One hundred years later it is difficult to grasp the sacrificial commitment and deep sense of calling that pervaded Frank Buchman’s work starting late in the 1920’s.
The devastating world depression, following the First World War had left deep scars but also showed that people of all kinds of different backgrounds, could and would, work and sacrifice for a common goal. Great ideas were born that caught the imagination of multitudes of people who had known hunger, hardship and suffering. Communism and fascism with its offspring Nazism took hold. But another idea had also taken hold in the West. Materialism had become the ideology and was the underlying factor in western thinking. Scientific progress, industrial progress and material progress became goals in themselves and were embraced by all the main western nations. While hatred and revenge were the underlying motives in communism and fascism they did have the effect of stirring passions into action. Materialism’s motive was mainly based on the desire for progress for the sake of comfort and ease for the masses but had no such effect on the passions. And so it was that no great idea was in operation to resist and successfully replace communism or fascism which was gripping the world.
In the spring of 1938 Frank Buchman was invited to Norway by the president of the League of Nations who was also the president of the Norwegian parliament at that time. He had invited Buchman to meet a selection of people who represented all walks of Norwegian life: church, industry, culture, journalism, labour, bosses and ordinary families. A tourist hotel had been booked for a ’house-party’ but although the Prime Minister only invited a hundred people, over one thousand came. They ended up sleeping in their cars, in neighbouring cottages and at nearby farms in order to take part in the daytime conference!
Buchman spoke there about the need for change in the world. His idea was that if you want to see the world different you’ve got to start with yourself and put right what is wrong in your own life. People saw the point and committed themselves to putting things right in their own lives. Many became brutally honest about tax evasion and sent money to the tax authorities that they had evaded paying. Millions of kronor were returned, which was a lot of money in those days. The authorities had no way of accounting for it so a special department and system for receiving it was created. In the press they said that in the 3 months since that meeting in the tourist hotel, the Oxford Group, as they called Buchman’s group, had changed life in Norway. This was news everywhere and even spoken of in London.
Signe’s parents were at that meeting and were captivated by Buchman’s ideas. They put things right in their own lives. Signe never knew what they did, but they sent a book to her in Stockholm called For Sinners Only, written by a well-known English journalist which commanded her attention. ”I read it from cover to cover in one go. It felt as though this was what I had been looking for all my life and I wanted to meet that man Buchman!” She heard that he was to speak on the island of Visby in Sweden and set out to get an invitation.
This conference was planned for people from the Baltic countries and was an attempt to avert another war from breaking out. These smaller nations had hatred and hurts that could easily be ignited. Meanwhile, the major powers were engaged in an armaments race giving a clear sense that something was still not right in Germany or England, at least under the surface. Buchman was launching the idea that what the world really needed was moral and spiritual re-armament, not military re-armament.
Signe manaaged to get an invitation to Visby and booked a single room – just to be sure she didn’t get too involved in something that she would regret! But this visit was to become a turning point in her life. The conference was held within the ancient ruins of Visby. She heard people tell of the changes that had taken place in their lives or in their situations. People had come from many other parts of the world and she heard about the changes that resulted from personal steps in change. She began to see that here was something that could bring about change without violence, without war, without hatred and without organization. She could see how this could happen spontaneously through contact between people and give results whenever the simple guiding principles that Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group spoke about, were put into action in people’s private and even public lives.
A young Finnish soldier spoke at Visby about how he had suffered under Sweden’s occupation of Finland and how he had sworn never to speak Swedish again. This was at the time when Sweden had taken over the administration of Finland, when school had to be taught in both Swedish and Finnish. Everything including street signs and notices had to be written in both languages. He felt the loss of their national integrity and pride very keenly. But when he came to Visby and heard how change in people’s lives had created miracles of unity, he decided to give up his hatred of Sweden and demonstrated it by telling his story in Swedish.
This brought Signe to think of her friend Hans, the German SS officer. She wrote him a letter, telling about what she had learnt in Visby. She said that she thought he would find something here that would satisfy him. By return post she got a 19-page letter explaining why she was wrong and he was right. He sent her a copy of Mein Kampf, Hitler’s manifesto of what he was really out to do. Signe was shocked. She had realized that what was happening in Germany was very bad and this was why she had left. As she read what Hans wrote she realized that what was happening in Germany was even worse than she had grasped when she was there. It was massive.
Signe realized in Visby, that each individual has the responsibility to live in such a way that makes peace possible. She felt she needed to ask forgiveness of people that she had wronged and once she had done this she felt as if she had touched an electric current and was walking on air exclaiming ”I felt lit up inside. I realized that power comes from operating according to the natural laws that exist both in the spiritual and natural world. If you go against these laws or principles, you create trouble and this leads to chaos in the end.”
Buchman invited Arthur Strong to cover this conference in Visby and during this visit he met Signe by chance when he was setting up a photo of the young participants on a mound in the ruins of Visby. He was struck by Signe’s beauty and wanted to place her first in the row – but figured that someone might question his motives so he placed her as a safe number three! During the conference, Signe noticed that a small red boat arrived from Sweden each morning to pick up the latest news report from the conference, with the photos that Arthur had developed and printed during the night. These were published daily in the Swedish press. Arthur’s photos of Buchman’s work with the Oxford Group were also being distributed by Associated Press (AP) and Camera Press and eventually published all over the world.
