Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon may have been fictitious, but the religious sect that the narrator of the chapter is a member of, a branch of the Exclusive Brethren, is real. The defining feature of the Brethren is that they’re both very sectarian but also highly decentralized. Congregations of Brethren have no defined leader, and anyone may leave if they have a problem with the doctrine. Both the real and fictitious Brethren have had many splits, in the novel some of them are often regarding trivial matters such as being able to listen to the radio or if male children should wear onsies.
Although the sects themselves can be quite restrictive of people’s inner lives, the way the communities are set up make it very easy for members to secede and form new communities. All one needs do is get up and walk out, and indeed they are obligated to do so because of the so-called “Bedford Question” wherein association with those who associate with believers in false doctrine is forbidden. So much do the Brethren take to the idea of decentralization that they do not even seen themselves as one united denomination.
Although the Brethren do not completely segregate from the wider community of Lake Wobegon, Brother Louie for example working as a cashier at the bank, there are important ways in which they live apart from them. For example, marrying outside the faith is frowned upon and thought to lead to temptation to join churches outside Brethren. Non-members are also forbidden to participate in The Lord’s Supper as that is seen as a taint on the sacrament.
This story brings up an important fact about religious separatism, that it is very often an act of amputation by the pure of what they see as the impure part of the community. The case of the Brethren is illustrative because of how much power their religious organization gives to this impulse, but the question of salvation versus damnation is a reason many choose to leave religious denominations and join or form others.