Please DON'T feed the Trolls
Damn, you got there first. I was still trying to figure out a good angle.
Dr.Dawg, that doesn't happen every day. As soon as I heard the news I went to Pharyngula and basically waited, I knew he had to say something.
D'oh! I just blogged almost the exact same thing!!! You're in my brain! 
And you won't believe this, but we did it at almost the exact same time (I think you were first, though, by a few minutes). Is that weird or what??
JJ, I saw it, I beat you by 30 minutes 
) We're back in sync
I remember when my cousin was ordained as a priest, my little sister who was about five years old asked my mother why the man was blowing smoke out of a hand-held chained container and into the cathedral.
My mother replied, "It's to get rid of the mosquitoes."
I wonder if the priest/holy dude was using Deep Woods Off.
At the end of the ordination, all my relatives and friends receive communion from my cousin. The only exception was my family. We were lepers in the RC church. My dad married a good United Church girl years ago. I didn't get to munch on a cracker. However, I did enjoy sniffin' the holy mosquito repellent.
Skinny Dipper, I remember when I grew up in the bible belt of BC (Maple Ridge), our neighbours would drag me off to church once in a while because apparently it was a shame I wasn't part of the cult. Mom & Dad never offered any opinion on religion except that if I wanted to, I could find out on my own.
So I have some memory of being in a church and after the lemmings sang their praises, they all lined up at the altar. This is where for once I can sympathize with Steve, except, the priest knew I was new and withdrew the communion and prayed for me instead as if I was some kind of spiritual leper. They really know how to make a boy feel good.
In Steve's case, the Priest should have known better and done the same thing, you don't offer the body of Christ to someone who doesn't know how to receive it. Even though I think the whole thing is mumbo jumbo, the priest should have known better.
Within the Catholic tradition, he could have turned it into something better than that equally uncomfortable situation I was in.
You're way ahead of me. Maybe I'm in your brain!
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