The Sectarian Game
W. Carl Ketcherside
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None of those who read this little journal would deliberately oppose the will of God. None would knowingly be parties to a plot to hinder the divine purpose. In spite of that, we may have allowed ourselves to be maneuvered into a corner where we actually think that to be faithful to Christ we must perpetuate a condition which is diametrically opposed to the divine pleasure. The possibility of this cannot be denied in view of the statement of Jesus to his apostles that the time would come when those who murdered them would do so under the impression that they were performing a service for God. So great is the binding, blinding power of tradition that it may provoke men to make void the law of God, even while thinking that they are fulfilling it.
It is clear that the desire of heaven is for all who trust in Jesus upon the testimony of his ambassadors, to be one. This is the first step in the program of God to bring the universe into a unity in Christ It is essential to the conviction of the world that he sent his Son, and that the earth was invaded by the personal Word in time and space. Our divisions delay and postpone the acceptance of this great fact by the masses of mankind. Under the guise of loyalty to truth we are helping to defeat the impact of the Eternal Verity.
It is because of this that I am emboldened to address this appeal to all who love my Lord, and theirs. Feeble though the plea may be and meager though this insignificant little journal may appear, I am casting it like bread upon the waters, consigning it into the hands of him who rules the world, hoping and praying that he will see fit to use it in a way pleasing unto himself. My plea is addressed to all who reverence a common Father, the one God, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Independent.
However, it is important that you remember that it is not addressed to any man because he is Catholic or Protestant. I am not writing to men as Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists or Congregationalists. These terms represent our human divisions, and do not express the longing characteristic of all who seek to find a oneness in Christ Jesus. They are indicative of circumstances of birth, family alliances or community influences, as often as they are deliberate and thought-out theological choices. I speak to men as men, made in the image of God, and alike caught up in the human predicament.
This does not mean that I ignore our sectarian affiliations, but that I regard them as secondary and unrelated to the goal which is before me as I write. They may complicate our problem but they do not constitute it They are symptoms to be seen externally, but they only be-
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Obviously we will not be motivated to overcome it until we see it as it really is, a heinous crime against the Spirit of God. It is one of the works of the flesh which lusts against the Spirit and is contrary to it. It is specifically named in a catalogue of vices including immorality, impurity, licentiousness, sorcery, idolatry, drunkenness, and such like. We are plainly informed that one who deliberately condones and defends the party spirit will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is identified as one of the desires which those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified as a part of the flesh. (See Galatians 5:17-24).
One might as well try to justify adultery or idolatry as to sanction partisan strife and schism. To continue in it as part of a traditional heritage would be like indulging in drunkenness because one's father or grandfather were alcoholics. To speak lightly of schism in the body is to be guilty of mockery, and to walk after our ungodly desires. "These are the people who set up divisions, because they are fleshly, and do not possess the Spirit" (Jude 17, 18). Separationism and exclusivism are grievous offences against God.
The Holy Spirit never prompted the origin of any sect. No one was ever baptized into a sect or party under the influence of the Holy Spirit. No one has ever promoted a party to separate or segregate the members of God's family under the leading of the Spirit. The formation of a brotherhood or spiritual fraternity upon the basis of national, social, cultural or racial grounds is not of the Spirit. All such is a work of the flesh. On this the word of God is eminently plain. "For indeed we were all brought into one body by baptism, in the one Spirit, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be slaves or free men" (1 Corinthians 12:13).
So long as we think of sectarianism as a kind of harmless game which we can play without any particularly evil consequences or results we will not be led to abandon it. We will regard it as the drunkard regards his alcoholism, and seek to defend it or explain it away. We must see it as God looks at it. We must recognize it as a hacking to bits of the body of our Lord, an attempt to cure a malady by dismemberment and wilful chopping off of the organs which the Spirit made into one sacred organism.
