Standards and Characteristics of Sects

By Gary Freeman

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     Sectarian religious groups have the tendency to dissociate themselves from the culture in which they live. They come into being, as a matter of fact, at least partly as a consequence of being opposed to the standards and values and religious ideas of mainstream Protestantism. They naturally participate in the commerce of

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society, but they generally isolate themselves so effectively from traditional religious expression that dialogue between them and the larger group all but breaks down. One reason for this is that a characteristic of sects is that they think they are the only ones who have the truth, and so they have nothing to learn. Since the world is wrong and they are right, what have they to learn from the world? Thus they dismiss the world as being incorrigible and the world dismisses them as being kooky.

     On the bright side, some of the sects have made significant contributions to religious thought. First one, then another, has forced the attention of the majority on a collective fault which had been overlooked or ignored. Then, too, when a group separates itself from the world it fairly well insulates itself against the more destructive values of the world. It may even succeed in saving its young people from the frug- small accomplishment.

     There is a disadvantage, however, in separating oneself from the mainstream of Christian thought, to the point where dialogue becomes impossible. For not only will a sect remove itself from the worst, but it will also find itself severed from the best as well. Sects are never as bad as the worst and never as good as the best. Since the members of a sect communicate only with themselves, with all the intellectual and religious inbreeding which that necessitates, they are cut off from the spiritual enlightenment and the highest standards available outside of their particular sect.

     The consequences of such a course can be ruinous. Their ministers might be qualified, for example, simply because they agree with the majority of those who are in the sect, but outside of it they may not come close to meeting the highest standards. Their journalism may be long on bombast and rhetoric but short on clear and intelligent thinking; nevertheless, this defect will flourish and perpetuate itself because it is not contrasted with the highest standards outside the sect. Their institutions of higher learning may decide that "being right" is more than an adequate substitute for first-rate education, in which case their educational institutions will not compare with many outside the sect. Infallibility makes education a superfluity.

     It is probably not unfair then to say that sects historically came into existence as a protest against inferior standards but end up virtually ignorant of the highest standards of the religious world in general.

     Of course, leaders of a sect will say, "We don't need the highest values of the rest of the religious world, for we have the highest value of all, the Word of God." Since the rest of the religious world has access to the Word of God, too, what they mean is that they understand that Word and no one else does. Because there is little real correspondence between the two groups, they can remain perfectly serene in their conclusion. Theologians and preachers outside the sect are roundly condemned, although it is not an unknown practice for sectarian preachers to appropriate almost verbatim, the sermons of "the heathen." Chappell, Macartney and Fosdick have been preached in many a pulpit where they would never be welcomed, even where they would be denounced as heretics.

     There is no reason to believe that sects are going out of style. The people who stand to profit most are the "priests" of any sect, the men with the greatest influence. Every sect is a world in itself and each has its own hierarchy. In a sect it is possible for a man to pay a very small price and yet command a very high position. All the priests have to do to secure their place in the pantheon is to convince the faithful that they--the priests--are the favorite sons of the Oracle at Delphi. It isn't difficult to do. The real trick is for the priest to convince himself.

     It is true enough that Christians are to separate themselves from the world. They are a peculiar people who have been exhorted to "come ye out from among them." Christians are indeed to protest the values of society. But it is not true that Christians separate themselves in or-

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der to hold mediocre standards. They are not to "come out from among them" so that they can set up for themselves inferior criteria and pay reduced prices. Christians will hold to the highest possible standards. For, unless they do, they will look around one day and see that the most humane voices protesting the evils of racial prejudice, materialism, ignorance, hunger, and injustice, are outside "the church" instead of in it. In all the wide world there is no greater incongruity than a church without pity. Such a church deserves no better name than sect.

     (Editor's Note. The above article was not prepared for MISSION MESSENGER but has been taken from the bulletin of Church of Christ, 3425 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights 18, Ohio. Brother Freeman may be reached at that address.)