‘Faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is…’

* ‘Baptism!’ –


both adult (some ‘restorationist’ groups), and paedobaptism
– in post-Augustinian medieval Catholicism

* ‘Tongues!’ –


some extreme Pentecostal groups

* ‘Doctrine!’ –


eg. some hyper-Calvinists’ insistence on ‘double
predestination’

* ‘Sabbath!’ –


some conservative sabbatarians in the SDA’s and other
groups…

(You can add some more…)

…..

An interesting thing happened recently when I posted
a ‘Let’s behave Christianly…’ exhortation on several Christian
newsgroups.

My point was that you can spot a sectarian mindset
when it emphasizes a particular interpretation of doctrine or
behaviour over love/grace – and our essential unity with all who
also love the Lord. I got a lot of encouraging/affirming email.
But the posted responses proved my point. The sectarian mindset
resorts to personal vilification (shoot the messenger) and unteachableness
(‘I’ve got nothing to learn from other dead churches…’). IOW,
when a sectarian’s doctrine/theory is questioned they respond
with non-irenic retorts. And with no re-affirmation of Jesus’/Paul’s/
John’s emphatic assertion that ‘the greatest of these is love…’

IOW again, the idea that ‘what unites those in Christ
is a million times more important than what divides us’ is anathema
to a sectarian. I’ve listed four above: when you read church history
or study religious groups worldwide, you’ll find them multiplied
ad infinitem. A sect makes part of the truth the whole truth;
a minor doctrine into a major doctrine. (‘Of the 25,000 Christian
denominations in the world today, only ours is right’).

A particularly obnoxious form of sectarian arrogance
is when someone says ‘I am spirit-filled’ – a phrase nowhere used
like this in the NT. There, being filled with the Spirit is a
function of either power or holiness or both. To describe a spiritual
_experience_ in this way is to distort the whole NT understanding
of the filling of the Holy Spirit… (PS. for those who don’t
know me I’m a ‘charismatic’). Now, let’s wait for reactions to
this para. from some who won’t see the major point of my post
🙂

And, BTW, sectarianism is a potential function of
all religious/ political thinking: this kind of fundamentalism
is on the fringes of all ideologies. A young Jew called Yigal
Amir, who killed Yitzhak Rabin, is an example. Another is the
killing of a doctor in the U.S. by an anti-abortionist. Then there’s
the persecution of Christians and Moslems by militant Hindus;
or Islamic and some forms of Buddhist fundamentalism…

And even the most inclusive/liberal groups are tainted
somewhere or other. Two examples: * I’m affiliated (by ‘ordination’)
with the Baptist Union of Australia. Some of our churches (you
may find this hard to believe) won’t accept into full membership
a highly committed Christian who has been baptized by sprinkling
or even effusion _as an adult! (But fornicating teenagers are
often full members, so long as they have been properly immersed).

* Then, the more inclusive Uniting Church in Australia
is guilty (in my view) of pastorally insensitive rigorism when
a person is refused baptism as an adult if they regard their infant
baptism as invalid. It’s complicated – but when the practical
application of a doctrine gets in the way of grace, there’s something
terribly wrong somewhere…

This morning in my devotions I read Paul’s words
to the Ephesian elders (in Acts 20): ‘I do not account my life
of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish
my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus,
to testify to _the gospel of the grace of God.’

I rest my case. Wasn’t it Franz Kafka who said ‘Words
of hate leave footprints in the mind’?