It is not uncommon for Christians to mention that something or other "offended" them. When they report this, they usually mean more than to simply report a fact. The implication is that the person giving the offense should cease doing whatever it is that caused the offense.
Here is John Calvin's take on the topic from his Institutes of the Christian Religion:
If you do anything with unseemly levity, or wantonness, or rashness, out of its proper order or place, so as to cause the ignorant and the simple to stumble, such will be called an offense given by you, since by your fault it came about that this sort of offense arose. And, to be sure, one speaks of an offense as given in some matter when its fault arises from the doer of the thing itself. An offense is spoken of as received when something, otherwise not wickedly or unseasonably committed, is by ill will or malicious intent of mind wrenched into occasion for offense. Here is no ‘given’ offense, but those wicked interpreters baselessly so understand it. None but the weak is made to stumble by the first kind of offense, but the second gives offense to persons of bitter disposition and pharisaical pride. Accordingly, we shall call the one the offense of the weak, the other that of the Pharisees. Thus we shall so temper the use of our freedom as to allow for the ignorance of our weak brothers, but for the rigor of the Pharisees, not at all!... We learn from the Lord’s words how much we ought to regard the offense of the Pharisees: He bids us let them alone because they are blind leaders of the blind (Matt. 15:14). His disciples had warned him that the Pharisees had been offended by his talk (Matt. 15:12). He answered that they were to be ignored and their offense disregarded [III.19.11, p. 843-844].
Of course, sometimes the issue is complicated by the fact that Pharisees happen to control one's paycheck or opportunities for service--and though we don't want to weakly give in at every turn, some battles are not, in the cosmic scheme of things, worth fighting.
I'd be interested to hear your take on what Calvin has written here--and stories about how the issue has played itself out in situations you know about.
