Moral Re-Armament
Encyclopedia
Moral Re-Armament was an international Christian
moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from the American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group
. Buchman, a Lutheran, headed MRA for 23 years, from 1938 until his death in 1961. Since 2001, the organization has been succeeded and developed differently as Initiatives of Change
.
When war broke out, MRA workers joined the Allied forces in large numbers, and were decorated for valour in many theatres of war. Others worked to heighten morale and overcome bottlenecks, particularly in war-related industries. Senator (later President) Harry Truman, Chair of the Senate Committee investigating war contracts, told a Washington press conference in 1943: "Suspicions, rivalries, apathy, greed lie behind most of the bottlenecks. This is where the Moral Re-Armament group comes in. Where others have stood back and criticised, they have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work. They have already achieved remarkable results in bringing teamwork into industry, on the principles not of "who's right" but of "what's right"."
At the end of the war, they returned to the task of establishing a lasting peace. In 1946 MRA bought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux, Switzerland
. They used it as a centre for reconciliation across Europe, and the group brought together thousands of Europeans, including German Chancellor Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. The historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson described the work as an "important contribution to one of the greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945."
MRA began holding conferences on Mackinac Island, Michigan
in 1942, first in a leased hotel and then at the island's Grand Hotel
. By the early 1950s they acquired considerable land holdings on the island. Between 1954 and 1960 constructed an extensive training center including a theatre and soundstage. The facility hosted conferences and served as the location for the planning and launching of MRAs "Up With People
" touring group. The soundstage was used for the production of motion pictures, including The Crowning Experience, Voice of the Hurricane, and Decision at Midnight.
When the MRA relocated its operation to Switzerland in 1966, it deeded much of the property on the island to Mackinac College. Several new facilities, including a classroom building and library were constructed. This independent and non-sectarian institution of higher education operated from 1966 until 1970. It developed programs in statesmanship and leadership, as well as more traditional curricula.
In the 1950s and 1960s, MRA's work expanded across the globe, particularly to the African and Asian countries moving toward independence from colonial rule. Many leaders of these independence struggles have paid tribute to MRA's contribution to bringing unity between groups in conflict, and helping ease the transition into independence. In 1956 King Mohammed V of Morocco sent a message to Buchman: "I thank you for all you have done for Morocco in the course of these last testing years. Moral Re-Armament must become for us Muslims as much an incentive as it is for you Christians and for all nations." In 1960 Archbishop Makarios and Dr Kucuk, President and Vice-President of Cyprus, jointly sent the first flag of independent Cyprus to Frank Buchman at Caux in recognition of MRA's help.
roots, but grew into an informal, international network of people of all faiths and backgrounds. It was based around what it called 'the Four Absolutes' (absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love) and encouraged its members to be actively involved in political and social issues. One of the movement's core ideas was that changing the world starts with seeking change in oneself.
(IofC). It formed a non-governmental organization
based in Caux, Switzerland, Initiatives of Change International, to serve as the legal and administrative entity to federate the national bodies of Initiatives of Change, for purposes of cooperation with the entities such as the United Nations
and the Council of Europe
..
National initiatives include "Hope in the Cities" in the United States, the "Caux Forum for Human Security" in Switzerland, the "Centre for Governance" in India, and "Hope Sierra Leone".
was formed through people, notably William Wilson
and Dr Robert Smith
, who recovered from their alcoholism through a combination of the Oxford Group (the forerunner of MRA) and medical treatment. Before adopting the name "Alcoholics Anonymous," AA was called "the alcoholic squadron of the Oxford Groups."
The twelve steps of AA are, in part, a derivation of Oxford Group principles, with significant changes. It abandoned the "four absolutes" in favour of the principle of "progress not perfection," and opened the AA movement to many alcoholics, including some non-Christians, by use of the term "a power greater than ourselves." In contrast to the Oxford Group/MRA, AA explicitly limits its mission to helping alcoholics to recover and avoiding outside issues. It has declined to associate with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution.
In 1965, Up with People
was founded by members of MRA and with MRA support.
