Remind me never to go to UCF
This story came to my attention via P.Z. Myers and his Pharyngula blog. I’ll let you read the story for yourself.
Say what you want about whether the kid, Webster Cook, was malicious in his intent or not. There’s little excuse for the reaction from the church and its supporters. Physically confronting the kid? Calling it a hate crime? Comparing it to a kidnapping? Sending death threats? Overblown and totally inexcusable.
The fact that the campus Catholic organization receives university funds is also troubling, if not entirely surprising.
If any of the hateful people who sent this kid emails damning him to Hell or phone messages threatening death think that Islamic fundamentalists are wacko, they should look in the mirror.
10 Jul 2008 ekchung
2 Responses to “Remind me never to go to UCF”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I agree that the hate mail was unwarranted. But so is this kid painting himself like a nonviolent Gandhi. He walked off with a sacred object to make them say they were sorry. That is not civil disobedience; that is being a punk kid. What did he expect but escalation? I’m glad he returned the Eucharist to the church. I’m sure he regrets taking it.
Funding campus religious organizations does not necessarily endorse Catholicism, but it does acknowledge a legitimate right to religious practice. They fund SDS as well as College Republicans, right? To each his own, within reason. If they fund a bunch of mainstream Christian student groups but turn away fair applications from pagan, pantheist and atheist groups, THEN there will be trouble. Or if they spend millions building a new basketball stadium but won’t even pay for the lacrosse team’s uniforms, THAT is reason to raise hell. Right?
Fair enough. Although I don’t like the idea of public funding going towards any sort of religious group, the blow is lessened by the fact that multiple faiths are represented.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the kid were a bit of a punk. But I still maintain that the reaction was way overblown.