Page 53 - History of UB Church by A. Funkhouser Ver 1
P. 53
The most momentous changes took place in the quadrennium, 1885-9. A revised Confession of
Faith and a new Constitution were drawn up in 1885, and voted upon by the Church in November,
1889. Lay representation now took effect and the rule as to secret orders was modified. The time
limit was removed in 1893. The vote in the General Conference in favor of the changes was 110 to
20. It produced the first and only schism that has yet appeared among the United Brethren. Of the
20 members voting in the negative, 14 withdrew from the Conference. Among them was Bishop
Wright. They and their followers believed with entire sincerity that they could not see their way to
an acceptance of what they held to be a serious departure from the old standards. This wing
claimed to be the real United Brethren Church, and the litigation which ensued was not finally
settled until 1895. The Old Constitution wing of the United Brethren is an entirely separate church
organization, but has no distinct official name. In adhering to the Constitution and Confession of
Faith as observed by the whole denomination prior to 1885, the Old Constitution wing adheres to
the ban against secret orders. Some differences in church government and management have
arisen in the past thirty years, and a careful conservatism marks this branch in financial and other
matters. The Old Constitution United Brethren are particularly strong in the West, yet have a
membership of 1500 to 2000 within the limits of the Virginia Conference, grouped in the Augusta
circuit and the Highland and North Fork missions. The number of preaching places is about 20. This
church has a college and publishing house at Huntington, Indiana, and from the latter issues a
church paper, "The Christian Conservator."
With the one exception of the Disciples of Christ, the Church founded by Otterbein and Boehm
is the largest of the American-born branches of Protestantism. It has steadily attracted to its fold
persons of other than German descent, and that element in its membership is not inconsiderable in
point of number and influence. The fathers of organization were averse to founding a new church,
and for a while the United Brethren were quite favorable to a union with kindred denominations.
This feeling is now much less in evidence owing to a growth in denominational pride.
The United Brethren Church no longer bears a distinct impress of foreignism. In this particular,
not even the divorce from the German language is so significant as its refusal to espouse non-
resistance as an article in its creed. An overwhelming majority of the American people detest war
as much as do the Quakers and Mennonites. But they believe that when war is thrust upon a
people, it is as much the duty of that people to take up arms as it is the duty of the private citizen
to resist the outlaw who wantonly assails him. They note an inconsistency in the man who pays war
taxes or buys bonds for war purposes, yet is unwilling to enroll as a soldier.
There is a broad distinction between the Germans of the Germany of to-day and the German
emigrants to America in the eighteenth century. The former have been hypnotized and
indoctrinated by their autocratic leaders into an implicit belief that their national welfare rests on
ruthless force and wholesale plunder. Genuine Christianity had no place in the program marked out
by these leaders. On the other hand, the Germans who came to America in the half-century
1725-75, were essentially a religious and democratic people. Many of them were pacifists. All the
non-resistant denominations in America, not excepting even the Quakers, are directly or indirectly
of German origin. But the non-resistant sect becomes in some measure a cave of Adullam for the
slacker in civic duty. In pacifist churches of a German origin may be found congregations almost
wholly of non-German blood, the influence leading them here being an easy way to shirk military
service.
The Moravians hold non-resistant principles, and their missionaries were able to persuade many
a war-party of Indians to turn back. Yet they cheerfully paid taxes for the cause of American
independence, and when their town of Bethlehem was in danger of attack, they fortified and
provisioned it, and armed themselves. In the same war Quakers and Mennonites furnished money
and provisions, and many of them became soldiers. In that conflict the greatest American general
except Washington was a son of Quaker parents.
Chapter XIII 53 The Church in Recent
Times
Faith and a new Constitution were drawn up in 1885, and voted upon by the Church in November,
1889. Lay representation now took effect and the rule as to secret orders was modified. The time
limit was removed in 1893. The vote in the General Conference in favor of the changes was 110 to
20. It produced the first and only schism that has yet appeared among the United Brethren. Of the
20 members voting in the negative, 14 withdrew from the Conference. Among them was Bishop
Wright. They and their followers believed with entire sincerity that they could not see their way to
an acceptance of what they held to be a serious departure from the old standards. This wing
claimed to be the real United Brethren Church, and the litigation which ensued was not finally
settled until 1895. The Old Constitution wing of the United Brethren is an entirely separate church
organization, but has no distinct official name. In adhering to the Constitution and Confession of
Faith as observed by the whole denomination prior to 1885, the Old Constitution wing adheres to
the ban against secret orders. Some differences in church government and management have
arisen in the past thirty years, and a careful conservatism marks this branch in financial and other
matters. The Old Constitution United Brethren are particularly strong in the West, yet have a
membership of 1500 to 2000 within the limits of the Virginia Conference, grouped in the Augusta
circuit and the Highland and North Fork missions. The number of preaching places is about 20. This
church has a college and publishing house at Huntington, Indiana, and from the latter issues a
church paper, "The Christian Conservator."
With the one exception of the Disciples of Christ, the Church founded by Otterbein and Boehm
is the largest of the American-born branches of Protestantism. It has steadily attracted to its fold
persons of other than German descent, and that element in its membership is not inconsiderable in
point of number and influence. The fathers of organization were averse to founding a new church,
and for a while the United Brethren were quite favorable to a union with kindred denominations.
This feeling is now much less in evidence owing to a growth in denominational pride.
The United Brethren Church no longer bears a distinct impress of foreignism. In this particular,
not even the divorce from the German language is so significant as its refusal to espouse non-
resistance as an article in its creed. An overwhelming majority of the American people detest war
as much as do the Quakers and Mennonites. But they believe that when war is thrust upon a
people, it is as much the duty of that people to take up arms as it is the duty of the private citizen
to resist the outlaw who wantonly assails him. They note an inconsistency in the man who pays war
taxes or buys bonds for war purposes, yet is unwilling to enroll as a soldier.
There is a broad distinction between the Germans of the Germany of to-day and the German
emigrants to America in the eighteenth century. The former have been hypnotized and
indoctrinated by their autocratic leaders into an implicit belief that their national welfare rests on
ruthless force and wholesale plunder. Genuine Christianity had no place in the program marked out
by these leaders. On the other hand, the Germans who came to America in the half-century
1725-75, were essentially a religious and democratic people. Many of them were pacifists. All the
non-resistant denominations in America, not excepting even the Quakers, are directly or indirectly
of German origin. But the non-resistant sect becomes in some measure a cave of Adullam for the
slacker in civic duty. In pacifist churches of a German origin may be found congregations almost
wholly of non-German blood, the influence leading them here being an easy way to shirk military
service.
The Moravians hold non-resistant principles, and their missionaries were able to persuade many
a war-party of Indians to turn back. Yet they cheerfully paid taxes for the cause of American
independence, and when their town of Bethlehem was in danger of attack, they fortified and
provisioned it, and armed themselves. In the same war Quakers and Mennonites furnished money
and provisions, and many of them became soldiers. In that conflict the greatest American general
except Washington was a son of Quaker parents.
Chapter XIII 53 The Church in Recent
Times
