Eucharocalypse Now

Overheal

UCF student Webster Cook says on June 29th he attended a catholic mass on campus with a friend. Cook says he stood in line to receive the body of Christ. That's the bread wafer known as the Eucharist.

Catholics believe it is the body of Christ, after a blessing from a priest.
But cook didn't eat it in front of the altar, he took it back to his seat to show his friend. Cook says that's when church leaders got physical. He says they attacked him based on the assumption that he was going to use the Eucharist to do either witchcraft or black magic. Cook held onto the bread for a week but returned it after several people threatened his life.
In the past few days, some students have even filed complaints with the university's office of conduct trying to get him kicked out for disruptive conduct. "I think it's absurd. You can't disrupt your own event and then blame it on someone else" says Cook.


Cook is firing back, filing a complaint alleging physical abuse and hazing.
He says forced consumption of any food is considered hazing and that applies to all organizations not just greek organizations. University officials have not commented on the issue and are determining if the case has merit.

No idea why he kept the bread but death threats? Really?

PDN

Sounds like an attention-seeking drama queen.

AtomicHorror

So he took the bread away from the altar and didn't eat it within an acceptable time... that started the problem. What was the nature of the "physical" attack at that point though? It all sounds a bit vague.

Galvasean

Wouldn't mind seeing a source. It all sounds a bit OTT to be honest.

Overheal

Its bonofied. saw it on the 6:00 news, central florida.

hold on I'll dig the net-source up for you..

Here: WCTV, Florida

Of course its OTT: its evangelicals. Its God-issues mixed with the-other-6-days-of-the-week-American Patriotism.

MrPudding

How is it over the top? He stole the body of Christ FFS.

I am glad to see that the university in question have reacted in a non knee jerk way and are now posting armed guard at the church to ensure no one else steals the body of christ.

MrP

PDN

Overheal wrote: »

Its bonofied. saw it on the 6:00 news, central florida.

hold on I'll dig the net-source up for you..

Here: WCTV, Florida

Of course its OTT: its evangelicals. Its God-issues mixed with the-other-6-days-of-the-week-American Patriotism.

Do you even know what evangelicals are? It was a Catholic mass. :rolleyes:

Zombrex

PDN wrote: »

Sounds like an attention-seeking drama queen.

Cook or the Catholics?

PDN

Wicknight wrote: »

Cook or the Catholics?

Both.

Cook already has a history of campaigning on campus because he objects to tge Catholic Church receiving $40,000 a year funding from the University (a legitimate gripe, in my opinion). He obviously staged this little stunt to attract publicity for his campaign. The "physical force" he objected to was that a woman grabbed his hand and tried to prise the wafer out of his fingers.

The Catholic Church are also making a huge song and dance over a bit of bread.

I know a few students at UCF and have visited the campus. It's a very pleasant College environment where the usual gossip talking points are students installing poles in their apartments (for pole dancing). This storm in a communion cup is nonsense.

robindch

Overheal wrote: »

No idea why he kept the bread but death threats? Really?

Doesn't seem unlikely.

The thing fired up around a week ago, and the red-faced conservatocracy blew an entire fuseboard over the incident, especially after the famous anti-creationist, PZ Myers of Pharyngula fame, referred to the issue and the biscuits concerned as "fracking crackers". Myers' blog here is still full of the incident's aftermath.

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue didn't calm things much by referring to the incident as one in which "the body of Christ was taken hostage", an act which he claimed was "beyond hate-speech". Weirdly, prominent Republicans weighed in on his side too, after declaring that he didn't "need others to do the fighting for me. I’m quite good at it myself" and whinging about Myer's alleged "hysteria".

Jesus and Mo also looked into the matter here and reached a more sensible conclusion.

robindch

PDN wrote: »

This storm in a communion cup is nonsense.

Indeed, but very funny all the same

Zombrex

Overheal wrote: »

No idea why he kept the bread

By the sound of it (from other reports) it looks like he was making a protest about funding of religion by his college, that back fired. He claims he wasn't though, he just wanted to show the bread to his friend and was assaulted by people trying to get the bread back.

All seems rather bizarre

Overheal wrote: »

but death threats? Really?

Hey, this is the Catholic League we are talking about. Didn't they try to get Jesus arrested for going against the Church ... or was that a South Park episode ...

Zombrex

PDN wrote: »

the usual gossip talking points are students installing poles in their apartments (for pole dancing).

:eek:

Asiaprod

Correct me if I am wrong,but is not any kind of desecration to the host a cause for excommunication in the CC?

Galvasean

They probably should have ignored Cook. Sure he was acting the ass, but by going ballistic they are probably just giving him more ammo.

wolfsbane

Overheal wrote: »

No idea why he kept the bread but death threats? Really?

I hold the Mass to be a blasphemous fable (to quote the Anglican 39 Articles), but it is no one's right to enter a church/temple and abuse the worship. Sure, it is a silly belief, but the RCs are entitled to hold it and to not have their service violated.

A childish and very inconsiderate stunt. I wonder if the brave lad would enter a mosque and hold up a poster denouncing Mohammed as a false prophet?

Zombrex

wolfsbane wrote: »

A childish and very inconsiderate stunt. I wonder if the brave lad would enter a mosque and hold up a poster denouncing Mohammed as a false prophet?

I wonder if people would denounce the death threats if he had ...

AtomicHorror

wolfsbane wrote: »

I hold the Mass to be a blasphemous fable (to quote the Anglican 39 Articles), but it is no one's right to enter a church/temple and abuse the worship. Sure, it is a silly belief, but the RCs are entitled to hold it and to not have their service violated.

A childish and very inconsiderate stunt. I wonder if the brave lad would enter a mosque and hold up a poster denouncing Mohammed as a false prophet?

Good question. RCC are an easy target really...

kelly1

PDN wrote: »

The Catholic Church are also making a huge song and dance over a bit of bread.

Only in your opinion. To me desecrating the Blessed Sacrament has to be one of the greatest blasphemies.

wolfsbane

Wicknight wrote: »

I wonder if people would denounce the death threats if he had ...

Sorry, my ommission. Yes, it is also wicked to threaten the life of such violaters - there is recourse to law in most cases, or to leave it to the offfended God/god to sort out.

robindch

kelly1 wrote: »

Only in your opinion. To me desecrating the Blessed Sacrament has to be one of the greatest blasphemies.

As wolfsbane says, I'd leave god sort this one out if I were you. Much less stress all around.

Overheal

Asiaprod wrote: »

Correct me if I am wrong,but is not any kind of desecration to the host a cause for excommunication in the CC?

Assuming Cook was even a member. I've taken the bread about 3 or 4 times and I'm by no means baptized or any of that, and would not consider myself a member of the church.

I don't see how his stunt relates to his protest on Church funding though.

Armed Guards seems a bit much..

JoeB-

Info from Sam Harris 'The end of faith'

When the ridiculous doctrine of transubstanstiation was established in 1215, that's right, 1215... Catholics began to worry that Gods body would be abused,...

As sam Harris puts it

Sam Harris, PG 99 wrote:

Could there be any doubt that the Jews would seek to harm the Son of God again, knowing that his body was now accessible in the form of defenceless crackers?

He also mentions how 3,000 Jews were killed in response to a single allegation of this imaginary crime.

So the current response seems fairly low key to be honest...