Newspaper Article
Parents Rail at Delco ChurchBy Jim Nicholson And Barbara Ormsby
Published by The Philadelphia Daily News January 1979
Distraught mothers and fathers have been pleading with local ministers to help them pull their children away from what they say is the magnetic and pervasive influence of Dr. Frederick A. Drummond.
Parents claim their children have turned a deaf ear to them once they joined the cult-like religious following of Drummond's First Baptist Church of Concordville, Delaware County.
The church/school at the former Dante Orphanage has a following of about 300.
The Daily News, which published the first reports of the group in Concord Township on Jan. 19, has obtained letters written by parents to a Delaware County Baptist minister.
In one letter dated Jan. 11, a mother writes: "(Our daughter and her husband) had a new station wagon, money in the bank, TV we had bought them, and (she) had a very expensive guitar which was her pride. In six months time they were broke, had an old beat-up car, she was pregnant and also (had) a 1 1/2 year-old child and refrigerator empty. We bought them food and also left money for food. Ask them where their money went, gave it to the church.
"HER DAD HAD a serious heart operation over a year ago, and she still wouldn't of seen him if we didn't go to see them."
A father, who at one time had three sons in Drummond's following, wrote:
"My wife and I have seven children, six sons and one daughter We visited our children in Missouri several times, as we loved them very much. On our last visit, we began to notice a change in our sons' attitude, conversation and lifestyle. We tried to talk them into returning to Cincinnati on several occasions in order to get them away from their doctrine.
"Drummond by this time had them believing so many weird laws of his church. The one that touched our hearts most was the teachings that they must beat our grandchildren. The long hours our sons were working, the constant brainwashing by Drummond made it impossible for us to get through with small matters, that we had easily discussed with our sons before."
One father who wanted to see his son in person was accompanied to the First Baptist Church by Pastor Allen Griffith of the Bible Baptist Church, West Chester, Chester County.
Pastor Griffith recalled a few days ago: "We were not even allowed inside. We stood outside in the rain while three men from the church stood guard around us."
Drummond has refused to meet with the press or answer reporters' questions regarding allegations about his operations.
The First Baptist Church of Concordville has been in Delaware County almost three years, but its activities were held within the close-knit congregation until last month when about 100 members and four ministers split from Drummond.
INTERVIEWS WITH three of the ministers and various members of the congregation revealed that the split resulted from an alleged admission by Drummond that he had engaged in a homosexual act with one of his young followers. The dissident faction left the church when Drummond resigned but then rescinded his resignation a few days later.
[Update January 9th, 2010
At last, after 30 years Drummond takes responsibility for his actions. In his own words and I quote:
"Beginning in 1978, after a terrible church split that was mostly my fault"]
Charles Hyrne, who with his wife, Pat, had been a member of the congregation and a student at Drummond's Bible college, said he asked Drummond why he insisted on regaining leadership after resigning.
Hyrne said, "Dr. Drummond told me that God said to him, 'You dummy, go back and take the church."'
The dissident faction had also cited Drummond's financial dealings as a reason for demanding his resignation.
While the students and congregation adhered to an almost-spartan existence, Drummond reportedly enjoys such amenities as church owned luxury automobiles, an airplane, a yacht and a greenhouse for his orchid gardening.
Hyrne said it was his wife who first decided that Drummond's pastorate was not what she believed the Baptist church was supposed to be. Her father is a Baptist minister. Drummond detected the "rebelliousness" in Pat Hyrne.
Hyrne said, "Dr. Drummond told me one day to tie my wife to the bedpost and whip her like a child."
Pastor Frank McQuade of Fellowship Baptist Church, Glen Mills, Chester County, said last night: "I had a couple call me and ask if I could get their son out of Dr. Drummond's church. Their son was turning over his income and signed over his insurance policy to the church."
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