Hard to think of anything more vile
Clearly I haven’t been paying enough attention to Bill Donohue, another impressive candidate in the Bullying and Intimidation by Believers of People Who Fail to Respect and Defer to Their Particular Beliefs sweepstakes.
To protest student fees for religious services at the University of Central Florida (UCF), a student walked out of a campus Mass on June 29 with the Eucharist.
When he says ‘with the Eucharist’ he of course means with a communion wafer, that is to say, with one cracker of many many crackers. The student didn’t walk out with ‘the Eucharist’ such that nobody else could have any, he just walked out with one of a large number of mass-produced crackers. (Suddenly I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode in which George obsesses over whether the actor auditioning for the part of Kramer took the box of raisins that everyone had been snacking on.) The student walked out with something of an inherent value too small to calculate.
Now, that’s not the point, the point is that the cracker is supposed to have been transubstantiated into the body of Jesus. (Is it into the body? Or into a bit of the body? If it’s a bit, which bit? If it’s the whole thing – how does that work? You’re supposed to be eating all of Jesus each time? You and all the others? But if it’s a bit, which bit? Just some, like, flesh off the arm or a buttock or something? A small bit that wouldn’t be missed? These are deep theological waters, which I should not get into.) Okay, so the believers believe the cracker is [part of?] the body of Jesus. But so what? They also believe the whole thing is infinitely renewable, presumably – so what’s the problem? Really – that’s not entirely facetious. What is the problem? What do they think will happen? What do they think has happened? What kind of difference do they think it makes?
Do they think Jesus minds? Do they think the student will damage Jesus in some way by carrying off [a piece of?] his body? Surely not. Jesus is God, and God is omnipotent and invulnerable, so…what does it matter? God created the universe, so why would God be bothered that some erring human walked away with a cracker that is also [part of] an infinite god?
Who knows. But that’s probably not the issue, is it – the issue is much more likely to be the joy of having an occasion to Take Offense and then milk it. Better yet, there is the bliss of having an occasion to tell people what to do and tell them to hurry up about it besides.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered the following remarks today: “For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage—regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance—is beyond hate speech.”
The Body of Christ – so the cracker is supposed to be the whole thing then? (I know, it’s such a crude question, but I never have understood this, despite some efforts.) And it makes sense to say the removal of one cracker is taking it hostage? So this student was holding the Body of Christ hostage in just the same way that the Farc was holding Ingrid Betancourt hostage? But Bill Donohue doesn’t actually think Jesus was missing during the period the student still had the cracker, does he? Does he think God was missing too? (I don’t understand the Trinity either, I must admit.) If so why doesn’t he mention it? It’s all Christ Christ Christ with these people.
“That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion.”
Don’t be shy, Bill. Do your best to get some kid that you don’t know expelled from a university for doing something that you dislike. Don’t hesitate, don’t have any qualms, don’t worry about consequences or proportion, just get right in there and demand.
And then do your best to get PZ Myers fired too. PZ reacted to Donohue’s bullying of the Florida student by pointing out that the cracker was a cracker and then offering to desecrate some, and Donohue carried his Khomeini-imitation a few more steps farther:
[W]e are contacting the President and the Board of Regents to see what they are going to do about this matter. Because the university is a state institution, we are also contacting the Minnesota legislature. It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively.
Oh, I can think of lots of things more vile than to intentionally desecrate a cracker that is rather arbitrarily claimed to be ‘the Body of Christ’ – lots and lots and lots. Tormenting children in industrial schools for instance; telling people not to use condoms in the midst of an HIV pandemic; trying to get people expelled or fired for petty reasons.
“Florida student, Webster Cook abuses Eucharist”
I am sure abusing Jesus was not very a Christian thing for ‘Webster’ to have done. Therefore, I sincerely advocate that by all accounts that a redress board be set in place to compensate Jesus for the abuse suffered at the hands of Webster Cook.
The Catholic League should get cracking and run with this remunerative suggestion indeed.
That annoyed me so much, I just sent them a (probably pointless) message, stating the bleedin’ obvious, via their “Feedback” form:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
Mr. Bill Donohue stated “It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ.”
Really?
