Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (www.catholicleague.org/)
According to his statement on the subject, “I pierced it [the Host] with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash.”
Saying he did not want to “single out just the cracker,” Myers also tore pages from the Koran along with a few pages from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and nailed them to the Host.
He then said, “They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. (His emphasis.) Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows:
“A formal complaint against Myers has already been made.
What he did—in both word and deed—constitutes a bias incident, as defined by the University of Minnesota. The policy says that ‘Expressions of disrespectful bias, hate, harassment or hostility against an individual, group or their property because of the individual or group’s actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion…can be forms of discrimination. Expressions vary, and can be in the form of language, words, signs, symbols, threats, or actions that could potentially cause alarm, anger, fear, or resentment in others…even when presented as a joke.’
“The University must now take action and apply the appropriate sanction. We are contacting the president, Board of Regents and the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office at the school, as well as Minnesota’s governor and both houses of the state legislature; the Catholic community in Minnesota is also being contacted.
"Moreover, we are also contacting Muslim groups nationwide.
“It is important for Catholics to know that the University of Minnesota will not tolerate the deliberate destruction of the Eucharist by one of its faculty. Just as African Americans would not tolerate the burning of a cross, and Jews would not tolerate the display of swastikas, Catholics will not tolerate the desecration of the Eucharist.”
Contact Myers at myersp@morris.umn.edu
Contact President Robert Bruininks at bruin001@umn.edu
Although this is last week's news, I wanted to write on this because it's a good illustration of how rampant evil is our world and to what extent a learned man will go to show that the idea of God, faith, and sacredness means nothing. Paul Myers' actions were in response to an earlier incident involving a Florida university professor who took the host but returned it a week later. Myers in response, posted on his blog that he would proudly desecrate a host if anyone would mail it to him.
In an argument last week it was brought to my attention that people who are atheist tend to have significantly higher IQ's than us believing folk. True or not, based on Paul Myer's actions, intelligence not only extinguishes faith and belief but also moral aptitude, respect, and common sense.
Unfortunately, the University of Minnesota has decided not to act in response to Myer's activity. His defense is that he is safe since he desecrated the Eucharist at home. His blog, where he posted pictures of the act, was linked to the University website.
I perused his blog and it is littered with anti-Christian remarks. He is not shy about his contempt for God and religion. He is a fanatical atheist. Be it as it may, someday he and other atheists will have that encounter with their creator.
I always imagine that the atheist's encounter with God will be somewhat like the Christmas M&M commercial where the M&M's run into Santa Claus and both, the red M&M and Santa fall back after an exasperated, "He does exist!"- "They do exist!"
Nevertheless, this is a very sad example of the religious temperature in the world. Unfortunately, Paul, while your actions are hurtful, cowardly, proface, and horridly stomach turning, our God is not dead...the case for God will never be dead as long as there is a single believer.
Please pray for Paul Z. Myers.
Then there are fanatical atheists whose intolerance is the same as that of the religious fanatics, and it springs from the same source... They are creatures who can't hear the music of the spheres. -Albert Einstein (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 2000 p. 214)
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