Seriously, This Actually Happened, I'm Flabbergasted

Okay, let's play a little game. It's called Offend the Fundy. The rules are simple. You have to offend an American Christian fundamentalist, but you can't just shout obscenities or walk around naked or wear a shirt that says, "I've had 25 abortions". No, you need to offend them by doing or saying something that no rational person would find offensive.

Here, I'll provide an example:

Wow... This was a question on a quiz I just took.

Find the effective thesis.
Answer

A. The subject of my paper is God in public schools.

B. School prayer is totally stupid and should stay banned.

C. Prayer is asking God for something or thanking Him for something.

D. High school graduation ceremonies should not include prayer.

This in my online Writing Composition class, and the only class I'm taking online this semester. I can't decide if I should say something to the teacher or not....The answer is D but I'm not going to submit that as an answer. We need all the prayer in schools we can get!

If your reaction that was O.o, you're never going to win a round of Offend the Fundy!

I found this on Rapture Ready's message boards, and I fully expected at least one person to point out that the teacher was not asking this person to agree that prayer in school is wrong, they were asking the student to pick the best thesis. (I suspect about 30% of that board is atheists in disguise like me.) Nope. Not even close.

Woah that's bad Definitely say something to the teacher! And what respectable school would use the expression "totally stupid"? Do they use phrases like "kinda cool" in their papers as well?

I'll take Totally Missing the Point for 100, Alex! (does that emoticon move? it's freaking me out.)

It's the teacher who makes these test and then puts them online for the class. I don't know what I should do, but I am pretty mad about this.

I can't stand it that my Lord who has done so much for me and who I love is made fun of on a daily basis.

In a class that I actually go to, we had to make a flyer for a make believe band in Photoshop class. The guy who is next to me made a flyer mocking the Cross. I just get so tired of them mocking my Lord!

Sure. I just bet the flyer was a picture of a bin Laden and Richard Dawkins pointing at a cross and laughing.

Always do what is right with the Lord. Do not give humans any power or let them take you away from what you believe in.

Did this guy even read the original post?

My hubby says you should appeal to the school board about this on the basis of religious discrimination. Alternatively you should definitely speak to the teacher, also tell him/her that "totally stupid" is not a proper use of English in an academic paper and shouldn't even be given to students as a bad example.

Religious discrimination? Seriously? Can I claim religious discrimination every times someone says "bless you" when I sneeze? It would be the same thing.

Technically the answer is D

But you could demonstrate the idea easily with hundreds of other topics, so why did the teacher deliberately pick the subject of prayer in schools and then make the correct answer one which is anti-God?

Sigh. I feel for you

Oh, I don't know. Maybe because that's the sort of thing that actually gets debated, so in a class about rhetoric, it'll come up.

Anyway, this goes on for a while, and then a M. Night stops by and delivers the best twist he's thought of since Fight Club, in the form of a reply from the teacher:

You are not expected to go against your beliefs to answer a question. I do not view my role as a teacher in that way. I have never tried to indoctrinate my students or force any sort of values on them. I do hope to model Christ to my students, as well as everyone with whom I interact, but it is not ever my role to tell people how to believe or feel.

That's right, this teacher is Christian. Seriously Christian. Conservative Christian. Like, listens to Rush Limbaugh conservative.

This question was not asking you to agree or disagree with the statements at all. Rather, it was simply asking you to choose which one followed the instructions of what makes a good thesis. I respect your views, and I share very similar conservative views. Choosing not to answer a question because you do not like the subject matter, when you are not being asked to agree with something that is against your morals and principles, is not something that I can really understand. I did not ask you to write a paragraph against school prayer, for example. However, in the academic world, you may be asked sometime to take the opposing side. As someone who listens exclusively to Christian radio or conservative political radio, I can say that those Christian commentators can discuss the issues and even present points that the opposition might. For example, they can pose questions that an Athiest might pose because they know they have to anticipate the opposition's points in order to successfully counter those arguments. They don't simply refuse to engage in discourse because the topic is distasteful.

Amazing! Does it matter to the raptards? Of course not. They're too busy congratulating one another for being so sensitive they could feel the pea under the mattress from five miles away. I'm trying to figure out exactly when Christianity became a big game of "who could be offended more by less". I'd say sometime in the last 30 years, but I bet it's been this way since Paul wrote letters to everyone with a name.