Christ on a Cracker!
A University of Central Florida student was manhandled and is now receiving death threats and being accused of hate crimes by his local Catholic diocese after a recent incident at the local church. His crime?
He took the communion wafer he was given back to his seat.
Webster Cook attended Mass at his local Catholic church. He claimed he wanted to show his non-Catholic friend what the wafer looked like, so when the priest gave him the wafer, he started to take it back to his seat. He was grabbed by parishioners and his way was blocked. In order to get back to his seat, he popped the wafer in his mouth. When he returned to his seat, he removed it. A church leader saw him, grabbed his wrist and tried to pry the wafer from his hands. She refused to release him despite repeated demands that she do so, so Cook left the church with the wafer.
Father Migeul Gonzales made a striking comparison of the cracker abduction--"Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family."
Mr. Cook returned the cracker to the Catholic Church, but that's not enough according to Susan Fani, a spokesperson for the local Cathlic diocese--"[I]f anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it." Mr. Cook claims that he has received death threats over the "incident".
Now please note, this isn't some odd cult in the backwoods of Appalachia. This is the Roman Catholic Church. If ANYTHING can be considered mainstream Christianity, the numbers are on their side. And this isn't some rogue sect off in some uncivilized corner of the world. This is Florida (okay, okay, but it's NEXT TO civilized parts of the world, so I expect better). These aren't some whacked-out parishoners who equate taking a cracker that was freely given to him with kidnapping, or calling the cracker caper a "hate crime". This is an ordained priest and an official spokesperson of the diocese making these claims. Any why? Transubstantiation. They think that this guy literally kidnapped a piece of Jesus (instead of eating him like a good cannibal, I guess).
If anyone dares to tell you that mainstream Christianity doesn't take the mythology literally, just point them to this story. Religious myth isn't just morality stories to many, many mainstream Christians; it's real (yet always unverifiable) fact. Fortunately, no one has died over it yet, although a complaint has been filed with the Student Union at UCF against Mr. Cook and his friend. Also, armed UCF police officers (that Florida residents paid for) are standing guard over the crakers at Mass to ensure that the Catholic Church retains its ability to serve Jesus "dine-in only".
He took the communion wafer he was given back to his seat.
Webster Cook attended Mass at his local Catholic church. He claimed he wanted to show his non-Catholic friend what the wafer looked like, so when the priest gave him the wafer, he started to take it back to his seat. He was grabbed by parishioners and his way was blocked. In order to get back to his seat, he popped the wafer in his mouth. When he returned to his seat, he removed it. A church leader saw him, grabbed his wrist and tried to pry the wafer from his hands. She refused to release him despite repeated demands that she do so, so Cook left the church with the wafer.
Father Migeul Gonzales made a striking comparison of the cracker abduction--"Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family."
Mr. Cook returned the cracker to the Catholic Church, but that's not enough according to Susan Fani, a spokesperson for the local Cathlic diocese--"[I]f anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it." Mr. Cook claims that he has received death threats over the "incident".
Now please note, this isn't some odd cult in the backwoods of Appalachia. This is the Roman Catholic Church. If ANYTHING can be considered mainstream Christianity, the numbers are on their side. And this isn't some rogue sect off in some uncivilized corner of the world. This is Florida (okay, okay, but it's NEXT TO civilized parts of the world, so I expect better). These aren't some whacked-out parishoners who equate taking a cracker that was freely given to him with kidnapping, or calling the cracker caper a "hate crime". This is an ordained priest and an official spokesperson of the diocese making these claims. Any why? Transubstantiation. They think that this guy literally kidnapped a piece of Jesus (instead of eating him like a good cannibal, I guess).
If anyone dares to tell you that mainstream Christianity doesn't take the mythology literally, just point them to this story. Religious myth isn't just morality stories to many, many mainstream Christians; it's real (yet always unverifiable) fact. Fortunately, no one has died over it yet, although a complaint has been filed with the Student Union at UCF against Mr. Cook and his friend. Also, armed UCF police officers (that Florida residents paid for) are standing guard over the crakers at Mass to ensure that the Catholic Church retains its ability to serve Jesus "dine-in only".