The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-06-29
CONTEND PHONE is FROM SATAN
Old Order German Baptists Against
Modern Invention.


that the National Conference of the
Old Order German Baptists, better
known as Washing" Bap fists,
or Dunkards, passed a resolution or
dering all members of the Church to
have telephones removed from their
! homes and to refrain hereafter from
using the same. The resolution came
after long discussion, during which
it was argued that the telephone is
but another ocular manifestation of
the devil, whereby he shares the I'M
wary into laziness anL sloth. 1t was
further argued that in the Scriptures
| there is to be found no warrant for
the use of the telephone by the elect.
This dispatch further states that
there was but little opposition to the
passage of the resolution.
Rev. j. a. Bricker, pastor of the
Dunkard Church known as the Full
ton Avenue Brethren, Fulton avenue,
near FRESHMAN street, Baltimore,
was seen at his home Thursday. and
gave the following interesting data,
which lead up to the action of the
Dunkard Conference:
1.-The Conference that passed the
! telephone resolutions has no repre-
sentative membership in Baltimore.
1t is not generally known, but there
are three kinds Of German Baptists,
or Dunkards, as we are called. The
! Conference known as the Progressive
Dunkards left our Church some years
ago, declaring that we were not NOV
| ing along fast enough. They formed
| their own Conference, and have re-
! NAMED seperate since. a short t ine
| thereafter another party in the
| Church held that we were moving too
| fast, and decided to establish a Con
| ference of their own. They were
known as the Old-Order Brethren, or
Dunkards. We have continued as
the main Church, but are called Con
| servatives as matter of distinction.
All of the congregations in Baltimore
are members Of the Conservative
body, the nearest representative of
| the Old Order Dunkards being at the
Union Bridge, Md.
when the Old-Order Conference
was es tablished it was decided to go
back to mode of Lying that was
practiced by the Dunkards of so years
before. As that has been 90 years
ago, you can readily see that they in
tend cutting off many of the comforts
of life. They decided not to haye
carpets in the house, no ornamental
ton of any kind, and in the rural
districts in some cases they even took
the springs out of their wagons, Just
because their former brethren had
not been able to get hold of any.
They refused to have anv musical
instrument in their homes, holding
organs and pianos instruments of the
devil. For some years there has been
a discussion of the telephone ques-
ton, not because of the fact that all
Of their members were using the tele-
phone, but as preventative measure.
I'VE conservative Dunkards are
held to be as eccentric as our Old Or
der Brethren by those who do not
know. In our Church we have flour
ishing young peoples societies and
Sunday schools, and we have good
singing. Our chapel on Fulton ave.
nue. is open to all, and any Christian
man or woman will feel at home with
us.
There are few Old Order Brethren
in Baltimore, but they worship with
us. They are old and, while they
hold the views of the Old-Dunkards
they are too few to organize church
of their own, so remain in the church
es they belonged to before the split.n
Baltimore Sun.