Of course this is easier said than done! What makes it difficult is the fact that each sect thinks that its present center is the divinely-given one and that the emphasis it makes is indispensable to a closer walk with God. More and more, however, the absolute essentiality to faith of the sectarian centers of polarization is being questioned by both Protestant and Catholic alike. Eminent Catholics are now debating the dogma of papal infallibility, and many Protestants are no longer concerned with the sectarian tenets which gave birth to their parties. When this is a reflection of a greater concern for God's Word it is good, but when it is due to mere un-
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The anomaly of all this is that the most bitter partisans of the past may turn out to be the most unitive in thought, because of their determined stand for what they thought to be right all along. At the same time, those who are apathetic and indifferent about their present alliances may care very little about accomplishing a greater purpose of God. Some who wish for truth while washed in error may become greater leaders than those who have always been wishy-washy with the truth. Those who do not stand for anything often tend to fall for everything!
But it must be made clear that sectarianism does not necessarily result from the espousal of error. The point of emphasis around which a sect crystallizes may be a truth. Being wrong about a doctrinal matter and being sectarian are two different things. In any attempt to promote unity we must always recognize that it must be done on such a basis that no one is called upon to give up any truth which he ever held. It is not required that one surrender any truth, or any concept which he sincerely believes to be a truth. It is required that he "distinguish between things that differ," and no longer make a creed out of a truth which is secondary in importance to the cardinal truth upon which Jesus constructed the community of the reconciled ones.
It is not always error held in opposition to truth which makes a sect. Sometimes it is a truth held to the exclusion of other truths, or a truth elevated above the truth. All truths are equally true but they are not equally important. It is always better to be right than to be wrong about anything, but our hope of eternal life is not dependent upon being right about everything. It is dependent upon being in the right One. When he is our everything, nothing else can be! And righteousness is a relationship, not an intellectual attainment.
Certainly one should never relinquish a truth, but neither should he make a truth which is secondary a condition of acceptance or fellowship. The body of truth is like the human body and consists of many members. In the human body some members are essential to being while others are essential to wellbeing. If you cut off my head I will die but if you cut off my little finger I will merely be handicapped. No member of my body is non-essential, but some members are essential to life itself, while others are essential to efficient functioning while I have life. And we must never confuse the two.
Whatever one is required to believe in order to have life is more important than what one must learn in order to grow and develop. What one is able to digest and assimilate at a given time can hardly be as important as his existence. This does not affirm that either is unimportant. It does place their relative importance in a proper perspective. The doctrine which gives life has more importance than the doctrine upon which we feed and grow spiritually. To postulate reception upon the basis of doctrinal knowledge rather than upon belief of the gospel is the equivalent of arguing that no one is a child in a physical family because he has been begotten, but because of his digestive ability and food intake.
Our relationship to the kingdom of heaven is that of naturalized citizens as opposed to that of aliens. When aliens are inducted as citizens of the United States there are certain elemental things to which they must pledge allegiance. When they do this they are received as citizens and are as much citizens as they will ever be. There are thousands of facts about our history and the respon-
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If someone advocates that one cannot be recognized as a citizen until he understands and subscribes to one or more of these subsidiary and developmental matters, he does injury to our nation, regardless of his sincerity. In the same fashion, when one postulates citizenship in the kingdom of heaven upon knowledge and acknowledgment of secondary or subservient truths, he hurts the cause of our Redeemer. Even though he poses as a loyalist or super-patriot he is disloyal to our King, and if he splinters the subjects into factions and sects where they are taught to hate their fellow-citizens he is a traitor to the very cause he professes to promote.
To devise another ground of allegiance to which one must pledge himself in order to be regarded as a citizen, does not enhance a nation, but weakens it. Every sect, composed of believers in the Lord of glory, only serves to weaken the kingdom of heaven to the extent that it cultivates its own image and seeks to supplant the divine arrangement with the human. To form another nation on some principle borrowed or lifted from the Bill of Rights is rebellion, even though the principle itself is valid and right.
One can be a citizen and entitled to all of the rights and privileges of citizenship, even though quite ignorant of many of the responsibilities devolving upon a citizen. So one can be received as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven while he is unlearned as to many duties necessary to become a better citizen. Such things are matters of growth and development. Citizenship is not predicated upon these matters but upon a relationship of allegiance to the King.
It will not be easy for us to give up our centers of polarization, because we are emotionally attached to them. We have been led to believe that because our fathers fought and died to establish them we will prove untrue to our heritage if we no longer regard them as the crux of partisan faith. All of us can be very critical and intolerant of all other believers who cling to their points of special emphasis. We cannot see how they can be so wilfully ignorant and blind as to maintain and perpetuate their partisan establishments. But stubbornness in others is faithfulness in ourselves.
