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You might have seen the following little meme doing the round over the last few days:
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 Catholisim 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.
It's popped up all over my friends list with, in the main, little or no critical observation on the way, Despite being a 'true story', it doesn't reference where, when, or with who this little story took place. Instead, people seem to be taking it at face value. After all, it represents Christians as shallow, bigoted, and close minded. So it must be true, right?
Now me, I'm not a fan of propaganda (unless it's my own), and it strikes me that using unverifiable propaganda to represent one group as shallow, bigotted and close minded is a little...well, you can probably see where I'm going here, can't you?
Still, I suppose if I wanted reasoned debate then I wouldn't be on the internet.
[Edit] The earliest derivation I can find of this story is here: http://autumn416.deviantart.com/
Posted at 8.45 on the 4th of August. Although the poster says they got it from someone else, I can't find that someone else anywhere. There's no corroborating evidence given, either.
I can be a bit of an obsessive when I get going, can't I?
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 Catholisim 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.
It's popped up all over my friends list with, in the main, little or no critical observation on the way, Despite being a 'true story', it doesn't reference where, when, or with who this little story took place. Instead, people seem to be taking it at face value. After all, it represents Christians as shallow, bigoted, and close minded. So it must be true, right?
Now me, I'm not a fan of propaganda (unless it's my own), and it strikes me that using unverifiable propaganda to represent one group as shallow, bigotted and close minded is a little...well, you can probably see where I'm going here, can't you?
Still, I suppose if I wanted reasoned debate then I wouldn't be on the internet.
[Edit] The earliest derivation I can find of this story is here: http://autumn416.deviantart.com/
Posted at 8.45 on the 4th of August. Although the poster says they got it from someone else, I can't find that someone else anywhere. There's no corroborating evidence given, either.
I can be a bit of an obsessive when I get going, can't I?
