On the Eucharist

The eucharist. It has made quite a buzz on the Net this past week. And, I know, for many of us out here it has been a bit of a surprise.

The anger. The outrage. The indignation. The apoplexy.

For a cracker. Sorry, holy cracker.

It made no sense. It was ridiculous.

But I got into a conversation with a family member, as I was watching events unfold online. It was a person with far closer ties to the Church than I, and someone who lived far south of our US borders. And they told me that they were utterly unsurprised at the anger, outrage, so on and so forth.

In fact they related to me that in some places in the world, doing what that college student did, could well have ended in bloodshed and death. For a cracker. And has likely occurred in places where a person decided to so flagrantly run counter to the local church.

It is seen as a holy item. Yes. But bloodshed? It is a cute little, a quaint sort of belief...but...

On either the JREF or SGU forums (I forget which now), one person related the story of a family member, who suffered from a limited form of autism, who tried to return to his seat to pray and eat his cracker, which he did at his normal church. They tackled him, hit him, and someone maced him. Then he was arrested and cuffed. Later he was released, but what were the charges? And the attack on him, the macing, the police weren't interested?

That is what worries me with too much tolerance of religion and acts related to it. What happened here, and likely has and will happen elsewhere is acceptable and supported. There is something wrong here. It's the "boys will be boys" attitude. Something to paper over a host of sins.

And that is what we get down to. The kid running off with the holy cracker is being disrespectful and being provocative. Yes. But the response to it all, from those there, on the campus, in the Church, and the halls of the self-appointed advocates of the Church...WOW. Then Myers quips on a private blog. The response...WOW. Overreact much?

Because that is what it is. An overreaction. The treat a treat like a scared relic. Don't worry, the priest has at least one more case of the crackers in back. And he has a 800 number for quick delivery of more. Many of those reacting since have called on Myers and other challengers to defile Islam and Judaism, which makes little sense if they actually think such acts are abominable. They like to shake their head at Islam and the tizzy fits over treatment of a copy of the koran, or imagery of their precious prophet. But they turn around and scream bloody murder about chocolate Jesus or crackers.

Crackers. Holy crackers. Crackers that, apparently are just crackers until they hit your tongue and then become a bit of Jesus's skin, a hunk of meat from the old carcass. So you have a hunk of Jesus in your mouth, literally, LITERALLY. Then it is followed up with a bit of wine, which becomes a splash of his blood, fresh out of his veins, as it washes against the back of your throat. So his blood his coating the back of your throat, literally, LITERALLY.

Does this not sound a bit...I don't know, weird? It isn't even a symbolic sacrificial offering. It is a LITERAL one. It's joining in an actual blood letting. one finds themselves knocking back his blood to be consecrated. How can someone look at this process and not think, "Theirs something a bit off here."

Scientologist and Xenu are off? The Mormans, the magic plates, and magic stone, coo coo? Those splinter Christian groups and their dates with The End, kinda wacky. Eating magic crackers, the most logical and reasonable thing imaginable. It is the nice thing about lifetime indoctrination, it makes the silly seem sensible.

People are free to believe what they want. And we are free to critique those beliefs and the practices that follow. Unless, it seems, the group in question gets its dander up, and many many of them do. But should society be permissive of the excesses that follow on belief? And if a country is going to be one that does stand up to this, I can only hope it will be the US. Not likely, but one can hope, and vote, and be active.

So, again...

Crackers!