Perhaps he is forgetful of the sexual abuse of thousands of children worldwide by ordained Catholic priests, and the consequent exercise in covering-up this abuse?
I suggest he engages his intellect before fulminating in public in future.”
I’ll probably be added to the secret list of international catholic-haters…
:-)
Ah well. Still, felt good to ‘do something’, rather than just grumble here…
:-))
But they are superstitious about their crackers.
Once a friend and I were planning to make and market earrings made from holy biscuits. (Well, and glitter and other jewel-like things). And his (my friend’s) boyfriend at the time was an actual priest, who had access to as many hosts as necessary via Uneeda Host or Costco or wherever.
And he (boyfriend) refused to get us the biscuits we needed to fulfill our business plan. Imagine, there he was, a priest with a boyfriend (ahem, willing to break one of the Big Rules). But he held out on us out of superstition. Or something.
As they say in airports, no jokes please.
Ha! Three out of three – you guys are funnier than Bill Donohue.
Another funny thing about the Catholic League is the specatacle of Bill writing these press releases in which he talks about himself in the third person. ‘Catholic League president Bill Donohue offered the following remarks today’ – yeah right; you mean ‘I offered,’ Bill. And the ‘offered’ is funny, too, as is the ‘remarks.’
Enough with the jokes!
The serious side to this goes deeper than poor Webster Cook. Soon after the theory of transubstantiation was formulated, accusations began to appear of Jews stealing consecrated wafers and stabbing and otherwise abusing them, as they were thought to have abused Christ (that is, Jesus, the anointed one – Christos). (Strange that they never occurred before that.) Until then it was quite common for ordinary people to take wafers home and place them in their domestic shrines. (This may still be a practice amongst the Orthodox. I’m not sure.) Since then, the ‘Host’, as it is called, has been reserved, used for blessing and adoration, etc. (there’s a whole service called Benediction in which the Host in a Monstrance is raised up, adored, and used to bless the people), and usually, until very recently, not placed into people’s hands (which would desecrate it), but put directly on the tongue of the communicant.
It’s interesting that one off the Anglican 39 Articles of religion states that the Eucharist was not by Christ’s ordinance held up and worshipped, etc., which High Church Anglicans have always taken to mean that, while not so ordered, may be done.
How much can be hung on a word, I wonder, that doesn’t make sense to begin with: ‘transubstantiation’? (Remember all the attempts made to transubstantiate lead into gold? Didn’t work!)
As to something more vile than desecrating the body of Christ? Well, you can only desecrate it if you believe that that is what it is. Presumably PZ doesn’t. So what’s Bill Donohue’s beef? (or, perhaps, rather, flesh? or bread?!)
Aha, I didn’t know that. Should have but didn’t. Although it sounds familiar, so maybe I did know and forgot, which would be typical. That’s very very interesting – so Bill Donohue is using an old anti-Semitic trope. Am I surprised or what.
Yes indeed. It was part of witchcraft accusations too. Very interesting. Donohue is spashing around in very deep and filthy waters here.
Donohue is a revolting little scroat but isnt this a stretch guys he could well be ignorant of that part of history.
In this case, being ignorant of history doesn’t mean that you’re not part of it! Donohue’s hysterics are of a piece with earlier condemnations of Jews and ‘witches’ who were imagined to do vile things to Christ’s body (the communion bread).
It’s a bit like cartoons of Mohammed. How does anyone know that a particular representation is a representation of Mohammed? Because someone wrote the name below it. How do you know that this tasteless wafer is the body of Christ? Because it came from a church and was prayed over by the priest.
Either way the hysterics are a bit comic. If consecration makes a tasteless piece of bread the body of Christ, then ‘desecration’ surely unmakes it. If Mohammed should not be represented, and no one knows what he looked like, then any supposed representation of Mohammed would not, by a believer, be thought to be one. It really shouldn’t be very hard for Muslims to achieve this level of indifference to supposed representations of their prophet. Same with communion wafers. Since you can’t tell the difference between a consecrated and an unconsecrated wafer, Catholics would be better just to shut up.
It’s a bit like a kewpie doll. You can only use one to hurt someone else, if the ‘someone else’ feels the pins when you stick them in the doll. Otherwise, it’s pretty harmless stuff, isn’t it? If Donohue goes on like this, then we can easily make life a misery for him. Just get boxes of wafers – you can buy them at church supply stores – and then do ‘terrible’ things to them. Easy, see?
