{"id":641,"date":"2010-07-15T11:14:43","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T11:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2010\/07\/mel-gibson-bristol-palin-and-l.html"},"modified":"2010-07-15T11:14:43","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T11:14:43","slug":"mel-gibson-bristol-palin-and-l","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2010\/07\/mel-gibson-bristol-palin-and-l.html","title":{"rendered":"Mel Gibson, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>OK, I can&#8217;t keep it to myself any longer. Our world&#8217;s obsession with scandal is over the top. &nbsp;I have heard enough!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Why are we so preoccupied with scandal, negativity, hatred and salaciousness? Why is the alcoholic telephone rage of Mel Gibson of interest to so many tabloids and &#8220;news&#8221; shows? &nbsp;Why does heartache and break-up, divorce, adultery, and scandal intrigue us?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Why do we care about Briston Palin and her scandalous teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock birth? &nbsp;Why do we care about her boyfriend\/Trigg&#8217;s father, Levi Johnson?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For the tabloids and &#8220;news&#8221; shows, it&#8217;s only about viewers and money. &nbsp;They know that we&#8217;ll watch if there&#8217;s a raunchy headline. &nbsp;They know we want to hear about people at their worst.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Why do we want to hear about people&#8217;s heartaches, bad-behavior and tragedies? &nbsp;I think because it is cathartic to hear that other people are having hard lives, too. &nbsp;Perhaps we get a sense of relief, or unity when we hear that others have it worse than us. &nbsp;May be we feel a little better when others (may be like we do sometimes) make big mistakes, behave badly, and treat each other poorly.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Raging curses, public arguments and humiliations no longer interest me. &nbsp;They are having a rebound effect on my attention and sensibilities: I feel profoundly sad about what Mel Gibson probably did and said. &nbsp;I empathize with his girlfriend, but then feel great remorse that the telephone tapes have been shared publicly. It all seems so desperate, cheap and crude. &nbsp;If Gibson was indeed abusive, that&#8217;s absolutely tragic. &nbsp;It all makes me wonder what happened to him to have made him so beserk? &nbsp;What happened to her to make her resort to such lengths?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I feel for Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson; the whole relationship mess is embarrassing and unfortunate, and I hope they&#8217;re doing the right thing by getting together and going through with the marriage. &nbsp;I hope there&#8217;s true love there, for their sake, and especially for Trigg.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I will pray for all of them. &nbsp;I will pray that we can all see the truth, and be our best, and treat each other with only love and kindness.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OK, I can&#8217;t keep it to myself any longer. Our world&#8217;s obsession with scandal is over the top. &nbsp;I have heard enough! Why are we so preoccupied with scandal, negativity, hatred and salaciousness? Why is the alcoholic telephone rage of Mel Gibson of interest to so many tabloids and &#8220;news&#8221; shows? &nbsp;Why does heartache and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-happiness","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mel Gibson, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson - Dr. Norris J. Chumley Satisfied Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/drnorrischumleysatisfiedlife\/2010\/07\/mel-gibson-bristol-palin-and-l.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mel Gibson, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson - Dr. Norris J. Chumley Satisfied Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OK, I can&#8217;t keep it to myself any longer. Our world&#8217;s obsession with scandal is over the top. &nbsp;I have heard enough! Why are we so preoccupied with scandal, negativity, hatred and salaciousness? 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