A friend showed me this post today (click here for the background story).
Some kid smuggled the Eucharist out of Mass to show his friend, apparently, and Catholics worldwide became angry. This kid has even recieved death threats! They view the act as hostage and sacrilege.
Now, the writer of the blog I linked you to above constantly referred to it as a cracker. Not just once, to emphasize what it was physically, or twice, even, to prove a point, but every time he talked about it. And I am not saying that someone who has no faith in the specific religion has to believe that it truly is the body of Christ, I'm not saying he should think holy thoughts about it, but... don't be stupid.
The Eucharist is very holy for Catholics; once it has been blessed by the priest it becomes the body of Christ. I understand that death threats to this boy might have been extreme, but the author was also extreme in his blatant baiting. If you compare any holy item of any religion to everyday objects, ridiculing them, you shouldn't be the least bit surprised when people become offended.
And it's not the same as degrading people for their actions or criticising the lack of proof for their faith, this is one of the most central parts of Catholocism. It's like calling a winning sports star an airheaded-muscler and proving how worthless and wasteful sports are. Whether you believe that sports are important and merit the huge amounts of money thrown around for it is not relevant; sports is what that person does.
I don't care if you are Catholic or pagan or Muslim or agnostic, I'm not going to try to dissuade you from what makes your life work for you, I will not needlessly insult the way you live.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I was raised a Catholic. I now follow more the spiritual path than the religious one)
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