The Sect of Non-Sectarians.

[Paraf-Javal.]

A sectarian, according to the dictionaries, is one who is attached to a sect. A sect, according to the dictionaries, is a collection of persons professing the same doctrine. A sectarian, therefore, admits only the doctrines that he admits, and not those in contradiction with his own.

It follows from this that everybody is sectarian. He who pretends not to be can be placed, according to his doctrine, in a class more or less uncompromising, and at any rate in the sect of non-sectarians,—that is, among the people whose doctrine is to have no doctrine.

Labels are useful to distinguish men from each other when considered from a certain point of view. From the point. of view of labor, a man who does carpentry deserves to be labeled carpenter; from the general point of view, a man who is opposed to labeling deserves to be labeled non-labelist. It would be easy to show that the sect of non-sectarians and the sect of non-labelists may be considered as comprising all those who have not arrived at a clear conception of their doctrine.

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Paraf-Javal, “The Sect of Non-Sectarians,” Liberty 14 no. 14 (October, 1903): 6.