In 1965 The National Viewers and Listeners Association
was set up in the United Kingdom by pro-censorship advocate Mary Whitehouse
, who wrote that "without its (MRA's) ideals I cannot see that I would have been interested in starting this campaign"."
and Karl Barth
were ready to give German National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus) a chance to prove itself as a democratic political movement, despite its obvious and repeated denunciation of democracy. Hitler had, at first, presented himself as a defender of Christianity, declaring in 1928: "We shall not tolerate in our ranks anyone who hurts Christian ideas."
Buchman was convinced that without a change in the heart of the National Socialist regime a world war would become inevitable. He also believed that any person, including the German leaders, could find a living Christian faith with a commitment to Christ's moral values.
He tried to meet Hitler but was unsuccessful. He met with Himmler three times, and recommended him to members of Parliament as 'a great lad', the last time in 1936. To a Danish journalist and friend he said a few hours after the final interview that the doors were now closed. "Germany has come under the domination of a terrible demonic power. A counter-action is absolutely necessary."
As study of Gestapo documents has revealed, the Nazis watched the Oxford Group with suspicion from 1934 on. A first detailed secret Gestapo report about The Oxford – or Group Movement was published in November 1936 warning that it had turned into a dangerous opponent of National Socialism'. The Nazis also classified the Stalinist version of Bolshevism and non-Nazi, proto-fascist groups such as Catholic Action as dangerous to Nazism
.
Upon his return to New York from Berlin, Buchman gave a number of interviews. He was quoted as reportedly saying, "I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defence against the anti-Christ of Communism." The Rev. Garrett Stearly, one of Buchman's colleagues from Princeton University who was present at the interview, wrote, "I was amazed when the story came out. It was so out of key with the interview." Time magazine also noted that Buchman seemed to have a favourable opinion of dictatorship, if only of the right people. Buchman chose not to respond to the article, feeling that to do so would endanger his friends among the opposition in Germany.
After World War II, further Gestapo documents came to light; one from 1939 states: "The Group preaches revolution against the national state and has quite evidently become its Christian opponent." Another, from 1942, states: "No other Christian movement has underlined so strongly the character of Christianity as being supernational and independent of all racial barriers."
Some from the Oxford Group in Germany continued to oppose the Nazi regime during the war. In Norway, Bishop Fjellbu of Oslo, who was imprisoned for his resistance, said in 1945: "I wish to state publicly that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work."
In Britain the Oxford Group was active throughout the country. The novelist Daphne du Maurier
published Come Wind, Come Weather, stories of ordinary Britons who had found hope and new life through the Group. She dedicated it to "Frank Buchman, whose initial vision made possible the world of the living characters in these stories," and added, "What they are doing up and down the country in helping men and women solve their problems, and prepare them for whatever lies ahead, will prove to be of national importance in the days to come." The book sold 650,000 copies in Britain alone.
About 30 Oxford Group workers were exempted from military service to continue this work. But, when Ernest Bevin
became Minister of Labour in 1940, he decided to conscript them. Over 2,500 clergy and ministers signed a petition opposing this, and 174 Members of Parliament put down a motion stating the same. Bevin made clear that he would resign from the Government if he was defeated, and the Government put a three-line whip upon its supporters. As a result, the Oxford Group workers were excluded from the Exemption from Military Service bill. Among Bevin's supporters was Tom Driberg, who described Buchman as a "soapy racketeer who never repudiated his admiration for Hitler
and Himmler.") Driberg was left-wing, though anti-Communist, and a High Church anti-evangelical. In 1964 Driberg published a well-researched, critical study of Moral Re-armament entitled The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament.
In the 1950s MRA was regularly attacked by Moscow Radio's overseas service. For instance, in November 1952 it said, "Moral Re-Armament supplants the inevitable class war by the 'permanent struggle between good and evil'," and "has the power to attract radical revolutionary minds."
Buchman was a pioneer of multi-faith initiatives. As he said, "MRA is the good road of an ideology inspired by God upon which all can unite. Catholic, Jew and Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Confucianist – all find they can change, where needed, and travel along this good road together."
