2008 sacred wafer scandal

About

The 2008 sacred wafer scandal was an incident in which the apparent misuse of a mass-produced replica of a sacred icon sparked mass religious outrage, sharp condemnation from religious leaders, and attempts to harshly punish the perpetrator and those who defended him.

• /facts: the facts which are not in dispute
• discussion
  • /Catholic League: their position, with analysis
  • /John Pieret vs. Woozle: attempt to map out a very long, tangled dialogue

Nomenclature

Also known as: Crackergate, Wafergate, Wafer Madness

Conclusions

The original perpetrator did not actually do anything wrong.

The Catholic Church, by its failure in this matter to rebuke those behaving poorly in its name or in its defense – especially those who claimed that Cook's act was "worse than a hate crime" – has merely sealed the coffin of its moral authority, already decimated by its indefensible stances on assisted suicide, contraception, and other issues. --Woozle 14:43, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Links

Reference

• Pharyngula Wiki

Related

• 2008/07/15 [L..T] Much ado about transubstantiation "In the previous post, I suggested that the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which asserts that when the priest during the communion service consecrates the bread and wine, the bread becomes the actual body of Jesus and the wine becomes his actual blood, was a fairly bizarre thing to believe in this day and age and raised the possibility that perhaps even Catholics did not really believe in it but were just humoring the church by going along with a doctrine that came into being a long time ago."
• 2008/07/11 [L..T] HYSTERIA MARKS MYERS AND HIS ILK "Yesterday, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a news release calling attention to the plea that Paul Zachary Myers made on his blog: he solicited the Communion Host for the express purpose of desecrating it. Donohue now responds to the reaction he has received from the University of Minnesota Morris professor, as well as others:"
• 2008/07/06 [L..T] Student Holds Eucharist Hostage “Webster Cook is a student at the University of Central Florida. He is also a top notch jerk.”

Timeline

Some of these links have been filed, but not all

• 2008-07-08 IT'S A FRACKIN’ CRACKER!: PZ asks for more samples of the Host upon which to commit sacrilege and thereby somehow threaten the Catholic faith with a fate worse than death; PZ shuts down the comments at #1007 in order to reduce load on the server, but posts "fresh crackers!" specifically for further comments.
• 2008-07-10
  • Fight back against Bill Donohue!: The president of the Catholic League is putting pressure on both the UMM and the State of Minnesota to "do something" about this horrible desecration, regarding which it is apparently "hard to think of anything more vile". o.0 Comments are shut down at #1227, and "Internet getting full" is opened for further comments.
  • Fresh crackers!: 579 comments as of this writing
  • Commentary: It Gets Me! "So Bill Donohue, bumbling idiot, decides to go after my favorite blogger, all-around nice guy (except to religion!), and professor PZ Myers... ...For a cracker." Author admits to having abducted not one but two communion wafers without eating them.
  • Letters of support for PZ:
    • Richard Dawkins asks for supportive letters to UMM
    • John Pieret
• 2008-07-11
  • Internet getting full, here's a new hole to dump comments into: only 156 comments as of this writing
  • Can this possibly get more insane?: The Catholic League issues another press release disparaging evolution as the "King Kong Theory of Creation" and calling for increased safety at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, in view of their fear for the safety of attending Catholics so close to where Myers lives. Remember which side was issuing the death threats as you enter the Catholic annex of... The neocon reality inversion.
    • Post #109 notes that the increased security at the GOP convention seems to be completely unrelated to this incident, and Donohue is completely spinning it as somehow being at his request.
  • I get email — special cracker edition!: a sampling of email PZ has received regarding this incident
  • Interestingly, the link to Pharyngula has now (2008-07-11) disappeared from PZ's listing at UMM's biology faculty page. This would seem to be UMM's only link to it; is UMM responding to pressure?
  • Commentary: It Gets Me! (Part II) "Bill Donohue continues on his anti-science, anti-PZ tirade with this new statement from the Catholic League. Of course, PZ, being awesome as he is, has already noted their response and torn it to shreds..."
  • Commentary: Solidarity! by Tim Shortell, himself the past victim of anti-atheist sentiment
• 2008-07-12
  • Commentary: Dispatches from the Culture Wars (Ed Brayton)
    • Commentary: En Tequila Es Verdad
  • Commentary: Majikthise believes PZ's request for wafers to desecrate was intended as a joke
    • Woozle responds, as do many others
  • FYI: the sock-puppetry of the defenders of Catholic outrage stands revealed
• 2008-07-13: Mail dump: PZ posts a couple of insanely vile hate emails he recieved, along with full headers. The Pharyngulites go to work and are able to track down substantial identifying information on both of them.
• 2008-07-14: Letter of support for PZ: En Tequila. Key point: people are more important than symbols.

Reference: Support PZ blog