There's working hard on an assignment in the hopes of receiving an 'A,' and there's going above and beyond what's required to turn in the best possible assignment that ever existed because you know you're right and your teacher is wrong, and you're going to prove it. The latter path was the one taken by a 17-year-old Catholic high school student in Missouri. They turned in what amounts to a dissertation — a 127-page paper titled, "Gay Marriage Is Fabulous."
According to the student, who goes by averagesmurf on Reddit, the assignment was "to write a 'Summa Theologica' style paper where you present a 'moral dilemma,' which is where you give the objections to church teaching and then the replies from the church." The student elaborated that "the exact words my teacher said in class were that you have to provide the church teaching to 'show and prove that the church’s position is right.'"
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According to Queerty, the student explained on Reddit that the whole thing began during a classroom activity in which classmates asked anonymous questions about "moral issues" and then the class would discuss the issue at-hand. After the discussion, the teacher would "correct" the students and explain the church's stance.
"When the issue of 'why is the church so against gay marriage' came up, I asked for the little 'talking ball' and just started going for like 15 minutes on how the bible isn’t a condemnation of homosexuality and in all ways affirms love rather than hate and how god doesn’t make mistakes when he makes us, we are who we are," they write. "After which, when she started quoting Aquinas on natural law, I stood up and said that natural law has no basis in scripture, science, and fails the is-ought fallacy presented by David Hume and is bases heavily on divine command theory which fails the euthyphro dilemma. Then I went on about how, when conceiving natural law, Aquinas bases his argument on a law by the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, who wasn’t very intelligent and believed gay people caused 'famines and pestilences.'" (Not gonna lie, I'm not sure how anyone could argue with all that.)
According to the student, that's when the bell rang. The following day, discussions were not allowed and an anti-gay video was shown. The student decided they would make their points anyway, and the paper was born, which has been posted in its entirety for all the disbelievers out there. It tackles the choice theory of being gay, male patriarchy, conversion therapy, and more.
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The paper is a masterpiece, with 52 footnotes and a works cited page to rival professional research studies. The paper's conclusion begins, "It has become evident--through laborious and rigorous study, work, and reflection--that Christ never condemned homosexuality, God never condemned homosexuality, and nor does the Bible condemn homosexuality."
The paper ends on a note that every LGBTQ person, every Christian, and every compassionate human should take to heart. "God created you, and he made no mistakes, God created me gay, and he made no mistakes: “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected” (1 Tim. 4.4-5). Marriage is not between man and woman, marriage is between love and love. Love is not wrong, love is not a mistake, love is not an abomination, love is just love."
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