The Catholic theologian John Hardon
claimed that the movement's political ideas were naive, since they appeared to assume that moral awakening would solve "social problems that have vexed humanity since the dawn of history". He also criticised the emphasis on personal revelations, on the grounds that, "if each member of society is allowed to hear the voice of God through personal revelation, the variety of interpretations of the divine will become infinite.". Many Catholics took a different approach. In 1993 Cardinal Franz Koenig, Archbishop of Vienna, wrote that "Buchman was a turning-point in the history of the modern world through his ideas."
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from the American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group
Oxford Group
The Oxford Group was a Christian movement that had a following in Europe, China, Africa, Australia, Scandinavia and America in the 1920s and 30s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Frank Buchman, who was of Swiss descent...
. Buchman, a Lutheran, headed MRA for 23 years, from 1938 until his death in 1961. Since 2001, the organization has been succeeded and developed differently as Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change is a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background...
.
History
In its early years, the movement was made up of Buchman's personal followers from the Oxford Group. Its name change was incremental rather than abrupt and formal. Buchman may have coined the phrase "moral rearmament" as early as 1925 on trips to Australia, while MRA was still known as the Oxford group. Others maintain that the first use of the term in the literary world was in 1938. The British tennis star H. W. Austin edited the book, Moral Rearmament (The Battle for Peace), which sold half a million copies. Buchman and his fellow Oxford Group leaders liked the new phrase, and soon adopted it for their group. Buchman notably used similar language on May 29, 1938, when he said, in reference to military re-armament in Europe, "The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The nations must re-arm morally. Moral recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery."When war broke out, MRA workers joined the Allied forces in large numbers, and were decorated for valour in many theatres of war. Others worked to heighten morale and overcome bottlenecks, particularly in war-related industries. Senator (later President) Harry Truman, Chair of the Senate Committee investigating war contracts, told a Washington press conference in 1943: "Suspicions, rivalries, apathy, greed lie behind most of the bottlenecks. This is where the Moral Re-Armament group comes in. Where others have stood back and criticised, they have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work. They have already achieved remarkable results in bringing teamwork into industry, on the principles not of "who's right" but of "what's right"."
At the end of the war, they returned to the task of establishing a lasting peace. In 1946 MRA bought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux, Switzerland
Caux, Switzerland
Caux is a small village in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. It looks out over Lake Geneva from an altitude of 1000 meters.The former Caux-Palace Hotel in the village is the home of Initiatives of Change's conference centre, which can accommodate up to 450 people...
. They used it as a centre for reconciliation across Europe, and the group brought together thousands of Europeans, including German Chancellor Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. The historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson described the work as an "important contribution to one of the greatest achievements in the entire record of modern statecraft: the astonishingly rapid Franco-German reconciliation after 1945."
MRA began holding conferences on Mackinac Island, Michigan
Mackinac Island, Michigan
Mackinac Island is a city in Mackinac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. In the 2010 census, the city had a permanent population of 492, although there are thousands more seasonal workers and tourists during the summer months. From 1818–1882, the city was the county seat of the former...
in 1942, first in a leased hotel and then at the island's Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel
Grand hotel is a term for a large and luxurious hotel, especially one built in a traditional architectural style. More specifically,Grand Hotel may refer to:- Europe :* Grand Hotel Esplanade, Berlin, Germany* Grand Hotel , England...
. By the early 1950s they acquired considerable land holdings on the island. Between 1954 and 1960 constructed an extensive training center including a theatre and soundstage. The facility hosted conferences and served as the location for the planning and launching of MRAs "Up With People
Up with People
Up with People is an international education organization founded in 1968 by J. Blanton Belk, building from roots in the similar "Sing-Out" program of 1965. Up With People is best known for their musical performances by international casts consisting of 70–100 students from, on average, 20...
" touring group. The soundstage was used for the production of motion pictures, including The Crowning Experience, Voice of the Hurricane, and Decision at Midnight.