The problem is intensified because we are conditioned by our written history to think of ourselves as the guardians of orthodoxy. We glamorize our past and glorify our present Partisan histories are often written by those within to explain a particular stance to those without. It is difficult to be objective while on the defensive. A history of the Roman Catholic party does not read at all like a history of the Lutheran party even while covering the same territory and century. A history of pioneer Methodism does not sound at all like a history of the Baptists on the frontier.
In the particular movement in which my lot has been cast, it is indeed interesting to read the various historical accounts in circulation. It was a movement to unite the Christians in all of the sects by a return to and a restoration of "the primitive order." But like the fifteen or more other restoration movements with the same goal it became fragmented as first one thing and then another was deemed essential to the ancient order and a partisan group rallied around that indispensable thing in an at-
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As each segment produces a history, they all start with the same heroes of the faith and identify with the original crusaders. As they proceed in time each party steadfastly maintains that it is keeping the faith while all others have left it. Each feels that it has arrived while the others have all departed. The leaders of the flock for one group become the "black sheep" to another. The interesting thing is that each historian thinks of his own group as central to the plea. So we have any number of "centrists," each with corresponding leftists and rightists. It is again borne home to us that history is not so much made by those who live it as by those who write it.
A little careful thought will convince us that one is not a rightist or leftist to us because of where he stands, but by virtue of where we stand as we look at him. It is worth remembering that the direction we face determines who is to the right or left of us. If we turn around, or reverse our field, our rightists will become leftists, and vice versa. All of us are rightists, leftists, and centrists to someone, and we are all of these without moving out of our tracks or taking a step. For this reason it is a little childish to use these terms for the purpose of locating either ourselves or others unless our goal is that of partisan gratification.
This brings me to the place where I may observe that all sectarianism originates in human egotism and is perpetuated by human pride. This is as true of our own sectarianism as that of the sectarianism of others about us. We may feel that we alone possess the key to open the door to understanding of some divine secret which remains a mystery to all others. Or, we may convince ourselves that we have been chosen and qualified as a heavenly "Brink's Guard Company," to protect the riches of the heavenly treasure on its way to the great vault in the skies. Our points of emphasis thus become identification badges for admission to the sacred precincts, and can be used as coded passwords or shibboleths for identification as "loyal."
Every sect seeks to maintain and polish its own image regardless of cost. And in a culture which is built around a success syndrome, it may be a very expensive thing indeed, in time, money and effort. Obviously, the sectarian "somewhats" dare not use sectarian pride as the basis of appeal since it is diametrically opposed to all that Jesus taught. Promotional campaigns, therefore, are always geared to other concerns, and financial drives are assumed to be legitimate because of the need of taking the gospel to ignorant natives in a foreign country or in an affluent suburb. Thus, milking the pocketbooks of a million dollars to erect a temple of pride is justified by the need for salvation of those who will not come to a more antiquated structure. When an apparent harvest is in the offing men tend to tear down their barns and build greater.
But in spite of the cleverness of the religious "Fifth Avenue Crew," the spiritual "men in gray flannel suits" always let the cat out of the bag sooner or later. And when they do their sectarianism shows through. When talking about the poverty and deprivation of natives they seek to stimulate the flow of shekels by reference to the number of missionaries sent out by other sects. They prepare charts showing the per capita giving of affiliates of other religious institutional cliques. The question is asked, "Shall we allow 'the Lord's church' to be surpassed by Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons?" Meanwhile the headquarters of the Seventh Day Adventists and Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints are also sending out comparative charts, for each one of them thinks it is "the Lord's church." There's nothing else that can equal the sectarian spirit of rivalry for "bringing in the sheaves" of greenbacks.
In the race for "the pole position" in the Christian Missions Derby, the smaller and newer sects must try harder. Like Avis, they are not recognized as first, and if you will pardon a miserable and hardly excusable pun--it Hertz! Although often drawing from a relatively
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Actually, men wear themselves out and give to the point of exhaustion to maintain the structure of which they are a part. They kill their bodies to save their souls. This might not be so frightening if they did not confuse the latter with polishing and greasing sectarian machinery. It is an interesting observation that the sectarian spirit is intensified when rivalry develops within a given group and division occurs. If the group has been apathetic toward sects of other historical backgrounds, as soon as it fragments, each segment enters into frantic and fanatical effort to outdo the other, on the ground that its righteousness will be manifested by contrast rather than by confession of faith. It is always interesting to see how worldly men must become in order to prove they are not!
