Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Wacky Wednesday

I felt that it was time for another installment of Wacky Wednesday when I read this post over at Pharyngula. Webster Cook, a university student, has come under attack for taking the Eucharist, the Catholic communion cracker that had been blessed by the priest, out of the church.

When I read this post the first time I laughed so hard that I had tears coming down my face. I was waiting for PZ to say that this was some kind of joke or an article that he found on The Onion. Then when I read the news articles (don't miss this one too) I realized that this wasn't a joke and that this student's life is actually being turned upside down because of the loonies that believe this cracker is the body of Christ.

Vive Christus Rex a Catholic blogger talks about the roadmap to save Cook. Which includes apologizing to everyone including Bill Donohue, taking 6 months of sensitivity counseling, doing community service, dropping all charges against the students that threatened him, and accepting any punishment the school gives him. All that is required for taking a cracker out of a church?

This seems absolutely absurd to me! Have these people lost their minds? It is a cracker. I am not sure that the Catholic church realizes this, but I have a feeling there are going to be many more people taking the Eucharist out of the church now just to piss them off even more. In fact, I think that I am going to go to mass just to do that and I would encourage anyone else to do the same. I am not advocating disrupting the service I am just saying that you should quietly take it out without anyone knowing and then post a picture of it on your blog or website.

Let the cracker collecting begin!

6 comments:

Godless Woman said...

I am sorry to anyone who received multiple copies of this post in their RSS reader. I was having some problems with one of the links.

The Super Sweet Atheist said...

OMG! I love this idea!

Looking forward to seeing your cracker.....

Godless Woman said...

I am glad that you like the idea. I am working on exactly how I am going to do it and reading up on Cathlic communion since have very little knowledge about Catholic practices. If you have any suggestions I am all ears.

The Super Sweet Atheist said...

After reading all the ruckus at Pharyngula I so want to be an ex-Catholic right now!

Summer want a cracker.....

Anonymous said...

Godless,

You shouldn't have any trouble. I can understand being intimidated though. I was a Catholic and can chip in some simple advice. Get there a full 10 minutes at least before Mass and sit quietly, mostly looking down to avoid eye contact (this will keep anyone from taking particular note of you, and they will imagine your posture is for prayer, you holy roller you). When Mass begins, just follow everyone else's lead for standing, sitting, and kneeling. Don't worry about saying the prayers or singing the songs. Some lifelong Catholics don't even participate in that way. When you go forward for the Eucharist, hold your hands out to receive the cracker and when the priest says "Body of Christ" you say "Amen". That's it! Then, you just have to be smooth about pretending to put the cracker in your mouth while actually palming it out of sight.

Anonymous said...

You're right, this is CRAZY! It is just a cracker! As a Christian who takes communion, I can even admit that the crackers we take are just plain old crackers. Eat em', stop on em', curse 'em out, they're still just crackers! : )

The significance of communion for Christians is the associations we put with the crackers. I will be the first to say it's just a piece of food, but we eat it in memory. It's no more special than my dog's kibble, but since we designate it as the piece of food taken it memory, it becomes a solemn ordeal at that time.

I definitely don't believe that anything a priest, "blesses" has any significance whatsoever, though. My grandma freaked out one time because I drank her holy water. Yikes!!! : )

Jaclyn