paulmoreland.com

Our society today is beleaguered by the habitually offended. People run around cowing others into compliance with their idea of what’s proper. Their mantra? “That offends me!”. Funny, no one stops to think “Perhaps the ‘offended one’ is offensive to those whom he claims are offenders!”

There are so many ways that folks claim to be offended that one can scarcely move or breath. “Your religious t-shirt offends me!” “Your patriotic t-shirt offends me!” “Your speech offends me!”

Who are the ones who claim to be offended? Atheists, liberals, moslems and illegal emigrants are some of the most vocal and visible today.

This is the way I look at the situation. I myself am a minority. I’m used to it. I was raised as a minority. Shucks, I’m a minority on various levels even. First, the land I live in is Roman Catholic. The symbols of the Roman religion are everywhere. Statues of Mary. Statues of “The Divine Child”. Statues of “The Sacred Heart” and so on and on and on. Everywhere one turns there is some symbol of the nation’s religion staring you right in the face. Hospitals, fire stations, police stations, army bases, wayside shrines and even in many of the grocery stores one will find images set up, often with floral and candle offerings around them.

This is not the way in which I worship my Lord and Creator. But does it take away from me? Does it diminish my ability to worship and serve my Lord? Of course not! I do not lose anything when others worship in the way they see fit. They can not change what is in MY heart through what they do! This is a simple fact!

On the other hand, when someone wishes to not allow me to worship according to my conscience, they take away from me. And if I were to raise a shrill voice like so many do today to bar others from their style of worship – I would steal from them. Often have I stood shoulder to shoulder with people who were saying the rosary. This is not a practice I follow because Jesus the Christ taught His disciples to pray with their minds, to not vainly and mindlessly repeat words with little thought for their meaning. (See Matthew 6) But the fact that they were repeating the rosary in what seemed to me a mechanical way took nothing away from me as a person. If I had objected to their repetitious reciting and said “I’m offended, you must stop.” I would have taken away from them.

So, why do we bow before the habitually offended? Why do we bend to their every whim? Let them learn to live and let live instead of imposing their values on others.