What are you offended by?

It seems lately everyone is immediately offended by something, no matter what the context is or how inconsequential that something may be. Feel free and try my little quiz below to see how you rate on the offensive meter.

1. Are you offended by a fictional book which questions the pillars on which a religion was built or a severely battered woman who clings to life in a hospital because her husband came home in a bad mood and didn't like her cooking?

2. Are you offended by the nativity scene in a public square at Christmas or a homeless person shivering to death in the cold of December?

3. Are you offended by little girls and boys dressed up as witches and devils and cowboys and hobos at Halloween or a known child molester set free to rape, molest, and possibly kill children?

4. Are you offended by a football locker room in pink or politicians deciding that it is too difficult to implement HIV/AIDS programs in Africa so why bother?

5. Are you offended by Bill Cosby telling the truth or a man fathering several children by several different women and not supporting any of them?

6. Are you offended by a sports team with a native Indian mascot or a mother holding her dying child with no hope because she cannot get the medicine or clean water she needs to care for her child?

7. Are you offended by cartoons questioning the violent nature of a religion or the religion itself being used to justify violence?

8. Are you offended by God on our money and in the pledge of allegiance or that one of the richest countries in the world cannot provide adequate healthcare to all its citizens?

9. Are you offended by teaching safe sex in any context to stop the spread of STDs and unwanted pregnancies or insisting that only abstinence be taught because of religious reasons?

10. Are you offended by providing a cervical cancer vaccine on the grounds that it may or may not increase the likelihood of kids having sex or NOT providing a life saving cervical cancer vaccine that will save thousands of women every year?

11. Are you offended by two loving and committed gay people joining in holy matrimony or the 50 percent divorce rate among heterosexual marriages (not to mention the fly-by-night marriages of the Hollywood elite)?

Yes, these examples are extreme opposites. But they drive home the point of what is important and what really is not. If you thought the first example was more offensive than the second in all of the above, your priorities are really screwed up. I recommend getting out more and looking beyond Survivor, 700 Club, Lost, or American Idol. Take the earbuds out, turn off the ipod and smell the roses.

If you thought the first example was more offensive than the second in some of the above, there is still hope for you. Try to understand what is important and what really does not amount to a hill of beans in the greater scheme of things.

If you thought the second example was more offensive than the first in all of the above, I commend you. You have opened yours eyes and see that there is more to life than the meaningless and ridiculous crap we seem to put up with everyday. But let me ask you one more thing, what are you doing about it?

Photo by KCThinker, Waterfall, Catskills, New York