Oxford Group
Encyclopedia
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. In 1908 he claimed a conversion experience in a chapel in Keswick, England
and later he initiated a movement called A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921; by 1931 this had grown into a movement which attracted thousands of adherents, many well-to-do, which became known as the Oxford Group.
Its leader, Frank Buchman, made the cover of Time Magazine as "Cultist Frank Buchman: God is a Millionaire" in 1936. The group was unlike other forms of evangelism in that it targeted and directed its efforts to the "up and outers": the elite and wealthy of society. It made use of publicity regarding its prominent converts, and was caricatured by critics as a "Salvation Army for snobs". Buchman's message did not challenge the status quo and thus aided the Group's popularity among the well-to-do.
For a U.S. headquarters, he built a multimillion-dollar establishment on Michigan
's Mackinac Island
, with room for 1,000 visitors. From Caux
to London's Berkeley Square
to New York's Westchester County layouts, Buchman and his followers had the best. In response to criticism, Buchman had an answer: "Isn't God a millionaire?" he would ask.
The Oxford Group achieved popularity worldwide for a time, but it was a minority voice in America. The Oxford Group movement was in reaction to the mainstream Christian churches, which were concerned with social systematic problems; their gospels emphasized liberal and social issues. The Oxford Group's focus was on personal concerns and placed the entire problem of human existence on self, the idea of personal sinfulness, asserting that individual sin was the key problem and the entire solution was in the individual's conviction, confession, and surrender to God. The Group revived an older 19th century approach in which the focus was on sin and conversion; it practiced a form of ethical and religious perfectionism that was reduced to a call for a renewed morality.
Buchman, who had little intellectual interest or interest in theology, believed all change happens from the individual outward, and stressed simplicity. He summed up the Group's philosophy in a few sentences: all people are sinners, all sinners can be changed, confession is a prerequisite to change, the change can access God directly, miracles are again possible, the change must change others.
By the 1940s the Group had fallen into public disfavor; the public associated it with revivalist Protestantism, which many mainstream Protestants and most Roman Catholics rejected. It began to be ridiculed in popular plays and books.
In 1938, a time of military re-armament, Buchman proclaimed a need for "moral and spiritual re-armament" and that phrase—shortened to Moral Re-Armament
(MRA)—became the movement's name.
The Oxfords Group's influence can be found in Alcoholics Anonymous
. Ebby Thacher
, Rowland Hazard III
, Bill Wilson
and Bob Smith
, with Bill & Bob the two co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, were also members of the Oxford Group up until 1940. Though early AA sought to distance itself from the Oxford Groups, Wilson later acknowledged, "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker
, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
in 1929, as a result of a railway porter writing the name on the windows of those compartments reserved by a traveling team of Frank Buchman followers. They were from Oxford, England
and in South Africa to promote the movement. The South African press picked up on the name and it stuck.
Even though in 1938, Buchman chose to rename the Group and call it Moral Re-Armament. In June 1939 he applied to the Board of Trade
in London to incorporate the name Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was considered legally non-existent in an earlier court ruling and Buchman could not collect a £500 inheritance left to the group by a member. The use of the name Oxford by Buchman brought opposition from Oxford University
. The application was eventually approved, although the proposal had been debated both in Oxford and in the House of Commons, as opponents claimed Buchman was trying to capitalize on the name of Oxford; 232 Members of Parliament signed a petition supporting the incorporation, while 50 signed a motion opposing it. In June 1939 the Board of Trade decided in the Group’s favour.
at the invitation of Carl Hambro, President of the Norwegian Parliament. Nearly fourteen thousand people attended the three meetings in Oslo, Norway
. At the end of that year the Oslo daily Tidens Tegn
commented in its Christmas number, "A handful of foreigners who neither knew our language, nor understood our ways and customs, came to the country. A few days later the whole country was talking about God, and two months after the thirty foreigners arrived, the mental outlook of the whole country has definitely changed". On 22 April 1945, Arne Fjellbu
, Bishop of Trondheim
, preached in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields
, London. "I wish to state publicly," he said, "that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work".
In 1935 a team of 250 people were welcomed to Switzerland
by the President, Rudolf Minger
. A large number of meetings took place. On one night in Geneva
, Calvin's cathedral
and one of the city's largest halls both overflowed. "For many, these meetings were a turning point in their lives", according to professor Theophil Spoerri of the University of Zurich
. "It was almost as if something new was penetrating between the chink of the shutters. A businessman, alone in his office, would feel a faint sense of unease if he was planning to cheat his fellow citizens. The public conscience became more sensitive. The Director of Finance in one canton reported that after the national day of thanksgiving and repentance, 6,000 tax payments were recorded, something which had never occurred before".
While in Geneva, Prime Minister Edvard Beneš
of Czechoslovakia
invited Buchman and his colleagues to address a luncheon at the League of Nations
, attended by 32 of the League's Ministers Plenipotentiary. They listened to Hambro's account of the Oxford Group's impact in Norway. "No man who has been in touch with the Group will go back to his international work in the same spirit as before", he told them. "It has been made impossible for him to be ruled by hate or prejudice".
Similar stories can be told of campaigns in Denmark
, where Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard, Bishop of Copenhagen
, said that the Oxford Group "has opened my eyes to that gift of God which is called Christian fellowship, and which I have experienced in this Group to which I now belong". When the Nazis invaded Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard was sent to a concentration camp. Before imprisonment he smuggled a message to Buchman saying that through the Oxford Group he had found a spirit which the Nazis could not break and that he went without fear.
In 1937 Buchman visited the Netherlands
. 100,000 people attended gatherings in Utrecht
over Whitsun
that year. "The greatest surprise was the appearance of Dr J Patijn, our Ambassador in Brussels", reported the Socialist paper Het Volk. "Only those who know him as Burgomaster of The Hague, a sound but unapproachable man and averse to any public show, will be able to appreciate fully what it must have cost him to speak about his inmost self before many thousands. 'It is not for everyone,' he said, 'to speak in public about his faith, and it is not easy for me to do so. Every man, however, must have the courage of his convictions... Through the Oxford Group I have learnt to see my fellow men, the world and my whole life in a new perspective'".
stated that secular and regular clergy were forbidden to attend any meeting of Moral Re-Armament and that lay Catholics were forbidden to serve it in any responsible capacity.
A report concerning MRA by the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England
criticized MRA on three counts: theology, psychology and social thinking. The report found theology woefully wanting in MRA. It said, "A certain blindness to the duty of thinking is a characteristic... We have at times been haunted by a picture of the movement, with its hectic heartiness, its mass gaiety and its reiterated slogans, as a colossal drive of escapism from responsible living."
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.
Moni von Crammon, a German member of the Oxford Group, was the invited guest of Heinrich Himmler
for the Nuremberg Rally
and she in turn invited Buchman. Von Crammon and Buchman sat beside Himmler at an informal luncheon, where they discussed religion and politics. Due to his family background, Buchman spoke German fluently. Buchman and von Crammon attended two of the Nazi Party rallies, one in 1934 and the other in 1935. Von Crammon later claimed after the war, that her association with Himmler came as a result of her seeking him out in the matter of her possible arrest, due to a piece of literature that was construed as anti-Nazi, found in her possession by a maid.
In August 1936, Buchman was Himmler's guest at the Berlin Olympics. Buchman offered to introduce British Member of Parliament Kenneth Lindsay
to Himmler, referring to Himmler as "a great lad". Buchman added that Hitler himself was being most helpful to the Group: "He lets us have house-parties whenever we like". Buchman did not seem to think much of England or of Canada: England was in a terrible state — "seething with Communism"; and so was Canada. Lindsay disagreed: he thought that such an assessment showed that Buchman really knew very little about England or Canada. Oxford group member Garth Lean writes in his book that according to Buchman's young followers who went with him, Himmler came in with his henchmen, gave a propagandist account of Nazism and left, without giving Buchman a chance to speak. Lean also cites a Danish reporter, Jacob Kronika, who in January 1962 gave an account in a small newspaper he edited, the Flensborg Avis
, of a meeting in Berlin with Buchman:
The British Foreign Office had a different report. In a confidential minute dated 16 January 1939, Makins records impressions Dr. Burckhardt had gained from his recent talks in Berlin. Asked whether he thought Himmler should be included among the extremists or the moderates of the Nazis, Dr. Burckhardt said Himmler had been very much disgusted by the anti-Semitic outrages. He said Himmler was "a very curious character" and that both he and his wife were members of the Oxford Group.
Buchman expressed concerns, stating, "Germany has come under the dominion of a terrible demoniac force. A counter-action is urgent. We must ask God for guidance and strength to start an anti-demoniac counter-action under the sign of the Cross of Christ in the democratic countries bordering on Germany, especially in the small neighboring countries."
In 1936 Buchman had hope that Germany could be diverted from its course. When he returned from the Berlin Olympics he gave an interview to the New York World-Telegram
.
The Rev. Garrett Stearly, one of Buchman's colleagues from Princeton University
, said statements were taken out of context. When Buchman was asked about Germany, he said that Germany needed a new Christian spirit, yet one had to face the fact that Hitler had been a bulwark against Communism there - and you could at least thank heaven for that.
The Oxford Group held a rally in Stockbridge, Massachusetts where the marchers in the parade carried the flags of 48 States and 18 nations, including Germany's swastika
. A negative comment on this drew the response that "the Oxford Group bring nations together".
Of the thousands of Gestapo documents made available after the war Oxford Group member Garth Lean found only three that concerned the Oxford Group. One suggests the Group was "a new and dangerous opponent of National Socialism". Another states it preaches revolution against the national state and has quite evidently become its Christian opponent. The third, from 1942, says "No other Christian movement has underlined so strongly the character of Christianity as being supernational and independent of all racial barriers... It tries fanatically to make all men into brothers". Lean claims the information source is a file called Die Oxford- oder Gruppenbewegung, Herausgegeben vom Sicherheitshauptamt, November 1936", Geheim, Nummeriertes Exemplar Nr. 1".
In 1938, after another Nuremberg rally and the Anschluss
, Oxford Group members telephoned both Diana Mosley and her sister Unity "Bobo" Mitford
, who were in Munich
at the time attending the celebrations. The Oxford members requested an invitation and introduction to Hitler, for the purpose of "changing" him. The request was refused by both Mitford and Mosley. Later that same evening Oxford Group members phoned Mitford's father, Lord Redesdale, who was also visiting Munich, making the same request. His reply was "no, damn it, I like the feller the way he is." Travel writer and journalist Robert Byron
, who had persuaded Hitler's English admirer Mitford, to include him in her party, entered in his diary: "Himmler apparently dotes on the Oxford Group and writes to its English members discussing their troubles with them".
