Student says assignment was inappropriate (Write about selling soul to Devil)

Originally posted by omarsharif
To the openminded: imagine yourself as a true christian, you now have a choice between the world (take the assignment, get grades, be like the others) or God (Follow his holy word and "Neither give place to the devil."
Ephesians 4:27, KJV)


4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

What gives you the authority to declare what a "true" christian is? I would imagine, perhaps foolishly, that being a CHRIST-ian means following the teachings of CHRIST, correct? Your irrelevant quotes not only have absolutely nothing to do with playing make-believe and writing a cute story, but they are also not words spoken by Christ. Sounds like you worship the author of Ephesians instead. ;-)

[edit on 24-2-2010 by gsuboy]

reply to post by hadriana


I am a christian, i have written papers about many other "gods'esses" I have had no problem with it at all. I am secure enough in my own faith that i can read learn write even go to there worship serveces without it affecting my beliefs. i dont really see the big deal people are just way to uptight these days.

once again just my opinion

thank you and good day night depending on your location in this universe

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


According to scripture, you will have a chance if the anti-christ comes onto the scene soon. Think long and hard before you take that choice. It is not worth it to live in hell, damnation, and torture for the rest of my eternal life.

I will not sell my soul for world peace, because I know the world will never be at peace until Jesus returns.

reply to post by EMPIRE


Do you really want to know how I know? Trust me, you don't. I never made a deal with the devil, even though I seen him once. He is nothing but pure hatred and evil of the worst kind.

To sell one's soul to the devil is telling Jesus to take a hike in the worst and rudest way possible way. You just decided to side with the devil. You can't have Jesus as your savior if you are friends with his advisory. You just became an enemy to Jesus.

There is no situation in which I would sell my soul to the devil. I rather suffer here on earth, rather than spend torment in hell until God throws the Devil, angels, and everyone who lined up with him in to the lake of fire.

I don't plan on going there. I plan on being with Jesus and his gift of everlasting life with him in heaven.

Originally posted by Mystery_Lady
reply to post by EMPIRE

 

Do you really want to know how I know? Trust me, you don't. I never made a deal with the devil, even though I seen him once. He is nothing but pure hatred and evil of the worst kind.

Though I'm sure you feel as though you are being selfless by not providing any example or reasoning behind your knowledge, I assure you it is in fact an act of being selfish. So why don't you enlighten us, perhaps you'll provide someone with valuable insight, rather than more wood for the fire; taking the lord at his word is one thing, but taking another human's... that bird won't fly.

[edit on 2/25/2010 by eNumbra]

reply to post by eNumbra


You just don't understand...Alot of people who have been through profound spiritual or religious experiences will adamantly refuse to share them.

That is NOT out of selfishness, it just can't be explained until it happens. It's not even that it's difficult to put into words, it is impossible to put into words.

You'll just have to let it be.

reply to post by Mystery_Lady

Do you really want to know how I know? Trust me, you don't. I never made a deal with the devil, even though I seen him once. He is nothing but pure hatred and evil of the worst kind.

Yes I want to know. Why do you assume I don’t want to know. You made the claim that. “Writing about selling your soul to the devil doesn't help you to understand your own faith, it only leads to the dark side.” So I would like to know how you know this.

To sell one's soul to the devil is telling Jesus to take a hike in the worst and rudest way possible way. You just decided to side with the devil. You can't have Jesus as your savior if you are friends with his advisory. You just became an enemy to Jesus.

How do you know the person who wrote the original story wasn't examining or trying to understand his own faith?

There is no situation in which I would sell my soul to the devil. I rather suffer here on earth, rather than spend torment in hell until God throws the Devil, angels, and everyone who lined up with him in to the lake of fire.

That is great but none of these things have anything to do with what I previously asked.

I don't plan on going there. I plan on being with Jesus and his gift of everlasting life with him in heaven.

reply to post by KyleOrtonArmy


It is selfishness. She brought it to the table, and because of this, she should be able to elaborate.

Wow this brings out the Kit Marlow story of "Faust".
So its been done before.
The teacher did no prep as usual.
And Kit was Catholic and should know about devils as he
had to escape from the Queen.
Then write plays for the poet Shakespeare with anagrams
to wish all his fans well.
Yeah that was a great assignment.

reply to post by eNumbra


I needed some time to write this.

KyleOrtonArmy thank you. It is extremely hard to put into words.

eNumbra, Empire, since you asked, I'll try to tell you. I'm just shaking just thinking about it. There was a time I would have. An extremely low point in my life. The type of point where you don't know if you want to live or die. I thought about it. Even voiced possibilities. Never made a deal though.

