Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Turning to Transubstantiation News...

I always knew that transubstantiation posed serious theological problems, but legal problems? From WFTV News:
    A Catholic student group is facing hazing charges after a worshiper allegedly used force while trying to rescue a communion wafer from a student leader smuggling it out of Mass. ...

    ... Student Government Senator Webster Cook filed the hazing charges with University of Central Florida administrators shortly after he admitted violating church rules by bringing the Eucharist home from Mass on June 29, then holding it hostage for one week in a plastic bag before returning it.

    Cook said his hazing complaint cited a UCF anti-hazing policy banning the forced consumption of any food in which the initiation or admission into or affiliation with a University of Central Florida organization may be directly or indirectly conditioned.

    The rule, presumably, was intended to prevent fraternities from force-feeding pledges disgusting food, but Cook said the rule is clear and applies to all UCF clubs, including the Catholic Campus Ministries religious group. He insists the group is guilty because members ordered him to consume the Eucharist to remain at Mass.
I think the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith sums it up best:
    That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ's body and blood, commonly called transubstantiation, by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason, overthrows the nature of the ordinance, and has been, and is, the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps I am a bit dull, but I am having difficulty identifying exactly what is going on here. Who is accused of the hazing? Who was forced to do what by whom?

Bill T. (STL)

Lee Shelton said...

Webster Cook is claiming that he was "physically and mentally forced" to eat the communion cracker. In his mind, this violates the school's policy against hazing. He is also charging that the offering of real wine to students during mass violates the school's policy on alcohol.

Not to defend his juvenile actions, but if Catholics really believe that those little crispy wafers are indeed the body of Christ, it makes sense that some would get bent out of shape if you tried to smuggle one out of church.

P.D. Nelson said...

Again not to defend the actions of the so called "worshiper" but if he is a RCC then what was his reason for removing the wafer in the first place? Just so that he could bring about this suit against the Catholic student group? Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here but there appears to be some sort of vendetta against this group.

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