According to Oxford group member Garth Lean, during the war, the Oxford Group in Germany divided into three parts. Some submitted to Himmler's demand that they cut all links with Buchman and the Oxford Group abroad. The largest group continued the work of bringing Christian change to people under a different name, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Seelsorge (Working team for the Care of Souls), without being involved in politics and always subject to surveillance. A third group joined the active opposition. Von Crammon's son-in-law was one of those executed along with Adam von Trott zu Solz
under Hitler's orders after the 20 July plot.
Buchman's attempts to convert the Nazi leadership was condemned by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
who wrote: "The Oxford Group has been naïve enough to try to convert Hitler - a ridiculous failure to understand what is going on - it is we who are to be converted, not Hitler."
A report from the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England
also condemned Buchman's approach in dealing with the Nazi regime, It stated: "It was surely this that led Dr. Buchman, so it is alleged, to believe that through 'change' induced in Hitler there could come a 'God-controlled fascist dictatorship.' His error was not so much that his appraisal of Hitler was so naive... but that he failed to see... that dictatorship is not bad just because it has a bad man as dictator."
, the King."
In fact one could not belong to the Oxford group for it had no membership list, badges, or definite location. It was simply a group of people from all walks of life who have surrendered their life to God
. Their endeavor was to lead a spiritual life under God's Guidance and their purpose was to carry their message so others could do the same.
The group was more like a religious revolution, unhampered by institutional ties, it combined social activities with religion, it had no organized board of officers. The group declared itself to be not an "organization
" but an "organism
". Though Frank Buchman was the group's founder and leader, group members believed their true leader to be the Holy spirit
and relied on God Control, meaning guidance received from God by those people who had fully "surrendered" to God's will. By working within all the churches, regardless of denomination, they drew new members.
A newspaper account in 1933 described it as "personal evangelism -- one man talking to another or one woman discussing her problems with another woman was the order of the day". In 1936, Good Housekeeping described the Group having no membership, no dues, no paid leaders, no new theological creed, nor regular meetings, it is simply a fellowship of people who desire to follow a way of life, a determination not a denomination
.
, absolute purity
, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love
, though recognized as impossible to attain, were guidelines to help determine whether a course of action was directed by God.
In Oxford terms sin is "anything that kept one from God or one another", "as contagious as any bodily disease". In other words: "The soul needs cleaning... We all know 'nice' sinless sinners who need that surgical spiritual operation as keenly as the most miserable sinner of us all."
Buchman's use of the four absolutes came through his teacher Robert E. Speer and his book "the Principles of Jesus" and Speer's summarization of the Sermon on the Mount
being the Oxford Group's Four Absolutes test of right or wrong.
aid for spiritual guidance:
Guidance was also sought collectively from groupers when they formed teams. They would take time in quiet, each individual writing his or her sense of God's direction on the matter in question. They would then check with each other, seeking consensus on the action to take.
Some church leaders criticised this practice, for example Rt. Rev. M. J. Browne, Bishop of Galloway wrote:
"Groupists actually speak of "listening -in" to the Holy Ghost: whenever they run up against a difficulty they stop for guidance. Such an idea of God is crudely anthropomorphic, derogatory to God's honour, and contrary to natural morality
... Guidance as understood by the Groups encourages all kinds of illusions, it undermines the sense of personal moral responsibility, it leads to fanaticism."
Buchman would share the thoughts which he felt were guided by God, but whether others pursued those thoughts were up to them. He sent one member of the group a wire sharing his thought that the member should bring John D. Rockefeller III to New York to have a chat with Queen Marie of Romania
. The member wired back that this might be Frank Buchman's guidance but it was not his. When some of Buchman's followers booked a second-class passage, he told them rather sharply that he had been guided that they should change to first class to form more significant contacts.
Oxford theologian, Dr. B. H. Streeter, stated that, throughout the ages, men and women have sought God's will in quiet and listening. The Oxford Group, he wrote, was following a long tradition.
Sometimes groupers were banal in their descriptions of guidance. The cook for a large Oxford group gathering told reporters that the menu was planned by God, another individual at a group gathering, who despite being a proud Englishmen, was guided by God to completely surrender his national pride, and hoist the Stars and Stripes
.
However, The Oxford Group books and publications gave examples of groupers discovering creative initiatives through times of quiet seeking God's direction.,
The message one brings to others by speaking of one's own experiences, the power of God in guiding one's life would bring hope to others that a spiritually changed life gives strength to overcome life’s difficulties.
Some regarded this approach with cynicism. Time magazine wrote: The first public confession
can be stirring, but the tenth is likely to strike one as the same old thing And the fatal suspicion arises that confessions are made not through humility but to persuade. They sound a little too much coached, perfected to the point where they seem artificial...
Beverley Nichols
stated "And all that business about telling one's sins in public.... It is spiritual nudism!" Margaret Rawlings, an actress, stood up at a 2000 member Group gathering and said, "this public exposure of the soul, this psychic exhibitionism
, with its natural accompaniment of sensual satisfaction', was 'as shocking, indecent and indelicate as it would be if a man took all his clothes off in Piccadilly Circus
". The act of Public Confessions, brought criticism from outsiders who believed the Group had an undue interest in sex.
Marie of Romania stated "I have met Buchman. I did not like him. He spoke of God as if He were the oldest title in the Almanach de Gotha
. And all that business about telling one's sins in public -- He wanted me ... ... to get up before my children and confess everything I had ever done! Ça se ne fait pas."
However, Cuthbert Bardsley, who worked with Buchman for some years and later became Bishop of Coventry, said "I never came across public confession in house parties - or very, very rarely. Frank tried to prevent it - and was very annoyed if people ever trespassed beyond the bounds of decency." Buchman's biographer, Garth Lean, a supporter of Buchman and promoter of the group, wrote that he attended meetings from 1932 on "and cannot recall hearing any unwise public confessions."
In 1933, Alan Thornhill, Fellow and Chaplain of Hertford College, Oxford, wrote in response to questions about the Oxford Group’s financing:
A. J. Russell in his book For Sinners Only stated Frank Buchman solicited help in written correspondence:
Marjorie Harrison in her book Saints Run Mad stated: "The finances of the Group are a complete mystery. In Canada the same perplexity was felt. How could a Team of fifty people travel by crack trains and stay in the best hotels throughout an extended tour of the Dominion and the United States unless there were a very rich backing somewhere?"
The Group states that it "never asks for funds by either public or private appeal. Anyone doing so is disloyal to, and in direct conflict with, the principle and practice of the Group." As one member put it to me, "There is no collection or subscription." Quite. But what's in a name? At a House Party there is a "registration fee". This fee of five shillings levied on five hundred people amounts to 125 pounds. Any religious organization that could make sure of securing an average of five shillings from those participating in a concentrated activity would consider itself lucky....
There are large numbers of men and women who are attached to the Teams either as permanent workers or for long periods of time at a stretch. Who pays their expenses? Are their relations and friends content that they should "live on faith", which usually means living on other people? Or are they all people of substantial independent means? Many of them are very young."
Geoffrey Williamson in his book reported that funds were solicited by the Group :
He went on to explain that the money, which he was sure would be forthcoming, would be allocated equally between three main enterprises. One million would go towards the maintenance of Mountain House [the hotel in Caux, Switzerland]; one million towards the development of the College of the Good Road, and one million would be used to complete the production of The Good Road film.
So, while a pianist played solemn music, ushers moved silently among the audience with silver salvers which were soon heaped high with contributions. No loopholes were allowed. Those without Swiss currency or who had left their cheque books behind were given prepared slips bearing addresses in America, Australia, Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand to which financial contributions could be sent on their return home. The fact that these slips had been run off on a duplicator seemed to suggest that this practice was a fairly regular one.
, his colleague and former assistant, became involved with the movement. Although Jung recognized that troubled patients sometimes gained a sense of security, purpose and belonging from Group involvement, in his view there was a sacrifice in personal individuation. He therefore did not understand what attraction the group could have for someone with the psychoanalytic sophistication of Maeder. Jung did express approval of Group involvement for people who did not have the psychological resources to undertake the more demanding task of individuation
.
Jung gave this opinion during a seminar talk given on 5 April 1939 to the Guild of Pastoral Psychology, London:
In Britain the Oxford Group/Moral Re-Armament 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.
By 1940 Britain's Ernest Bevin
, member of the Labour Party
, put before Parliament that the Oxford Group members would no longer be able to claim exemption from Military Service. Bevin disliked the Group for its recruitment of the wealthy and influential in society and an implied linkage with the much earlier Oxford Movement led by Cardinal John Henry Newman. The Oxford Group had garnered support as a result of two years of lobbying, and approximately 2,500 clergy and ministers signed a petition opposing Bevins decision, as well as 174 Members of Parliament. However Bevin made a strong case stating that the Oxford group was the only religious organization that had tried to claim such exemption, accused Buchman of supporting fascism,
and made it clear that he would resign from the Government if he was defeated. The MRA/Oxford Group's parliamentary supporters did not speak against Bevin's position and the result was the Oxford Group could no longer claim exemption from Military Service. 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 a strong supporter of social change, labor and unions. In 1992 Driberg was shown to have spied for the KGB in documents brought to Britain by defecting KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin, yet there was no evidence he did anything that harmed national security or put lives at risk.
In the United States, The Justice Department approved the stay of 28 British MRA workers as performing an essential service. Senator (later President) Harry Truman, Chair of the Senate Committee investigating war contracts, was one of six prominent Americans accused of 'protecting draft-dodgers' and MRA was accused of using Political influence to avoid the draft. At a news conference Truman spoke in favor of MRA/Oxford group stating they have already achieved remarkable results in bringing teamwork into industry, on the principles not of "who's right" but of "what's right".' But in the end, 22 of the MRA workers were drafted. This does not mean that Truman was integral to the group or that he understood its true nature or objectives.
In 1944, journalist Georges Seldes warned Truman of the anti-Semitic and authoritarian tendencies of the Group, Truman then running for Vice-President, distanced himself from it. Time magazine reported that Truman , as President of the United states, disclaimed any interest in the Oxford Group and said he never met Frank Buchman though it was noted he had in the past spoke at a couple of Oxford Meetings.
Oxford Group member, Garth Lean, in his book states, as a Senator Truman had read a message from President Roosevelt at a Moral Re-Armament in Washington, where Buchman was also a speaker. He also had read account of the demonstration into the Congressional Record, adding 'It is rare in these days to find something which will unite men and nations on a plane above conflict of party, class and political philosophy.' Buchman was in the Senate gallery, at Truman's invitation. Later, as President, Truman welcomed Buchman at a conference in San Francisco which established the United Nations.
After the War, the group encouraged an MRA approach to industrial relations, which became popularly associated with the cause of the employers and against that of the unions in, for example, the docks and mines. Serious consideration was given to allying with the MRA against British Communism, though the idea was rejected "...we do not think it advisable to enter into any direct relations with MRA which might enable the latter to claim they have common cause with HMG...we are not uninterested in the some success MRA have achieved in the conversion of communists").
