Posted by Hemant Mehta in Webster Cook. Remember him? He’s the student who took a communion wafer back to his dorm room and started a maelstrom at the University of Central Florida and beyond, received death threats from Catholics, and was facing expulsion from his university. At the very least, he was facing impeachment from his role as Student Government Association senator.
So what happened to his position in the student government?
The Senate was set to vote on three different charges, however it only took a two-thirds vote on any one of the three to remove Cook from office.
Cook was found guilty of the second charge. The charge was for misfeasance, which is defined by SGA as a lawful act performed in a wrongful manner by a Student Government official in execution of his or her duties.
The vote on the charge of misfeasance was 22-7-1 against Cook. After the vote was tallied, Cook was officially removed from office.
It seems absurd to think what he did was done with any bad intentions. If anything, he was being peaceful while attending a church and representatives of the Catholic Church on his campus were the ones causing a disruption. Listen to his interview on Freethought Radio (MP3, beginning at the 18:30 mark) to hear what I’m talking about.
The student government has no business voting on whether a communion wafer is actually the body of Christ, and if they’re not doing that, it’s hard to say what exactly Webster did wrong. As a result, he shouldn’t be found guilty of anything.
Webster doesn’t deserve this stain on his résumé.
And if students at UCF want to avoid further embarrassment, they should vote any anti-Webster representatives out of office during the next election.
(via Edger)
Embarrassment?
Nobody cares what sane people think.
Absolutely dumb. I suppose I can see why it would make people mad to stale a wafer. Still, its hardly criminal, and therefore it should have no business being an issue in a secular club. I wouldn’t join that group. Christ.
How in the heck did Cook’s attendance of a religious ceremony as a private citizen have anything to do with the execution of his duties as a student senator? There is no intersection at all between the two. The charge is therefore baseless on those grounds alone, so the impeachment should be considered null and void.
~David D.G.
I was going to point out what David said. It does not discuss his intent at all. He doesn’t need to have bad intentions. But how it’s in execution of his duties I have no idea.
It kinda sounds like one of those catch-all charges that boils down to “pissed off too many people” which he did actually do. It doesn’t sound like either intent or the sanity of the people that were pissed off were taken into account.
And as to the “execution of his duties”, I’d have to double check but I’m pretty sure he was there as part of an investigation as to whether that Catholic group should be receiving funding from the school.
I wonder what the wafer-huggers’ side of the story is. I still haven’t heard it, but apparently it’s very compelling.
I was also going to mention the inappropriateness of the second charge.
Perhaps we should write to the president of the university again?
I’d wear it as a badge of honor, not view it as a stain.
Nance
Unfortunately, even stupid people can earn college degrees if they try hard enough. Case in point.
What about the psychotic catholic bitch that accosted Cook, and her lunking side-kick who was so concerned about wafer witchcraft? I hope they don’t face any charges from the Senate; if they were punished proportionally, they be slow-roasted alive over hot coals before a howling crowd.
At least it’d be ironic.
At the very least, he did cause a small disruption during a Church service and set a less than good example by interfering the way he did. For these reasons alone I am inclined to agree with them, although I think complete removal from office is unnecessary and going a bit too far.
By all accounts I’ve read, he didn’t cause any disruption whatsoever; the crazed zombie cultist caused the disruption.
BTW, the web page from where the quote starting with “The Senate was set to vote on three different charges …” is here: Cook kicked from SGA Senate
Thanks J.J. — I updated the post to include the link. I must have forgotten the link the first time.
James,
No. Just…no. The cracker-wackos assaulted him and accosted him. They are the ones who disrupted their own gathering.