Frank Buchman's Secret (1962)

Book Review from the June 1962 issue of the Socialist Standard

When Geoffrey Williamson wrote his assessment of Moral Rearmament in 1954, he certainly was not exaggerating when he complained of " excessive adulation," of the founder, Frank Buchman. He had this to say:

  His followers revere him, rush to do his slightest bidding, and quote his most commonplace utterances as if they were fraught with inspired meaning . . .

Well, Dr. Buchman died in Germany at the beginning of August last year, and now comes the latest book about him, Frank Buchman’s Secret, by Peter Howard (Heinemann). The spiel on the dust cover tells us the book is not concerned with praise, but don't you believe it. Posthumous adoration oozes stickily from practically every page. And although Mr. Howard's opening words positively assert that there was a secret in Frank Buchman's life, he does not seem inclined to share it with us. In spite of close and diligent attention, we are not, in fact, much wiser at the end. than we were at the beginning.

We can, of course, guess at this secret. Was it perhaps the shrewd knack which Buchman had of finding chinks in the emotional armour of those who "came to scoff but stayed to praise”? There are any number of stories in the book pointing to this. Or was it, as Williamson has put it, that the Doctor had a flair for publicity and a gift for inspiring others with a zeal often more fanatical than his own? Probably we shall never really know, but the man was clever without a doubt.

There is nothing really new to learn from this latest book—nothing which has not been told already in the countless works published on MRA. In a series of anecdotes, we are taken over the same old ground covering Buchman's early days as a Lutheran Minister in USA, his quarrel with the governors of a boys' hostel and his visit to England, where many years later in 1938, he launched his movement. It is claimed that its support is now numbered in millions, although no reliable figures are available because MRA does not keep an official membership roll.

No doubt MRA has had some influence in World affairs, and during his lifetime Buchman rubbed shoulders with all sorts of statesmen and politicians. But we would have to let our credulity get really out of hand to accept the sweeping claims which are dotted here and there throughout the book. Were you aware, for example, that Buchman and his boys have ". . . played an unseen but effective part in international agreements," helped decisively to settle the Cyprus, Congo and Moroccan problems, stopped the 1960 Tokyo Youth Riots, and brought about “the new accord and understanding between Germany and France." All this on a diet of "God Guidance," and absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness and love.

The truth is, of course, that the world is pretty much the same now as it was when Dr. Buchman arrived on the scene. Despite Mr. Howard's hollow optimism and MRA's political dabbling, it is still very much a Capitalist world with all the rivalries and hatreds associated with it. One crisis is settled—at least for the lime being and with or without MRA's help—and is quickly succeeded by another in gruesome procession. These are the uncomfortable facts MRA and its founder have always ignored. Right to within a few hours of his death, Buchman was repeating his empty catchwords, “ I want to see the world governed by men governed by God. . . ." The possibility of a world without governors of any kind never occurred to him.

Eddie Critchfield