-
In the following decades MRA's work expanded across the globe, particularly into the African and Asian countries moving towards independence from colonial rule. 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.
Sir Patrick Joseph Henry Hannon, a Member of British Parliament and at one time a Group supporter, faulted the "Buchmanites" for making claim that they settled three impending work stoppages in the Midlands by promoting the Group's principles on management and labor. Sir Patrick's investigations found the trouble had been cured by pay raises plus better working hours.
Tom Driberg also a Member of Parliament , attacked the movement on industrial grounds. Its program seemed "nothing less than spiritual strike-breaking," he said, adding that in his opinion it was at its worst anti-socialist and anti-democratic.
Time magazine reported: "The militantly anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which represents 97 unions in 73 countries, tossed a monkey wrench toward the machinery of Moral Re-Armament, the nondenominational, untheological, polite revival movement that evolved out of Frank Buchman's old Oxford Group. A report prepared by ICFTU's secretariat accused the Moral Re-Armament movement of interfering "with trade-union activities and [making] anti-trade-union efforts, even to the extent of trying to found 'yellow unions.MRA, it said, was undemocratic: "Buchman does not build up his movement from below... but from the ranks of leaders.... The sources from which the Moral Re-Armament movement draws its necessary funds are completely unknown. All that can be said is that those who supply the money must be very well off."
However, the report was never presented to or voted on by the Congress itself, the only body entitled to make policy statements on the Confederations' behalf. The report declared it had been prepared at the request of the Socialist Trade Unions of India, Hind Mazdoor Sabha. However, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha's President, Sibnath Banerjee, promptly denied that either he or anyone of his executive had made such a request.
A similar situation arose when the Church of England
's Social and Industrial Council investigated MRA, and condemned its practices as a means of avoiding responsible living. The Chair and a member of the Council demonstrated their hostility to MRA during the investigation by writing a strongly critical letter to the Daily Telegraph (13 Jan 1954) (a letter answered by a strong statement by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the leaders of all the Free Churches two days later). Their report was debated for two days by the Church Assembly, which decided to receive it but not adopt it.
William Grogan, an International Vice-President of the American Transport Workers' Union, said that 'between 1946 and 1953 national union leaders, local union officials, shop stewards and rank and file union members from 75 countries had received training' in MRA principles. Evert Kupers, for 20 years President of the Dutch Confederation of Trades Unions, stated that 'the thousands who have visited Caux have been deeply impressed by its message for our age and by the real comradeship they found there.' In France Maurice Mercier, Secretary-General of the textile workers within the Force Ouvriere, said: 'Class war today means one half of humanity against the other half, each possessing a powerful arsenal of destruction... Not one cry of hatred, not one hour of work lost, one one drop of blood shed - that is the revolution to which MRA calls bosses and workers.'
succeeded him. He was a political columnist who had been assigned to write some pieces about MRA and ended up joining it. The royalties from his writing - $1,120,000 - went to the cause. Under his leadership the group opened a center in Odawara, Japan. People at this time still attended MRA conferences at its headquarters at Caux, Switzerland, and Mackinac Island
, Michigan. In 1962 Peter Howard warned Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson
against "satirists and cynics" who "debase our ancient virtue and push pornography
and godlessness down the national gullet." MRA crusaded in Holland featuring big newspaper ads, written by Howard, condemning the spread of homosexuality ("It can be cured").
In 1965, Up with People
was founded by members of, and with the support of, Moral Re-Armament. In 2001 Moral Re-Armament became Initiatives of Change
.
Senior's sons, Russell, was a serious alcoholic. He took him first to a drying-out clinic and then on to an Oxford Group conference in Denver. The young man gave his life to God, and thereafter enjoyed extended periods of sobriety. The family doctor called it a "medical miracle". The elder Firestone was so grateful that, in January 1933, he invited Buchman and a team of sixty to conduct a ten-day campaign in Akron. They left behind them a strong functioning group which met each week, first in the Mayflower Hotel, then later in the house of T. Henry Williams, amongst whom were an Akron surgeon, Bob Smith
, and his wife Anne. Bob was a secret drinker.
Rowland Hazard
claimed that it was Carl Jung who caused him to seek a spiritual solution to his alcoholism, which led to Rowland joining the Oxford group. He was introduced by Shep Cornell to Cornell's friend Ebby Thacher
, who had a serious drinking problem. Hazard introduced Ebby to Carl Jung's theory and then to the Oxford Group. For a time Ebby took up residence at Rev. Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Rescue Mission, which catered mainly to saving down-and-outs and drunks. Shoemaker taught to the new inductees the concept of God being a higher power of one's own understanding, not necessarily the God of any particular scripture or religion.
Thacher, in keeping with the Oxford teachings, needed to keep his own conversion experience real by carrying the Oxford message of salvation to others. Thacher had heard that his old drinking buddy Bill Wilson
was again drinking heavily. Thacher and Cornell visited Wilson at his home and introduced him to the Oxford Group's religious conversion cure. Wilson, an agnostic, was "aghast" when Thacher told him he had "got religion".
A few days later, in a drunken state, Wilson went to the Calvary Rescue Mission in search of Thacher. It was there that he attended his first Oxford Group meeting and would later describe the experience: "Penitents started marching forward to the rail. Unaccountably impelled, I started too.... Soon, I knelt among the sweating, stinking penitents... Afterward, Ebby... told me with relief that I had done all right and had given my life to God." The call to the altar did little to curb Wilson's drinking. A couple of days later, he re-admitted himself to Charles B. Towns
Hospital. Wilson had been admitted to Towns hospital three times earlier, between 1933 and 1934. This would be his fourth and last stay.
Wilson did not obtain his spiritual awakening by his attendance at the Oxford Group, but at Towns Hospital. This facility was set up and run by Dr. Towns and his associate Dr. Alexander Lambert, who together had concocted a drug cocktail for the treatment of alcoholism that bordered on quackery
, known as "the Belladonna Cure". The formula cure consisted of the two deliriants Atropa belladonna and Hyoscyamus niger, which were known to cause hallucinations. Wilson had a "spiritual awakening", while being treated with these drugs. He claimed to have seen a white light and when he told his attending physician, Dr. William Silkworth
about his experience, he was advised not to discount it. When Wilson left the hospital he never drank again.
After his release from the Hospital, Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings and went on a mission to save other alcoholics. His prospects came through Towns Hospital and the Calvary Mission. Though he was not able to keep one alcoholic sober, he found that by engaging in the activity of trying to convert others he was able to keep himself sober. It was this realization, that he needed another alcoholic to work with, that brought him into contact with Dr. Bob Smith while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio. Earlier Wilson had been advised by Dr. Silkworth to change his approach and tell the alcoholics they suffered from a disease, one that could kill them, and afterward apply the Oxford practices. This is what he brought to Smith on their first meeting. Smith was the first alcoholic Wilson helped to sobriety. Dr. Smith and Bill W. (as he was later called) went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous
.
Wilson later acknowledged: "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
AA was founded
on June 10, 1935, the first day of Dr. Bob's sobriety. In 1939 James Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober. He was the last surviving person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. In September 2004, at the age of 98, Houck was still active in the group, then renamed Moral Re-Armament, and it was his mission to restore the Oxford Group's spiritual methods through the Back to Basics program, a twelve-step program similar to AA. Houck believed the old Oxford spiritual methods were stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in AA. He tried to introduce the program into the prison systems.
Houck's assessment of Wilson's time in the Oxford group: He was never interested in the things we were interested in; he only wanted to talk about alcoholism; he was not interested in giving up smoking; he was a ladies man and would brag to other members of his sexual exploits, and in Houck's opinion Wilson remained an agnostic.
The AA concept of powerlessness is different from that of the Oxford Group. In AA, the bondage of an addictive disease cannot be cured, only controlled, and is a departure from the Oxford Group belief, which stressed that a spiritual conversion would bring complete victory over sin.
The first House Party began in China in 1918; this was to become a recognized Oxford Group approach. By the summer of 1930 the first International House Party was held at Oxford, followed by another the next year attended by 700 hundred people. By 1934 the International House Party had grown and was attended by representatives from 40 nations, and by the 1935 meeting it had grown and was attended by 50 nations, to the total of 10,000 representatives. The 1936 meeting at Birmingham drew 15,000 people and The First National Assembly held in Massachusetts drew almost 10,000 people
For Sinners Only by Arthur James Russell was characterized as the Oxford Group "bible." { Soul Surgery By H. A. Walter, What is the Oxford Group by Layman with a Notebook, and Eight Points of the Oxford Group by C. Irving Benson.
For alcoholics there were three autobiographies by Oxford members who were active alcoholics which were published in the 1930s. These books provided accounts of the alcoholics' failed attempts to make their lives meaningful until, as a result of their Oxford membership, they found a transformation in their lives and sobriety through surrendering to God. The stories contained in Alcoholics Anonymous
Big Book
, are very similar in style to these much earlier works.
The books were The Big Bender, Life Began Yesterday and I Was Pagan by V.C. Kitchen.
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
criticized Buchman's philosophy and pursuit of the wealthy and powerful:
Walter Houston Clark, in his book, The Oxford Group: Its History and Significance, writes of the Buchmanites living off the wealthy:
Geoffrey Williamson in his book Inside Buchmanism faulted the organization for its lack of charity
:
Polish author Rom Landau in his appraisal of nine cultist credited Frank Buchman with being "the most successful and shrewdest revivalist of our time", but found the movement theologically frivolous. He criticized the Oxford Group's practice of suppressing or "sublimating
" the sex impulse and stated with much sarcasm that "Five 'sublimated' Arabs, Italians or Frenchmen, would prove the efficacy of Buchman's sex methods more convincingly than 500 English undergraduates."
John Haynes Holmes, pastor of the Community Church, characterized the Oxford Group movement as "revivalism for the rich and respectable" in The New York Times, in a 1934 article:
.
from its New York headquarters in Manhattan's Calvary Episcopal Church. Shoemaker believed that Buchman had strayed from his principles. where "Buchmanism" was meant to make Baptists better Baptists, Catholics better Catholics. In the U.S. and Britain Buchman lost followers.
Shoemaker stated: "When the Oxford Group was, on its own definition, a movement of vital personal religion, working within the churches to make the principles of the New Testament practical as a working force today we fully identified ourselves with it," declared the Rev Shoemaker. "Certain policies and points of view, however, have arisen in the development of Moral Re-Armament about which we have had increasing misgivings."
Walter H. Clark, a master at the Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts, in doing his thesis on Buchmanism produced some findings from a questionnaire he submitted to 92 men and women who had been involved with the Oxford group for 18 years previous.
The findings were that only 12% were still active in the group.
