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Christian Bigotry

The following article is about an evil common among Christians. It is not an indictment of Christianity in general, nor is it meant to describe all Christians. It merely decries the fact that the Christianity professed by many people often leads people into bigotry. There are many Christians who are not bigots. For them, this article is but a warning. For others, it is a cry against the bigotry they practice toward non-Christians. The purpose of this article is to make people more aware of the bigotry within Christianity, not to advocate bigotry toward Christians.
Christian Bigotry

Although Christianity does have its good points, the exclusive nature of many Christian sects opens the door to Christian bigotry. Christian bigotry is a disgusting and insidious evil. To Christian bigots themselves, their bigotry is usually invisible. It disguises itself as piety and righteousness. But to non-Christians at the receiving end, it is often plain old unadulterated bigotry.

Christian bigotry manifests itself as a holier-than-thou attitude towards non-Christians. The Christian bigot has in her head the idea, “I must be right and you must be wrong, because I’m a Christian and you’re not. After all, only Christians can know God.” The doctrine common among many Christians that you can know God only through the mediation of Christ leads many Christians to think that they have a special connection to God that non-Christians lack, leading them to think that they have God’s special favor and non-Christians don’t. This fuels an elitist attitude that can lead directly to bigotry.

What is bigotry in general, and how is Christian bigotry bigotry? A bigot is someone who derives a sense of superiority from believing that he is a member of some elite group that is superior to other groups. Bigotry is the all-encompassing term for such things as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. White supremecists, for example, believe that white people are superior to blacks, native Americans, Indians, etc. Some even believe that other races are minions of the devil. Male chauvinists often believe that women can’t think straight or are less intelligent or are more prone to hysteria or whatever. Homophobes think that homosexuals are immoral deviants.

It is worth mentioning that other forms of bigotry often appeal to religion to justify themselves. Anti-semitism is fueled by the belief that Jews killed Jesus. Men may claim superiority over women, because it was Eve who seduced Adam into disobeying God. Homophobes may justify their hatred of homosexuals by finding condemnations of homosexuality in the Bible. So bigotry and religious justification for bigotry often go hand in hand. It should be no surprise then to find the many religious bigots in the world. Among Christians, Christian bigotry is bound to be the most common variety of bigotry. It has a stronger foothold in Christianity than any other kind of bigotry does. In the pulpit, Christians preachers will be more likely to condemn all other kinds of bigotry. There is biblical support for the claim that Jews and Gentiles, blacks and whites, and men and women are all equal in God’s eyes. But preachers are unlikely to tell their congregations that non-Christians can be just as good as Christians, that non-Christians and Christians are equal in God’s eyes. Such “heresy” would probably get a minister booted out of his church.

So it’s common among Christians to believe that Christians are better than other people. This belief can easily lead to bigotry and to prejudicial behavior toward non-Christians. What are the ways that Christian bigotry manifests itself? There is the holier-than-thou attitude that I mentioned previously. There is also a misplaced sense of Christian charity that leads Christians to believe it’s their duty to convince others to become Christians. There is the refusal to recognize the worth of other people’s religious beliefs. There is the belief, manifested in the Crusades, in the Roman conquest of Europe, in the European conquest of America, etc., that it is our mandate from God to Christianize the heathens, even if it means slaughtering them. There is the sentiment among the Christian Right in the U.S.A. that it is our mandate from God to make this a Christian nation. It is all bigotry, and it is all evil.

Of course, there is also Muslim bigotry and other forms of religious bigotry. I focus on Christian bigotry, because it is the most rampant form of religious bigotry in the United States. That makes it the most dangerous. I have faced Muslim bigotry as well, and I deplore it just as much as Christian bigotry. But it is Christian bigotry that people in America need to become most aware of. Christians have much more power in this country than Muslims have.

It is largely because of Christian bigotry that the mission of Freethought Crossroads is so important. If Christians were as tolerant of other religions as the Hindus are, I wouldn’t feel the impetus to explain why Christianity is wrong. I don’t care where people go to church, what Gods they pray to, or what scriptures they draw inspiration from. But I do care when people use their religious beliefs to demonize and scapegoat people who don’t share their beliefs or belong to their group. As long as Christians do this, it will be important to expose their religious beliefs as false.

In closing, I want to say that non-Christians should not practice any bigotry toward Christians. There are many fine Christians who are not religious bigots, and it is important to remember that we can be just as fallible as Christians. Many Christians are good people, and no one is a bad person just for being a Christian. Being a Unitarian Universalist, or a member of any other religion, doesn’t automatically make you morally superior to anyone else. Some Christians are better than some UU’s, and some UU’s are better than some Christians.

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