What would you do? Catholic school paper.

[icarus]

Gacked from misting.

True Story: A religion teacher assigned her class an essay on what makes a good Christian. One student wrote about praying nightly, say no to abortion, banning gay marriage, and donating money. The other student wrote about talking to God and allowing people to enjoy their lives, and supporting gay marriage. The day the teacher was to hand the papers back, she called up the second student and told him she would pray for him when he went to hell. The student asked why would he be going to hell, and why he got an F on his paper. The teacher told him that Catholicism is against gay marriage. The student looked at her for a minute, then said aloud, "I'm gay." The teacher kicked him out of class as if he had said fuck or worshiped Satan. A girl in the back of class who had a boyfriend and was obviously straight got up and left too.

If you would leave the classroom, repost this. It doesn't matter if you're straight, bi, or gay. It doesn't matter if you're Catholic or not. Everyone is a human being and deserves happiness.

I'm not sure I would have left though. Since I'm never going to change a Catholic school's policy I think I would have stayed and given the teacher a really bad time for the rest of the quarter. I've noticed that when a "good" student acts up a little, the bad students get really out of control.

Comments

[kirili.livejournal.com]

Can I post this on my journal with you paragraph at the bottom?

[kirili.livejournal.com]

your. *facepalm*

[jennifus.livejournal.com]

I would have left and THEN made everyone's life a living hell. :-)
When I was in high school, my cousin got expelled for wearing a t-shirt that said, "Let's get this straight: I'm not". When he asked why, the principal told him he was distracting to the other students and was not allowed to support homosexuality in a public school. When my cousin said, "I'm gay," the principal looked at him in disgust and left the room. When my friends and I heard what happened, we walked out of school and walked into the school board meeting a week later, all wearing the same shirt, with a petition to allow my cousin back to school signed by over half of the student body.
He was reinstated the following Monday. :-)

[theemdash]

I went to a Catholic school for 13 years and thankfully never had any experiences quite like that. But I was one of those "idealistic troublemakers" who always looked out for the kids who were picked on. I would have left.

It's terribly annoying to sit through church--be enjoying the service--and then wind up with a homily against gay marriage or homosexuality in general. It really grates on me and I fume for awhile. But you're right--we're never going to change Catholic policy. Even though statements like "you're going to hell" are entirely un-Christian.

[wenelda.livejournal.com]

i never got assigned any papers in my religion class in catholic school. i did have to sit through services, though. i don't remember anything that was said. that's how much of an impression it left on me!

i think the reason my class could never assign anything like that was because they knew not all the students were catholic or even christian. it wasn't really such a bad time at that school, though i did get into a bit of trouble for random things that have nothing to do with religion.

[mad_maudlin]

Word to your statement. I remember being the only questioning student in a class full of upper-middle-class Catholics with a religion teacher whose degree was in psychology, not theology. One apparent contradiction cited chapter and verse and she was helpless. Did I ever have fun with her....

[latrapdoorlover.livejournal.com]

Hello, I know I'm randomly showing up and commenting, but I hope that's okay. I stumbled upon your ff.net account, and I absolutely love your writing.
In relation to your post, I most likely would have gotten up and walked out. I know it wouldn't change the policy, but I don't think I could have stayed in a class where the teacher fails a student for their opinions...
Anyway, I look forward to reading more of your stuff, and I'll be reviewing more on ff and hopefully here on your lj.

[chinesefirebal.livejournal.com]

Catholic school policy can be quite easy to change - depends on the catholics who are in charge.
This is another true story - told to my religion class by the teacher who is huge on social justice.
She was out west (I live on the east cost of australia in a fairly big city (by australian standards) just south of sydney) in Brewarrana (sp?, pop. couple of 100). Some farm owner actually went to the police station and asked if he could still use his culling licence as it didn't have an expirey date. Culling licence were issued god know's how long ago (maybe around 1850 i'm guessing) and gave the owner of it to kill off the local indigenous population. this man was catholic, and he still asked this. the police man said it would still be murder (thankfully).
There are 1.1 billion catholics in the world. the ones i mentioned and icaurus mentioned are thankfully in the vast minority, but centred in a few areas (rural australia, deep south of usa) and make hell for the few people that live there.

In contrast my (catholic) school actually employs a gay teacher. not sure if he is out, but you do see him about with his boyfriend/partner - and once in leather pants

[meamcat.livejournal.com]

I would have been hugely offended, but I might not have left, as I'm not used to this sort of situation(I was sheltered). I'd have prolly been too shocked/stunned to do anything but fume and write furious diatribes later.
After reading this, though, I would have left- being that I would have known what to do in that sort of situation.
So, yeah, I'm glad this is going around. Thanks for posting. :D

Sorry; I'm musing openly on your journal.

It is very conservative where I live. I can't wait to get out of Texas.

