Jerry Springer the Opera and Taking Offence

Christians and other religious people seem to be known for their willingness to take offence. That's what religious people are, by and large: people who get offended about cartoons in newspapers on behalf of their divinities.

Recently in the UK there has been a stage show produced called Jerry Springer the Opera. It is a vile piece and not really that good - I saw some of it when it was shown on the BBC. It has a gay Jesus among other things, and some incredibly bad language. It has some satirical component to it I suppose, but it isn't that funny and it isn't that clever. Of course, with a piece like this which religious people are offended about, the liberal commentators blather on about what a great work of art it is, and how important it is that it be shown etc. The issue of censorship is bandied about as if it is the greatest cause in the universe etc. Of course, the possibility of SELF-censorship on the grounds of offending a large number of people and whether that might be a good thing to freely choose to do is never discussed, because we only discuss these things in terms of LAW (it is worse in the UK even than OZ in this area).

But is the right Christian response to get outraged and to protest? Certainly that is the right Muslim response, it seems... But Christians are not those who assert their rights in this way. Surely we don't want to participate in the protest/victimhood discourse that is so harmful to our community? Surely we can speak about the hurt and the (more to the point) the terrible danger of blasphemy without using the same gestures that people use to get a public hearing these days? I think it actually damages the cause of the gospel when we pose as another protest group in society that is making noise for its own space...