It seems that almost everyone is offended by something these days. Secularists are offended by public religious expressions. Muslims are offended and provoked to violence when their religion is besmirched. Christians are offended by secular manifestations of secular morality. (I’m reminded particularly of the foolish outcry several years ago over the movie The Last Temptation of Christ.) But these days it is most often secularists who jump to playing the offendedness card. Albert Mohler writes of how this “culture of offendedness” undermines free society:
The very idea of civil society assumes the very real possibility that individuals may at any time be offended by another member of the community. Civilization thrives when individuals and groups seek to minimize unnecessary offendedness, while recognizing that some degree of real or perceived offendedness is the cost society must pay for the right to enjoy the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to speak one’s mind.
Professor [Paul] Helm is surely right when he argues that the “social value” of offendedness is now increasing. All that is necessary for a claim to be taken seriously is for the claim to be offered. After all, if the essence of the offenedness is an emotional state or response, how can any individual deny that claimant has been genuinely offended? Professor Helm is right to worry that this will lead to the fracturing of society.We all hear things we don’t like said about people and causes that we are fond of but in the changed social atmosphere we are being encouraged to give public notice if such language offends us. I am now being repeatedly told that I am entitled not to be offended. So—from now on—not offended is what I intend to be. Does this heightening of sensitivity make for social cohesion? Does not such cohesion depend rather on enduring what we don’t like, and doing so in an adult way? Does not the glue of civic peace rest on such intangibles as the ability to laugh at oneself, to take a joke about even the deepest things? And is not a measure of the strength of a person’s religion that they tolerate the unpleasant conversation of others? Isn’t playing the offendedness card going to result in an enfeebling of culture, the development of oversensitive and precious members of the “caring society”? Whatever happened to toleration? [Paul Helm, “Offendedness,” Salisbury Review, June 2006, 16–18.]Given our mandate to share the gospel and to speak openly and publicly about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, Christians must understand a particular responsibility to protect free speech and to resist this culture of offendedness that threatens to shut down all public discourse. Of course, the right for Christians to speak publicly about Jesus Christ necessarily means that adherents of other belief systems will be equally free to present their truth claims in an equally public manner. This is simply the cost of religious liberty.
—Albert Mohler, Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth (Moltnomah, 2008), 32–33.
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2 Comments:
#1 || 09·02·21··11:13 || donsands
"Does not the glue of civic peace rest on such intangibles as the ability to laugh at oneself, to take a joke about even the deepest things?"
That's a very mature person who can do this.
I can sort of handle it.
I wish I could be made fun of, and then let it slide, and I do on the outside, but my inner man is not always simply letting it go.
Pride I suppose.
Not trusting in God's promise of His Spirit empowering me, spreading His love about in my heart, and keeping my mind soundly focused upon His Word. I need to pray 2 Tim 1:7 more often.
Thanks for a good post. Made me think a bit.
Have a blessed Lord's day.
#2 || 09·02·21··21:46 || Betsy Markman
Yes, we're headed away from a free society at warp speed, and are soon to be completely dominated by the tyranny of the thin-skinned. Those with the least intestinal fortitude will have the most power, and we'll all live in fear of the opinions of our neighbors. RIP, America!