Morris chancellor defends instructor who defiled Eucharist, tore Qur'an

The chancellor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, is standing up for a faculty member's freedom of expression after the instructor posted on the Internet a photo of a defiled communion wafer with pages ripped from the Qur'an.

Paul Z. Myers, who teaches biology at the west-central Minnesota school, on his blog this week posted a picture of the wafer with a rusty nail through it and torn pages from the Qur'an. Also in the photo are tattered pages from a book by biologist Richard Dawkins that scoffs at the notion of a superior being.

This is the second time this month that actions such as these by Myers prompted a harsh retort from a national Catholic civil rights group.

In response today, University of Minnesota, Morris, Chancellor Jacqueline Johnson said the school has deactivated the link between Myers' pesonal blog and the university website, emphasizing his views "do not reflect those of the University of Minnesota, Morris, or the University of Minnesota system."

At the same time, Johnson said, while she believes "behaviors that discriminate against or harass individuals or groups on the basis of their religious beliefs are reprehensible," the school also "affirms the freedom of a faculty member to speak or write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint."

In response to Myers' latest posting, the Catholic League, which for years has been actively challenging any instances it sees as an affront to Catholicism, said Thursday in a statement that he has violated the university's policy on expressions of bias and must be disciplined.

"Just as African Americans would not tolerate the burning of a cross, and Jews would not tolerate the display of swastikas, Catholics will not tolerate desecration of the Eucharist," said Catholic League President Bill Donohue.

The group said it wanted Myers punished and was contacting the university's Board of Regents and leading government office holders in the state, as well as Muslim groups around the country.

Commenting on his second act, Myers said on his blog Thursday, "I didn't want to single out just the cracker [communion wafer], so I nailed it to a few ripped-out pages from the Qur'an and [Dawkins'] 'The God Delusion.' They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything.

"God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanities' knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality."

Early this month, Myers expressed amazement that a Florida college student who briefly took a wafer "hostage" from a church ceremony reported receiving death threats for an action that was characterized "a hate crime" by the Catholic League.

Under the headline, "It's a frackin' cracker!" Myers wrote in an at-times profane blog entry: "Crazy Christian fanatics right here in our own country have been threatening to kill a young man over a cracker. This is insane."

The Catholic League at that time also called on the university to act against Myers.

Many rank-and-file Roman Catholics do not endorse the league, which has no formal affiliation with the Catholic Church, because they consider it a reactionary orthodox group run by publicity-seekers. It's president, Bill Donohue, has gone on record with inflammatory remarks about Jews, Muslims and gays.

Star Tribune staff writer Jeff Strickler contributed to this report.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482