Professor Myers went through his threat to desecrate a Eucharist. According to the Catholic League, he pierced the Host with a rusty nail and threw it in the trash. He also tore pages from a Koran and pages from Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” and nailed them to the Host.
Apparently the University of Minnesota is not taking any action against him because they consider this a private action. They seem to admit that it breaks University rules but are afraid to take action against this sick man. Professor Myers puts his faith in mankind and science rather than God. I personally have no problem with science, but when one puts science and/or themselves above God, then I have a problem. Science can be used for good but it also can lead to destruction and evil. Those who put their faith in science and man, like Professor Myers are “delusional”!
Here is the article from the Catholic League:
MYERS DESECRATES THE EUCHARIST
July 24, 2008
University of Minnesota professor Paul Z. Myers made good on his pledge to desecrate the Eucharist today. 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
I am curious about why you ignore that religion can also be used for great evil. Do you deny the history of the blood libel against the Jews? Do you ignore the English Civil Wars? Do you ignore the branks, the Malleus Mallefecorum? Or in our own recent history, do you deny the lies that are being told in Africa about condoms, which have been contributing to the rapid spread of AIDS?
People do great evil, and have a habit of finding whatever justification they can whether it be science or religion. PZ Myers isn’t sick, the people that are trying to drive Webster Cook from the campus of the UCF are sick.
Our you can see the good Mike. The Catholic Church alone is the world leader in charity and education. Not counting all the other religons. The Church is also the only ones helping in Africa while you stand here and complain. Try to help feed millions everyday like the Church does. Also the AIDS calims are not try. The Philippines are 90% catholic and there is .01% AIDS. abstinence is the only way to stop it. Also the Africans are people we must educate and help. Not animals we should hand condoms to and hope they use them right. They are Gods souls too. Also the religion wars were started by fanitcs like Bin Laden. He follows his own Gods not Islam in its true form.
Science, when used correctly, ALWAYS leads to good. Science without God is like an oxymoron. Science is just learning and studying God’s creation.
What really disturbs me is that there is now a “Eucharist Challenge” on youtube, the spawn of PZ Myer’s acts, and there are videos, lots of them, of other people desecrating the Eucharist. I can only hope these are actually UNconsecrated…
Mike,
Thanks for the comment. I heartily disagree with much of what you say. Condoms are not the solution to Aids anymore than they are a solution for preventing pregnancy. I would say that they have increased certain behaviours that lead to contracting stds and pregnacy. They can give a false sense of security. If they are so effective, I wonder why there are so many abortions in the United States.
The point of my post is that science is not the end all of what is truth and what is right. While I do think that Science as well as reason are important, they are not the answer to everything.
Science has produced weapons that can destroy the world many times over. Science has lead to chemical and biological weapons that can kill millions. Atheistic countries such as the former Soviet Union murdered millions of people.
Professor Myers is sick and reprehensible in his behavior. I do not care if he believes the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, but he should respect Catholics who do. He puts science and his beliefs above God and I believe that that he is in error.
I do wonder if he burnt a cross on the grounds of a african american university if he would keep his job? I wonder if he vandalized a jewish synagogue with Nazi imagry if he would keep his job? He would be fired in a heartbeat. His offense ranks up with these acts in the minds of many Catholics. He needs to be sanctioned by the university.
Alycin,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that if science if used properly will lead to good. The problem is that many scientist and others believe that it is above God and is the answer to all things.
Personally, I love science. I am especially fascinated by astronomy. I occasionally dabble in astrophotography using my telescope. Astronomy is one of the reasons I believe there is a God. The universe is so vast and complex that I find it very unlikely that it happened by accident.
In my original post on this subject I posed the question as to whether Eucharistic desecration was the newest fad in hate speech. The youtube “challenge” that you mentioned leads me to believe there will be other copycats.
It is amazing that when atheist, satanist and others choose to attack or mock Christianity, the first thing they aim for is the Eucharist. Maybe they are on to something here. Could they inately know that the Eucharist is what we claim it to be. Is this why they attack it? Makes me wonder!
I hope that they are not getting consecrated Eucharists. The one Professor Myers desecrated was consecrated.
He and the others performing these acts need as many prayers as they can get.
Forgive them they know not what they do….or do they?
God Bless,
Chris
I am amazed at how unprofessional and unintelligent this professor is and the university does nothing about his actions. It proves that professors can do anything and have job security. Mr. Myers seems like a troubled person, and by looking at the pictures of his kids, on his personal website, they look very unhappy and troubled kids.
Mike:
Violence as a result of religion occurs when people *distort* the message of religion, instead of following the teachings of the Church properly.
However, Christ still uses the Church, in all its imperfections, as a vehicle of transmitting the Truth and His Body in the form of the Eucharist as a gift of His perfect love for humanity. The true follower of Christ will make saints like Mother Theresa and John Paul II their role models, instead of those barbaric ones in the fold who were the “wolves” who Christ described would be among the good people in the Church.
*People* can distort any religion – or any ideology – to promote a cause that the religion itself does not promote. And of course there have been errant Catholics, just as there have been errant people in every belief system.
Wars and violent tragedies are caused by an inherent quality in *man*.. it’s not an inherent quality in *religion*. If everyone actually listened to their religion and read Scripture and the writings of the saints, we wouldn’t have these problems.
The bloodiest wars in history were WWI and WWII, and those weren’t over religion (some like to use the argument that religion causes wars and even the worst wars)….beyond that, you have Stalin’s rule and the Chinese Communist Revolution that killed approximately 50 million. Communists in the past have been some of the most anti-religious people out there, yet have they stayed peaceful? No… also, if you’re going with percentage of people killed, the winner there would be Genghis Khan.
So, if I wanted to, I could use the argument that violence occurs more often in very anti-Catholic/non-religious regimes, but that would be ignoring the fact that violence doesn’t stem from ideologies necessarily; rather, it stems from corruption that can take hold of man.
Lorelei,
Great response to Mike.
I did a little investigation on Mike’s blog and he is an atheist and is associated to some degree with Professor Myers.
I also perused Proffesor Myers’ blog and rarely have I seen such negativity and hate. This atheist crowd appears to be some of the most unhappy people on the web. Their reaction to relgion and God reminds me of myself years ago. The vitriol spewed on the blog rates up there with the most anti Catholic sites I have ever come across.
Mark,
Thanks.
I shrink from the thought of going to those sites. I can only imagine the hateful things that are being said.
Three cheers for “tolerance”! Anti-religious bigotry is the last acceptable form of bigotry out there, with the exception of anti-Semitism.
Sorry, Chris, I saw the name “Mark” above, and addressed it to him… kind of new to the whole blog-commenting thing.
His desecration of the Holy Eucharist & the Holy Koran (Islamic) is not acceptable. I have contacted various Catholic * Islamic organisations in both Australia & the United States to formerly protest against Paul Meyers.
Regards,
Gary