All those possibilities came to me as temptations at one point in time or another. I was attending church, but not really sure where my faith lay. Talking the talk, but not walking the walk at the time. I stopped going to church and stopped believing. Maybe not all together. I cheated on my husband twice with two different men, but my thoughts went much, much darker.

It was during that time I saw at least a demon, if not satan himself. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. I saw darkness forming into a shape of a man with a hood over his head. It was large, tall, formidable. I never felt such intense hatred in my life. It was as if pure hatred was directed at me. Never in all of my experiences have I felt this. I watched horror movies, had death threats, even an entire floor of a dormitory angry with me, and not even an abusive relationship could compare.

The terror I felt, was 100 times worse than when the car my husband spun out and struck a tree at the very edge of a cliff. The tree saved us from dying, and the seat belt saved me from flying through the windshield and down over the cliff.

Why the demon was there I'm not sure. Maybe to make a deal or lead me down a darker path. It attacked instead. I'm still not sure why, but the only thing I can think that it was defining moment in my life. I knew at that exact moment the spiritual existed beyond a doubt, and that it was definitely evil. Somehow I instinctively knew it was a demon. Maybe it felt or saw something in the spiritual shift so it decided to attack instead of talk.

It attacked extremely quick. It was more like it gathered all of his energy, and flew at me. All I could do was scream louder and longer than I ever had. My husband told me this later. He never saw what I did. As soon as my husband put his arms around me, he felt something that hit him with a force so great that it doubled him over. He was coughing and retching like a lung would come up. He almost got violently sick. The only thing that stopped the attack was calling on Jesus, which I did as soon as I could.

When I reflect on it, I know I never written anything down, but I did voice the thoughts out loud. When they were ideas just in my head, nothing ever came of them. When they were spoken, things started to happen. It usually was never good, then again I never made a deal. Why should the devil guarantee anything good, unless he has something guaranteed in return? My life only started to turn around for the good after I really committed my life to Jesus.

I know anything spoken or written down just gives him ammunition to use against you. Maybe not for a deal, but for temptations to throw at you at the right time. Did I fall for the temptations? Eventually, Yes. Twice with two different men. I had much, much, darker, lustful thoughts. This was the time I was walking away from religion and Jesus. I doubted everything, and starting to think it was all fake, hogwash, illusions. I got disenchanted. It was at this time after I cheated on my husband that I encountered the demon. I believe the only way he was able to appear to me, was because I no longer had any spiritual protection from God.

Empire I don't know why the story was written. Maybe it was to examine his own faith, to show the hypocrisy of people, or used it as a scare method so people would be afraid of the devil. There's one important point to make here. The writer never wrote down what he would sell his soul to the devil for. He only wrote down what the main character and his wife in the story sold it for.

There is a difference between the literary aspect of the short story along with a good discussion of what happened and why in the story, and having to write an essay on why you yourself would sell your soul.

The story aside, if you don't see the difference, then what is the difference between asking a student how would they sell there soul to the devil, and how would they give there life to Christ? You would get offended at the later. Just as many here would get offended on asking a student how they would give there life to Christ.

I get offended when a teacher asks the student how would they give their life to the devil. Selling your soul to the devil is giving your life to the devil. The student is not selling his/her soul just by writing their thoughts down, but gives satan the ammunition. There is no one here that can tell me he is not real after what I been through.

PS. I wanted to add that I gave as much detail as I could of my experience, and that I'm comfortable in giving. There are some things you can't explain or express. There are some things that never should be.




[edit on 26-2-2010 by Mystery_Lady]

reply to post by crimsongod21


I'm sure you HAVE written papers ABOUT other gods and goddesses, but you miss the subtle point I was making...I didn't say ...write a paper about a god or goddess from Egypt...I said....Write a paper detailing which one was worthy of WORSHIP.

I don't see how a true monotheist could ethically do that particular thing.

And yes, I do think pagan children should be excused from that assignment. It is assuming that one believes in a devil - forces one to consider belief in a what do you call it? totally evil thing? and also, it forces one to consider that one might have a soul that one COULD sell.

