Students Told: ‘If You’re Christian, Confess to Be Atheist; If You’re Straight, Confess to Be Gay’

One of the ways in which a Spanish teacher at the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill teaches students the language is by using a provocative assignment called “the confession,” The College Fix has learned.

The Spanish 350 assignment in Dr. Michael “Raúl” Brown’s class asked students to confess some sort of pretend secret to loved ones, and suggested writing prompts included “if you’re Christian or of a Christian family, confess to be atheist” and “if you’re straight, confess to be gay.”

One student who took the “Advanced Conversation and Composition” class last fall told The College Fix they were offended by the assignment.

“I can’t tell you the level of discomfort that took over me as I wrote it,” the student said in an interview last month. “It still makes me cringe.”

The student ended up transferring out of the class, citing the assignment and other concerns with the course, and telling the department chair in an email obtained by The College Fix: “Yesterday, we were assigned to write an essay/letter to our parents pretending to be homosexual and essentially had to ‘come out’ to our parents in said fake letter. While there were other options for the essay given (pretending to tell your parents you’ve decided to be atheist, or pretending you are homosexual and telling your parents RaulBrownyou were just confused for a period of time), I find this assignment extremely inappropriate and not relevant to the class whatsoever.” (Read more from “Students Told: ‘If You’re Christian, Confess to Be Atheist; If You’re Straight, Confess to Be Gay'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.