San Luis Obispo special education teacher Michael Stack is pretty homophobic. He’s also out of a job, having resigned today. It turns out that he’s so afraid of God, and he believes that the LGBT community will be smote by God because they’re, you know, homosexuals, that he was “compelled” to write a letter for the May issue of the San Luis Obispo High School newspaper Expressions, in their LGBT issue:
I love the staff and students at SLOHS. My students know that. But I love God more, so in obedience to Him, I am writing this letter.
Without divine intervention it would be mathematically impossible to write a book filled with hundreds of predictions over thousands of years with 100% accuracy regarding their fulfillment, yet the Bible has done exactly that, with just a few prophecies yet to be fulfilled. Therefore, I have faith that the entire Bible is without error.
O … kay … that’s not even remotely true.
The Bible tells us that we are all accountable for our actions, and that teachers are especially accountable. I’m a teacher, and I don’t want to displease God any more than I already have with my sinful life, so in obedience to Him, I’m asking you to please slowly read and consider the following excerpt from the book of Romans, Chapter 1, verses 16-32, in the New Testament. It describes a deception that has happened in the past, and is happening again right now, not only at SLOHS, but throughout the world:
Stack doesn’t put the whole Romans 16-32, just the beginning about being “not ashamed” of the gospel of Christ. But, he seems a bit ashamed, or maybe he’s too much of a Jesus-coward to put in the rest. Here’s one of the important parts of that passage:
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
The Mayor of San Luis Obispo showed her support for the young LGBT community:
According to The San Luis Obisbo Tribune, Stack won’t receive any punishment for sort of threatening death from God on the LGBT student body.
“A bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable,” San Luis Coastal Unified School District Superintendent Eric Prater and Principal Leslie O’Connor said in a joint statement Wednesday.
“As a district, we understand that students do not shed their First Amendment rights at school, and we respect the rights of our students to speak on controversial topics. We applaud the high school’s commitment to open dialogue and a free exchange of ideas in its student newspaper,” the statement read. “ … In a similar manner, we acknowledge the right of our staff to voice their opinions.”
I don’t know exactly where I fall on this. I understand the First Amendment argument to a degree. But the logic here is that Mr. Stack believes the Bible is:
“Without divine intervention it would be mathematically impossible to write a book filled with hundreds of predictions over thousands of years with 100% accuracy regarding their fulfillment, yet the Bible has done exactly that, with just a few prophecies yet to be fulfilled.”
That means he 100 percent believes that:
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
He could have left off Roman’s verse 32, but he didn’t.
The harsh fact of the matter is that the Bible and all of the books it contains is not 100 percent accurate in its own logic, let alone its “predictions.” Mr. Stack clearly is the one that needs to go back to school. I suggest a non-apologetics-based history and literary criticism of the Bible. Something where the teacher acknowledges that the earth is more than 6,000 years old.
You can read the whole passage from Romans below the fold.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.