Median income was $5000– $10000 with 28% earning over $10,000 Buchman aimed at the up and outs. 45% said the group did not benefit them intellectually 7% said it did.
People who stayed and people who left said the main benefit was emotional release, but many felt it was an emotional spree which left them distrustful of all religions.
Mrs. Henry Ford
called Mr. Stuart Woodfill, manager of the Grand Hotel on the island of Mackinac, who arranged for the Michigan State Park Commission to give a dilapidated old hotel to Frank Buchman's organization
and other European leaders, an anonymous English Duchess as well as royalty and Americans, Rowland Hazard III
, the Firestone family, founders of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
of Ohio
. The Group attracted opposition from the Roman Catholic Church
), though this changed after Vatican II. 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.'. The Group grew into a well-known, informal and international network of people by the 1930s. The London newspaper editor Arthur J. Russell joined the Group after attending a meeting in 1931. He wrote For Sinners Only in 1932, which went through 17 editions in Britain alone, and was translated into many languages. It inspired the writers of God Calling.
Christian
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...
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. In 1908 he claimed a conversion experience in a chapel in Keswick, England
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
and later he initiated a movement called A First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921; by 1931 this had grown into a movement which attracted thousands of adherents, many well-to-do, which became known as the Oxford Group.
Its leader, Frank Buchman, made the cover of Time Magazine as "Cultist Frank Buchman: God is a Millionaire" in 1936. The group was unlike other forms of evangelism in that it targeted and directed its efforts to the "up and outers": the elite and wealthy of society. It made use of publicity regarding its prominent converts, and was caricatured by critics as a "Salvation Army for snobs". Buchman's message did not challenge the status quo and thus aided the Group's popularity among the well-to-do.
For a U.S. headquarters, he built a multimillion-dollar establishment on Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
's Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
, with room for 1,000 visitors. From Caux
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...
to London's Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a town square in the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent...
to New York's Westchester County layouts, Buchman and his followers had the best. In response to criticism, Buchman had an answer: "Isn't God a millionaire?" he would ask.
The Oxford Group achieved popularity worldwide for a time, but it was a minority voice in America. The Oxford Group movement was in reaction to the mainstream Christian churches, which were concerned with social systematic problems; their gospels emphasized liberal and social issues. The Oxford Group's focus was on personal concerns and placed the entire problem of human existence on self, the idea of personal sinfulness, asserting that individual sin was the key problem and the entire solution was in the individual's conviction, confession, and surrender to God. The Group revived an older 19th century approach in which the focus was on sin and conversion; it practiced a form of ethical and religious perfectionism that was reduced to a call for a renewed morality.
Buchman, who had little intellectual interest or interest in theology, believed all change happens from the individual outward, and stressed simplicity. He summed up the Group's philosophy in a few sentences: all people are sinners, all sinners can be changed, confession is a prerequisite to change, the change can access God directly, miracles are again possible, the change must change others.
By the 1940s the Group had fallen into public disfavor; the public associated it with revivalist Protestantism, which many mainstream Protestants and most Roman Catholics rejected. It began to be ridiculed in popular plays and books.
In 1938, a time of military re-armament, Buchman proclaimed a need for "moral and spiritual re-armament" and that phrase—shortened to Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament
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...
(MRA)—became the movement's name.
The Oxfords Group's influence can be found in Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics 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...
. Ebby Thacher
Ebby Thacher
Edwin Throckmorton Thacher , was an old drinking friend and later the sponsor of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson...
, Rowland Hazard III
Rowland Hazard III
For other persons named Rowland Hazard, see Rowland Hazard Rowland Hazard III was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies...
, Bill 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 Bob 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...
, with Bill & Bob the two co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, were also members of the Oxford Group up until 1940. Though early AA sought to distance itself from the Oxford Groups, Wilson later acknowledged, "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker
Sam Shoemaker
Sam Shoemaker, DD, STD , was an Episcopal priest who led the American branch of the Oxford Group and influenced the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, III was the rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group during...
, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
God control
In various speeches given by Frank Buchman, the Group's purpose was outlined.- The secret is God control. The only sane people in an insane world are those controlled by God. God-controlled personalities make God-controlled nationalities. This is the aim of the Oxford Group. The true patriot gives his life to bring his nation under God's control. Those people who oppose that control are public enemies.... World peace will only come through nations which have achieved God-control. And everybody can listen to God. You can. I can. Everybody can have a part.
- There are those who feel that internationalism is not enough. Nationalism can unite a nation. Supernationalism can unite a world. God-controlled supernationalism seems to be the only sure foundation for world peace!
- I challenge Denmark to be a miracle among the nations, her national policy dictated by God, her national defense the respect and gratitude of her neighbors, her national armament an army of life-changers. Denmark can demonstrate to the nations that spiritual power is the first force in the world. The true patriot gives his life to bring about his country's resurrection.
- The international problems are, at bottom, personal problems of selfishness and fear. Lives must be changed if problems are to be solved. Peace in the world can only spring from peace in the hearts of men. A dynamic experience of God’s free spirit is the answer to regional antagonism, economic depression, racial conflict and international strife.
- Sin...Blinds,Binds,Multiplies,Deadens & Deafens.
- Be rid of false distinctions right away, the problem of most of us is not the open sin, but the secret; not the sin that makes us uncomfortable, but the comfortable sins. We must cease dealing with symptoms and get down to root causes and motives.
The name
The name "Oxford Group" originated in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1929, as a result of a railway porter writing the name on the windows of those compartments reserved by a traveling team of Frank Buchman followers. They were from Oxford, England
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and in South Africa to promote the movement. The South African press picked up on the name and it stuck.
Even though in 1938, Buchman chose to rename the Group and call it Moral Re-Armament. In June 1939 he applied to the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
in London to incorporate the name Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was considered legally non-existent in an earlier court ruling and Buchman could not collect a £500 inheritance left to the group by a member. The use of the name Oxford by Buchman brought opposition from Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. The application was eventually approved, although the proposal had been debated both in Oxford and in the House of Commons, as opponents claimed Buchman was trying to capitalize on the name of Oxford; 232 Members of Parliament signed a petition supporting the incorporation, while 50 signed a motion opposing it. In June 1939 the Board of Trade decided in the Group’s favour.
International expansion
The Oxford Group conducted campaigns in many European countries. In 1934 a team of 30 visited NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
at the invitation of Carl Hambro, President of the Norwegian Parliament. Nearly fourteen thousand people attended the three meetings in Oslo, Norway
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. At the end of that year the Oslo daily Tidens Tegn
Tidens Tegn
Tidens Tegn is a former Norwegian newspaper, issued in Oslo from 1910 to 1941.-Editors:The founder and first editor-in-chief of Tidens Tegn was Ola Thommessen, who edited the newspaper until 1917. Thommessen had recently left the editor chair of Verdens Gang in protest, bringing much of Verdens...
commented in its Christmas number, "A handful of foreigners who neither knew our language, nor understood our ways and customs, came to the country. A few days later the whole country was talking about God, and two months after the thirty foreigners arrived, the mental outlook of the whole country has definitely changed". On 22 April 1945, Arne Fjellbu
Arne Fjellbu
Arne Fjellbu was a Norwegian bishop. During World War II, he played a central role in the Church's resistance against the Nazi authorities...
, Bishop of Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, preached in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...
, London. "I wish to state publicly," he said, "that the foundations of the united resistance of Norwegian Churchmen to Nazism were laid by the Oxford Group's work".
In 1935 a team of 250 people were welcomed to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
by the President, Rudolf Minger
Rudolf Minger
Rudolf Minger was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council . He also was a farmer all his life....
. A large number of meetings took place. On one night in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Calvin's cathedral
St. Pierre Cathedral
The St. Pierre Cathedral is a cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, today belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church. It was begun under Arducius de Faucigny, the prince-bishop of the Diocese of Geneva, in the 12th century, and includes an eclectic mix of styles. It is best known as the adopted home church...
and one of the city's largest halls both overflowed. "For many, these meetings were a turning point in their lives", according to professor Theophil Spoerri of the University of Zurich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
. "It was almost as if something new was penetrating between the chink of the shutters. A businessman, alone in his office, would feel a faint sense of unease if he was planning to cheat his fellow citizens. The public conscience became more sensitive. The Director of Finance in one canton reported that after the national day of thanksgiving and repentance, 6,000 tax payments were recorded, something which had never occurred before".
While in Geneva, Prime Minister Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
invited Buchman and his colleagues to address a luncheon at the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, attended by 32 of the League's Ministers Plenipotentiary. They listened to Hambro's account of the Oxford Group's impact in Norway. "No man who has been in touch with the Group will go back to his international work in the same spirit as before", he told them. "It has been made impossible for him to be ruled by hate or prejudice".
Similar stories can be told of campaigns in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, where Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard, Bishop of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, said that the Oxford Group "has opened my eyes to that gift of God which is called Christian fellowship, and which I have experienced in this Group to which I now belong". When the Nazis invaded Denmark, Bishop Fuglsang-Damgaard was sent to a concentration camp. Before imprisonment he smuggled a message to Buchman saying that through the Oxford Group he had found a spirit which the Nazis could not break and that he went without fear.
In 1937 Buchman visited the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. 100,000 people attended gatherings in Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
over Whitsun
Whitsun
Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...
that year. "The greatest surprise was the appearance of Dr J Patijn, our Ambassador in Brussels", reported the Socialist paper Het Volk. "Only those who know him as Burgomaster of The Hague, a sound but unapproachable man and averse to any public show, will be able to appreciate fully what it must have cost him to speak about his inmost self before many thousands. 'It is not for everyone,' he said, 'to speak in public about his faith, and it is not easy for me to do so. Every man, however, must have the courage of his convictions... Through the Oxford Group I have learnt to see my fellow men, the world and my whole life in a new perspective'".
Controversy
By the 1950s the Group was banned by the Catholic Church. Ildefonso Schuster, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, stated that the Moral Re-Armament Movement endangered both Catholics and non-Catholics. He called the movement dangerous for non-Catholics because it presents a "form of religion cut in half and suggestive, morality without dogma, without the principle of authority, without a supremely revealed faith — in a word, an arbitrary religion, and therefore, one full of errors." The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore RomanoL'Osservatore Romano
L'Osservatore Romano is the "semi-official" newspaper of the Holy See. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released...
stated that secular and regular clergy were forbidden to attend any meeting of Moral Re-Armament and that lay Catholics were forbidden to serve it in any responsible capacity.
A report concerning MRA by the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
criticized MRA on three counts: theology, psychology and social thinking. The report found theology woefully wanting in MRA. It said, "A certain blindness to the duty of thinking is a characteristic... We have at times been haunted by a picture of the movement, with its hectic heartiness, its mass gaiety and its reiterated slogans, as a colossal drive of escapism from responsible living."
Nazi leaders
At the beginning of the 1930s, Frank Buchman kept in close touch with Germans active in the Oxford Group. Adolf HitlerAdolf 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...
