Joseph Smith — "The reason why I cannot be a sectarian is because I am not a sectarian."
The reason why I cannot be a sectarian is because I am not a sectarian.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker refuses to belong to any existing religious denomination precisely because their identity is defined by standing outside all such groups. It's a circular but deliberate self-definition: the very act of rejecting sectarian labels is itself the proof of that rejection. Being non-sectarian isn't a choice made despite identity—it is the identity.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith founded the Latter-day Saint movement claiming to restore original Christianity, viewing all existing Protestant and Catholic denominations as corrupted. He received what he described as divine instruction that no existing church was true. This quote captures his foundational theological stance: he wasn't reforming a sect, he was transcending the entire category of sectarianism through prophetic restoration.
The era
1820s-1840s America experienced the Second Great Awakening, a fervent period of Protestant revivalism with intense denominational competition—Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians all aggressively recruiting converts. Religious identity was tribal and contested. Smith's claim to stand entirely outside this landscape was radical, positioning Mormonism not as another sect competing for members but as a divine restoration superseding all existing Christian traditions.
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