Posted on 07/09/2008 6:21:45 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Death threats for stealing 'Body of Christ'
Student fears personal attacks since swiping wafer from Catholic Mass
A student at the University of Central Florida says he's now getting death threats after he stole and later returned a wafer representing the "Body of Christ" from a Catholic Mass in Orlando.
The student senator, Webster Cook, originally claimed he merely wanted to show the Eucharist to a friend who had questions about Catholicism before consuming the host. Cook, who was raised Catholic, said he decided to bring the wafer home June 29 after a church leader tried to physically pry it from his hand.
Cook broke Church rules by failing to consume it immediately during Communion and then removing it from his mouth once seated. The wafer was kept in a Ziploc bag until Cook returned it days later along with an e-mail stating, "I am returning the Eucharist to you in response to the e-mails I have received from Catholics in the UCF community. I still want the community to understand that the use physical force is wrong, especially when based on assumptions. However, I feel it is unnecessary to cause pain for those who are not at fault in this situation."
Cook has reportedly been getting death threats, prompting his friend, who wants to remain nameless, to discuss the situation with local media. "
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Ping.
After all that stealing and returning and the intervening carrying about in the thief’s pocket , I think it is a wafer again .
Father forgive him, for he knows not what he says.
I liked the prying it out of his hands part.....what are they going to do charge him with shoplifting?
I wrote to the Board of Trustees demanding he be arrested for stealing (along with a few other things).
As the guy who budgeted for and approved orders for those forms I was able to whip out the answer instantly ~ I told the guy it was something like $0.0025, or thereabouts.
Then I asked him why he wanted to know. Turned out they had some poor schlub in there on trial for STEALING Form 3602. He'd apparantly angered some mail acceptance clerk on the back platform when he grabbed a small stack of them. One thing led to the next; cops were called; Postal Inspectors brought in, and suddenly it was a crime against the government!
The only charge the US attorney could think of was theft ~ when he got the case ~ which should have never gotten that far.
So this guy was on trial in federal court for "stealing" 25 cents worth of paper.
He was, BTW, a large volume mailer, and we give those forms away to such people.
The clerk must have thought I'd given the court a trick answer so he asked "What do you charge for the forms". I told him nothing at all. They're just forms, like the statements on the table in a bank lobby.
I think the guy's case was dismissed.
Are you calling me Father? That’s to whom your post was sent. But if ye be RC, I would be interested in if that’s God you’re talkin’ to or your local “priest” - to which “Father” do ye pray?
For myself, being reconciled to God THE Father through Jesus and His propitiatory sacrifice, I am judged as righteous and need not fear the wrath of God that will be poured out on the world and who worship it and its ruler. No worldly social club nor false religion can serve as refuge in the terrible day of the Lord. Christ alone is my refuge - I am secure in His grip of grace. Redeemed, reborn, secure from all alarms.
Thanks for caring.
“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.””
OK, so Donohue is a nut.
In that case, go jump in a lake.
You can't do any better than that? How about getting him condemmed to hell or burnt at the stake.
Then again, there's always the Spanish Inquisition.....yeah that's the tocket. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Do you really think it’s funny when something sacred to somebody else is abused?
It sounds like something out of a Monty Python movie.
How come you only quoted half his post?
I'm glad young people take it seriously enough to be upset about it, however. Expulsion from school? I think that would be extreme since the other Catholics students may be receiving unworthily at the same college. What he did is probably more serious that unworthily receiving in the church, I don't even know, but there are other ways of dealing with it. If it's a public college, I can't see it. If a Catholic college, they would have the authority but again, I guess it's up to them, technically probably worthy a formal excommunication if they want to be really harsh about a punishment.
I just think of all the Catholic pols . . .I wouldn't dare to do something like that, but I learned what a grave sin it is. I think Jesus would forgive him if he's truly repentant. In the end, that's what counts the most.
I believe Jesus might have forgiven Judas if he had come to him truly repentant and asked his forgiveness, but what do I know? I suppose he knew he wouldn't. That's always been a mystery to me, why he chose him knowing he was going to be betrayed by him.
May our loving, merciful God bring a greater good out of this evil.
Depends on what it is. Just because someone considers something “sacred” doesn’t make it so, nor does that person’s opinion constitute a ruling that it can’t be made fun of or laughed at by those who do not consider it sacred.
I honestly think it’s very sad and very funny, the way RCs react to such things as this article reports. As Charlie Brown would say, “Good grief”.
Well, we Lutherans also believe that the elements of communion become the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior. We don’t believe they lose their nature as bread and wine as well, so we aren’t in communion with the Catholics, but we do treat them reverently. It is a great honor to be allowed to distribute Communion.
So why aren’t you on the Presbytyrians eliminate all moral decency thread!?
That sort of crude evangelization is extremely destructive. Keep up the good work! It ensures a zero success rate.
It sounds as if you have an issue with Mans response. Theologically he's dead on. Whats your gripe?
I guess I missed it. Is it as silly as this one?
If he did receive death threats the police can certainly trace the emails to their source and let the people know there are laws against such threats. Making clear they could be hauled in should anything untowards happen to the young man.
Take a hike, you stupid cretin jerk.
You’ve explained clearly one reason I could not be a member of a Lutheran church. I stand with the Reformers and do not consider the RCC something of God.
