So I've been called a "bigot" plenty of times.  My older brother and I have the running joke about my "religious bigotry."  It's okay though, because he's one just as I am if indeed that's the proper term for myself.  Usually, I've been called a bigot because of my total disdain for any notion of the verity of other religious belief-systems.  Keep in mind now that just because I've been called a bigot by some people they may define it differently than you.  So let's dispense with any sort of idea that I'm racist, prejudice, sexist, whatever... I don't typically even judge someone's character strictly by their religious affiliation.  Why am I called a bigot?  Because I believe that Christianity is the only correct religion.  I don't think that there are many paths leading to the same relationship with the divine... I don't think that I worship the same deity as the Muslims... I don't think that regular "good" people are going to go to "heaven" because they've led a "good" life.  I believe, like all Christians should, that the only way to be justified with God is through Christ's mediative atonement.

I've heard it said, that religion is a tool be which all who participate, through whatever religion, can communicate with the "divine."  Well, the instruction manual for my "tool" says that it's the only tool that works, and the rest will cause a fatal accident.  This is a relativist view of religion that's quite popular nowadays in this "postmodern" Western world.  The problem with this new relativism is that it doesn't jive with these absolutist religions.  If I'm being faithful to my religion then how can I believe that other religions are alternate paths to the same destination when the doctrines that make up my faith tell me explicitly otherwise?  I cannot, and therefore I am labelled "bigot."  I am labelled "bigot" because I believe in an absolute truth... I believe in right and wrong, good and evil, and I make the distinction between two wholly different belief-systems and can recognize that they cannot both be correct.

To any thinking person, contradictions are a problem.  Why?  Because humans have an inherent sense of truth.  You needn't teach a child to lie when they're questioned about an infraction of disobedience... they understand that the truth is that they disobeyed and consequences are to ensue.  Therefore, they naturally hide the truth to evade punishment.  Nevertheless, the child knows the truth and chooses to hide it.  We understand the child hides it because he is worried about punishment, but he doesn't think about this philosophically like I'm attempting to now... he just doesn't want a spanking and he knows that because he hit his sister he's going to get one.  That which we're calling "truth" is tied to an action, an actual event: the hitting of the child's sister.  If "truth" is fragmented (as postmodernists often say) then that boy shouldn't be spanked because even though he hit his sister, it never happened also, because "truth" is nothing more than a concept.  The fact that he both hit his sister and he didn't hit his sister (at the same time) is a contradiction... but that's only looking at it through the eyes of one who believes in absolutes.  If postmodern thought is correct, and there are no absolutes, the child neither hit his sister nor abstained from hitting her, because both are absolutes....

Did I lose you?

If we live in a world without absolutes, then anything goes... criminals should all go free because they didn't do anything wrong, morality collapses because all rights and wrongs are relative to each person, language itself is abolished because words cease to have any meaning because there is no such thing as truth, a word can't have any definition and thus shouldn't be used at all.

Of course this is ridiculous, and even self-identified postmodernists would probably say that I'm going overboard with my argument... but am I really?  I don't know about you, but I've heard the statement "there are no absolutes" thrown around so much it makes me laugh and sick at the same time.  Disregarding the fact that the statement is an absolute itself and is thus contradictory (although I've heard it said, "The only absolute is that there are no absolutes."  But then it's still stupid.)  I suppose though that it's okay for a postmodernist because contradiction is no problem since there is no truth to contradict.

So yes, this is why I'm called a bigot.  Because I...

1.) Believe in absolutes, the verity of things, that there is a right and wrong

2.) Believe in Christianity and its doctrines faithfully enough to regard other religions as incorrect

This is enough to make any of you a "bigot" by the definition that I've been called one.  These same people who claim that any religion will get you where you want to go will claim that you're full of bigotted bs because you actually adhere to said religion...

Maybe they'd do good to actually read what the religions teach instead of listening to some sappy postmodernist philosopher who twists the belief-systems of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. to make it fit like a nice little puzzle.