I spent the past year examining the Churches of Christ, and soon discovered how badly they are plagued with sectarianism. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad. Probably, what stood out mostly, is how each sect within the Church of Christ seems to ignore each other. You have the conservative side condemning any and all who disagree with them, even calling others in the Body “wayward 
brethren.” There are many sites/blogs with writings that are straight forward, even denying a Moderate and Liberal as part of the Body, calling them Church of Christ denominations. But, what amazed me more than anything, was how they write articles with opposing views, and rarely do they comment and dialog with one another.
The Conservative church of Christ demands one understand the bible perfectly, while the liberals tend to accept our inability to agree upon everything. The Conservative views are often called legalistic by the Liberal Church of Christ, and the Liberal views are seen as not following the pattern. The division seems to mainly come from the Conservative side, who insist on patternism – those who think that they have arrived at some level of understanding, which serves them the right to demand one understand everything as they, or be dis-fellowshipped for not following the pattern. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not denying patterns, standards, and guidelines. Even these are to be followed out of a loving heart, not a heart bent towards legalism. The patterns I am denying are those created from inferences of fallible men and then made law.
I doubt there are many brethren who can truthfully say they are in 100% agreement with every other Christian in their congregation. I’m not sure there are even any two of us who are in total agreement on everything taught in Scripture. Yet, we are quick to divide over just about anything. Our unity in Christ should be more enduring than that; it shouldn’t crumble whenever two people/groups differ. But, it does … and when it does, the Devil wins yet another battle, and the Body of Christ is weakened just that much more. We must work to overthrow the oppressive shackles of sectarianism, legalism and the Pharisaic practices that are so prevalent within our brotherhood.
