A group of Christian parents have been photographed holding a prayer meeting with their pastor in response to the performance of an educational parody of a Shakespeare play for students in a North Carolina high school.

In a photo shared on social media, the parents and pastor are seen standing in a circle in prayer after they found out that the play included a same-sex kiss.

“A group of concerned parents and pastors held a prayer meeting after a play was performed at Mitchell High School they say was inappropriate for the student audience,” WLOS reports.

The comedy, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” was altered to be more “appropriate” for students but still contained references to alcohol, suicide and used bad language. It was reported that these were the reasons for the parent’s gathering but locals told reporters that it was, in fact, the same-sex kiss that the parents were responding to.

“Earlier reports suggested the prayer circle was formed in response to ‘inappropriate content’ including suicide, alcohol consumption, and ‘bad language’ — all of which you’d find in Romeo and Juliet — but a local resident informed me the real ‘concern’ was over homosexuality,” Friendly Atheist’s David Gee reports.

“What people were actually upset about,” Gee says the local resident told him via email, “was the all-male cast and that two men shared a stage kiss.”

With the photos being shared by WLOS Meteorologist Rob Bradley, some of the comments are amazing:

“Shakespeare would probably go home and write an entire play mocking the erroneous behaviour of these fragile and simple-minded idiots!”

“Can’t wait until they discover a story about a guy called Oedipus.”

“For heaven’s sake, it’s Shakespeare, not “Debbie does Dallas”! Get a grip! Y’all have lost your mind!”

“It’s astounding how dumbed-down and puritanical our education system has become. When I was in high school 40+ years ago, we read Shakespeare plays out loud in English class junior year and I think also sophomore year…and now the content is considered controversial and “not appropriate” for persons that age? How ridiculous.”