You're Offended by What?

Recently our church showed a series of video clips by an actor portraying stereotypes of God.  These are actually quite clever. One clip shows God as a butler, taking orders from his people. He is there for our service, and we send our requests to him expecting him to serve us all the time.  Another shows God as an Old Man, since God is quite old. He sits in his rocking chair remembering things he has done in the past, but not really doing anything today. As these skits go on, we are supposed to identify with how we view God.  How do we see God?  We showed this video series to our congregation as preparation for Christmas, the coming of Christ.  I was reminded of the movie with Will Ferrell and Gary Cole; Talladega Nights.  In this movie as they pray over their meal, Ricky Bobby prays to the tiny baby Jesus, while others remember other stages of life where Jesus is older.  I liked that part of the movie.
It never ceases to amaze me when people come to complain about something in our services.  I have fielded countless complaints about our music, the slides we use, the amount of light that comes in the windows, the temperature of the sanctuary, and many more I will probably write about later.  This one particular complaint caught us off guard.  After watching the skits, one of our parishioners was offended by the actor.  Deeply offended (his words).  In one of the skits the actor portrays God as a sheriff, citing violations of his code, and handing out punishment for it.  We know God isn't really like that, it is just a skit.  But that part wasn't offensive to him. Oh. Of course the actor dresses the part of a sheriff, complete with 10 gallon hat, vest, badge, gun, boots; well you get the picture of a cheesy western character.  So what part of the sheriff's words or costume offended our friend?  None of it.  He was offended at the way the actor waved the "firearm" around so carelessly.  Our response?  Ummm....it's a toy cap gun.  Clearly not a real weapon.  A firearm should always be handled correctly.  People may watch this video and think it is okay to handle a firearm like that.   This is wrong!  Our response? Yes, of course we can see how that might happen.  Thanks for your input.