Editorial: The Good & the Bad of Sectarianism
Not long ago in a conversation with a friend I referred to Adventists as “sectarian.” She asked me what that meant. In case you don’t know either, let me try to explain.
In terms of doctrines, Seventh-day Adventists share a great deal with most other Christians. But we have quite a different kind of identity. The important quality of sectarianism is a feeling of specialness, and if you’re special you have to separate yourself from others to maintain your purity—which is why we Adventists have long had difficulty mixing with those outside our faith.
Churches often start as sects. As years pass, most sects mature into churches, with a more expansive and middle-of-the-road message. Churches quit saying that only we know God, or that only we can be saved.
But some try to balance on the edge: organized as a church but with a sectarian identity. That’s been true of the three major American sects: Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. We three have held on to that special and separate identity, mostly because of two factors: lifestyle distinctives (in our case, when we worship, how we dress, and what we eat and drink) and an extra-biblical authority (for us, Ellen White).
Sects can be good for their members. Thanks to our private schools and the Adventist educational ethos generally, I, a kid who grew up on a farm and whose parents weren’t educated, earned a doctorate. Adventism protected me from certain pitfalls such as smoking and alcohol and drugs. My wife fully shared my Adventist culture, even though she’s from another country. I have a community of Adventist friends from all over the world.
Such things contribute to a “good life”—but the good life for many of us was accompanied by stern rules, fear, guilt, judgmentalism, and that ever-present bright line between inside and outside.
Sects are just a step away from cults, and a fringe of our community tips over into a cultic sort of religion: weird legalisms, denial of scientific fact, isolation, authoritarianism, intolerance of questions or criticism, fearful conspiracies, and manipulative leaders.
I’d like us to be more tolerant and open. But Jesus’ failure to return when we expected is compressing us painfully between hope and reality. That’s raising our collective anxiety—and making some of us less tolerant of others.
It will be interesting to see who we will be 20 years from now.
Loren Seibold
Executive Editor, Adventist Today Magazine & Website
22 March 2025
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