Talk:2008-07-07 Student Who Took Religious Icon Getting Death Threats

Posted to Creative Minority

posted here, and scrubbed (all evidence that I had posted was removed) by the admin:

Seems to me that by attempting to elevate this harmless prank to the status of "hate crime", the Catholic Church has now lost any moral authority it might have had. How can it plausibly claim to care about the sanctity of human life when it apparently believes that the "improper" use of a piece of ritually-blessed cracker is worse than murder?

Not only was this nowhere near being a "hate crime", it wasn't even a crime: Mr. Cook was given the cracker to eat for goodness' sake. Even calling it "desecration" is a stretch that defies reason.

They can excommunicate him for violating the rules if they must, but leave it at that. All these threats and harassment are juvenile in the extreme -- far more juvenile than Mr. Cook's miniscule prank, which has unexpectedly done the world a significant service by revealing the level of thinking to which religion apparently confines some people.

The admin apparently closed comments after scrubbing my comment, claiming that we weren't following rules, i.e. being polite. Sheer hypocrisy.

A comment before mine which was removed less severely:

This is just silly said...

Amazing! All this anger and fury over a cracker, but when children are being molested not a word of complaint? Interesting "morality" you got there.

--Woozle 08:33, 9 July 2008 (EDT)

Pharyngula

Some events have unfolded since PZ first posted about this. In order:

• 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
    • Jon 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