What are the consequences of sectarianism?

Answer 1

Sectarianism is a means of dividing, separating, and grouping things. While this may be great for dinner items (keeping the pees away from the mashed potatoes), it is not always the best mechanism for people. For humans, the effects can be positive (working, playing, living with people who have common goals) and they can also be negative (us against them).

Answer 2

The consequences of sectarianism are many and varied. "Sectarianism" refers primarily to the myriad of Protestant sect that arose after the Protestant "reformation." To understand this, one must understand the history of Christianity.

From the day of Pentecost, when the Church of Christ was established by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, until 1054, there was one Christian Church. This One Church of Christ was sundered by the proclamation of the Pope of Rome that he was "Head of the Church, Vicar of Christ." This, in effect, put a man as "Head" of the Church, while the traditional viewpoint had always been that Christ was the Head of the Church. This left the Eastern Orthodox Churches adhering to the traditional-and correct viewpoint. By the 15th-16th centuries, the Church in the West (Roman Catholic Papacy), undoubtedly due, in part, to its abandoning Christian tradition and allowing the Pope to be "Head of the Church," had become extremely corrupt. The Protestant "Reformation" (more of a revolution or rebellion, actually) came about in response to this corruption of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Protestants rejected the Pope, and stated that "the church" was not competent nor enabled to "interpret the Scriptures," but that every believer should be able to interpret the Scriptures own their own. This basically brought the Papacy's flawed notion that one man-the Pope-a man-was head of the "church," to its ultimate logical conclusion-now, since "all believers" were now thought to be "empowered" to interpret Scripture for themselves, in effect, all men were "head" of the "church."

And since "all men" were "head' of the "church," Protestantism was brought to its logical conclusion-to the state we find it today, with more than 20,000 different denominations (or-sects-hence, sectarianism) that all claim to rely "on the Bible alone," yet none of the 20,000+ different sects can agree on interpretation of the Bible, or various Bible passages.

This situation has also been "revolted" against, in the sense that now, there are those Protestants who claim that "the personal relationship with Jesus Christ" has nothing to do with a "church," but is also not "religion;" many adherents of this rather mistaken theory also form so-called "non-denominational" (or, "non-sectarian") churches. All in vain-simply because someone "claims" this or that status does not make it their self-appraisal accurate. Non-denominational churches all spring from one denomination or another-and have formed a new "church," "community," whatever-to distance themselves from their original denomination for reasons both good and not so good, making themselves a "new" denomination in the process. Whether there is only one "non-denominational" church standing completely on its own, or several that claim kinship with other "non-denominational" communitites-they are indeed, simply another denomination or sect. In short, "non-denominationalism" is an impossibility....and nothing less than a loose and possibly deceptive use of language to say something altogether completely different...

So, the consequences of sectarianism have been the division of the sectarians into many thousands of competing sects that have fallen into various disagreements, many of which are completely ridiculous; the complete disavowal and removal from the original and authentic Christian tradition, found only today in Eastern Orthodoxy; and the complete ridicule of Christianity in the modern world due to these never ending sectarian divisions.