Dilemma

My life here in Austin doesn't feel as exciting, or epic, as my life in Geneva, which is why I have not been posting nearly as much. However, I have a dilemma that I would like to share with all of my lovely readers. (I will not start this as a letter to the reader, although I am sorely tempted to do so).

I am part of the online community, Couchsurfing. In the Austin community we have a message board which is used to organize community events, sharing of vehicles and other objects and general discussions. It is an open forum where anyone that is a member of the Austin group can post and/or reply to posts.

I saw a post a few days ago entitled "Shooting 'Good Friday' in Austin - open casting this Friday." Intrigued, I opened the message. It was a satire of the Christian tradition around Jesus' death on 'Good Friday' as made into a music video with Mel Gibson directing. At first I just thought, this is an insensitive post, it doesn't really matter. However, the more I thought about it the more offended I became. I am not usually offended by people's religious beliefs. People can believe whatever they'd like and I encourage them to express those beliefs in a open, honest and respectful way. This post was simply there to mock deeply held beliefs. However, this post is not expressing any belief - it is instead simply mocking the traditions around Good Friday. I know that if someone posted a similarly mocking post about atheism, or any other religion, people would be greatly offended. I also understand that as the dominant religion and culture, Christianity needs to be more understanding of the backlash against it. Whenever religion is to be the subject of debate it should be done a careful and thoughtful and timely manner. This satire was none of those.

Yet I have decided not to post a response on the forum. I am offended, but I think that the best option is silence. Responding to the message on the forum would not create an open and honest discussion. The person who posted the message, in my opinion, is not in a state of mind to have a discussion at all. Furthermore, if I respond the whole message is bumped up to the top of the list, further encouraging others to read it. If I do not respond it will slowly trickle to the bottom and eventually off the front page and out of people's minds. I believe that I am making the right decision, but it is difficult to stand by in silence when something I believe is being mocked.

Thank you, reader, for reading about my dilemma.