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A San Luis Obispo High School special education teacher has resigned following a letter he wrote to the school's student newspaper that said those who commit homosexual acts "deserve to die."
The letter, written by Michael Stack, was widely condemned by the community according to a report by the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported last Thursday. Stack did not show up for work on Thursday, and instead, sent an email to the school, resigning.
“The community apparently wants me out, so I hereby grant them their desires,” he wrote in the email on which he copied Fox News according to the Tribune.
In the letter, published on May 9th in the student newspaper Expressions, was in response to a recent print issue that included articles on the LGBTQ community, and featured a cover photo with two women kissing.
Stack begins the letter by saying how much he loves San Luis Obispo High School and its students, "But I love God more, so in obedience to Him, I am writing this letter."
Stack goes on to quote, verbatim, 17 verses from the Book of Romans regarding sins like greed, envy, murder, gossip and homosexuality.
"And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved."
Stack goes on to quote more from the Book of Romans, in which he says those who sin 'deserve to die.'
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 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 wrote he wanted to write the letter to "lift up those who have stumbled, or may stumble, and put you back on the right path."
Last week, LGBTQ activists held a rally outside the school to protest Stack and to support LGBTQ rights. Signs like "It Gets Better" "We Stand with you!" as well as a large rainbow-colored banner seen in a live video on Facebook read: "Bigotry disguised as 'Religious Libert' is still BIGORTY."
San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon wrote in a post on Facebook that Stack's letter was "unacceptable."
“A teacher at SLO High wrote this shaming letter against the LGBT community — A community that already has a high degree of suicide...
"I've contacted the school board," she wrote. "You might do the same.