Polly want a cracker?

I hate hypocrisy and idiocy, and when the two combine in a single event, the results are often catastrophic. There is a college student getting death threats and risks expulsion from his university because he . . . stole a cracker.

Of course, it wasn't just ANY cracker -- it was a communion wafer. It was part of the Catholic cannibalism ceremony known as "eucharist", where the cracker and cheap wine (grape juice, if you're doing Baptist-style) are supposedly "transubstantiated" into the actual body and blood of Jesus. Of course, this is a completely insane and ridiculous concept, but it's also an integral part of the Catholic doctrine, and therefore highly sacred to them.

According to PZ Myers' blog, not only did the Catholic Church condemn the "theft" of their cracker, but some of the parishoners actually tried to physically assault and apprehend Mr. Cook as he left the church. Now the kid is getting death threats, legal threats, and possibly even risks sanctions from his university (potentially up to and including expulsion).

All this over a piece of tasteless, stale, flat bread.

I find it absolutely horrific that this sick and twisted ritual (what else would you call sanctified mock anthropophagy?) is given even the most miniscule modicum of respect by any rational human. The fact that it is defended only goes to show the depths to which the collective intellect of the USA has fallen, and points in the direction of where we're going if idiocy and insanity are allowed to continue to rule the minds of the majority.

Actually, I like the response Dr. Myers is planning in comment #276 -- to surrepitously acquire a quantity of eucharist crackers (along with a bunch of other religious symbols) and "desecrate" them all in various and sundry ways. If and when the various deities who are represented by those symbols get offended, then perhaps a stray bolt of lightning will strike him down. Until those deities decide to take action, however, it will be up to the outraged (and outrageous) followers to be upset and offended instead. (you have to wonder at people who worry about insults and offenses to relics and ritual, when it's apparent that the deity itself couldn't care less).