“We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church… must take up.” Karol Cardinal Wotyla (Sept. 1976)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

PZ Myers: Nothing Dumber than a Smart Bigot

Kudos and Perfection post by the Vivificat Blog exactly citing the federal laws that PZ Myers will break if he follows through on his hate crime threat of desecrating the Eucharist:

The Federal Law of the US Code 18 Part I Chapter 13 ss 247 states:

(a) Whoever, in any of the circumstances referred to in subsection (b) of this section—

(1) intentionally defaces, damages, or destroys any religious real property, because of the religious character of that property, or attempts to do so; [and...]

(b) The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the offense is in or affects interstate or foreign commerce. (Blogger Note: Vivificat rightly points out that these consecrated host were mailed to Myer via interstate postal carrier.)

(d) The punishment for a violation of subsection (a) of this section shall be—

...(4) in any other case, a fine in accordance with this title and imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

(f) As used in this section, the term “religious real property” means any church, synagogue, mosque, religious cemetery, or other religious real property, including fixtures or religious objects contained within a place of religious worship. (Blogger Note: Vivificat says, and I agree, a consecrated host would qualify as a religious object.)

We are fighting to have Myers removed from his position at the University of Minnesota. He may accomplish this task all by himself and his own stupidity. I wonder if they allow blogging from the Federal Penitentiary?

4 comments:

Teófilo de Jesús said...

Great post! Thank you for the link!

-Theo

Unknown said...

...or attempts to do so...

Seems to me that this means that the sad ole' boy has already committed the crime by attempting to gain access to the wafers with the expressed intent of desecration.

Antifanaticism in all its raging glory...

Anonymous said...

"including fixtures or religious objects contained within a place of religious worship. (Blogger Note: Vivificat says, and I agree, a consecrated host would qualify as a religious object.)" but would not be within a place of religious worship. So the wafer wouldn't meet that definition and no crime would be committed.

A Voice in the Crowd said...

Anonymous-

Completely and absolutely wrong!

It states object contained within in a place of worship. Contained, “ED”, past tense, meaning the object could have been taken from the house of worship. It does not say objects that are contain (present tense) in a place of worship.

In addition, as pointed out above, the sole “attempt” to do this is a crime.

You are absolutely wrong.

I am hoping the Myers does not do the distgusting act that he is threatening, hopefully he thinks it through a little more carefully.
There is someone in the Federal government who will take up this case. A Fed who is driven by conviction on how wrong his act was or trying to make a name for himself, at least.