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.
Moni von Crammon, a German member of the Oxford Group, was the invited guest of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
for the Nuremberg Rally
Nuremberg Rally
The Nuremberg Rally was the annual rally of the NSDAP in Germany, held from 1923 to 1938. Especially after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, they were large Nazi propaganda events...
and she in turn invited Buchman. Von Crammon and Buchman sat beside Himmler at an informal luncheon, where they discussed religion and politics. Due to his family background, Buchman spoke German fluently. Buchman and von Crammon attended two of the Nazi Party rallies, one in 1934 and the other in 1935. Von Crammon later claimed after the war, that her association with Himmler came as a result of her seeking him out in the matter of her possible arrest, due to a piece of literature that was construed as anti-Nazi, found in her possession by a maid.
In August 1936, Buchman was Himmler's guest at the Berlin Olympics. Buchman offered to introduce British Member of Parliament Kenneth Lindsay
Kenneth Lindsay
Kenneth Martin Lindsay was a Labour Party politician on the United Kingdom who joined the breakaway National Labour group....
to Himmler, referring to Himmler as "a great lad". Buchman added that Hitler himself was being most helpful to the Group: "He lets us have house-parties whenever we like". Buchman did not seem to think much of England or of Canada: England was in a terrible state — "seething with Communism"; and so was Canada. Lindsay disagreed: he thought that such an assessment showed that Buchman really knew very little about England or Canada. Oxford group member Garth Lean writes in his book that according to Buchman's young followers who went with him, Himmler came in with his henchmen, gave a propagandist account of Nazism and left, without giving Buchman a chance to speak. Lean also cites a Danish reporter, Jacob Kronika, who in January 1962 gave an account in a small newspaper he edited, the Flensborg Avis
Flensborg Avis
Flensborg Avis is a Danish language daily newspaper, published in Flensburg , Germany.Flensborg Avis was founded October 1, 1869, in Flensburg by members of the Danish minority in the Province of Schleswig-Holstein. It now represents the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig...
, of a meeting in Berlin with Buchman:
Frank Buchman when Buchman stayed at the Hotel Esplanade in Berlin. One day we ate lunch together. In the afternoon he was to have a conversation with SS Chief Himmler, who had invited Dr. Buchman to come and see him. The conversation, of course, became a complete fiasco. Himmler could not, as he intended, exploit the 'absolute obedience' of the MRA people towards God for the benefit of the obedient slaves of the SS and the Nazis.
The British Foreign Office had a different report. In a confidential minute dated 16 January 1939, Makins records impressions Dr. Burckhardt had gained from his recent talks in Berlin. Asked whether he thought Himmler should be included among the extremists or the moderates of the Nazis, Dr. Burckhardt said Himmler had been very much disgusted by the anti-Semitic outrages. He said Himmler was "a very curious character" and that both he and his wife were members of the Oxford Group.
Buchman expressed concerns, stating, "Germany has come under the dominion of a terrible demoniac force. A counter-action is urgent. We must ask God for guidance and strength to start an anti-demoniac counter-action under the sign of the Cross of Christ in the democratic countries bordering on Germany, especially in the small neighboring countries."
In 1936 Buchman had hope that Germany could be diverted from its course. When he returned from the Berlin Olympics he gave an interview to the New York World-Telegram
New York World-Telegram
The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.-History:...
.
"I thank Heaven for a man like Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf 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...
, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism," he said today in his book-lined office in the annex of Calvary Church, Fourth Ave and 21st St. "My barber in London told me Hitler Nazis do Anti-SemitismAnti-SemitismAntisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
? Bad, naturally. I suppose Hitler sees a Karl MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
in every Jew. But think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to the control of God. Or MussoliniBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. Or any dictator. Through such a man God could control a nation overnight and solve every last, bewildering problem.
The world won't listen to God, but God has a plan for every person, for every nation. The world needs the dictatorshipDictatorshipA dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
of the living spirit of God. I like to put it this way: God is a perpetual broadcasting station and all you need to do is tune in. What we need is a supernatural network of live wires across the world to every last man, in every last place, in every last situation... Human ingenuity is not enough. That is why the isms are pitted against each other and blood falls.
Spain has taught us what godless Communism will bring. Who would have dreamed that nuns would be running naked in the streets? Human problems aren't economic. They're moral and they can't be solved by immoral measures. They could be solved within a God-controlled democracy, or perhaps I should say a theocracy, and they could be solved through a God-controlled Fascist dictatorship."
The Rev. Garrett Stearly, one of Buchman's colleagues from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, said statements were taken out of context. When Buchman was asked about Germany, he said that Germany needed a new Christian spirit, yet one had to face the fact that Hitler had been a bulwark against Communism there - and you could at least thank heaven for that.
The Oxford Group held a rally in Stockbridge, Massachusetts where the marchers in the parade carried the flags of 48 States and 18 nations, including Germany's swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
. A negative comment on this drew the response that "the Oxford Group bring nations together".
Of the thousands of Gestapo documents made available after the war Oxford Group member Garth Lean found only three that concerned the Oxford Group. One suggests the Group was "a new and dangerous opponent of National Socialism". Another states it preaches revolution against the national state and has quite evidently become its Christian opponent. The third, from 1942, says "No other Christian movement has underlined so strongly the character of Christianity as being supernational and independent of all racial barriers... It tries fanatically to make all men into brothers". Lean claims the information source is a file called Die Oxford- oder Gruppenbewegung, Herausgegeben vom Sicherheitshauptamt, November 1936", Geheim, Nummeriertes Exemplar Nr. 1".
In 1938, after another Nuremberg rally and the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, Oxford Group members telephoned both Diana Mosley and her sister Unity "Bobo" Mitford
Unity Mitford
Unity Valkyrie Mitford was a member of the aristocratic Mitford family, tracing its origins in Northumberland back to the 11th century Norman settlement of England. Unity Mitford's sister Diana was married to Oswald Mosley, leader of British Union of Fascists...
, who were in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
at the time attending the celebrations. The Oxford members requested an invitation and introduction to Hitler, for the purpose of "changing" him. The request was refused by both Mitford and Mosley. Later that same evening Oxford Group members phoned Mitford's father, Lord Redesdale, who was also visiting Munich, making the same request. His reply was "no, damn it, I like the feller the way he is." Travel writer and journalist Robert Byron
Robert Byron
Robert Byron was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue The Road to Oxiana. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian....
, who had persuaded Hitler's English admirer Mitford, to include him in her party, entered in his diary: "Himmler apparently dotes on the Oxford Group and writes to its English members discussing their troubles with them".
According to Oxford group member Garth Lean, during the war, the Oxford Group in Germany divided into three parts. Some submitted to Himmler's demand that they cut all links with Buchman and the Oxford Group abroad. The largest group continued the work of bringing Christian change to people under a different name, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Seelsorge (Working team for the Care of Souls), without being involved in politics and always subject to surveillance. A third group joined the active opposition. Von Crammon's son-in-law was one of those executed along with Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi regime, and who played a central part in the 20 July Plot...
under Hitler's orders after the 20 July plot.
Buchman's attempts to convert the Nazi leadership was condemned by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
who wrote: "The Oxford Group has been naïve enough to try to convert Hitler - a ridiculous failure to understand what is going on - it is we who are to be converted, not Hitler."
A report from the Social and Industrial Council of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
also condemned Buchman's approach in dealing with the Nazi regime, It stated: "It was surely this that led Dr. Buchman, so it is alleged, to believe that through 'change' induced in Hitler there could come a 'God-controlled fascist dictatorship.' His error was not so much that his appraisal of Hitler was so naive... but that he failed to see... that dictatorship is not bad just because it has a bad man as dictator."
Spiritual tenets
The Oxford Group literature defines the group as not being a religion, for it had "no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments, its workers no salaries, no plans but God's plan." Their chief aim was "A new world order for ChristChrist
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, the King."
In fact one could not belong to the Oxford group for it had no membership list, badges, or definite location. It was simply a group of people from all walks of life who have surrendered their life to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. Their endeavor was to lead a spiritual life under God's Guidance and their purpose was to carry their message so others could do the same.
The group was more like a religious revolution, unhampered by institutional ties, it combined social activities with religion, it had no organized board of officers. The group declared itself to be not an "organization
Organization
An organization is a social group which distributes tasks for a collective goal. The word itself is derived from the Greek word organon, itself derived from the better-known word ergon - as we know `organ` - and it means a compartment for a particular job.There are a variety of legal types of...
" but an "organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
". Though Frank Buchman was the group's founder and leader, group members believed their true leader to be the Holy spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
and relied on God Control, meaning guidance received from God by those people who had fully "surrendered" to God's will. By working within all the churches, regardless of denomination, they drew new members.
A newspaper account in 1933 described it as "personal evangelism -- one man talking to another or one woman discussing her problems with another woman was the order of the day". In 1936, Good Housekeeping described the Group having no membership, no dues, no paid leaders, no new theological creed, nor regular meetings, it is simply a fellowship of people who desire to follow a way of life, a determination not a denomination
Religious denomination
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.The term describes various Christian denominations...
.
The Four Absolutes
Moral standards of absolute honestyHonesty
Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft....
, absolute purity
Virtue
Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a positive trait or quality subjectively deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being....
, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
, though recognized as impossible to attain, were guidelines to help determine whether a course of action was directed by God.
In Oxford terms sin is "anything that kept one from God or one another", "as contagious as any bodily disease". In other words: "The soul needs cleaning... We all know 'nice' sinless sinners who need that surgical spiritual operation as keenly as the most miserable sinner of us all."
Buchman's use of the four absolutes came through his teacher Robert E. Speer and his book "the Principles of Jesus" and Speer's summarization of the Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
being the Oxford Group's Four Absolutes test of right or wrong.
- Absolute Honesty: "Truth in an Age of Lies."
- Absolute Purity: "Moral purity began with the eye & thought. We may need to deal with the tongue and the touch. For many of us our history is this-the look, the thought, the fascination of the thought and then the fall."
- Absolute Love: "Hate is equivalent to murder. Is there anyone for whom you still cherish feelings of dislike, resentment and lack of forgiveness? Sins against love are common with the tongue. Only say to others what you say to them. Jealousy is devastating to peace of mind and spiritual power. So are snobbery and superiority, whether social, intellectual or spirtiual. Temper cuts across love. The sin of Fear is sin against love. Perfect love casteth out fear."
- Absolute Unselfishness: "Your problems are mixed up with the things you love most and which count most to you. Self-Respect is ninety percent-self, ten percent-respect. "We do God's work, but not His will. We do not God's best, but a good of our own."
The Five C's
The "Five C's" were formulated as a mnemonicMnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
aid for spiritual guidance:
- Confidence: Nothing could be done unless the other person had confidence in you, and knew that you could keep confidences.
