I read the article fully expecting to learn that the “thief” had broken into the church sacristy and absconded with a case of communion wafers.
Are you fucking kidding me? This was a wafer given to someone during the service. Voodoo mysticism and doctrine aside, this was a “theft” like taking a church program is theft.
That article (which is actually here at present, by the way) could appear, verbatim, in The Onion.
How odd. And so are most other people here must also be crazy. You notice this a lot in your life? What do you think it means? You may be one of the few sane ones, I suppose. I would also entertain the opposite conclusion.
Careful, folks. Catholics have a long history of going off the rails over host desecration. From Wiki:
Over a wafer made of simple carbohydrates. :smack:
Bulletproof analogies are not necessary, but perhaps one with a passing resemblance to the subject would be good.
Cite that he did it to make a point? I don’t think his motivation has been established.
The guy did it, with the full intention of getting folks upset:
He fully intended to be a dick, and he succeeded. That doesn’t excuse the death threats, but just because he received death threats doesn’t make his act less dickish than it would be if he didn’t receive them.
And, it’s not about criminal law, but social etiquette, to me.
One, I’m not Catholic. Fomer Catholic but I am not one now, nor do I follow that once one is Catholic you always are.
Two, you must not understand what they are talking about. The Eucharist was consecrated. You know, sacred. You may believe what they do, but basic respect says you don’t take something considered sacred and desecrate it.
How would you feel about someone pissing on your father’s grave?
Big deal, it will make the grass grow. He’s dead.
Maybe you would be OK with that. I wouldn’t be.
It is just rude.
This post does a great job of answering exactly none of the questions I asked you.
You’re perfectly welcome to think so. It doesn’t make me wrong about this, though.
Whoa, pardner. PZ Myers DID NOT STEAL anything. He’s merely suggesting that someone do so. Try to keep it straight.
The church does have to pay for those things. They are not provided by heaven.
Even though the cost of a single wafer would be small it is theft of the church property.
I think the guy is clearly reaping what he has sowed.
I’d pretty much agree with this. I think I would tend to question the faith of those who feel the need to cause material problems for someone on an issue when the punishment is pretty much in other people’s hands. He broke no Earthly law; if someone has faith in unEarthly law, then the guy will be punished to the precise amount he deserves. God generally doesn’t seem to require *our * help.
But yes, dick move. The wrongness of theft depends not on how much the stealer values the stolen item, but how much the person stolen from values it. He does nobody, especially himself, any good whatsoever by doing this. It’s not just jerky, it’s stupid.
So we have the Krusty the Klown defense of “I didn’t do it.” Think that flies in any way, shape or form? Why?
They gave him a gift. Unless you have a cite that they told him that the giving of the gift was contingent upon him swallowing it, I think you’re wrong. Once that cracker is in his mouth he’s accepted the gift and the church cannot say a damn thing about what he does with it, as you of course well know.
Way to ignore the rest of my post though, and just nitpick at legal semantics. About what I expected.
It appears that this thread was opened for the sole purpose of maligning Catholics. Given the author of the OP I shouldn’t have been surprised. I would implore all Catholics in this thread to stop feeding the trolls.
Wait… you’re not saying the death threats were warranted are you? Please tell me I’m misinterpreting this!
The only possible harm that could come of it is if Catholics freak the fuck out and start killing people, as they are wont to do. As of now, there is NO HARM that has been done. None. Zero. It lies with the Catholic community to either turn the other cheek, or kill somebody.
My guess is that somebody eventually ends up dead. THERE’S harm for you.
Not in this case, it isn’t. It’s illegal to break into a church and steal a case of communion wafers. It’s not illegal to smuggle one home after receiving the sacrament. It wasn’t a “crime.” Let’s at least be factually accurate here.
Uh, wut? He didn’t do it. The guy that stole the cracker is a completely different person.
There doesn’t have to be a “defense.” Myers did not ask anyone to do anything illegal.
Muslims consider pork to be sacred, and eating pork to be a desecration. Explain to me how a non-Muslim desecrating pork by eating it is any different from a non-catholic desecrating a cracker by taking it home.
What is your deal with Catholics? The amount of bile you’ve spilled in this thread is quite impressive.