The word "sect" is often associated with something negative by most people who use it or hear it. At the same time, the topic of sects has always worried and continues to excite the minds of many scientists and religious scholars.
What is a sect
Many linguists, philologists, specialists in sectology, lawyers, and philosophers have spoken about the definition of the meaning of the term "sect". I must say that such associations appeared a very long time ago, despite the fact that they had not yet been called that, but the semantic load was completely close to modern sects.
From Latin, the word "secta" means something like a certain teaching, way of thinking, school. Initially, this term was not directly associated with a religious association, it was used to define any seceded, other trend, other group in politics, philosophy, including religion. Even in ancient Roman culture, some philosophical schools were also called sects.
All the now-known representatives of the Hellenistic philosophy of the Cynics and Stoics in the surviving samples of ancient Roman literature are also recognized as sectarians. From all this, we can conclude that a sect is any current, an association that has separated from the dominant current in a given culture and created its own teaching, which is often directly opposed to this very dominant one. Sects often follow their own traditions, doctrines, and values. They are also very closed from the state and society and do not allow anyone to interfere in their affairs.
Religious sect
So, it became clear that a sect is not always a religious association, but has a broader concept. But, as a kind of sectarian groups, a religious sect has a place to be. It is especially characteristic of a religious sect that it considers its role and its worldview to be exceptional, in contrast to all others. If the activity of a religious sect does not harm anyone's health and does not use methods of coercion to achieve its goals, it has the right to an official existence in the form of a religious organization, since no one has yet canceled the right to free expression of its faith and religious thought. …
But, unfortunately, it is not uncommon for such religious associations to cause serious harm to the spiritual and physical health of those around them, and with the help of religious sects, fraudsters covered up their illegal activities. This happened especially in Russia in the 1990s. That is why now in Russia sects are not perceived as something neutral, and all organizations, no matter how different in their way of thinking, are in a hurry to stigmatize sects in a far from the best meaning of the word.
