The Card Party That Split a Spangle Church
A Baptist minister turned two schoolteachers out of his home over an evening of cards, then preached a sermon that divided the congregation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SPANGLE, March 4.—Church circles in Spangle are considerably torn up over the actions of Rev. House, the Baptist minister here, and the Baptist church is in an uproar. The cause of the trouble is a card party given by one of the leading society ladies of Spangle, at which many members of the church were present and took part in the games. Among these were two teachers in the public schools here.
These ladies boarded with the family of Rev. House, and when he heard that they had attended the card party he refused to allow them to longer remain under his roof, declaring that “the minister’s home is too sacred to be invaded by those who have no respect for themselves and the church.” The following Sunday he preached a sermon on the subject, “Save Our Fallen Women,” in which he referred to the card episode, and unmercifully scored those who took part therein.
As a result many of the leading society ladies took offense at the minister’s remarks, and the feeling ran pretty high for several days. The congregation is divided, a portion siding with the minister and others against him. As the Baptist society is rather weak, and some have withdrawn their support from the church because of the episode, it is feared the society will be wrecked, as those loyal to the minister are unable to support him.
“The minister’s home is too sacred to be invaded by those who have no respect for themselves and the church.”
The Spangle fight was a local culture war over card parties, respectability and a minister’s authority. It echoes today’s arguments over moral policing and who gets to set the rules for a community.
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