Why Are You So Offended?

The other night the Grammys were on. I'm more interested in catching Girls and Looking on HBO. Not a fan of watching bad performances or publicity stunts for shock value made by celebrities so that everyone will chatter about them on social media for the next six months or so. I caught some of the buzz about how they had gay marriages on the show, where couples united and everyone, (seemingly) were touched by this. Finally, equality is spreading like wildfire, some happy and some disgusted. There was a huge backlash of antigay tweets and chatter on Facebook, demonstrating their distaste for this "disgusting display".  I sort of giggled at Dr. R Joseph Milligan's tweet.

Here are some of his tweets: "CBS: Shame on you, the Grammy's is supposed to be a family friendly show. It was disgusting, and sick to have gay marriages."

"@TODAYshow Thought it was sick, and evil, and not appreciated this is an award show, not a Gay Pride rally, children watch this!"

Mrs. Milligan & her closeted gay husband.

Then, someone made a comment about his wife being overweight, who is probably a lovely person. I'm not quite sure who Dr. Milligan is talking to in these threads to himself, whether he is a novice at tweeting or just had to get it out of his system, I finally had to reply to his madness:

Isn't living in sloth another deadly sin? 

Dr R Joseph Milligan ‏@parsonjoe1 Real Mature, insult my wife, Bigoted against overweight, a Christian person? We have just right to believe what we believe 

Dr R Joseph Milligan ‏@parsonjoe1 @parsonjoe1 Cursing at a man of God, too Let me do a fully Christian Wedding at the Grammys and preach a sermon, too. 

Dr R Joseph Milligan ‏@parsonjoe1 tree, anywhere, then, I will be quiet. I do not apologize, for my Beliefs. Stop insulting my cat, too.

Dr R Joseph Milligan ‏@parsonjoe1 @parsonjoe1 He's a sweet boy full of Love. Never said I hated anyone, hate the sin, love the sinner. Homosexuality is a sin. 

Debra Pasquella ‏@DebraPasquella @parsonjoe1 Isn't gluttony one of the seven deadly sins? She's probably a lovely person, but if you're going to judge ppl, we'll go there.

After his comment about the Grammys being a "family show", I also asked him, don't dem' gays have families too? To think that gays and lesbians are just lone riders lost having promiscuous and reckless sex in dirty alleys is just so demented and twisted. The first thing that comes to the heterosexual Christian mind is SEX SEX SEX. They can't see past SEX. It makes me wonder a lot about who they really are. I truly feel that if someone is extremely bothered by homosexual relationships, then they may have gay tendencies too. If you're that invested in tearing down the gay and lesbian community, it tells me that maybe some part of you wants to be apart of it. They have done studies on homophobic people, like Dr. R Joseph Milligan, where they tested their hatred for gays and lesbians to see if it was in fact, a secret desire to be gay. They sat them down in a room with a TV and electrodes connected to their body (and body parts) to see if these images would arouse them in any way. All the people who were against homosexuality were ALL aroused by seeing homosexual activity, hardly any arousal being detected for heterosexual intimacy. So not only is it an assumption now, but it's been tested over and over again showing the same results. When you hear people making antigay slurs or you see hate crimes on TV because someone was gay, remember, they're dealing with a larger sin: coveting. Now THAT's in the Ten Commandments. Odd that homosexuality isn't.

Take a look at this video that demonstrates how homophobic people are really in the closet gays. If you cannot view the video below, please click here.

I'm starting to believe that religion makes people stupid. It's one thing to disagree with someone's lifestyle. I get it. And that's fine. But it's when you start making someone else feel bad for who they are --- that's when your "God light" disappears and all acceptance, tolerance, patience, understanding goes out the door. All of those words I just wrote are written in Corinthians to define "love". Interestingly enough, not enough Christians have this "love" in their heart. They're too worried about their own bigotry, or perhaps, their own identity, hoping their true sexual orientation won't be revealed. Many gays and lesbians hide under cloaks and habits. Sexual repression is the biggest problem in the Catholic church. Hiding under a pew isn't going to make you straight when you're gay. Sad thing is, once you repress it for a long enough time, the subject of your release may not be the target you wanted. For instance, look at how many priests have molested little boys. In fact, my own priest was arrested and charged for pedophilia and molestation charges. You can read all about that here.

