What's the greater offense?

We were shooting a video to highlight our involvement in a sailing regatta and, as you'd particularly expect here in the Deep South - the Buckle of the Bible Belt as it's called - the event opened with a color guard, the raising of the flag, the national anthem, and the blessing by a local Catholic Priest.
(See http://raymelick.blogspot.com/2011/06/blessings-and-demons.html )
Later, as we discussed what we had, the videographer said in passing, "We'll edit out the Christian stuff, of course ... "
Of course.
Now, this is not to knock the video crew I work with. I don't believe this had anything to do with their personal beliefs, but rather the idea that we were making this video to share with as large an audience as possible, to get across the idea that the beaches are clean, the water is clean, the seafood is safe to eat, so come on down to the Gulf Coast.
But it did remind me that hearing an overtly "Christian'' message can be, to a lot of people, offensive.
And it should be.
Because Christianity is not "inclusive,'' not in the way the world thinks of the word "inclusive."
Which makes it, from the world's point of voice, "exclusive;" and there is nothing more offensive in today's politically correct view than being "exclusive."
Now Christians - at least the ones who follow what the Bible actually says and not what they "feel" the Bible must "mean" in an effort to make Christian theology more appealing to the masses - will tell you that true Christianity is incredibly inclusive, because anybody and everybody is invited to be a Christian. In fact, Christians will tell you that Jesus died for everybody, and God as Christians understand Him delays bringing ultimate justice to the world because He wants as many people as possible to choose (the free will that God allows all humanity to have, which is what really makes people crazy) to follow Him.
But to suggest that someone who does not accept Christ as described in The Bible is not going to heaven offends people; in fact, it offends some people who believe themselves to be Christians and want everyone else to be Christians so bad that they come up with some interesting twists of theology.
Because these Christians believe that God is Love, and Love is kind, and therefore it can't possibly be Love if it offends or hurts someone.
That's ridiculous, of course. Some people think it's "love'' to give their kids everything they want, which turns their  kids into brats who grow up thinking the world is all about their wants and desires. These people do not understand that sometimes love hurts - like when my mother took her belt to my backside because I'd climbed the neighbors fence and gone into their backyard when she'd expressly told me not to go into the neighbors yard or else I'd be spanked.
That hurt, but it was love. Because it eventually taught me that when my mother told me not to do something, sometimes it was because if I did it I could get hurt (who knew the neighbors had gotten a Rottweiler who reacted rather violently upon being surprised by a little kid dropping over the fence into his backyard?)
Today, of course, we'd blame the neighbor for having a mean dog. Back in those days, my mother blamed me for disobeying her in the first place. Which side you come down on tells me a lot about you.
But I will say this: getting spanked followed by a hug from my mom was not nearly as painful as being treated in an emergency room for dog bites, followed by a series of shots from a nurse with the delicate touch of an iron worker.
A lot of people seem to think how you get to heaven is purely a matter of personal preference, like choosing country music or rap; diesel truck or hybrid car; football or futball.
Again, even some within the Emergent Church movement of Christianity teach that everyone is going to heaven unless they choose not to. In other words, you're saved even if you don't know it, unless you make the active choice to reject the gospel.
If that's true, then Christians should just shut up about this whole sharing the Gospel thing because people can't reject it if they never hear it - although there is that troubling little issue of this guy Jesus telling us to go out and make disciples of all nations and share the gospel with the world.
Listen, there are nice things taught by Mohammed and Buddha and Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard. The problem is that Jesus Christ created those men. Mohammed and Buddha and those guys didn't create the universe or the planets; they don't even claim to have done any creating.
But Jesus (as God-in-action), did. And when you create the universe, you get to make the rules.
Let me stop right here and say I fully understand that message should be delivered with kindness, And the truth is, the way the message is received very often depends on the way it's delivered. It really doesn't work if your idea of sharing the Gospel is wearing a t-shirt that says, "Don't believe in hell? It's still there. You're still going."
But I hear all the time from people who say "You shouldn't tell other people what to believe. People should be allowed to believe what they want to believe."
If that's the case, then shouldn't people be allowed to believe they can tell other people what to believe?
Aren't the people who use lack of tolerance as a reason to restrict Christianity demonstrating a lack of tolerance toward Christianity?
In college, I had a couple of nice Morman guys stop by my apartment to share their faith. I invited them in, and they gave me a copy of The Book of Mormon. When they came back, I began to ask them serious questions about their faith, their religion. One of the guys got up, all angry, and left. The other sat there and we had an interesting - to say the least- exchange of ideas. Neither of us converted the other, but we treated each other with respect.
(This was back in the days before Mormons decided they wanted to be included in mainstream Protestant Christianity, back when they believed their faith was exclusive for The New World, and the Bible as Christians use it was meant for The Old World ... not to mention that Mormons believed Jesus and Lucifer were brothers who were fighting over this world and you could tell the followers of Lucifer because they had darker skin and therefore could not be saved. "Christians'' might have treated people with darker skin like slaves and second-class citizens, but we always believed they should have the chance to be included in that number when the Saints come marching in).
Now I understand the damage that has been done by followers of Christ who have thought they were better than everybody else. But you can't say that about Jesus. You can raise a lot of doubts and problems with the teaching of every other founder of a world religion, but it's pretty hard to find something bad to say about the actual Jesus.
Still, we get back to the idea of Christianity being offensive. Back in the days of Jesus Freaks and the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s-early 1970s, I heard a guy say he felt it significant that no one used the name of any other religious figure as a curse word other than Jesus. You don't get mad at your boss and mutter, "Buddha!" You don't smash your thumb with a hammer and yell, "Muhammed, that hurts!"
But they'll yell "Jesus Christ!"' without thinking about it. This guy said he believed maybe this was a purposeful strategy by the devil (who was not Jesus' brother, by the way) to turning the name of Jesus into a word of annoyance, to be spoken hundreds if not thousands of times a day by people who don't begin to understand what they're saying.
The simple truth is, if you believe in heaven (and if you don't, why have you read this far?), the world says there are a whole bunch of ways to get there. They don't all agree, although many have a lot of similarities.
But the idea behind Christianity remains unique: God actually chosing to take on the punishment that was due humanity for their rebellion against him because while He is a God of Love, He is also a God of Justice and He couldn't contradict Himself by just ignoring the whole Justice side of things.
Sure, it's complicated. But the truth very often is.
I know a minister who is frustrated because the people of his church believe that ministry shouldn't be hard, that if they decide to do something and it just doesn't go easily, then they decide Jesus must not be behind it so they leave it and go on to something else.
I wonder if God doesn't find that offensive.
Good thing Jesus didn't feel that way when confronted in Jerusalem on what we now call Easter.
Going to the doctor and getting a shot to stop the possibility of a life-threatening infection is offensive.
But it beats dealing with the life-threatening infection. And I'm glad when someone loves me enough to share with me the exclusive and often painful knowledge of medicine.
What would be the greater offense?