Are Christians Bigots by Nature?

                Recently there has been a firestorm of name-calling and hate going around on the internet for the recent case of Phil Robertson, the Duck Commander. For my international audience that doesn’t know what is going on, Mr. Robertson was interviewed and the issue of homosexuality came to light. Phil made some unfiltered comments which surmised to that Phil did not agree with the lifestyle because of his Christianity and that he just didn’t get it. Phil also made some off the cuff remarks about the Jim Crow law era. A&E has since indefinitely suspended Phil from the show “Duck Dynasty”  and has sparked a huge outcry from everyone. People have called Phil hateful, a bigot, and a racist over this; while his defenders are claiming he is protected by his first amendment rights. I will get around to the first amendment issue toward the end of this, but I want to answer a question that hit me while reading all the comments, is the label of bigot, knowing all of the facts of what Phil Robertson said, justified?

                What I selectively left out from when I introduced what Phil said is what he said toward the end of the interview, which is what a lot of news sources and other bloggers are also leaving out.  If you are lucky to find an original transcript of the article, Phil says that he would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different. He also goes on to say that it would never be biblically justified, because we are all made in the image of God. We are his children, and it is not our place to judge/ condemn others. While this is all well and good, I haven’t answered my own question, are Christians bigots by nature?

If one is to look at the Webster’s Dictionary definition of bigot, one would find “: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)”.  I do find these definitions a little subjective, because who decides if a dislike for a people group/idea is unfair? For the second part, the hate part is easy, but what about the refusal to accept the people group? If I look at the person of Jesus, doesn’t he reject people in a sense? Jesus taught repentance, i.e. change, in people if they were to come to him. With the parable of the rich man, Jesus wanted him to give up his materialism. Jesus told the woman at the well to go and sin no more. Jesus wanted people to leave their current sinful lifestyles to change, and I contend that the politically correct crowd of today would call him a bigot.

So Jesus is a bigot, but not necessarily in a negative sense. Jesus came to the earth not to condemn the world, but to save it. It would be the definition of insanity to think that one could gain salvation and access into heaven by doing the complete opposite of what God incarnate tells you to do to achieve that goal. So Christians may very well be bigots, but we are for the sake of loving our neighbors. The Bible, being the Word of God, tells us that certain lifestyles, including homosexuality, are sinful and those who practice these lifestyles will not gain entrance to heaven if they do no repent. If people disagree with the statements Christians are making, I would advise them to check the scriptures and make sure that those statements have grounding in God’s Word. If they do not, don’t pay any heed to these people. If they are grounded in scripture and you disagree with them, I would say take it up with the man upstairs because we as Christians are only the messengers. I say this as lovingly as I can, because as much as I love my fellow man, I can’t compromise the Bible to win people to God. This would be giving people a false faith, and the book of Revelations claims that anyone who takes away from the Bible will have their salvation taken away from them in return. So then I would be cheating people of the full Word of God and I would be cheating myself of my salvation by doing so. God bless you and have a good rest of your day.