| |||||||||
July 24, 2008 | 10:59 am
Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I told you Mark Shea wouldn’t have the last word. PZ Myers returns with “The Great Desecration,” a short history of how the transubstantiated body of Christ has been used to incite violence against Jews and other non-Catholics and how he thinks it applies to his call for the public defiling of a communion wafer:
Obviously, it’s not desecration they find disagreeable — it’s the idea that someone would offend their weird sectarian sensibilities. Here’s one from Jack Isaacks that fits the mold.
Dear Professor Meyers,
If you REALLY want to do a courageous, revolutionary act, defecate publicly on a copy of the Quran.
Or do you have the cojones?
Christians won’t attack you for desecrating a host, but will those wonderful cuddly peace-loving Muslims be as forbearing if you used their book for a toilet?
Well, how brave are you?
Yeah, right. Catholics won’t attack me, but Muslims will. Never mind that the Catholic League demands that I be fired, thousands of Catholics write to me demanding I be kicked out of the university immediately, and that they send me death threats, both the explicit kind and the vaguely menacing kind. Let’s not forget Webster Cook, who started this all by simply walking back to his seat with a cracker, and now faces censure and possible expulsion from his university. Oh, those Catholics sure are forbearing and tolerant.
I have nothing more to say about this. Let me know if you do.
11.20.09 at 4:22 pm | Vivid Entertainment wants to distribute Prejean’s . . .
11.19.09 at 10:48 am | A New Mexico soccer plays gets violent on the . . .
11.18.09 at 1:51 pm | The home of The Family is losing . . .
11.18.09 at 12:40 pm | These aren’t the kind of prayers you offer for an . . .
11.17.09 at 9:11 am | . . .
11.17.09 at 7:00 am | Heaven and hell on ESPN . . .
6.2.08 at 9:48 am | Despite so much talk to the contrary, Jews are . . . (547)
10.15.07 at 7:01 am | . . . (532)
10.27.09 at 6:00 am | The number of invitation I get to picket . . . (260)
We welcome your feedback.
Your information will not be shared or sold without your consent. Get all the details.
judaism israel christianity politics media los angeles barack obama islam anti-semitism entertainment america american jews sports evangelicals crime the law president 08 president 08 satire god personal john mccain sexuality holocaust war books catholicism atheism europe jesus sarah palin academia holidays science death california middle east bible music family
Advertisement
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
As always, PZ is a teacher. And an accomplished writer. I did not know about the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 which led to repeated murders of Jews. Murdered because superstitious Christians believed bread could be Jesus.
By the way, I eagerly await publication of his book.
I have news for you. While desecration of the host was a very popular slanderous charge against the Jews and many, many Jews died in connection with that, it is misleading to quibble with the specifics. That was just one of many charges against the Jews including no reason at all, and one more or less would make no difference. They killed the Jews because they wanted to kill the Jews, and the explanation does not account for all of the non-Catholics who killed the Jews.
I still think PZ Myers is a jerk, and his pandering concern for long-dead Jews does not impress me. As I have said and will say again, his brand of atheism is no more than membership in the unthinking belief system of a mob mentality, which they do not handle in any more rational or tolerant way than any other sociolological cohort.