This article appeared yesterday in First Things by Tom Gilson about Christian exclusivism. It reminded me of an essay Keller wrote regarding defeater beliefs. A defeater belief is a culturally-based, doubt-generator that is created as an objection to Christianity. Most people in the West do not realize the exclusive claims of Christianity (that there can’t be just one “true” religion) is culturally-based, not a universal understanding.  In the Middle East, people have absolutely no problem with the idea that there is just one, true religion. That isn’t hard to accept at all. In the Middle East, people find Christianity unconvincing because so many Americans proclaim to be Christians!  It is assumed, according to their culture that American culture, based on Christianity, is wrong and corrupt. So the objection to Christianity is based upon Middle Eastern mores with which American culture clashes.

It is common to hear people say: “No one should insist their view of God better than all the rest. Every religion is equally valid.” But what you just said could only be true if: First, there is no God at all, or second, God is an impersonal force that doesn’t care what your doctrinal beliefs about him are. So as you speak you are assuming (by faith!) a very particular view of

God and you are pushing it as better than the rest! That is at best inconsistent and at worst hypocritical, since you are doing the very thing you are forbidding. To say “all religions are equally valid” is itself a very white, Western view based in the European enlightenment’s idea of knowledge and values. Why should that view be privileged over anyone else’s?

Tim Keller, Deconstructing Defeater Beliefs.

The Morality of Christian Exclusivism (Part One) » Evangel | A First Things Blog.