First one, then another, has forced the attention of the majority on a collective fault which had been overlooked or ignored. Then, too, when a group separates itself from the world it fairly well insulates itself against the more destructive values of the world. It may even succeed in saving its young people from the frug- small accomplishment. There is a disadvantage, however, in separating oneself from the mainstream of Christian thought, to the point where dialogue becomes impossible. For not only will a sect remove itself from the worst, but it will also find itself severed from the best as well.
Sects are never as bad as the worst and never as good as the best.
Since the members of a sect communicate only with themselves, with all the intellectual and religious inbreeding which that necessitates, they are cut off from the spiritual enlightenment and the highest standards available outside of their particular sect. The consequences of such a course can be ruinous. Their ministers might be qualified, for example, simply because they agree with the majority of those who are in the sect, but outside of it they may not come close to meeting the highest standards. Infallibility makes education a superfluity. It is probably not unfair then to say that sects historically came into existence as a protest against inferior standards but end up virtually ignorant of the highest standards of the religious world in general.