DANGER OF RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY

Religious bigotry is the mind-set that does not consider or accept other person’s view about a religious idea or practice as reasonable or doctrinally sound. Bigots see themselves as the epitome of wisdom, knowledge and understanding as it relates to the things of God. A bigot has a superiority complex when relating with people of the same faith. Bigotry however is borne out of pride, ignorance, arrogance and spiritual insensitivity.

The irony is that bigots place the tradition of men above the word of God. They place their dogma and practices above the spirit of God. The spirit of God is at liberty to move in unique, specific and different ways based on the sovereignty of God.

Bigots are dogmatic, not necessarily because of reverence for God but for self-agreement and social differentiation. A bigot looks down on others who are not of their sect. however, it must be stated that there are must not be compromised. They include the following

i. The virgin birth of Jesus

ii. The fact that there is one God

iii. That Jesus died and resurrected 

iv. That there is punishment for the wicked and a place of bliss for the righteous and that they will reign with Christ

v. That the lord Jesus will come back some day for the righteous

vi. That marriage is between one man and a wife and God hates divorce

vii. That man and the whole universe and beyond were created

That life is sacred and had existed even before birth. The lord knows Jeremiah before he was born.

However, there are areas that are fluid and not too clear that will come to know when we see him face to face. Paul circumcised Timothy but did not as Titus to be circumcised he acted based on the leading of the Holy Spirit and the prevailing circumstances to bring glory to God’s name.

Danger of Bigotry

1. It arrogates to the Bigot the role of God because only God has the final say over an issue.

2. It leads to division in the body of Christ. If you believe in healing then be healed but don’t tell me I cannot take drugs because God heals people. I have seen people die because of refusal to take drugs. I know a very rich man who has lost many sons of his because they were not immunized, those children died of tetanus.

I have seen patients die because they refused blood transfusion; saying that blood is the life of creature, why then did Jesus shed his blood for us? Churches have torn apart over issues of whether to shout alleluia or not. If you want to shout alleluia; shout, if you don’t want to shout keep quiet.

If you want to speak in tongue, speak; but don’t disturb the church service and fall on people. If I am not speaking in tongue, fine. I will close my eyes and pray in my understanding. If you believe that Jesus is lord and you hate sin but don’t want to wear shoes, fine for you, it will bring down the price of shoes.

You can disagree on small issues but be willing to understand the view of your brother from the word. I said from the word, because gay and lesbians can call some of us bigots. They are the bigots because lesbianism and gayism are unnatural and unscriptural.

3. Bigotry leads to hatred, intolerance and subsequently murder in the name of God.

We remember the number of Christians who were burnt during the inquisition some accused of heresy and witchcraft. It is disgraceful to Christians excommunicated for something as simple as lipstick, earrings or for drinking coffee. I have seen physical fights in churches over refusal to wear earrings. Those who got more spiritual refused to wear earrings and another rival group insisted they must wear earrings and physical forces had to be applied.

4. It discourages unbelievers from accepting Christ because we send confusing signals to them. Religious bigotry entrenches hypocrisy in the hearts of people. Can you imagine a man was healed on the Sabbath and people were quarrelling over, instead of jubilating and worshiping God. But the same people would have attended to a sick animal on the Sabbath; they place their value for an animal above that of a human.

Let me make this illustration; if a woman prays for a child with her hair uncovered in a school and the child is raised from dead, is it not a thing of joy that the child is alive? A bigot will take her and the child as evidence to accuse her of praying in public with her hair uncovered.

Bigotry will make you miss divine visitation. The man that was waiting for the movement of water by an angel in the pool of Bethesda was healed. Why did the others not ask to be healed? The possibilities are; 

• Their eyes were fixed on the pool, events, history, tradition and human effort
• Jesus passed by and they did not see him. Even at that they could still have asked him when he later re-appeared but for them this is not what they are used to.

5. Bigotry prevents spontaneous worship in spirit and in truth. It becomes more of a mechanical routine. Bigotry has led to worse, genocide and uncountable crisis. However, as bad as religious bigotry, excessive western Christian liberalism is equally dangerous. In the things of God, the word of God and the voice of Holy Spirit is supreme.