Email to Net Ministries Ballybofey after the Marriage Equality Referendum Yes Victory in May 2015

For me, the homophobia of the Church is reprehensible but that of Jesus even more so. I am afraid gay people who turn to Jesus could find out what he was like and turn out like him.
 
The LGBT Community is well aware that Net Ministries’ lies, playing on prejudices and distortions has led to the no vote winning in the Stranorlar region. Ask yourselves why you have no credibility with community development organisations.  There is blood on the hands of those who would refuse to support the monogamous love between two people of the same sex.  That hurts the depressed young gay person the most - many of whom end up as suicides. You don’t even care about the principle. For you lot, Jesus who took responsibility for writing the Old Testament through divinely inspired men has the last word.  He said that not a dot of it would pass away until God fulfilled it - meaning God fully approves of it. And you should be aware that it reports God as saying homosexuality is an abomination that must be purged from the midst of the people by stoning homosexuals to death.  And then we have Jesus himself indicating and authorising the apostles to preach with his authority that homosexuality is a mortal sin that will lead to everlasting exclusion from God in Hell. Jesus was to blame. Views like that are not tolerable. One can believe it is wrong without going that far. Teaching that same sex sexual love-making is mortally sinful forces you to exaggerate any problems there could be. For example, you would argue that if it is okay then why not allow incest under certain conditions? You claim it is evil and it will lead to more evil which is why it is so bad. You have to look for excuses for condemning it for as many things as possible.  Please don’t pretend you do not hate. Violent scriptures should be rejected and disdained outright without excuse. A vote for Jesus is a vote for homophobia in the worst sense of the word even if you don't know that he was a bigot. The Church by upholding a homophobic God and Son of God is guilty of at least leading the people into implicit or indirect homophobia.
 
Don’t start this, “We treat LGBT people with compassion” crap.  Your compassion is patronising to LGBT people who don't believe they are doing anything morally wrong for you think they are and you think it is seriously wrong and you know better. Your condescending compassion is repulsive. Your compassion as Catholics is primarily, “Okay the priority is having them respond to our understanding of God because they need repentance in case they go to Hell and that is infinitely bigger than any problem they may have”. That is not compassion but patronising religious bigotry. Real compassion is spontaneous and natural and human. Whether you believe in God or not, it will be there. Bringing religion and theology into it merely makes it artificial. Being compassionate because you think God wants you to be is a good forgery but it is not compassion. Also, the concept of God is implicitly homophobic because it says that God has plans and purposes we cannot understand so even if homosexuality is not obviously wrong he can forbid it. The Catholic intends by his actions and speech to attract people to the Catholic faith. He may argue that the faith is simply goodness but reasonable people will see it as being about attracting people to a religion that understands goodness a certain way and that attracting people to good is not the same thing as attracting them to Catholicism. It is manipulative.
 
It is dishonest of Christians to say nothing on the subject of gay people being sinful. It leaves the gay person under the false impression that the Christians respect them. Passive aggressive love is good for nothing.
 
LGBT are innocent until proven guilty and I'd like to see the evidence that anybody can go to Hell! Nobody has the right to say anybody would be evil enough to hate their family and everybody else and God in order to entrap themselves in Hell forever. Do not deceive LGBT people with your compassion - I mean do not let them think it is because you primarily care about their life problems not the alleged danger of Hell. If you intend to encourage them to save themselves from Hell and if you tell them they are going there unless they repent you are engaging in harassment. You will think they will thank you for it one day but they will not. You will think it is better to offend them now and worth it if they dodge Hell because of what you have said.  I hope you are not acting as counsellors, I really hope not.  If gay sex is wrong then it is wrong but do not try to make out it is more wrong than what it is. Do not make out that it is an insult to the infinite love of God and worthy of eternal damnation! Do not make out it is spiritual murder.
 
The Catholic catechism that you so adore refers to Old Testament texts that condemn homosexuality. To use texts from violent scriptures, even the non-violent texts, implies that you are not very upset about the violence. You are treating the text as a source of authority - of a supernatural authority that supposedly knows better than we do. You are still honouring that text - if you were disgusted by the violence you would be looking elsewhere for an authority to condemn homosexuality.

And how are those youngsters that have been fooled by Net Ministries, going to feel when they realise that Tony Foy and others have promoted fraudulent apparitions at Medjugorje among vulnerable and troubled people? People have saved hard and sacrificed. They have damaged their eyes looking at the sun. The Church itself is starting to take action against that fraud by banning the visionaries and condemning the actions of people like Tony Foy who think they have the right to declare the apparitions believable and who declare outright that Mary is appearing there.  Tony and others know fine well from google that there are grave dangers with such fraud and with the alleged apparitions.   http://www.marcocorvaglia.com/medjugorje-en/  is the best resource on the subject.
 
We have no option but to closely observe the activities of Net Ministries and in the aftermath of the referendum where Ireland said yes to equality, it should be easier to have you lose charitable status and see to it that the donations dry up by informing the public to make up its own mind about Net Ministries.  You will understand that how people live their lives takes priority as a human right over your religious opinions.  Religious rights are less important than human rights. We can live without religion but not without love.