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

I actually find that kind of disturbing...but at a Protestant high school in the next town over, a student was kicked out only a couple of years ago for being a lesbian--and when another straight girl wouldn't stop contact with the lesbian, they kicked her out too.

[skuf.livejournal.com]

I just want to know how true that story is - it has all the characteristics of a hoax to me.

[jaig.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't generalize about the Catholics. It's just reality that the crazy ones out-yell the nice ones. And that teacher deserves to burn in hell for hating like s/h/it did, because that's not being a Catholic. That's using Catholicism to justify gross and unforgiveable bigotry.

[dancing-moon.livejournal.com]

I think I would have argued it... while I was generally a very nice and well-behaved kid, I sometimes had discussions with my teachers. Of course, if they belonged to the "I know all, thou art a speck of dirt in the hallowed halls od knowledge you filthy brat"-type, I probably wouldn't have bothered

But I can't really re-post this because I would seriously rather not have gone to school at all than go to a catholic one... I'd feel it would be a better example if the specific religion was removed because homophobia and hatred are too wide-spread to just put the stamp "catholic stupidity" on

[xenoface.livejournal.com]

*O_O;;*

I'm pretty catholic. hm. Well, i'd probably be the person who wrote the essay about gay marriage. haha, man. I've studied in a catholic-all-girls-school for 7 years and half my friends are lesbians, i can tell you that much. Obviously, i support gay marriage and happiness... and it's just. the teachers and such, they don't really care. Except for the Teachers who continuously tell us that if you feel like you want to screw a classmate vixen, it's only because you admire her and she's good at school/sports/something or whatnot. o_O;;

haha, its funny.

-sam

[maelwaedd.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would have left: I didn't realise I was gay before I left the catholic school in grade ten, but I was ostracised (sp?) as a lesbian even though I didn't know. Fancy...

I would definitely have argued the point, though. Gay marriage and homosexuality wasn't a big deal when I was in school, but I argued a lot about why atheism was wrong, et cetera. I was sheltered, and might not have had any decent points to make, but I wouldn't have accepted that kind of shit.

[dingdongdevious.livejournal.com]

I guess it is true that it is a Catholic school and they have a perogative to do something like that, but I still think it's wrong. I probably would've left too. I don't think I'd want to go to a school where they're not teaching real Christian values.

O, and I finished that picture of Draco Malfoy for your story . . . I just have to find a colored scanner to scan it. It didn't turn out as well as I would've liked, but it's okay, I guess.

[adred.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Is this actually a 'lesson' about the right to be gay, or a lesson about standing up for what you believe in, or *showing* that you believe in something and have the guts to say. The only way is to walk the narrow path. I've done the walk-out (in a slightly different situation where I objected to the subjet matter and how it was being treated). I explained to the teacher and class why I was walking out. One other woman came with me. After the class I got a lot of other students congratulating me (and a lot of others dissing me). It was a situation that I couldn't continue to sit in, but certainly I think that a protest can be made doing either. It depends on the situation, and how each of us choose to show our protest. I'm less than subtle, so I walked out. The important thing is to show you protest.

[moriann.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that Catholic schools usually have more orthodox views on 'what should a good catholic think' than many of the Church officials not to mention ordinary people. From what I've heard about catholic schools in the States (I suppose that was where it happened?) they still hold on to beliefs that few Catholics support nowadays. In an open-minded country like America it really doesn't make much sense.

In my country it's a totally different problem. Here 97% of population claims to be Catholic and we don't have Catholic schools per se - Catholicism is taught in all of them and though the classes aren't compulsory not many people decide not to take them (moreover, in order not to take them you need a permission slip from your parents, so it can't be just your own decision). And speaking up about gay rights/abortion or criticising the Church's policies is sure to get you trouble. I don't mean it to sound like it's some kind of a totalitarian catholic regime but the problem is that even when people do have a different opinion they don't usually speak up because they fear the consequences. And so the Church law becomes more important than international human rights.

For example, take the gay rights parades. They are organised all over the world, even in China, which is notorious for ignoring the citizens' rights, and the authorities don't make a problem out of it. But not here. Last year, 'the Equality Parade' (that's what it's called here) was to take place in the capital but the mayor prohibited it. This year, he did it again, but many people came anyway. Unfortunately, there also was a second gathering and it's sole purpose seemed to be throwing rocks and invectives at those demonstraiting their support for gay rights. The above events earned us a place on Amnesty International's list of countries that break human rights, right next to places like Cuba, China and other authoritarian regimes. And it's not someplace in the Africa or deep in Asia that I'm describing but right in the middle of Europe and a member of the EU.

So, we'd have a diffenrent outcome of this situation here, I reckon. It would be much more people leaving the classroom but rather in protest to having to sit next to a gay person. (That's not an exaggeration - a recent survey showed that 60% of my fellow countrymen would be bothered by the fact that their neighbour is gay. Honestly.)