The Oregon Faith Report - Faith News from Oregon

September 18, 2008

By Guest Opinion,

An important debate over faith the public sphere arose when I visited a local Portland bookstore.  The clerk and the customer were raving about the controversy seeking movie Hamlet 2.  They were raving about the scene featuring Christ as a flamboyant rock star in a wildly gone awry high school play.   The store was small and they were loud in their irreverence.   I thought about saying something but didn’t.  If one acts offended you run the risk of falling into a stereotype which could spoil any message one wants to convey.   On the other hand, by saying something it demonstrates that their customers have standards and that they value people that Hollywood obviously does not.

Then I thought what if they were talking about Buddha or Muhammad?   Would it make a difference?  On my way out I decided that maybe being funny back might be the best way to deliver a soft message.  Great idea, but it left me utterly lacking in the actually lines to speak.  This begs the question, have you ever been offended by the words spoken in public?  What on earth did you do?

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