California Teacher Resigns After His Christian Views on Sexuality Draw LGBT's Outrage, Death Threats
A California high school teacher stirred up a hornet's nest when he wrote a letter to the editor in an online high school newspaper where he shared his Christian views on sexuality, including quotes from the Bible condemning homosexual activity.
In his letter that was published in the opinion section of the student newspaper Expressions in its May 2017 issue, Michael Stack quoted the entire text of Romans 1:16-32, in which the Apostle Paul condemns homosexual activity and says that those who engage in it "suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved ... as a result of this sin," LifeSite News reported.
Stack, who teaches special education at San Luis Obispo High School, said there is a "deception" happening not only at the school "but throughout the world," alluding to homosexual activities.
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He also quoted the Apostle Paul as saying, "They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."
Stack said he wrote the letter "to lift up those who have stumbled, or may stumble, and put you back on the right path."
However, his letter sparked outrage from the LGBT community as well as the students, teachers, and parents of the school, The Tribune reported.
San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon joined the protest against the teacher, even urging community members to complain to the school district administration.
"This is unacceptable," she wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. "A teacher at SLO High wrote this shaming letter against the LGBT community — a community that already has a high degree of suicide."
But school officials stood by Stack, saying in a joint statement that 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."
However, the school officials' statement did not placate the protesters. On May 11, Stack received death threats while at school as members of the LGBT community and their supporters launched their protest action.
He resigned that same day.
"The community apparently wants me out," Stack wrote in an email to the school, announcing his resignation, "so I hereby grant them their desires."
