San Luis Obispo Teacher Received Death Threats for Expressing Biblical Views on Sexuality

A San Luis Obispo High School teacher recently resigned after expressing his views of Biblical sexuality and marriage as the union between one man and one woman in a letter to the editor he wrote for the school newspaper.

The letter was written by special education teacher Michael Stack, in response to the school newspaper featuring an image of two women kissing on the front cover of an issue focusing on LGBTQ issues.

Stack’s letter primarily consisted of Scripture drawn from Romans 1:16-32. Stack begins the letter by saying that “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.”

He explains why he believes the Bible to be without error and that he relies on the Bible as his primary decision maker and looks to it for instruction on how he should live his life. He point out that everyone is held accountable to God for their actions, and stresses that the Bible places a special emphasis on teachers, saying that they will be held more accountable for the influence they have on others.

He then references Romans 1:16-32:

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

But God shows His anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because He has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and shameful things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 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.

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 concludes the letter in a very loving way, saying “I pray you each have a great summer, a wonderful life, and a perfect eternity.”

The San Luis Obispo Tribune subsequently ran a headline which stated “Gay people ‘deserve to die,’ SLO High teacher’s letter to student newspaper says.” That article noted:

The school won’t discipline special education teacher Michael Stack, saying teachers as well as students “do not shed their First Amendment rights” at school.

“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.

According to an article in LifeSite News, Stack “resigned May 11, the same day someone called in a death threat for him to the school.” A follow up article published in the San Luis Obispo Tribune stated:

Special education teacher Michael Stack did not show up to work Thursday but sent the school an email at 1:07 p.m., which he also copied to Fox News, tendering his resignation, noting “the community apparently wants me out, so I hereby grant them their desires.”

Late Thursday morning, someone called the school and threatened Stack’s life, according to San Luis Coastal Unified School District Superintendent Eric Prater.

“We are concerned for his safety,” Prater said.

In tenuring his resignation, Stack wrote, “I exercised my First Amendment rights and submitted my opinion in a public forum. Now people are exercising their First Amendment rights by responding to that letter. This is how America is designed to function.”