ABSTRACT
Much like cults, the popular appraisal of sectarianism is one of an unorthodox, bizarre, marginalized, or even dangerous religious phenomenon beyond the remit of the established faiths and at odds with mainstream society. Sectarianism is a form of religiosity frequently believed to be expanding in Western society. In explaining the rise of sectarian type groups, Glock (1958) expanded the notion of deprivation. This was in order to understand how sects, in numerous ways, provide a channel through which their members are able to transcend their feelings of deprivation by replacing them with a sense of religious privilege. This privilege comes through sectarianism, with its emphasis on belonging to an 'elite'. For conservative varieties of Christianity this appears to have been enhanced by the increasing liberalization of today' mainline churches. This is why many churches in the USA and elsewhere have come to display sectarian characteristics and a recourse to fundamentalism without necessarily literally developing as sects.