When the MRA relocated its operation to Switzerland in 1966, it deeded much of the property on the island to Mackinac College. Several new facilities, including a classroom building and library were constructed. This independent and non-sectarian institution of higher education operated from 1966 until 1970. It developed programs in statesmanship and leadership, as well as more traditional curricula.
In the 1950s and 1960s, MRA's work expanded across the globe, particularly to the African and Asian countries moving toward independence from colonial rule. Many leaders of these independence struggles have paid tribute to MRA's contribution to bringing unity between groups in conflict, and helping ease the transition into independence. In 1956 King Mohammed V of Morocco sent a message to Buchman: "I thank you for all you have done for Morocco in the course of these last testing years. Moral Re-Armament must become for us Muslims as much an incentive as it is for you Christians and for all nations." In 1960 Archbishop Makarios and Dr Kucuk, President and Vice-President of Cyprus, jointly sent the first flag of independent Cyprus to Frank Buchman at Caux in recognition of MRA's help.
Beliefs
The movement had ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
roots, but grew into an informal, international network of people of all faiths and backgrounds. It was based around what it called 'the Four Absolutes' (absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love) and encouraged its members to be actively involved in political and social issues. One of the movement's core ideas was that changing the world starts with seeking change in oneself.
Rename to Initiatives of Change
In 2001, the MRA movement changed its name to Initiatives of ChangeInitiatives of Change
Initiatives of Change is a global organization dedicated to "building trust across the world's divides" of culture, nationality, belief, and background...
(IofC). It formed a non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
based in Caux, Switzerland, Initiatives of Change International, to serve as the legal and administrative entity to federate the national bodies of Initiatives of Change, for purposes of cooperation with the entities such as the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
..
National initiatives include "Hope in the Cities" in the United States, the "Caux Forum for Human Security" in Switzerland, the "Centre for Governance" in India, and "Hope Sierra Leone".
Spin-offs
In 1935, Alcoholics AnonymousAlcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
was formed through people, notably William Wilson
Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
and Dr Robert Smith
Bob Smith (doctor)
Robert Holbrook Smith was an American physician and surgeon who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson, more commonly known as Bill W. He was also known as Dr. Bob. He was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where he was raised, to Susan A. Holbrook and Walter Perrin Smith...
, who recovered from their alcoholism through a combination of the Oxford Group (the forerunner of MRA) and medical treatment. Before adopting the name "Alcoholics Anonymous," AA was called "the alcoholic squadron of the Oxford Groups."
The twelve steps of AA are, in part, a derivation of Oxford Group principles, with significant changes. It abandoned the "four absolutes" in favour of the principle of "progress not perfection," and opened the AA movement to many alcoholics, including some non-Christians, by use of the term "a power greater than ourselves." In contrast to the Oxford Group/MRA, AA explicitly limits its mission to helping alcoholics to recover and avoiding outside issues. It has declined to associate with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution.
In 1965, Up with People
Up with People
Up with People is an international education organization founded in 1968 by J. Blanton Belk, building from roots in the similar "Sing-Out" program of 1965. Up With People is best known for their musical performances by international casts consisting of 70–100 students from, on average, 20...
was founded by members of MRA and with MRA support.
In 1965 The National Viewers and Listeners Association
Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and...
was set up in the United Kingdom by pro-censorship advocate Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, who wrote that "without its (MRA's) ideals I cannot see that I would have been interested in starting this campaign"."
Controversies
At the beginning of the 1930s, Buchman kept in close touch with Germans active in the Oxford Group. ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
were ready to give German National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus) a chance to prove itself as a democratic political movement, despite its obvious and repeated denunciation of democracy. Hitler had, at first, presented himself as a defender of Christianity, declaring in 1928: "We shall not tolerate in our ranks anyone who hurts Christian ideas."
Buchman was convinced that without a change in the heart of the National Socialist regime a world war would become inevitable. He also believed that any person, including the German leaders, could find a living Christian faith with a commitment to Christ's moral values.
