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Jumpstarter 8 of 10

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True Greatness  /  What Would Alexander Campbell Say to the Church Today?  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 8
Campbell calls the impulse to “make our own nest…confining all goodness and grace” to our group “the quintessence of sublimated Phariseism,” and says “all sectarianism is the offspring of hell”; what specific modern church practices (membership requirements, labels, conference circuits, social-media tribes, “discernment” culture) most closely resemble the “bandbox of our own little circle”?
Another way to ask: Campbell warns about trapping “goodness and grace” inside our own small circle and calls sectarianism evil. What church habits today (membership rules, labels, conference groups, social-media tribes, “discernment” culture) most look like that, and why?

Direct Answer The transcript most directly targets practices that restrict “goodness and grace” to a narrow in-group and treat that circle as “the pure church,” especially when separation becomes the main identity. Modern equivalents would be any system that builds a protected little world where fellowship is withheld mainly over opinions, labels, or party boundaries.

Support from Transcript:

  • Campbell describes “making our own nest…confining all goodness and grace to…our noble selves and the elect few who are like us” as “sublimated Phariseism.”
  • He calls locking ourselves in “the bandbox of our own little circle…as the pure church…real Protestant monkery…evangelical Phariseeism.”
  • Bercot applies this to Restoration descendants: “typically among the most sectarian churches,” despite original goals to “end sectarianism.”
  • Bercot also describes the “one true church” mindset and jokes about locking such leaders up until they decide who really is “the One True Church.”
  • Campbell says reformers don’t reform the church “from which they separated,” implying endless splintering into purist circles.
Discussion Follow-ups Which boundaries in your world function more like “identity markers” than obedience to Jesus? How can a church maintain holiness without becoming a closed “bandbox”?

Jumpstarter 8 of 10
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