If you don't agree, you're better than me.

[drrocketanski]

I think it may be true that:

1) The unity of a society grows to the extent that there is agreement on what offends.  Friendships seem to grow in the same way.

2) There is (almost?) nothing that is "naturally" offensive.  I would suggest that God is never offended by anything (though He is saddened and angered by things).

What I mean by "to be offended

Comments

[grease_1978]

I completely agree with #1 and just recently came to that conclusion myself a few weeks ago.

Anyway, more ideas on possible "natural" offenses:

1. Not being taken seriously
2. Not getting our way. This one, to me, might be even stronger than "not being taken seriously" because when we don't get our way we get offended on many different levels...and it pushes us to blame one another, make up lies, re-focus attention, pride comes out, and/or some of us even embrace the "not getting our way" parade it in order to look wise/awesome.

Don't know if that makes sense.

[oythegreat]

Wow! I get offended by so many things completely unrelated to me that affect me in no way. I don't think that reflects well on me.

Being offended, as in being hurt, I think, is different. Being offended in a disattached way is something different.

Do you think people are always offended because they are defensive or just want to control everything? Or both?

I do take offense to bad art, and I think God does too. At least, he should.

[panheadgirl]

"Being offended, as in being hurt, I think, is different. Being offended in a disattached way is something different

[drrocketanski]

Your paragraph on being hurtfully offended seems to be not an example against what I said, but an explanation of the selfishness of being offended.

But I still think you're really really smart. Really.

[drrocketanski]

I also think that there are other (positive) reasons for groups forming. But they (almost?) always degenerate (within, say, 10-20 years) into a unity formed on a unity of being-offended. So, a church may form with a vision of mission or some other positive thing. Within a generation, it will be a church whose unity is defined by an agreement on being-offended.

That said, a vision of right and wrong is usually confused with being offended. In other words, we usually think that the more things there are that offend us, the more righteous we are.

[nur_jahan]

this is the only thing that I can think of after reading this

[drrocketanski]

I've had a hard time knowing how what you're saying has anything to do with this post. I could only figure this out by thinking about the kind of person you are (or, perhaps, "aren't" would be better). Then it began to make sense

[nur_jahan]

I think my reply streamed somewhere from 'I think we are incapable of making sense of life without being offended.' but I don't know how...and nor do I care to try and explain myself, but I will, a very little, anyway

[grease_1978]

Travis,

I think that the point of Barbie's response is that she believes that one thing that is "naturally offensive" is being "assumed" as something you are not...or even that someone would announce their assumption, no matter how right it might be, and be utterly cold about it.

If you are going to judge another person you should be there on the flip-side. Heck, you should be there from the beginning. If you love and know someone you can judge them...but you should also look for opportunities to bring justice to them as well.

I know this is gonna be cheesey and our cynical minds have a hard time with it - but we do need to pull each other down off our high horses sometiems...but we also need to be there to pull each other UP from the ground, too.

- Chrissy

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Barbie,

The way that you say things just begs for judgement. :) And you know that Travis loves this kind of stuff. You both can pretty much disect each other perfectly. The only thing missing in your relationship is love/care.

- Chrissy