Heck that sounds crazy to me. It might be one of those things that different belief structures just can't really quite communicate on. I do think those things exist.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by hadriana]

reply to post by TLomon


First, if this student is a practicing Christian, then the student has made all believers appear weak and sappy. Let me make something clear... Fear of the Devil, is weak. An inability to confront and defeat things you consider to be evil is weak.
Crying off because something is not to your taste is not the mark of a good christian, its the mark of a pathetic mewling fool. If this student was so angry as to cry off, then the student should have used thier ire to write a piece which made it perfectly clear that while said student was willing to fulfil a brief and attain thier marks regardless of all assaults on thier comfort, the student could , while complying with the brief, have made it clear that the brief was offensive , and probably sat outside the realms of acceptablility.
In my expirience, allowing the presence of Satan to alter your course is one of the worst things you can do. He is powerless, absolutely powerless to corrupt someone who believes utterly in the word of God. He has power over liars and decievers, and persons who pretend to believe, but not over the righteous.

reply to post by TLomon


Um why is this wrong? If the student doesn't wanna do it thats fine,

they're writting a fictional story. Ever heard of seperation of Church and

State if your not at good old Holy Cross High then your probably going to

encounter things that may upset your religious way of thinking thats what

public schools for. Thats also the same reason why god fearing parents

send their children to religious schools so they don't have to deal with this

sort of thing... some may call it drama... some may call it real life... take

your pick.



[edit on 26-2-2010 by NoJoker13]

reply to post by TLomon


Oh, come on! When I was in school, so long ago it seems like another lifetime....we read the story of Daniel Webster and the Devil, in which a poor farmer make a deal and then wants out of it. Daniel Webster, being an Advocate, come to his defence. What is wrong with that? A simple story from our distant past, there have been may stories of people making such deals, Faust was one, and a certain black guitar player which shall go unnamed. It seems that Christianity still has a hold on some of the Southern States, just yesterday I read about Kentucky teaching the Bible as an elective. Personally I will be very glad when the Reptilians do come to get their flock, after all, they will need food a pleasure on that long return trip. When they are gone, perhaps we can get down to business again.

North Carolina is backwards, and some there still live in the stone age, it seems. I was born there, so I can say that. I live with a woman in Common Law, and we are both Wiccans. If we were to live in N.C. and these things became known, we would be arrested, charged, and probably burned at the stake. Here is just one N.C. law....
(Charlotte) "Women must have their bodies covered by at least 16 yards of cloth at all times."
More dumb N.C. laws:
www.dumblaws.com...

reply to post by autowrench


Ugh for some reason I was just reminded of having to read Lord of The Flies in high school. ..What garbage. The final chapter was excellent but the buildup was FOREVER. Ugh bad memories.

Originally posted by TrueBrit
reply to post by TLomon

 

First, if this student is a practicing Christian, then the student has made all believers appear weak and sappy. Let me make something clear... Fear of the Devil, is weak. An inability to confront and defeat things you consider to be evil is weak.

How did this student make all believers appear weak? By your own definition the student makes all Christians appear strong. The student and her parents took control, confronted, and conquered what they considered to be evil. It was no small feat to go up against the teacher, principle, and entire school system.

They did not let fear of the devil or of the school system stop them. Neither did they have the inability to confront and defeat evil. They are strong warriors in Christ that stood and conquered for what they believed in.

PS. The student and her parents actually altered Satan's course of action.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by Mystery_Lady]

Apparently all I am doing is agreeing with a few of you if not a tad more, but here's my two cents.

From my understanding when reading required material for classes; you are reading about the mindset (be it fictional or non) during that time. You are reading fictional history.
To scrap out all the old books and stories from the past and replace them with other characters will only one day be called on that as well if our PC deepens worse.

Agreed religion is no place for an educational establishment, but it shouldn't be shunned either. Tolerated but not provoked, negative or positive.

To write about how one would sell their soul to the devil if given a chance, it is just that; a writing. It is not forcing you to choose sides, it is narrowing the viewpoint to one specific purpose; creative writing. It helps connect you to what you are learning and the past. I have had to read many religious poetry lately and, to be honest, i do not enjoy it but it helps connect with what had troubled the authors in the past and how much has changed since that period.

Though, now-a-days you can harp onto anything and make it seem like a scandal. Too sensitive are we, and now no one knows where to focus and lead without offending someone. You can't please everyone, so in some cases; we should suck it up and trudge on if it is relevant and important to any given situation.

Is it wrong to use this as an example when prayer is forbidden? Perhaps.. to appease everyone. Should it be getting this much of an outcry? No, I do not believe it should.

Best wishes to our educational system and way of life...

Cheers

reply to post by Mystery_Lady


I cant agree. It would have been stronger for the student to have performed the task at hand, while retaining thier soul.
Complaining is not strong. Taking up the weapon of faith, and quietly killing satans ability to sap your soul is strong. Its a fine line, but worth treading.