[awareness]

Originally Posted by OBW

You know, if it was only that there was believed to be some mystical thing that happened to the bread and wine during communion, it would just be a strange, unsupportable teaching. But once you have to lock up what is not eaten so that people don't steal it and take it home to put on wounds, on crops, etc., in expectation of a miracle, then it has truly gone off the deep end.

The doctrine of transubstantiation had serious life and death consequences. Jews were tortured and kill for host-nailing, or for killing Jesus all over again, by driving a nail thru the host.

"The hosts are stolen and sold to the Jewish community, who pierce them in a ritual. When guards come to question the Jews, they (the Jews) attempt to burn the Hosts, but are unsuccessful, as the Hosts transform into an infant carried by angels. The Jews, now proven guilty, are arrested, beheaded, and tortured with hot pincers, the entire community is driven out with their feet bound and held to the fire, and the Christian who sold the hosts to the Jews is punished. At the end the Christians kneel and pray."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_desecration