A zen monk would have apologized that the wafer was such an inadequate meal. Bill Donohue pronounces the act “beyond hate speech” and demands retribution and justice.
To paraphrase Scott Adams, thanks for taking time out from feeding the poor to remonstrate with protesting students Bill, we know Jesus would have played it the same way.
> A zen monk would have apologized that the wafer was such an inadequate meal.
Sigh. If only my ability to write grammatically correct English matched Bill’s zeal and powers of Christian forgiveness.
No, it’s not a stretch, Richard, because the point isn’t that Donohue is doing this knowingly; I don’t know whether he is or not; the point is that he is doing it and (at the very least) he ought to know better.
That is almost exactly what I was thinking too, Eric. All those faithheads who are offended simply are making the re-offence inevitable. They are telling their critics exactly which button to push. They too realise this, hence the efforts (in the UN and elsewhere)to return to a state of ‘automatic respect’ for their quaint beliefs, which in itself is nothing if transgressors cannot be made to pay really heavily for the mockery.
Kewpie doll? I think you mean voodoo doll, Eric! Kewpie dolls were those funny fairground dolls, weren’t they? Kind of like 3-D Keene paintings.
“Well, you can only desecrate it if you believe that that is what it is. Presumably PZ doesn’t. So what’s Bill Donohue’s beef? (or, perhaps, rather, flesh? or bread?!)”
Remember, one of the articles of faith of American godbotherers is that atheists and secularists actually do realize deep down in their hearts that Xianity is correct. They just deliberately go out of their way to spite it. Because they’re evil.
Looking Bill Donohue up on Wikipedia is quite illuminating. He appears to interpret everything as a slur against Catholicism. I’m surprised he hasn’t started inventing things to be angry at, ala the infamous imams and their fake cartoons.
Kewpie dolls are far creepier than voodoo dolls. In fact, I’d prefer you didn’t mention them.
Mirax makes a good point that they are just highlighting their red-buttons, so people will keep pushing them. Human nature. And everyone gets a self-righteous buzz.
I’ve never experienced it, but being deeply, deeply offended by some shit that doesn’t matter is probably very cathartic. Might even be good for you. And PZ does enjoy rattling cages. Everyone wins with farces like this. Don’t they?
Well to be boringly literal, I think it’s the opposite of cathartic. I’ve always taken this view of the supposed therapeutic benefits of openly-expressed anger, too: I think it’s much more likely to stoke and feed anger than it is to ‘vent’ and thus dissipate it. If you watch people venting anger you can’t help noticing that after the venting they are more angry rather than less so. I think being deeply deeply offended by some shit that doesn’t matter leaves the offended more purple in the face than ever, and more obsessive and dogmatic in the mind, too.
PZ does enjoy rattling cages, of course. I’m not sure I would have rattled this particular cage in this particular way – but I’m also not sure how much of that is tact and how much of it is cowardice.
OK, maybe not cathartic, but there is a definite buzz to that level of outrage. I suspect that in some sense it’s pleasurable, and they want those buttons pushed. Or am I just projecting?
Ah, that’s a different thing – buzz, yes, fer sher. I should know: what else is B&W about?!
(Of course my outrages are all about Very Important matters. cough.)
To be fair, though (fair to myself: always an urgent task) – I think a lot of my outrage centers around this very distinction between what matters and what doesn’t. Outrage over Danish cartoons versus no outrage over Darfur; outrage over crackers versus no outrage over condoms; etc.
Will Bill Donohue I wonder, be seeking for Webster Cook, a “Invitandus” excommunication; from the pope for the former’s desecration of the Holy Eucharist?
Ha! Just shows how irregularly I get on the internet. Didn’t read your comment about kewpie/voodoo dolls until just now Ophelia!
Ah, well, when I was a kid it was kewpie dolls – yeh! they’re the fairground things – and the story was told in terms of kewpie dolls. In the environment I was brought up in, voodoo would have been an unmentionable!
About the disparity of outrages. Yes, indeed, we should rage about other things. Donohue should too! Of course, PZ shook the cage doors because Webster Cook did, and the mouse roared!