Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, a self-described “Catholic civil rights organization,” has been particularly vocal in his press releases regarding first the removal of a Eucharist from Mass by University of Florida Student Webster Cook, and then the criticism and desecration of another Eucharist wafer by University of Minnesota biologist P.Z. Myers. That’s not surprising, of course. I have been following Donohue’s reactions with some interest, and here they are, with my comments.

July 7, 2008

Florida Student Abuses Eucharist

“For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage—regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance—is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion.”

Disrupting a Mass or any peaceful activity should never be condoned. Nevertheless, this story is good in a way in that it brings to light an important point: absurd beliefs, no matter how many people believe them, do not deserve any respect from rational individuals. Donohue, like most Catholics, really believes that the actual “Body of Christ” was taken from the Church that day (a far more gentler fate, it seems, than consuming him). But, of course, neither Donohue nor any other Catholic can provide any evidence whatsoever that the wafer was actually the body of Christ. NONE. And that’s the point. If Catholics cannot provide any evidence for their weird belief, then that belief doesn’t deserve any respect. It doesn’t matter what Catholics “believe” about consecrated crackers any more than what Mormons believe about the non-existent golden tablets from which the book of Mormon was allegedly transcribed.

So, was Donohue’s call for the expulsion of the student proportional to the actual demonstrative offense – slightly disrupting a Church service? Hardly.

July 10, 2008

Minnesota Prof Pledges to Desecrate Eucharist

“The Myers blog can be accessed from the university’s website. The university has a policy statement on this issue which says that the ‘Contents of all electronic pages must be consistent with University of Minnesota policies, local, state and federal laws.’ One of the school’s policies, ‘Code of Conduct,’ says that ‘When dealing with others,’ faculty et al. must be ‘respectful, fair and civil.’ Accordingly, we are contacting the President and the Board of Regents to see what they are going to do about this matter. Because the university is a state institution, we are also contacting the Minnesota legislature.”

While Bill is right that an association of the blog with the university’s website might be inappropriate (the link was subsequently removed), the rest is just bluster. The university’s code of conduct applies to Myer’s behavior on campus and within his official capacity as a university professor. It does not control his behavior in an unofficial capacity outside of the university.

“It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively.”

Gee, I don’t know, how about eating and digesting the Body of Christ? I can think of a lot more things more vile than taking home a cracker and putting it in a plastic bag.

July 22, 2008

Myers to Desecrate Eucharist and Koran

“The latest threat by Myers only makes matters worse. Instead of treating Catholicism with the respect he has previously shown for Islam, he now pledges to disrespect Islam the way he pledges to disrespect Catholicism (once again!). This is his idea of equal treatment.”

“Much has been written about the moral vacuity that marks the Darwinian vision of society that Myers embraces. He now has a grand opportunity to rebut those critics. Or sustain the perception. So which will it be, Professor Myers? I will let Ibrahim Hooper at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) know of your latest bluster. And I sincerely implore you to drop both threats now.”

Moral vacuity aside, this brings me right back to my same point. Neither Catholicism nor Islam as belief systems deserve any respect. People deserve respect and consideration. In the United States we have freedom of religious expression. But freedom of religious expression does not translate into freedom from criticism. And the fact of the matter is that Donohue actually thinks that abusing sheets of paper and a cracker are somehow threatening.

July 24, 2008

Myers Desecrates the Eucharist

“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.”

Here we go again. That’s university policy. Myers was not acting in an official university capacity.

“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.”

The burning cross and the swastika are not the same as throwing a Eucharist in the trash. Burning crosses and swastikas are each historically associated with unjustified hatred and violence against certain classes of people. Throwing a cracker in the trash does not symbolize anything more than the fact that Catholics have no evidence that the cracker is not anything other than what it clearly is – a cracker.

July 25, 2008

University of Minnesota Refuses to Penalize Myers

“This is classic: Johnson admits that Myers has violated the UMN’s Code of Conduct and then proceeds to tell us why he is being allowed to do so with impunity—it’s a matter of academic freedom.”

As the same press release notes, however, the Chancellor stated that faculty members are allowed “to speak or write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint….”

“Academic freedom is not the issue: academic malpractice is. For example, Section 10.21 (b) of UMN’s Tenure Code explicitly says that a tenured faculty member can be terminated or suspended for ‘unprofessional conduct which severely impairs a faculty member’s fitness in a professional capacity.’”

“In 2001, this part of the Tenure Code was invoked against a professor at UMN because he had images of child porn on his computer. It should now be invoked against Myers, and that is why we will appeal to UMN’s Board of Regents to do just that. It strains credulity to maintain that Christian students can expect fair treatment by a faculty member who has publicly shown nothing but contempt for their religion.”

If it can be shown that Myers gives unfair treatment to Christian students, that is one thing. However, what he actually did is nothing like having child porn on his computer. The latter, of course, is illegal.

“It is a sure bet that UMN would not tolerate a white professor who worked a comedy club on weekends trashing blacks. Indeed, it would say that such behavior disqualifies his ability to be objective. In many respects Myers is worse, and that is why sanctions are warranted.”

In no respects is Myers behavior worse. Hate speech is one thing. Calling out the fact that Catholics have absurd beliefs for which there is no evidence is another thing – and one that is absolutely necessary. We would not tolerate it if, during a conversation, a person admits that he or she believes that Elvis is alive and his body manifests itself in a bag of Tostitos. So it is time that non-Catholics and non-believers stop tolerating absurd Catholic beliefs during conversations just because ‘they believe’ it and have recruited others to believe it as well.