert G. Ingersoll

Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities. - H. L. Mencken

Everyone prefers belief to the exercise of judgment. -Seneca

Man is only animal that has the true religion - several of them. - Mark Twain




The information given in the OP and the reactions by church officials should not surprise anyone. Ninety percent of the people on the planet are insane; this type of behavior is quite within the bounds of normalcy for the majority of mankind. Enjoy it.


Le Misanthrope

Catholics hold the sacrements to be sacred, so this guy is both dumb and extremely impolite.

"It is just a cracker" is about a good an argument as it "is just words" when you're dishing out death threats, "it is just a piece of paper" when you steal money or "it is just 1s and 0s" when you steal someone's identity online.

"It is meaningless" is also no defence, because we all have our little rituals and symbols that are ultimately meaningless to some other person - we still don't want some dude to ruin them or steal them. It can hurt more than him stealing or defacing something of monetary and/or practical value.

I think he should be charged with desecrating a body of Christ.

EDIT: Wow I'm way too slow

Do you REALLY not see the difference between what you've listed and what actually happened? If not, try a little harder. I have 'faith' you must be smarter than this.

If he stole it he should be charged with theft.
I'm not sure how you make the link between what occurred and deserving burning in hell or even expulsion from school but have at it. If you say those are ridiculous penalties for a cracker of his then what is your point.
If he is dumb and impolite then writing a book calling such things delusions must be the work of a crude,drooling moron. ( you're welcome NR).

I would be outraged at those who think you deserve to burn in Hell, and alarmed and outraged at those who send you death threats.

Political Correctness is one of humanity's most dangerous right wing ideologies.

Yes, but some of us realize that that is OUR problem.

Federation Against Religious Theft:

1.
You wouldn't steal a car?
You wouldn't steal a handbag?

Stealing a consecrated host is theft!!!
You steal your a felon plain and simple.

2.
Wafer theft funds criminal organizations.
communion wafers have been stolen for centuries. Often for use in black masses or as lucky charms used in what amounts to using witchcraft to make money.
The money generated funds people trafficking drug dealing and other hard crime.
Those involved in such activities are often funding dangerous criminal organisations.

3.

Think twice before ridiculing this kind of crime. It's not a victimless crime.

If you know or suspect someone involved report them now on 0800 911 666

support Federation Against Religious Theft today

Just to explicitly state what others have hinted at...

If someone gives you something and doesn't expect you to return it, and you keep it (instead of eating it, which they expected when they gave it to you), that's not exactly theft.

I've got a feeling it's going to get very alarming after PZ Meyers performs his planned demonstration of Eucharist desecration. At least if I were him I'd be worried. I think that's over-the-top. I mean, c'mon... Offending for the sake of offending, seems childish to me.

It's like those who burn the American flag, to prove they have the right to do so. I never understood that. I think we should be thankful for these freedoms and not seek out ways to offend people. Speaking for myself, I'm sure I offend enough people without going out of my way to try.

Ridiculous, next you'll be denegrating those who commemorate Empire Day, when we try to remember the names of all those from the Sudbury area who so gallantly gave their lives fighting to keep China British.

I also said defacing, I don't consider the theft of a cracker a major crime. Symbols have value even if it isn't always monetary.

If I spit it isn't going to bother people, if I don't like a poster it isn't going to matter to people, if I wear military boots it isn't going to matter to a lot of people, if I wear jeans it isn't going to matter to people, if I shave my head it isn't going to matter to people.

If I spit and sneer when I see an image at Marthin Luther King and I dress in military boots with red laces and blue jeans tucked in them when I have a shaved head, it is going to matter a lot to people.

Context matters.

I knew a guy who used a similar argument for using a pirate copy of photoshop in the UK

He was a welfare scrounger with little money so he claimed that he would never
have paid the 6000 gbp the program cost so he could not be seen to be depriving Adobe of any income in his use of the programme.
even when I reported him the authorities refused to prosecute.


The other guy I new tried to tell me that downloading movies for free off the internet doesn't help fund organized crime. I gave him a lot of literature from FACT to put him right but he wouldn't listen ,Realizing he was delusional I tried to have him sectioned under the mental health act.

Afer several sessions of ECT and a transorbital leucotomy all paid for by the NHS he is now cured of these delusions

don't let it happen to you.

It isn't about political correctness, it is about realizing that things can matter a lot to others even if they don't matter to you, and vice versa. Showing respect for the customs of others when they don't infringe on anyone is a decent thing to do.

So all I have to do is start caring a LOT about as many things as I can, and you are going to be spending a lot of time in prison or receiving a ton of death threats?

It REALLY doesnt matter, to you, what the thing they are getting offended about is? Just the fact that they have decided to be offended is enough?

Decency/politeness are in an entirely different zip code from death threats, felonies and hate crimes. For EXACTLY this reason.

That is EXACTLY what matters to me.

Their entire belief system and religion is based on the sacrements being sacred. This ritual of crackers that hurt noone means _extremely_ much to them. What this guy did probably just seems innocent to people who think the belief is stupid.

If I walk into a Mosque with my shoes on and wipe my feet on a praying carpet, I expect reactions. I also think I've been an utter jerk and what I did was unnecessary and rude. Shouting the n-word at an 2nd gen immigrant's face isn't very different.

I'm in somewhat agreement with you. I don't see the point in offending for the sake of offending. But vhawk's point is the reaction to such offenses. Look at how some Islamics reacted to some silly cartoons awhile back. There are other ways to handle those who offend. The problem is when people overreact and wind up making bigger fools of themselves than the ones who did the offending in the first place.

Needless to say, there are overreactions taking place when it comes to 'trampling' on religious beliefs. I don't think this compares very well to the cartoons however, because that action was a protest against infringements of another groups rights (the right of free expression).

If this guy wrote some long newspaper article on the stupidity of holding the eating of biscuits sacred and was received death treats I would say the people doing the threats were to ones transgressing.