WHAT IS A SECT?
A sect is a political or more usually a religious grouping. A sect ends up being called a religion when the numbers are big enough which is unfair. A sect is a sect whether it is three people or three trillion.
What kind of sects are around?
Revolutionist ones want to pull down social order and replace it with a new one.
Reformist sects think the existing religion is in error or corrupt so they try to create a new improved version.
Conversionist ones are hugely about recruitment. Christians sometimes recruit more to Jesus than any Church. Their argument is that Christianity is not a religion but is a person, Jesus. Recruitment is a core Christian principle.
Introversionist sects think there is nothing but sin and evil in the world around and only their group can do anything about it. The group may feel it has to start with itself and this ends up as in the sect being isolationist and exclusive.
Utopian sects think they can create a happy bubble in this corrupt evil earth.
Therapeutic -eg Scientology or Christian Science. They claim to address the healing we need for our soul and also the body.
Thaumaturgical sects are about miracles or magic and shows of occult or supernatural power.
Manipulationist sects thrive on getting you to trick yourself. Christianity has always sought to ingrain itself in society so that people will mistake habit, familiarity, community support for faith and for God's action. They do not tell the whole truth and cover a lot up. When members go bad they say it's individuals not the religion that is the problem which is thin for every cult and sect says the same thing. The lie is the reason so many cults get away with their antics and then it is too late for the members commit suicide in the name of faith.
A sect can be one of those or more. Christianity for example ticks every box.
Many religions such as Christianity or Islam or Mormonism were one-man shows. As Robert Price writes, “the leader is replaced by an institution” (Top Secret). Christianity stresses that very much for the idea is that Jesus is with us as much as ever in and through the Church so it is not about the Church but about Jesus. Jesus is the Church. So Jesus is one in doctrine and he does not change, he is holy, he is apostolic in how he gave his teachings to the apostles knowing they would pass them on and he is Catholic or universal welcoming repentant sinners from every part of the world. Catholic doctrine is that it is more accurate to say that Jesus is one and holy and Catholic and apostolic though the creed says the Church is which amounts to the same thing in Catholic thinking for the Church is his body. However if Jesus is dead and was nothing special then it follows it is about the Church even if nobody realises it. Christianity is meant to be about Christ whether he was a fraud or God or whatever. For that reason those who self-declare as Christians may be lying for they are not the head of the Church which is Jesus who decides who the members are and whose membership is real and not just pretend. For that reason those who change doctrines and say that gay sex fits the gospel when the Bible clearly condemns it are not Christians. Being the religion that promises a God who is not the author of confusion it has to be that simple.
