MRA Week

"Moral Re-Armament is magnificent and magnetic. It must be universal and unanimous."--Richards Vidmer, New York Herald Tribune.

Thus read a blurb on a leaflet distributed last week in Manhattan. The leaflet was designed to publicize MRA Week, which ended on Sunday with a big Citizens' Meeting in Madison Square Garden. On its face, the blurb looked like an endorsement of the doctrines of Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, which in Europe have borne the label MRA since last summer (TIME, Sept. 19).

Actually "Dick" Vidmer, Herald Tribune sportswriter, had reported how 34 U. S. sportsmen* signed a statement: "Moral Re-Armament is a battle for peace where sportsmen must take the lead. . . . Sportsmen morally rearmed can unite the world." They signed at the urging of handsome Henry Wilfred ("Bunny") Austin, British Davis Cup tennis player, now Dr. Buchmairs chief MRA-sayer. Sportswriter Vidmer thereupon remarked that, before preaching such doctrines. U. S. sportsmen might well clean up U. S. sport. He concluded: "Moral rearmament, as it is described by the disciples who have brought it to these shores, is magnificent and magnetic, but it also is a mammoth undertaking. It must be universal and unanimous."

The sportsmen's statement, and the Buchmanites' editing of Sportswriter Vidmer's comment, were egregious examples of an Oxford Group technique which has slowly matured during the years Dr. Buchman has been at work. For Buchmanites it has not been enough to propagate, among "key people," the doctrine of God's direct and special "guidance" of his favorites, and the advantages of living according to the four Buchmanite standards of Absolute Honesty, Love, Purity and Unselfishness. The not-quite-absolutely-honest technique has also been to involve newsworthy non-Buchmanites, simply by getting them to agree publicly that the world is in a bad way, that some-thing needs to be done.

The Oxford Group has been engaged, for more than a decade, in "doing something" about the lives of its members. The Group's principle: if men are changed, nations will change, the world will change. To many Protestant churchmen--but to few Catholics (most of whom deny the reality of Buchmanite "change")--this is a praiseworthy and exciting aim. Hence many a Protestant, conscious of the unhappy shortcomings of his church, gives his support to the happy shortcuts of the Oxford Group, rather than hinder something which may do some good. Buchmanism's brisk conversions (drunks into teetotal testifiers, golfing brokers into junior wardens, black sheep into white sheep) appeal to many an earnest, evangelical modern; its vague theology does not offend his beliefs. This attitude was brilliantly exemplified in last week's Manhattan Citizens' Meeting.

In none of Dr. Buchman's earlier assaults on his native land--to which he has returned periodically after successes in England, in the small Nordic countries, and in the League of Nations when it looked like a growing concern--had so many people of importance lent their names to a Group meeting. New York's Governor Lehman, New York City's Mayor LaGuardia, Alfred E. Smith, a clutch of socialites, theatrical folk, two bishops, lesser clergy--altogether 131 people let their names be used as sponsors.

Before the Citizens' Meeting, Buchmanites arranged a CBS broadcast at which they induced Mrs. Sara Delano Roosevelt to give a Mothers' Day message to the U. S. In a one-and-a-half-minute speech the 84-year-old author of My Boy Franklin deftly lifted MRA from Dr. Buchman's lap, tossed it into U. S. motherhood's. Said she: "Only by a return to the truths--honesty, purity, unselfishness and love--which we learned at our mother's knee, can we restore unity to America and sanity to the world."

Twelve thousand people, polite and friendly, filled about two-thirds of the seats in the Garden. Around Dr. Buchman on the platform were grouped Buchmanites from overseas, and many of the sponsors of the meeting (Socialite Mrs. John Henry Hammond, Dancer Ruth St. Denis, pious Copperman Cleveland Dodge). There was some attempt at color--flags borne by marching Groupers, numerous Scotsmen in kilts, a band of Canadian bagpipers, a song by a Grouper who claimed to be a cowboy. A good part of the proceedings were wirelessed from London--speeches by the aged Marquess of Salisbury, other Britons, earnest, British, dull.

Cordell Hull, Secretary of War Woodring, Senator Wagner, Frank Murphy, Herbert Hoover--but not President Roosevelt--sent messages, which were read by one Grouper after another. Gist: "What the world needs . . . our hope lies . . . the need is urgent . . . answer to the problems. . . ." Many more messages came from bigwigs the world over. One of them, from the Netherlands Foreign Minister, had been distributed in mimeograph to the press; Dr. Buchman read it as if it were very special, said it had "just come."

Dr. Buchman made no attempt to move the Citizens' Meeting to tears or cheers. He seemed content, in Grouper fashion, to rest his case on the messages, the personal testimonials of the willowy young son-of- a-lord, the Buchmanite baroness, the reformed agitator, the Scottish-burred dockyard worker, the other veteran testifiers. Static, almost apathetic so far as outsiders could see, the meeting ended with the Lord's Prayer. Once more Dr. Buchman had demonstrated what most good men know, that the world needs God's help. Moral Re-Armament Week was over. The next day it was Monday morning.

* Among them: Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Grantland Rice, Gene Tunney, Bobby Jones, Glenn Cunningham, Devereux Milburn. Polo-player Milburn was unaware that the document had anything to do with religion. Another sportsman-signer inquired: "Is this an outgrowth of Buchmanism?" was told by 'Bunny" Austin: "No."

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