- Confession: Getting honest about the real state of affairs behind one's public persona. One further aspect of becoming a free person was the need to make restitution – to put right, as far as possible, any wrong done (e.g. returning stolen goods or money or admitting to having told lies). Sometimes, if the sin was a public one, restitution might involve making a public confession.
- Conviction: The conviction of sin and a desire to change.
- Conversion: A decision of the will to live God's way.
- Continuance: The ongoing support of people who had decided to change. He felt that this was the most neglected "C".
The Four Spiritual Practices
To be spiritually reborn, the Oxford Group advocated four practices:- Sharing our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God.
- Surrendering our life past, present and future, into God's keeping and direction.
- Restitution to all whom we have wronged directly or indirectly.
- Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out.
Guidance
The central practice to the Oxford/MRA members was guidance, which was usually sought in the "quiet time" of early morning using pen and paper. The grouper would normally read the Bible or other spiritual literature, then take time in quiet with pen and paper, seeking God's direction for the day ahead, trying to find God's perspective on whatever issues were on the listener's mind. He or she would test their thoughts against the standards of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love, and normally check with a colleague.Guidance was also sought collectively from groupers when they formed teams. They would take time in quiet, each individual writing his or her sense of God's direction on the matter in question. They would then check with each other, seeking consensus on the action to take.
Some church leaders criticised this practice, for example Rt. Rev. M. J. Browne, Bishop of Galloway wrote:
"Groupists actually speak of "listening -in" to the Holy Ghost: whenever they run up against a difficulty they stop for guidance. Such an idea of God is crudely anthropomorphic, derogatory to God's honour, and contrary to natural morality
Natural morality
Natural morality describes a form of morality that is based on how humans evolved, rather than a morality acquired from societal norms or religious teachings.Charles Darwins theory of evolution is central to the acceptance of a natural morality....
... Guidance as understood by the Groups encourages all kinds of illusions, it undermines the sense of personal moral responsibility, it leads to fanaticism."
Buchman would share the thoughts which he felt were guided by God, but whether others pursued those thoughts were up to them. He sent one member of the group a wire sharing his thought that the member should bring John D. Rockefeller III to New York to have a chat with Queen Marie of Romania
Marie of Romania
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
. The member wired back that this might be Frank Buchman's guidance but it was not his. When some of Buchman's followers booked a second-class passage, he told them rather sharply that he had been guided that they should change to first class to form more significant contacts.
Oxford theologian, Dr. B. H. Streeter, stated that, throughout the ages, men and women have sought God's will in quiet and listening. The Oxford Group, he wrote, was following a long tradition.
Sometimes groupers were banal in their descriptions of guidance. The cook for a large Oxford group gathering told reporters that the menu was planned by God, another individual at a group gathering, who despite being a proud Englishmen, was guided by God to completely surrender his national pride, and hoist the Stars and Stripes
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
.
However, The Oxford Group books and publications gave examples of groupers discovering creative initiatives through times of quiet seeking God's direction.,
Sharing
In the Oxford Group, sharing was considered a necessity, it allowed one to be healed, therefore it was also a blessing to share. Sharing not only brought relief but honest sharing of sin and of victory over sin helped others to openness about themselves. Sharing built trust. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God, and to use Sharing as witness, to help others, still unchanged, to recognize and acknowledge their sins.The message one brings to others by speaking of one's own experiences, the power of God in guiding one's life would bring hope to others that a spiritually changed life gives strength to overcome life’s difficulties.
Some regarded this approach with cynicism. Time magazine wrote: The first public confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
can be stirring, but the tenth is likely to strike one as the same old thing And the fatal suspicion arises that confessions are made not through humility but to persuade. They sound a little too much coached, perfected to the point where they seem artificial...
Beverley Nichols
Beverley Nichols
John Beverley Nichols , was an author, playwright, journalist, composer, and public speaker.-Career:...
stated "And all that business about telling one's sins in public.... It is spiritual nudism!" Margaret Rawlings, an actress, stood up at a 2000 member Group gathering and said, "this public exposure of the soul, this psychic exhibitionism
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
, with its natural accompaniment of sensual satisfaction', was 'as shocking, indecent and indelicate as it would be if a man took all his clothes off in Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
". The act of Public Confessions, brought criticism from outsiders who believed the Group had an undue interest in sex.
Marie of Romania stated "I have met Buchman. I did not like him. He spoke of God as if He were the oldest title in the Almanach de Gotha
Almanach de Gotha
The Almanach de Gotha was a respected directory of Europe's highest nobility and royalty. First published in 1763 by C.W. Ettinger in Gotha at the ducal court of Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, it was regarded as an authority in the classification of monarchies, princely and ducal...
. And all that business about telling one's sins in public -- He wanted me ... ... to get up before my children and confess everything I had ever done! Ça se ne fait pas."
However, Cuthbert Bardsley, who worked with Buchman for some years and later became Bishop of Coventry, said "I never came across public confession in house parties - or very, very rarely. Frank tried to prevent it - and was very annoyed if people ever trespassed beyond the bounds of decency." Buchman's biographer, Garth Lean, a supporter of Buchman and promoter of the group, wrote that he attended meetings from 1932 on "and cannot recall hearing any unwise public confessions."
Funding
Though it was claimed by members that the Oxford group did not solicit funding, others have observed that the Oxford Group/MRA did in fact solicit funding from members.In 1933, Alan Thornhill, Fellow and Chaplain of Hertford College, Oxford, wrote in response to questions about the Oxford Group’s financing:
- "The Oxford Group never asks for funds either by private or public appeal. The mythical millionaires who are supposed to finance the work do not exist and never have existed. The gifts received are given by friends who know that those gifts will be wisely spent in God’s service. Where members of the Oxford Group undertake any corporate activity, scrupulously careful accounts are kept. These are fully supervised, and open to anyone’s inspection. At the recent house party, at which some 5,000 people were present, the average inclusive cost to each individual was under 10 shillings a day. The Group has no paid secretaries. All the business arrangements for this house party were carried out by a team of young people, mostly undergraduates. The charge of extravagance is ill founded. And this is true also of the travelling team. Overseas teams, which include the elderly as well as the young, travel either third class or tourist third in Atlantic liners. Those who hold it against the Groups that the teams sometimes stay in large hotels have not thought the matter out as a business proposition. These hotels not only make drastic cuts in their prices for a large party, but also provide, free of charge, private sitting rooms and large halls for big public meetings. Those who give up safe jobs or precious vacations to go on such travelling teams do so always without salary and without security of any kind."
A. J. Russell in his book For Sinners Only stated Frank Buchman solicited help in written correspondence:
- "One of the stiffest letters Frank permitted himself to write was to some persons who were refusing to support him in a certain courageous action for the help of someone in need. Frank said their refusal to extend the help where greatly needed might involve them in a crop of cares they did not foresee at the moment.
- Fifty or sixty letters a day are nothing to Frank. ...
Marjorie Harrison in her book Saints Run Mad stated: "The finances of the Group are a complete mystery. In Canada the same perplexity was felt. How could a Team of fifty people travel by crack trains and stay in the best hotels throughout an extended tour of the Dominion and the United States unless there were a very rich backing somewhere?"
The Group states that it "never asks for funds by either public or private appeal. Anyone doing so is disloyal to, and in direct conflict with, the principle and practice of the Group." As one member put it to me, "There is no collection or subscription." Quite. But what's in a name? At a House Party there is a "registration fee". This fee of five shillings levied on five hundred people amounts to 125 pounds. Any religious organization that could make sure of securing an average of five shillings from those participating in a concentrated activity would consider itself lucky....
There are large numbers of men and women who are attached to the Teams either as permanent workers or for long periods of time at a stretch. Who pays their expenses? Are their relations and friends content that they should "live on faith", which usually means living on other people? Or are they all people of substantial independent means? Many of them are very young."
Geoffrey Williamson in his book reported that funds were solicited by the Group :
- "one of the Governors of the College of the Good Road (the Moral Re-Armament school on Mackinac Island)... wound up his address with a request for funds to help carry on the good work of Moral Re-Armament. I had been assured in London that the Buchmanites never made any public appeal for funds. Yet here was Bernard Hallward, one of the movement's leading lights, not only asking us for money, but asking in a big way.
- "We need three million francs!" he declared, "and we need them urgently."
He went on to explain that the money, which he was sure would be forthcoming, would be allocated equally between three main enterprises. One million would go towards the maintenance of Mountain House [the hotel in Caux, Switzerland]; one million towards the development of the College of the Good Road, and one million would be used to complete the production of The Good Road film.
So, while a pianist played solemn music, ushers moved silently among the audience with silver salvers which were soon heaped high with contributions. No loopholes were allowed. Those without Swiss currency or who had left their cheque books behind were given prepared slips bearing addresses in America, Australia, Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand to which financial contributions could be sent on their return home. The fact that these slips had been run off on a duplicator seemed to suggest that this practice was a fairly regular one.
- I felt that it was as well that I had not played truant from that morning's assembly. My presence had at least exploded the myth that the Buchmanites never appeal for funds.
Carl Jung on the Oxford Group
Carl Jung became aware of the Oxford Group in the 1920s when Alphonse MaederAlphonse Maeder
Alphonse Maeder was a Swiss physician who specialised in psychiatry and psychotherapy. He worked as an assistant to Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung and worked with Sigmund Freud.-External links:...
, his colleague and former assistant, became involved with the movement. Although Jung recognized that troubled patients sometimes gained a sense of security, purpose and belonging from Group involvement, in his view there was a sacrifice in personal individuation. He therefore did not understand what attraction the group could have for someone with the psychoanalytic sophistication of Maeder. Jung did express approval of Group involvement for people who did not have the psychological resources to undertake the more demanding task of individuation
Individuation
Individuation is a concept which appears in numerous fields and may be encountered in work by Arthur Schopenhauer, Carl Jung, Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, David Bohm, and Manuel De Landa...
.
Jung gave this opinion during a seminar talk given on 5 April 1939 to the Guild of Pastoral Psychology, London:
My attitude to these matters is that, as long as a patient is really a member of a church, he ought to be serious. He ought to be really and sincerely a member of that church, and he should not go to a doctor to get his conflicts settled when he believes that he should do it with God. For instance, when a member of the Oxford Group comes to me in order to get treatment, I say, "You are in the Oxford Group; so long as you are there, you settle your affair with the Oxford Group. I can't do it better than Jesus."
I will tell you a story of such a case. A hysterical alcoholic was cured by this Group movement, and they used him as a sort of model and sent him all round Europe, where he confessed so nicely and said that he had done wrong and how he had got cured through the Group movement. And when he had repeated his story twenty, or it may have been fifty, times, he got sick of it and took to drink again. The spiritual sensation had simply faded away. Now what are they going to do with him? They say, now he is pathological, he must go to a doctor. See, in the first stage he has been cured by Jesus, in the second by a doctor! I should and did refuse such a case. I sent that man back to these people and said, "If you believe that Jesus has cured this man, he will do it a second time. And if he can't do it, you don't suppose that I can do it better than Jesus?" But that is just exactly what they do expect: when a man is pathological, Jesus won't help him but the doctor will.