Everyone is familiar with the childish and adolescent trend to show off by exhibition of the latest criteria of the "in group." When I was a country lad, the thing to do was to meet on Sunday afternoons and race saddle-horses up and down the dirt road which ran in front of the schoolhouse. When automobiles became plentiful the highways were turned into drag strips for "hot-rods." The latest fad is to head for the lake or river, sit far back in a boat, so the front end is pointed toward heaven as indicative of your destination if you hit a submerged tree trunk, and gun a souped-up outboard motor to cut in and out of river traffic like a bumblebee flying through a cane-brake.
But the same tendency can be seen in "religious circles," where the inclination to "make waves" seems irresistible to the showmen. I recall attending a great convention once where a number of small mechanized tractors were used to haul grown men around the hall on rubber-tired transports. Each man was holding aloft a placard indicating the number of schools, homes, or missionaries supported by the party in various parts of the earth. As each little truck stopped in front of the stage the men came up the stairs to the platform while an announcer intoned the number of new congregations started, or the number of new institutions begun, as contrasted with those begun by a rival party in the religious field. The rival party never won a single round. They came in a poor second on every count. It reminded me of the man who returned from the Roman Colosseum to announce that the final score was Lions 5, Christians 0. I have seldom seen a more sectarian demonstration or a more childish spectacle.
Sectarianism is a sign of carnality and immaturity. The first makes us act like mere men, the second makes us react like spoiled children. The carnal nature is selfish and envious. It is egotistic and jealous. Those who are dominated by it always crave to be in the lead. They react with bitterness against those who stand in their way or circumvent them. They spend their time trying to get even for fancied faults. They cannot give credit for any accomplishment, regardless of how magnificent, unless achieved by one of the party henchmen.
John Harris, a British theologian, writing about 1860, said: "Each side may be conscious of certain defects in its own system, and may perceive certain excellences in the system of the other; but it fears to confess the former, or to admit and adopt the latter, lest it should look like a concession to the superiority of its opponents. It is an ancient maxim of wisdom, that it is right to learn even from an enemy; accordingly, an army no sooner finds that the foe is employing a new and an effectual weapon, than it immediately copies and adopts the deadly invention; but an ecclesiastical faction, heedless of the maxim, and more saturated with hostility than the ranks of war, would regard the adoption of a useful principle or measure by its sup-
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Immaturity creates a false sense of values. Mere trifles are exalted into major issues. Important things are casually passed over or brushed aside. There is always the tendency to think of men more highly than they deserve. Coalitions are formed which have as their rallying-points various items of thought, and these are argued, discussed and debated as if the entire universe pivoted upon them as an axis.
This whole attitude must be renounced by those who would please God. It is not enough to discount it, but we must count it as utter dross, to be banished and rejected as having no relevance to the walk of faith, or to the life of the Spirit. No man can please God while maintaining a schismatic stance, regardless of the excuses by which he seeks to justify it. We must overcome the sectarian spirit or we will perish in this sin.
I eagerly entreat from the heart, that all of us, without exception, look within the depths of our own beings, and examine carefully our motivations. Let us resolve with the help of God to eliminate from our lives that littleness and bigotry which can only create unhappiness among those whom we love, and bring disaster to the social fabric of the body of Christ where we are. Let every person who reads these words make a solemn covenant with God that he will cease trying to be some kind or brand of Christian, and belong only to the Father of mercies.
Those of us who respect the lordship of Jesus can change this sinful and untoward world if we will unite under the banner of righteousness. We must haul down our party standards and our tribal insignia, and determine that never again will we encamp around them. If we will belong to Jesus above everything else and take orders from him rather than from men, then we can bring peace to a troubled and distressed world. And we can be truly called the children of God. In our subsequent issues we shall explore how this may be done and what results we may expect from it. This is the time, here is the place! Let us here and now make a firm commitment to march only to the sound of the divine trumpet! Let us be one!