The following is a short editorial written by B.T. Roberts and published in ‘The Free Methodist’ paper on No-Sectism, in which Roberts notes that no-Sectism groups are “ferocious bigotry” and “prolific breeder of sectarianism”.
While I was not able to find what year this editorial was written, it would have been between 1886 and 1890 as B.T. Roberts was elected as the editor of ‘The Free Methodist’ paper in 1886 and held that position for 4 years.
In 1880 D.S. Warner started a no-sect group that became the Church of God Anderson. Between the years 1886 and 1890, when the below editorial was written, Warner’s movement would have been in full swing.
B.T. Roberts doesn’t name out any no-sect groups, but he would have been more than aware of Warner’s no-sect “Church of God” group, as Warner’s group was the largest “holiness” no-sect group.
I came to the same conclusion as B.T. Roberts that the Church of God Restoration group (which is a come-out of a come-out of Warner’s group) is a bigoted and sectarian group. In my article A Call to Repentance, I called those in the Restoration who had “given into this sectarian and bigoted spirit promoted by the Church of God Restoration ministers” to repent.
You also may want to read Inconsistencies of No Sects and Sects and No-Sects by E.E. Shelhammer, a well-known holiness preacher who was denounced in the Gospel Trumpet paper in the 1880’s.
An association of forty-five years with members of churches has brought us in contact with some sectarianism and church bigotry. But we have never found sectarianism pure and unmixed in any of the churches. In the church there is, with it, some charity for those of other denominations.
But for genuine, unadulterated sectarianism; for unmitigated, ferocious bigotry, that tolerates no dissenting opinion, that goes to the extent of the law in its efforts to kill off those whom it assumes to control but who do not submit to its dictation, we must go to a leader of a no-sect sect.
Here we find it in its pure form, restrained by none of the amenities of life, guided by no principle. If you come in collision with it, it will assume as fact anything which it wishes to believe concerning you, and then proceed to anathematize you “with bell, book and candle,” as heartily as if your condemnation had been pronounced by an infallible tribunal.
No-sectism is a prolific breeder of sectarianism. It is the soil on which bigotry thrives.
–B.T. Roberts
Recent Comments