Pre-war
In 1938 Buchman made a speech in East Ham Town Hall, London, in which he stated: "The crisis is fundamentally a moral one. The nations must re-arm morally. Morally recovery is essentially the forerunner of economic recovery."H. W. Austin edited the book Moral Rearmament (The Battle for Peace) that year. Gradually the former Oxford Group developed into Moral Re-Armament.In Britain the Oxford Group/Moral Re-Armament 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.
Military exemption
When war broke out, the British Government exempted about 30 Oxford Group workers from military service.By 1940 Britain's 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...
, member of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, put before Parliament that the Oxford Group members would no longer be able to claim exemption from Military Service. Bevin disliked the Group for its recruitment of the wealthy and influential in society and an implied linkage with the much earlier Oxford Movement led by Cardinal John Henry Newman. The Oxford Group had garnered support as a result of two years of lobbying, and approximately 2,500 clergy and ministers signed a petition opposing Bevins decision, as well as 174 Members of Parliament. However Bevin made a strong case stating that the Oxford group was the only religious organization that had tried to claim such exemption, accused Buchman of supporting fascism,
and made it clear that he would resign from the Government if he was defeated. The MRA/Oxford Group's parliamentary supporters did not speak against Bevin's position and the result was the Oxford Group could no longer claim exemption from Military Service. 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 a strong supporter of social change, labor and unions. In 1992 Driberg was shown to have spied for the KGB in documents brought to Britain by defecting KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin, yet there was no evidence he did anything that harmed national security or put lives at risk.
In the United States, The Justice Department approved the stay of 28 British MRA workers as performing an essential service. Senator (later President) Harry Truman, Chair of the Senate Committee investigating war contracts, was one of six prominent Americans accused of 'protecting draft-dodgers' and MRA was accused of using Political influence to avoid the draft. At a news conference Truman spoke in favor of MRA/Oxford group stating they have already achieved remarkable results in bringing teamwork into industry, on the principles not of "who's right" but of "what's right".' But in the end, 22 of the MRA workers were drafted. This does not mean that Truman was integral to the group or that he understood its true nature or objectives.
In 1944, journalist Georges Seldes warned Truman of the anti-Semitic and authoritarian tendencies of the Group, Truman then running for Vice-President, distanced himself from it. Time magazine reported that Truman , as President of the United states, disclaimed any interest in the Oxford Group and said he never met Frank Buchman though it was noted he had in the past spoke at a couple of Oxford Meetings.
Oxford Group member, Garth Lean, in his book states, as a Senator Truman had read a message from President Roosevelt at a Moral Re-Armament in Washington, where Buchman was also a speaker. He also had read account of the demonstration into the Congressional Record, adding 'It is rare in these days to find something which will unite men and nations on a plane above conflict of party, class and political philosophy.' Buchman was in the Senate gallery, at Truman's invitation. Later, as President, Truman welcomed Buchman at a conference in San Francisco which established the United Nations.
Oxford Group investigated by MI5 British Intelligence
In a document provided by MI5 British Security showed there was a fear that the Oxford Group might be a front for Nazi propaganda as a result of Buchman's involvement with Nazi members. This created a number of investigations from 1941–1950 , however, no evidence came to light that the group had been penetrated by the German Secret Service.After the War, the group encouraged an MRA approach to industrial relations, which became popularly associated with the cause of the employers and against that of the unions in, for example, the docks and mines. Serious consideration was given to allying with the MRA against British Communism, though the idea was rejected "...we do not think it advisable to enter into any direct relations with MRA which might enable the latter to claim they have common cause with HMG...we are not uninterested in the some success MRA have achieved in the conversion of communists").
-
Post-war
At the end of the war, the MRA workers returned to the task of establishing a lasting peace. In 1946 MRA bought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux in Switzerland, and this became a centre for reconciliation across Europe, bringing together thousands including German Chancellor Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman. Its work was described by historians Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson 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.'In the following decades MRA's work expanded across the globe, particularly into the African and Asian countries moving towards independence from colonial rule. 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.
Oxford Group's position on labor and industry
In Buchman's view, management and labour could 'work together like the fingers on the hand,' and in order to make that possible he aimed to answer 'the self-will in management and labour who are both so right, and so wrong.' MRA's role was to offer the experience which would free those people's hearts and minds from the motivations or prejudices which prevent just solutions. However it was also asserted Buchman preached the pacification of labor through the use of force, and many of his followers were anti union.Sir Patrick Joseph Henry Hannon, a Member of British Parliament and at one time a Group supporter, faulted the "Buchmanites" for making claim that they settled three impending work stoppages in the Midlands by promoting the Group's principles on management and labor. Sir Patrick's investigations found the trouble had been cured by pay raises plus better working hours.
Tom Driberg also a Member of Parliament , attacked the movement on industrial grounds. Its program seemed "nothing less than spiritual strike-breaking," he said, adding that in his opinion it was at its worst anti-socialist and anti-democratic.
Time magazine reported: "The militantly anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which represents 97 unions in 73 countries, tossed a monkey wrench toward the machinery of Moral Re-Armament, the nondenominational, untheological, polite revival movement that evolved out of Frank Buchman's old Oxford Group. A report prepared by ICFTU's secretariat accused the Moral Re-Armament movement of interfering "with trade-union activities and [making] anti-trade-union efforts, even to the extent of trying to found 'yellow unions.MRA, it said, was undemocratic: "Buchman does not build up his movement from below... but from the ranks of leaders.... The sources from which the Moral Re-Armament movement draws its necessary funds are completely unknown. All that can be said is that those who supply the money must be very well off."
However, the report was never presented to or voted on by the Congress itself, the only body entitled to make policy statements on the Confederations' behalf. The report declared it had been prepared at the request of the Socialist Trade Unions of India, Hind Mazdoor Sabha. However, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha's President, Sibnath Banerjee, promptly denied that either he or anyone of his executive had made such a request.
A similar situation arose when the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
's Social and Industrial Council investigated MRA, and condemned its practices as a means of avoiding responsible living. The Chair and a member of the Council demonstrated their hostility to MRA during the investigation by writing a strongly critical letter to the Daily Telegraph (13 Jan 1954) (a letter answered by a strong statement by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the leaders of all the Free Churches two days later). Their report was debated for two days by the Church Assembly, which decided to receive it but not adopt it.
William Grogan, an International Vice-President of the American Transport Workers' Union, said that 'between 1946 and 1953 national union leaders, local union officials, shop stewards and rank and file union members from 75 countries had received training' in MRA principles. Evert Kupers, for 20 years President of the Dutch Confederation of Trades Unions, stated that 'the thousands who have visited Caux have been deeply impressed by its message for our age and by the real comradeship they found there.' In France Maurice Mercier, Secretary-General of the textile workers within the Force Ouvriere, said: 'Class war today means one half of humanity against the other half, each possessing a powerful arsenal of destruction... Not one cry of hatred, not one hour of work lost, one one drop of blood shed - that is the revolution to which MRA calls bosses and workers.'
Peter Howard
After Buchman's death in 1961 Peter HowardPeter Howard (journalist)
Peter Dunsmore Howard was a British journalist, playwright, captain of the England national rugby union team and the head of the spiritual movement Moral Re-Armament from 1961 to 1965.-Biography:...
succeeded him. He was a political columnist who had been assigned to write some pieces about MRA and ended up joining it. The royalties from his writing - $1,120,000 - went to the cause. Under his leadership the group opened a center in Odawara, Japan. People at this time still attended MRA conferences at its headquarters at Caux, Switzerland, and Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
, Michigan. In 1962 Peter Howard warned Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
against "satirists and cynics" who "debase our ancient virtue and push pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and godlessness down the national gullet." MRA crusaded in Holland featuring big newspaper ads, written by Howard, condemning the spread of homosexuality ("It can be cured").
Garth Lean
Garth Lean was instrumental in Peter Howard's conversion to the Oxford Group. Geoffrey Williamson reported in his book that twenty-four years later Garth Lean was still promoting Buchmanism to the newcomers, and that Lean had become a member of the Council of Management of Moral Re-Armament.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, and with the support of, Moral Re-Armament. In 2001 Moral Re-Armament became 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...
.
Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous
In Akron, Ohio, Jim Newton, an Oxford Group member, knew that one of Harvey FirestoneHarvey Firestone
Harvey Samuel Firestone was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.-Family background:...
Senior's sons, Russell, was a serious alcoholic. He took him first to a drying-out clinic and then on to an Oxford Group conference in Denver. The young man gave his life to God, and thereafter enjoyed extended periods of sobriety. The family doctor called it a "medical miracle". The elder Firestone was so grateful that, in January 1933, he invited Buchman and a team of sixty to conduct a ten-day campaign in Akron. They left behind them a strong functioning group which met each week, first in the Mayflower Hotel, then later in the house of T. Henry Williams, amongst whom were an Akron surgeon, Bob 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...
, and his wife Anne. Bob was a secret drinker.
Rowland Hazard
Rowland Hazard III
For other persons named Rowland Hazard, see Rowland Hazard Rowland Hazard III was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies...
claimed that it was Carl Jung who caused him to seek a spiritual solution to his alcoholism, which led to Rowland joining the Oxford group. He was introduced by Shep Cornell to Cornell's friend Ebby Thacher
Ebby Thacher
Edwin Throckmorton Thacher , was an old drinking friend and later the sponsor of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson...
, who had a serious drinking problem. Hazard introduced Ebby to Carl Jung's theory and then to the Oxford Group. For a time Ebby took up residence at Rev. Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Rescue Mission, which catered mainly to saving down-and-outs and drunks. Shoemaker taught to the new inductees the concept of God being a higher power of one's own understanding, not necessarily the God of any particular scripture or religion.
Thacher, in keeping with the Oxford teachings, needed to keep his own conversion experience real by carrying the Oxford message of salvation to others. Thacher had heard that his old drinking buddy Bill 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...
was again drinking heavily. Thacher and Cornell visited Wilson at his home and introduced him to the Oxford Group's religious conversion cure. Wilson, an agnostic, was "aghast" when Thacher told him he had "got religion".
A few days later, in a drunken state, Wilson went to the Calvary Rescue Mission in search of Thacher. It was there that he attended his first Oxford Group meeting and would later describe the experience: "Penitents started marching forward to the rail. Unaccountably impelled, I started too.... Soon, I knelt among the sweating, stinking penitents... Afterward, Ebby... told me with relief that I had done all right and had given my life to God." The call to the altar did little to curb Wilson's drinking. A couple of days later, he re-admitted himself to Charles B. Towns
Charles B. Towns
Charles B. Towns was an expert on alcoholism and drug addiction who helped draft drug control legislation in the United States during the early 20th century.- Biography :...