The Lord’s Supper, Communion, ought to be considered seriously by all Christians - Scripture warns us so. But that’s a different matter from worshiping the cracker as Christ the way the RCC and Episcopals teach.
I count it all joy to be ridiculed by those who denigrate Christ. But you ought to consider your posts - you’re violating FR guidelines by getting very personal. And this is an OPEN thread, dontcha know. So I can hang out here as long as I don’t make personally insulting comments - like you did.
If you think it’s OK to mock Catholics’ reverence and concern for the Body of Christ, we have nothing to discuss. Have a nice day.
Rather than “jump in a lake”, I think I’ll take a ride on my motorcycle - tomorrow, on my way to work. Thanks for caring.
O.K. Here we go.
How fragile the RCC Christ must be - that is sad. - Accurate. The Biblical Christ isn't lowered to mear wafers made by hand.
On the other hand - this is hilarious! “Carefully return the cracker, son. Don’t you know that’s the King of kings and the creator and ruler of the universe you hold in your grubby paw? Only the anointed ones may handle the sacred cracker.” - Accurate. Manfred is laughing at the overreaction given this, as if the wafer is itself diety, and has been disgraced.
O.K. his whole post has been commented on.
Nice to meet ya! At first, I thought it was another rabid RC watchdog - had to read your post twice. :-)
I went back and read your previous post, pulling from Hebrews - rock on solid. To God be all blessing and glory and honor and power forever. And not to be shared with any man - or woman. Praise Him!
LOL - Christ is not being denigrated by any Catholic here.
As for your being ridiculed - one reaps what one sows.
That comment of mine you cited isn’t evangelism - it’s a rebuke to religious zealots who should know better.
Don’t thank me for what you have not received.
Yet the original story, reported on the 5th, from a local TV station, says something completely different.
A University of Central Florida student, upset religious groups hold church services on public campuses, is holding hostage the Eucharist, an object so sacred to Catholics they call it the Body of Christ.
Church officials say UCF Student Senator Webster Cook was disruptive and disrespectful when he attended Mass held on campus Sunday June 29. It was during that Mass where Cook admits he obtained the Eucharist....
A church leader was watching, confronted Cook and tried to recover the sacred bread. Cook said she crossed the line and that's why he brought it home with him.
"She came up behind me, grabbed my wrist with her right hand, with her left hand grabbed my fingers and was trying to pry them open to get the Eucharist out of my hand," Cook said, adding she wouldn't immediately take her hands off him despite several requests....
"The church feels that I'm the problem here," Cook said. "The problem is actually that this is a publicly-funded religious institution. Through student government here, we fund them through an activity and service, so they're receiving student money."
Cook is upset more than $40,000 in student fees have been allocated to support religious organizations on campus for the 2008-2009 school year, according to student government records. He denied he is holding the Eucharist hostage to protest that support.
...Cook has been keeping the Eucharist stored in a plastic bag since last Sunday....
Cook said he'd consider returning the Eucharist if he gets an apology and a meeting with the Bishop's office to discuss the Diocese's policy on physical force....
Things that make you want to go hmmmm.....
BTW, for the record, the original story sounds a WHOLE lot more reliable to me...
It’s “repellent-evangelism”.
A textbook example of how to drive people away from a Protestant Christianity. It’s quite effective.
I repeat:
If you think it’s OK to mock Catholics’ reverence and concern for the Body of Christ, we have nothing to discuss. Have a nice day.
Interesting. Now he wants to be the victim when it seems he went looking for attention.
ping to your lists...please to note the misreporting in the original article on this thread (as shown in the original story posted in #36)
Naw, it's more like Farah's bias is showing...
I find it disturbing that people revere the item, the wafer and the wine, giving it some sort of spiritual significance as to salvation or damnation.
The focus should be ENTIRELY on Christ and what he did, that is where salvation is found. Not on some man made object, that is only to be a tool to be bring focus onto Christ- BUT IS NOT CHRIST.
I never noticed anti-Catholicism on his part before.
Manfred, no later than 110 AD, +Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of the Apostle John and successor to +Peter as bishop of Antioch wrote to Christians at Smyrna warning them against people who profane the Eucharist and deny that it is the Body of Christ. Here’s what he wrote:
“Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. . . . They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”
Now Manfred, that letter has been well known for the past 1900 years or so. I mean it has always been available. The people who put together the bible your read, except perhaps where Luther changed it, believed what +Ignatius wrote. And they knew the scriptures at least as well as any of us, I am sure you will agree. Obviously there is no conflict, then, between scripture and what +Ignatius taught and what The Church always and everywhere has believed. Just as clearly, there is with what you apparently believe.
So...where did you get the idea that the Eucharist is a “religious magic show”?
THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE'RE DOING. THE CONSECRATED HOST IS CHRIST PRESENT - BODY, BLOOD, SOUL AND DIVINITY. THAT'S WHY WE WANT IT TREATED REVERENTLY AND WHY WE TAKE ISSUE WITH WHAT THIS GUY DID.
I didn't say that he was overtly anti-Catholic. Rather, it appears that his theology got in the way of accurate reporting (imagine if some of the folks here on FR were to report on something that would be viewed as absolutely heinous...but only by Catholics and Orthodox (with some high church Anglicans and Lutherans thrown in the mix)).
Have the “death threats” been verified?
IYO
What about your reaction? You hit it like a largemouth bass hits a nightcrawler. A World Net Daily article, no less.
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