The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Moral Re-Armament And Its Critics Since last summer, a well-nigh worldwide discussion has raged about the achievements and character of the Moral Re-Armament...
...In formulating a reply to this attack, representatives of MRA have gathered testimony from trade-union leaders of more than twenty countries...
...It is disturbing to note that the charges made against MRA by the secretariat of the anti-Communist ICFTU have been picked up by Moscow...
...The Frenchmen and Germans told me about some things that sounded strange...
...It was said to have encouraged "yellow" unions...
...It soon became evident, moreover, that the ICFTU had never heard of the attack until it was sprung and could take no responsibility for it...
...And this brings me to what seems one of the strong points about MRA...
...It was alleged that its members interfered with the operation of trade unions...
...There has been attack and vigorous response...
...In the first place, the whole indictment was presented as the result of an investigation undertaken at the request of the Socialist unions of India...
...I have talked with MRA unionists from Germany, France, England and America...
...As to the second point, the matter of finances: There is no mystery about them...
...Buchman's followers have made such a deep impression in India, Pakistan and other Asian lands...
...Everywhere, the MRA people work with the regular unions...
...As far as I can see, the Buchmanites have little that any Christian church does not have or cannot have...
...That was last September 15...
...Maybe Mr...
...Its finances were denounced as mysterious and open to suspicion...
...The charges had been formulated by the secretariat and had never been presented to the Stockholm congress...
...These facts were attested by prominent trade-union officials from various countries who had been present at Stockholm and had participated in the actions of the congress and the executive board...
...In America, for example, they are handled by a non-profit body incorporated in the State of New York...
...But I am certainly not opposed to it...
...As to the notion that MRA representatives have interfered with the operation of trade unions, I can give some testimony myself...
...But it seems to me that Jesus Christ put it better nearly two thousand years ago...
...These people propose to do away with the class struggle and international wars by spreading truth, honesty, purity, unselfishness, love...
...It seems to me that, on the whole, the men and women of MRA have come out of the conflict with colors flying...
...At any rate, MRA has an advantage over the churches in this matter of the approach to the Orient...
...That may be rather an original idea...
...Since the third annual congress of the ICFTU had been held in Stockholm in July, it was generally taken for granted that this represented the considered opinion of the whole organization...
...But as time wore on and new facts came to light, their impact has tended to fade...
...He went further and gave the MRA great credit for the fine work which it had done in supporting trade unions in Asia and Europe...
...Its leaders were described as dictators...
...That is all fine...
...Four main charges were leveled against MRA...
...They all testify that MRA influence has strengthened their organizations...
...They reported labor negotiations which had been ended quickly, peaceably and to the satisfaction of the unions because the employers had come under the influence of MRA...
...In fact, they had barely been introduced at a meeting of the executive board...
...Members in all the various countries reporting testify that the organization is run democratically...
...On the contrary, they advocate moral principles about which all of the great world religions are agreed...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Moral Re-Armament And Its Critics Since last summer, a well-nigh worldwide discussion has raged about the achievements and character of the Moral Re-Armament movement...
...This sort of thing still sounds to me too good to be true...
...Each year, they are audited and subject to public inspection...
...Buchman and his friends will tell me that MRA is trying to practice what Jesus Christ taught...
...Its people do not approach Mohammedans and Hindus as representatives of a rival sect...
...But Sibnath Banerjee, president of these 800,000-strong unions, denied as soon as he could that he or anyone else representing his organization had ever made such a request...
...Perhaps it will be in the cementing of East and West that they will perform their most important service...
...They have long considered the Orient their special preserve, but now these people seem to have just the right password for that area...
...These charges, apparently launched with the backing of so respected an organization, created a great impression in many parts of the world...
...The writers in Pravda seem especially disturbed because Mr...
...The argument started with a blast by the secretariat of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions...
...With regard to the "yellow" union charge, numbers of them draw attention to the fact that no examples are given—and they agree that they have never heard of any case which could be adduced as evidence...
Vol. 37 • February 1954 • No. 7