Hospital. Wilson had been admitted to Towns hospital three times earlier, between 1933 and 1934. This would be his fourth and last stay.
Wilson did not obtain his spiritual awakening by his attendance at the Oxford Group, but at Towns Hospital. This facility was set up and run by Dr. Towns and his associate Dr. Alexander Lambert, who together had concocted a drug cocktail for the treatment of alcoholism that bordered on quackery
Quackery
Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
, known as "the Belladonna Cure". The formula cure consisted of the two deliriants Atropa belladonna and Hyoscyamus niger, which were known to cause hallucinations. Wilson had a "spiritual awakening", while being treated with these drugs. He claimed to have seen a white light and when he told his attending physician, Dr. William Silkworth
William Duncan Silkworth
William Duncan Silkworth, M.D., was an American medical doctor and specialist in the treatment of alcoholism. He was Director of the Charles B...
about his experience, he was advised not to discount it. When Wilson left the hospital he never drank again.
After his release from the Hospital, Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings and went on a mission to save other alcoholics. His prospects came through Towns Hospital and the Calvary Mission. Though he was not able to keep one alcoholic sober, he found that by engaging in the activity of trying to convert others he was able to keep himself sober. It was this realization, that he needed another alcoholic to work with, that brought him into contact with Dr. Bob Smith while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio. Earlier Wilson had been advised by Dr. Silkworth to change his approach and tell the alcoholics they suffered from a disease, one that could kill them, and afterward apply the Oxford practices. This is what he brought to Smith on their first meeting. Smith was the first alcoholic Wilson helped to sobriety. Dr. Smith and Bill W. (as he was later called) went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics 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...
.
Wilson later acknowledged: "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
AA was founded
History of Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith . Subsequently, The history of Alcoholics Anonymous has been documented in books, movies, and AA literature...
on June 10, 1935, the first day of Dr. Bob's sobriety. In 1939 James Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober. He was the last surviving person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. In September 2004, at the age of 98, Houck was still active in the group, then renamed Moral Re-Armament, and it was his mission to restore the Oxford Group's spiritual methods through the Back to Basics program, a twelve-step program similar to AA. Houck believed the old Oxford spiritual methods were stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in AA. He tried to introduce the program into the prison systems.
Houck's assessment of Wilson's time in the Oxford group: He was never interested in the things we were interested in; he only wanted to talk about alcoholism; he was not interested in giving up smoking; he was a ladies man and would brag to other members of his sexual exploits, and in Houck's opinion Wilson remained an agnostic.
Sin as a disease
The Oxford Group was the first to address sin as a disease, hence a spiritual diagnosis was called for. Confession of sin to another was a prerequisite for the spiritual conversion process to take place. Groupers viewed sin as anything that stood between the individual and God. Sin frustrated God's plan for oneself, and selfishness and self-centeredness were considered the key problem. Therefore if one could surrender the ego to God sin would go with it. The Oxford Group believed the conversion process came in stages. Early AA gained the "disease" language and the concept of the need to surrender one's will to a higher power from the Oxford Group. However, AA expanded on alcoholism as a physical problem as well as a lack of spirituality. In early AA, Bill W. nevertheless addressed the issues of sin and conversion.The AA concept of powerlessness is different from that of the Oxford Group. In AA, the bondage of an addictive disease cannot be cured, only controlled, and is a departure from the Oxford Group belief, which stressed that a spiritual conversion would bring complete victory over sin.
Recruitment practices
The Oxford Group grew massively from 1920 into the 1930s. A number of religious organizations adopted these strategies, now referred to as spiritual retreats, as well as the practice of individuals in open meetings sharing their conversion experiences.The first House Party began in China in 1918; this was to become a recognized Oxford Group approach. By the summer of 1930 the first International House Party was held at Oxford, followed by another the next year attended by 700 hundred people. By 1934 the International House Party had grown and was attended by representatives from 40 nations, and by the 1935 meeting it had grown and was attended by 50 nations, to the total of 10,000 representatives. The 1936 meeting at Birmingham drew 15,000 people and The First National Assembly held in Massachusetts drew almost 10,000 people
- The Oxford group employed teamwork. The people who were considered "changed" were considered part of the whole team. Team guidance led to the selection of smaller units to direct house parties, handle publicity, issue publications, manage bookstands, organize parades and to conduct witness.
- There were teams that traveled; many house parties featured out-of-town people who came to the party to relate their experiences in the "Group Way of Life". They tried to include celebrities on traveling teams. Attendance was by printed invitation and sent by people active in the group. In most cases the invitation would mention that prominent people would be present. Invitations were also sent to "key people” in the *community.
- House parties were held in a variety of locations: a wealthy home, at a fashionable hotel, inn, or summer resort, as well as outdoor camps, and at times held in less fashionable locations such as a college dorm. House parties were held from a weekend up to two weeks. A house party team would meet in advance for training and preparation. The teams would remain throughout the meetings and handle a number of details. Oxford Group literature was on display.
- Meetings followed no formal agenda and were not like church meetings, as singing and public prayer were absent. Time was devoted to talks by the team members on subjects such as sin, surrender, quiet time, the four absolutes, guidance, and intelligent witness. In most meetings personal sharing of experience was undertaken by a team of up to 12 or more people. The informal spirit was to set the guests at ease and allow for psychological barriers to fall. After a day or two many guests would feel uncomfortable and to release the discomfort would be encouraged by Group workers to undergo the "surrender experience".
The use of slogans
Most were coined through Buchman's quiet time; he knew slogans would catch attention, be more easily remembered and more readily repeated. They provided simple answers to problems people face in themselves and others. A few are listed below- Pray: stands for Powerful Radiograms Always Yours
- Constipated Christians
- Come clean
- Every man a force, not a field
- Interesting sinners make compelling saints
- When a man listens God speaks
- A spiritual radiophone in every home
- Sin blinds sin binds
- World changing through life-changing
- The Crows are black the world wide round (Later changed to Grass is Green, due to racist connotations while traveling in Africa)
Literature
Some of the Oxford Group literature is available online (see "References" section).For Sinners Only by Arthur James Russell was characterized as the Oxford Group "bible." { Soul Surgery By H. A. Walter, What is the Oxford Group by Layman with a Notebook, and Eight Points of the Oxford Group by C. Irving Benson.
For alcoholics there were three autobiographies by Oxford members who were active alcoholics which were published in the 1930s. These books provided accounts of the alcoholics' failed attempts to make their lives meaningful until, as a result of their Oxford membership, they found a transformation in their lives and sobriety through surrendering to God. The stories contained in Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics 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...
Big Book
The Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous)
Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism is a 1939 self-help text on alcoholism, written by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W. & Dr. Bob...
, are very similar in style to these much earlier works.
The books were The Big Bender, Life Began Yesterday and I Was Pagan by V.C. Kitchen.
Published literature critical of the Oxford Group
In 1934 Marjorie Harrison, an Episcopal Church member, published a book called Saints Run Mad that challenged the Group, its leader and their practices.Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
criticized Buchman's philosophy and pursuit of the wealthy and powerful:
Walter Houston Clark, in his book, The Oxford Group: Its History and Significance, writes of the Buchmanites living off the wealthy:
Geoffrey Williamson in his book Inside Buchmanism faulted the organization for its lack of charity
Charity (virtue)
In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.- Caritas: altruistic love :...
:
Polish author Rom Landau in his appraisal of nine cultist credited Frank Buchman with being "the most successful and shrewdest revivalist of our time", but found the movement theologically frivolous. He criticized the Oxford Group's practice of suppressing or "sublimating
Sublimation (psychology)
In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defence mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behaviour, possibly converting the initial impulse in the long term...
" the sex impulse and stated with much sarcasm that "Five 'sublimated' Arabs, Italians or Frenchmen, would prove the efficacy of Buchman's sex methods more convincingly than 500 English undergraduates."
John Haynes Holmes, pastor of the Community Church, characterized the Oxford Group movement as "revivalism for the rich and respectable" in The New York Times, in a 1934 article:
Post-war years
In the post war years Moral Re-Armament (MRA) widened its activities to provide "an ideology for democracy". In 2001, Moral Re-Armament became 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...
.
Decline of the Oxford Group
In November 1941, MRA/Oxford Group was ousted by Rev Sam ShoemakerSam Shoemaker
Sam Shoemaker, DD, STD , was an Episcopal priest who led the American branch of the Oxford Group and influenced the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, III was the rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group during...
from its New York headquarters in Manhattan's Calvary Episcopal Church. Shoemaker believed that Buchman had strayed from his principles. where "Buchmanism" was meant to make Baptists better Baptists, Catholics better Catholics. In the U.S. and Britain Buchman lost followers.
Shoemaker stated: "When the Oxford Group was, on its own definition, a movement of vital personal religion, working within the churches to make the principles of the New Testament practical as a working force today we fully identified ourselves with it," declared the Rev Shoemaker. "Certain policies and points of view, however, have arisen in the development of Moral Re-Armament about which we have had increasing misgivings."
Walter H. Clark, a master at the Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts, in doing his thesis on Buchmanism produced some findings from a questionnaire he submitted to 92 men and women who had been involved with the Oxford group for 18 years previous.
The findings were that only 12% were still active in the group.
Median income was $5000– $10000 with 28% earning over $10,000 Buchman aimed at the up and outs. 45% said the group did not benefit them intellectually 7% said it did.
People who stayed and people who left said the main benefit was emotional release, but many felt it was an emotional spree which left them distrustful of all religions.
Mrs. Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
called Mr. Stuart Woodfill, manager of the Grand Hotel on the island of Mackinac, who arranged for the Michigan State Park Commission to give a dilapidated old hotel to Frank Buchman's organization
Influences
Because of its influence on the lives of several highly prominent individuals, the Group attracted highly visible members of society, including members of the British ParliamentParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
and other European leaders, an anonymous English Duchess as well as royalty and Americans, Rowland Hazard III
Rowland Hazard III
For other persons named Rowland Hazard, see Rowland Hazard Rowland Hazard III was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies...
, the Firestone family, founders of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is an American tire company founded by Harvey Firestone in 1900 to supply pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles. The company...
of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. The Group attracted opposition from the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
), though this changed after Vatican II. 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.'. The Group grew into a well-known, informal and international network of people by the 1930s. The London newspaper editor Arthur J. Russell joined the Group after attending a meeting in 1931. He wrote For Sinners Only in 1932, which went through 17 editions in Britain alone, and was translated into many languages. It inspired the writers of God Calling.
External links
- Homepage of Initiatives of Change, successor of the Oxford Group and MRA; and its self-published timeline of the organizations' history