Part of the article reads, "Back in the eighties when I was going to CCD - (night school for religion), they had sent us away to a religious retreat in upstate New York. It didn't seem like a 'retreat' as much as it looked like a prison with cement tiled walls and a door for each room. The only fun room they had was about the size of my bedroom with a pool table in it. They had old cots with thin bedding and one floppy pillow. The grounds were just as bland as the inside of the building - some dried out yellow grass and a swing set. I remember we were waiting to be called into a room to confess our sins to a priest named, Father Pipala. We were still learning the proper way to confess as well, prayer included. When it was my turn, the nun came up to me and whispered, 'Now go and walk into that room over there and confess to Father Pipala.' It was a thick metal painted door. I opened it to see Father Pipala sitting on a cot in an empty bedroom patting the bed saying, 'Come here, child. Talk to me.'  I stared at him, expecting to see a booth with black meshing to hide myself from confessing. But it was all out in the open: a priest on a bed giving me a 'come hither' look. At that age, I never knew anything about pedophilia or grown ups wanting anything other than to teach us and to take care of us. But at the age of 8 yrs old, I felt a creepiness that I'll never forget. I sensed something was wrong. I stepped closer and stared at him. When he tried to grab me with force, he managed to pull off some of my sweater. I ran out of the room as fast as I could and screamed down the dark hallway that was lit with cheap florescent lights that flickered on and off. One of the nuns tried to grab my arm but I made my way outside by the bus we drove up in and cried hysterically. The entire day, those nuns were 'extra kind' to me, letting me sit aside from the activities that were given to the other kids telling everyone, 'She doesn't feel very well.'"

Not too long after, it was exposed that Father Pipala was charged for molesting children, mostly boys. In an article written in The New York Times, it states, 'In Monroe, Father Pipala settled into his job, coordinating the youth ministry and working in drug and alcohol programs. His license plate read, 'Fred 66,' a play on his nickname, Father Ed, and the year of his ordination. He also assumed a darker role: founder and leader of a club called the Hole, based in the church basement. It had several dozen members -- all teenage boys, some with strained relations with parents, others from broken homes. The priest said in his deposition that he based the Hole on the 'philosophy of having someone who would be there all the time, a place that one could go to share their thoughts and feeling and not ending up in some bar talking to some strange bartender.' Yet, he said he gave the boys beer and liquor and showed them pornographic videos. Father Pipala created an initiation ceremony in which the teenagers, sworn to secrecy, joined him in masturbating into a red cloth, an act he would later compare to an ancient 'tribal' ritual. Each boy was given a small square of the cloth, and a T-shirt with his number on the back. By the time of his arrest in 1993, prosecutors said his abuse had extended to oral and anal sex. They said dozens of minors were initiated into his club and that he molested boys in rectories, at a Jersey Shore condominium and during a vacation in Massachusetts.'"

My point is, any type of repression manifests itself into something else or something that is totally out of character. Living a lie, to pretend to be "straight", yet secretly gay has to be one of the most hardest lives to live. You can't be yourself. You have that huge "religious guilt" thing taunting at you and chanting, "You're a sinner…you're a sinner…you're a sinner." I can't tell you how happy I was when my relationship with God became closer. My understanding of all of the messages written about homosexuality were not of "gay practices" --- they were of promiscuity and reckless sex of all genders. In Leviticus and any mention in the Old Testament are all part of the old law, which was abolished when Jesus died on the cross, written in Galatians 17 through 21.

"But what if we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then find out that we are still sinners? Has Christ led us into sin? Of course not! Rather, I make myself guilty if rebuild the old system I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me an gave himself for me. I am not one for those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die."

 Pretty huge statement if you think about it. “For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.” If you constantly live in fear about God’s judgment, then your faith in Jesus isn’t strong enough. If you truly had faith in Jesus and claimed Him as your Savior, then you would know that the old law doesn’t apply to us anymore. We were bound by the law, but by the grace of God and His sacrifice of His son, we are made right with him. We live in our carnal bodies. We live here on earth, desiring earthly things. But if we have faith that’s strong and true, God isn’t going to just cast you away. God loves you. He knows how hard it is and what challenges we go through here on earth. This is the whole reason Jesus came for us. And, I truly feel sad when people make statements such as, “Well, you’re mocking God because you won’t repent and you keep on sinning and claiming Christ as your Savior.” If you really think about it, those people who say that are mocking God by not trusting in Jesus’ death. They don’t feel that Jesus’ death was enough. He paid the price in full.

I kind of feel bad for people who are discriminatory against gays and lesbians. They have a huge burden to carry: closeted feelings of homosexuality and religious guilt. They use the Bible as a wean for hatred and bigotry. They've never sat there and meditated on the Bible verses, to really and truly understand the full meaning of what's being said. They have never tried to understand the real meaning of Christ's death for all of humanity. They don't know the meaning of love, because it's not in their heart. I'm only speaking about those who lash out at us - the people who feel the need to belittle us because of our lifestyle and bash us for being…who we are. There's a fine line between love and hate. When someone is SO outraged by homosexuality, look through the transparency and unveil the person who has the same cross to bear as you. It's funny how we have so much in common with the people who hate us.

For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com or join her on Facebook and Twitter. Check out her cooking blog for some of her famous recipes!