Harper slams communion story as 'low moment in journalism'

[daleo]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday the "unsubstantiated" story that he put communion bread in his pocket during the funeral of former governor general Roméo LeBlanc last week, "is a low moment in journalism."

Harper's comment came during a news conference at the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy.

"I think somebody running a story — and I don't know where responsibility lies — somebody running an unsubstantiated story that I would stick communion bread in my pocket is really absurd," Harper said.

"First of all, as a Christian, I've never refused communion when offered to me. That is actually pretty important to me," he said.

"And I think it's a real, frankly, a low point. This is a low moment in journalism, whoever is responsible for this. It's just a terrible story, and a ridiculous story, and not based on anything, near as I can tell."
...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/07/10/harper-communion.html
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From this report, it seems like a non-denial denial.

[Spazito]

1. I notice he does not recognize the real faux-pas...

the fact that as a non-Catholic, he is not being invited to receive communion and he should have known that before attending the service.

His lack of concern over the 'protocols' breached is telling in itself, imo.

[tuvor]

2. If anyone's to blame, it's the priest.

Of the two, who should have known better whether Harper should have been offered a wafer?

[Spazito]

3. I disagree, it is not up to the priest performing the Mass to 'card' everyone who...

comes up to receive communion, it is up to the individual to be responsible enough to know what the 'protocols' are, especially when that individual is the Prime Minister of Canada attending the funeral of this kind.

Who would be better suited to inform the Prime Minister of the appropriate behavior of a non-Catholic attending a Catholic funeral, his staff who are supposed to be keeping him informed of various protocols or a priest who would have had to publicly refuse Harper at the time?

Harper was arrogant, sloppy and deserving of the criticism he is receiving, imo.

[tuvor]

6. Did Harper actually "go up" to receive communion?

I understood that the priest was coming around to the people.

[CHIMO]

4. And Why

Do you say that?

Offer and acceptance.

Request and complying with a request.

In a normal service most of the sharing of communion is done by a person who is a priest.

So why do you put the onus on the priest?

[tuvor]

7. I don't know who approached whom, so I may have my "facts" wrong.

But who doesn't know that Harper's a protestant? That's more or less where I was coming from.

[CHIMO]

8. It

Isn't the fact of who initiated the action that I was getting to.

If you take part in certain ceremonies, one takes off their shoes. In others, perhaps males don't wear a hat. Usually the group will make their influence known.

In this case if a priest, or member, refused to serve communion to a person it is similar to castigating them as a "bad person". And it seems to have been done in the US when Kerry was running for president, where a particular religious person publicly stated that he would not serve communion to Kerry.

The only one who knows if they may receive the offering is the recipient. Having someone else decide, makes a mockery of the professed reason for the service.

I would add, that if something sacrilegious appeared to have happened then it should have been acknowledged that no bad intentions were intended and perhaps just ignorance and amends made.

However, all of Canada knows that SH doesn't make mistakes.

[Posteritatis]

5. Someone critfailed his Theology roll.. (nt)

[HeresyLives]

9. Here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SMp_KwmJMk&feature=related

Hand nowhere near his mouth...it is, however, near his pocket.

[TaffyMoon]

10. He didn't put it in his pocket - he let it drop to the floor....

Weasel.

[iverglas]

11. I think it speaks a fair bit to Harper's "Christianity"

I was reared Christian / Protestant, in the 60s mainly, when ecumenism was the word of the day. United Church, which is a product of ecumenism itself and was busily engaged in union talks with the Anglicans.

My family weren't fanatics, we were just regular churchgoers, except for my father, who wasn't. But I was told this stuff. When I went to stay for the weekend with my Anglican friend and attended church with her on Sunday morning, there were do-s and don't-s.

Do not take communion was the biggie -- the UCC and the Anglican Church did not have reciprocity at the time, and it would have been contrary to the rules of both to do so. In order to take communion in either church, one had to have been confirmed in that church.

The other was: no kneeling. They kneel, you sit quietly.

I can't imagine that Harper's church, whatever nutball faction it is, doesn't have rules. As, obviously, does the RC Church.

The fact that he doesn't know about them, and wasn't expecting this issue to arise, does say quite a bit about the depth of his own theology.

He has proclaimed himself a devout Protestant, parallel to Paul Martin's devout Catholic. Can you imagine Paul Martin not knowing the communion rules?

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2008/09/10/why-stephen-harper-keeps-his-evangelicalism-very-private.aspx

Trask said he and Harper have talked frequently, beginning in the 1980s.

That's when Harper was on an intense spiritual and political quest and becoming involved with the then-new Reform party of Preston Manning, an evangelical radio preacher.

"<Harper> didn't just believe what he was told. He had to rationalize what he was hearing about Christianity. He wasn't a blank slate. That's the best way to come to faith," said Trask (left).

About two decades ago, Harper shifted away from the mainline Protestant denominations of his father and began finding a home in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, which has about 2.5 million members and 14,000 congregations worldwide. One fifth of its members live in North America, with Alberta a Canadian hotbed.

It doesn't ordain women, opposes stem-cell research (don't get it started on abortion), preaches that homosexuality is a sin ...

So he wasn't reared by wolves; he was reared with some Protestant affiliation. And he went on a "quest" and ended up, after rationalizing (good word) a lot, in a backwater dung heap of a church that plays well in Alberta.

And along the way, just never learned that those RCers aren't real Christians (just ask a fundie Protestant), and you don't swallow their wafers.

Hmm.

I didn't need anything to confirm my view that Harper's Christianity is a lie, but that kinda does.