He tried to meet Hitler but was unsuccessful. He met with Himmler three times, and recommended him to members of Parliament as 'a great lad', the last time in 1936. To a Danish journalist and friend he said a few hours after the final interview that the doors were now closed. "Germany has come under the domination of a terrible demonic power. A counter-action is absolutely necessary."
As study of Gestapo documents has revealed, the Nazis watched the Oxford Group with suspicion from 1934 on. A first detailed secret Gestapo report about The Oxford – or Group Movement was published in November 1936 warning that it had turned into a dangerous opponent of National Socialism'. The Nazis also classified the Stalinist version of Bolshevism and non-Nazi, proto-fascist groups such as Catholic Action as dangerous to Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Upon his return to New York from Berlin, Buchman gave a number of interviews. He was quoted as reportedly saying, "I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defence against the anti-Christ of Communism." The Rev. Garrett Stearly, one of Buchman's colleagues from Princeton University who was present at the interview, wrote, "I was amazed when the story came out. It was so out of key with the interview." Time magazine also noted that Buchman seemed to have a favourable opinion of dictatorship, if only of the right people. Buchman chose not to respond to the article, feeling that to do so would endanger his friends among the opposition in Germany.
After World War II, further Gestapo documents came to light; one from 1939 states: "The Group preaches revolution against the national state and has quite evidently become its Christian opponent." Another, from 1942, states: "No other Christian movement has underlined so strongly the character of Christianity as being supernational and independent of all racial barriers."
Some from the Oxford Group in Germany continued to oppose the Nazi regime during the war. In Norway, Bishop Fjellbu of Oslo, who was imprisoned for his resistance, said in 1945: "I wish to state publicly that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work."
In Britain the Oxford Group was active throughout the country. The novelist Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
published Come Wind, Come Weather, stories of ordinary Britons who had found hope and new life through the Group. She dedicated it to "Frank Buchman, whose initial vision made possible the world of the living characters in these stories," and added, "What they are doing up and down the country in helping men and women solve their problems, and prepare them for whatever lies ahead, will prove to be of national importance in the days to come." The book sold 650,000 copies in Britain alone.
About 30 Oxford Group workers were exempted from military service to continue this work. But, when Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
became Minister of Labour in 1940, he decided to conscript them. Over 2,500 clergy and ministers signed a petition opposing this, and 174 Members of Parliament put down a motion stating the same. Bevin made clear that he would resign from the Government if he was defeated, and the Government put a three-line whip upon its supporters. As a result, the Oxford Group workers were excluded from the Exemption from Military Service bill. Among Bevin's supporters was Tom Driberg, who described Buchman as a "soapy racketeer who never repudiated his admiration for Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Himmler.") Driberg was left-wing, though anti-Communist, and a High Church anti-evangelical. In 1964 Driberg published a well-researched, critical study of Moral Re-armament entitled The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament.
In the 1950s MRA was regularly attacked by Moscow Radio's overseas service. For instance, in November 1952 it said, "Moral Re-Armament supplants the inevitable class war by the 'permanent struggle between good and evil'," and "has the power to attract radical revolutionary minds."
Buchman was a pioneer of multi-faith initiatives. As he said, "MRA is the good road of an ideology inspired by God upon which all can unite. Catholic, Jew and Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Confucianist – all find they can change, where needed, and travel along this good road together."
The Catholic theologian John Hardon
John Hardon
John A. S. A. Hardon, S.J., Servant of God was a Jesuit priest, writer, and theologian. He is the founder of The Holy Trinity Apostolate.-Early life:...
claimed that the movement's political ideas were naive, since they appeared to assume that moral awakening would solve "social problems that have vexed humanity since the dawn of history". He also criticised the emphasis on personal revelations, on the grounds that, "if each member of society is allowed to hear the voice of God through personal revelation, the variety of interpretations of the divine will become infinite.". Many Catholics took a different approach. In 1993 Cardinal Franz Koenig, Archbishop of Vienna, wrote that "Buchman was a turning-point in the history of the modern world through his ideas."
External links
- Initiatives of Change, successor of MRA
- Timeline of the organizations' history, Initiatives of Change