RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY.

Religious bigotry is described as being intolerant of other forms of religions and beliefs other than one’s own. The bigot is someone who expresses profound hatred and exercises extreme wickedness towards opposite religions and beliefs other than his own. Unfortunately, religious intolerance is a global evil, permeating the religious world with unprovoked existential threats all over the place, including unwarranted provocations, harassments, persecutions and, sometimes, physical violence resulting in gruesome murders of innocent members of opposing religions and the wanton destruction of their worship places without any cause; all in the name of religion. There have always been religious conflicts all over the world for a long time without signs of easing off. Instead, religious intolerance is becoming disproportionately dangerous, engulfing the universe and creating hatred and biased crimes. In every part of the globe, violence is rising sharply with increasing number of people getting bigoted against others, primarily because of religion and secondarily because of colour identity. This simply points to one indisputable revelation; many of the religions are false and not of God because God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. (1Cor 14:33). Also, God does not discriminate against His creatures because He created all things as He pleased.

If all religions were for the worship of One Supreme Being, there would have been religious liberty and harmony, irrespective of the diverse ways and methods of worship. No doubt that all Faiths suffer one persecution or another, but christianity seems to be most affected. It faces both social pressure and government discrimination in some regions more than others. Unprovoked violence against christianity usually takes the form of persecution, arrest, imprisonment, and in several cases, direct execution (beheading). So, it is safe to admit that christianity suffers greater persecutions more than any other religions. Sometimes, innocent christians are intimidated and targeted for violent brutalisation; such that they are unable to express their faith openly or secretly in private places, and are not able to follow up new converts, if any, for discipleship and training. For people to be brutalised because of Faith is emotionally and psychologically disturbing. Why should anybody become a subject of discrimination and prejudice for belonging to a harmless Faith of his choice? If christians are persecuted for being followers of Christ, could it be safely admitted that the persecutors hate Christ and believe not that He is the Son of God? Jesus said: “He that is not with me is against me” (Matt 12:30). He also said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18) “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Tim 3:12). The prince of this world is the persecutor of Christ and His followers! After all, the Sovereign God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2Pet 3:9). Why kill for Him?

Today, religious bigotry has thrown the whole world into chaos. There is the spread of radicalism in every religion, resulting in the emergence of multiple sects within Faiths. The sects cause more religious confusions and conflicts, creating negative and harmful social attitudes among parent religions. Each new sect is set to have dominance and totalitarianism over the old sects. For instance, intolerance caused christianity to split into different denominations such as: Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterianism Celestial and many Pentecostal sects, like Deeperlife, the Redeemer’s, the Lutheran, the Assembly of God, the Winners, etc. If Christianity is the body of Christ, why exists different divisions and sects instead of a unified church? “Now I beseech you, … speak the same thing, so that there will be no divisions among you”; (1Cor 1:10). The divisions are, possibly, powered by carnality; the main weapon of Satan: I stand to be corrected! Islam is, arguably, the second largest religion in population and the most polarised than other religions. The conflicts among the various Islamic sects are very vociferous with unimaginable investment on heavy duty equipments to cause devastating destructions of infrastructures and for senseless wasting of human lives and beasts, making the world totally unsafe; all in the name of religion. Why killing human beings and beasts for religion sake? There is no genuine reason for this except for Satan’s witty and articulate plans against God and His Christ. He will stop at nothing to control the activities of the world, and religious bigotry is one of his weapons to destroy the world order and disrupt God’s Plan for mankind; thus preparing multitudes for hell. Should he be allowed?