During the winter of 1938-39 Signe joined other young people in Stockholm and Uppsala who were experimenting with the ideas they had learnt in Visby. But the elation and new discovery soon led Signe to overdo it and she saw the old pattern of sleep deprivation and exhaustion repeating itself. Neither Signe or her family understood the cause of her health issues but her parents were always caring and thoughtfully met her needs. In the spring of 1939 they suggested that she come home to Norway and arranged for her to stay at a farm in the country where she could rest up. She had spent very little of her life in Norway and followed this up time with her family who were now back in Norway and living at Thomas Heftyesgate. In hindsight this was the last time she spent with her family for a very long time and these were precious times, particularly with her youngest sister Lillan who was now 12.
The world was deeply aware of the dangers of authoritarianism after World War I and yet on February 20 1939 American Nazis held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden attended by over 20,000 people who came to hear about “true Americanism”. The event was held on a stage that featured a huge portrait of Washington in his Continental Army uniform flanked by swastikas. Buchman was meanwhile convinced that moral re-armament would be America’s way to meet the crisis and assert a positive influence in the world instead of concentrating solely on USA’s own welfare, as had been the case. He booked Madison Square Garden and invited an international team to join him and his American team to present moral and spiritual re-armament as the alternative to focusing on the military re-armament.
It was with foresight that Buchman brought a large team to America in the Spring of 1939. Most of this team had experienced one world war first hand and were deeply committed to remaking the world and forging a pattern for peace. Together they were striving to influence the events that were escalating so horrifically in Europe and awaken the American people to the battle of good and evil going on in the world.
The situation in North America was unlike that of the rest of the world. North America was coming to the end of a 10 year drought and massive environmental crisis that had devastated their overfarmed and overgrazed lands. This dustbowl was the result of severe winds that had whipped across the plains and eroded the earth into billowing clouds of dust. The sky could darken for days and thick layers of dust could be seen on the furniture of well-sealed homes. The ecology and agriculture of America and Canada was severely damaged causing hunger due to a lack of food and work during the 1930s. America was now in the middle of a big industrial boom to restore the economic setbacks and food shortages of the dustbowl and was not interested in supporting their Allies of World War I in a second world war. Meanwhile, massive Nazi rallies promoting Americanism were being held in the US as America embarked on an internal battle for expansion making materialism rampant in the States.
Signe was one of 100 Scandinavians who received an invitation to join Buchman in America. Signe’s parents had of course met Buchman in Norway and were understanding despite the fact that she had interrupted a career as a commercial artist which they had made possible with an extensive and expensive education. So the family were there on the quay to wave them all off on the 8-day boat trip from Oslo to New York. In those days it was quite an experience to travel on a steamship. There was a real restaurant where you were served but if you needed to rest you could stay in bed and if you could stomach it you could order a tray of food. Signe was horribly seasick but one day when she and her bunkmate were recovering, she ordered a breakfast tray. “When the waitress came, she tipped the whole tray into my bunk – coffee, porridge and all! The poor girl was probably feeling sick herself!” That trip was a good way for these 100 Scandinavians to get to know eachother and arrive as a team. This was also the beginning of life-long friendships.
Arthur was also invited to support this event and help to reach the Press. Signe was asked to go and meet Arthur at the boat when he arrived from England, as he had some lettering for her to do immediately. It was for the panels on billboards that he had brought with him to announce the 7-14 May Moral Re-Armament week in New York, culminating a ”Citizens Meeting” at Madison Square Garden on May 14th.
Signe set to work finishing the posters and big billboards for the meeting. Signs reading Moral Re-Armament the world’s security and MRA – a race with time to remake men and nations were posted around the arena. And 14 000 people came to hear their message. Signe and Arthur were expressing the workability of Buchmans strategy for a Hate free, Fear free, Greed free America on the billboards that they were creating to spread the news. And despite the mood in America it was MRA’s idealism and practical personal steps of change that appealed to the American people who finally saw something to hang on to. Something that they could do. Something that made sense once it had been gathered into a workable idea.
The members of the task force who came from Europe had little or no contact with their families throughout the war. This is hard to conceive in an age when we can be in regular contact with loved ones via cellphones or the internet. The work Buchman started that year kept the task-force busy in the US for the 7 years of World War II and for many of this team, it lasted their whole lives.
Buchman’s arrival in America with this multinational force made it clear that a mobile, integrated team of that size was a formidable instrument in the implementing of the vision that God had given Buchman earlier that he would be instrumental in remaking the world. The young men and women he had enlisted and worked with in Oxford, Cambridge, Holland, Switzerland and Scandinavia were now ready to tackle the big and bold programme and they developed teams within the press, labour, industry, stage and art all over the country in close coordination with Buchman and a central overall plan.
As the summer passed things looked worse regarding war in Europe. In America materialism was rampant and isolationism firmly part of American politics with no involvement in Europe’s troubles. USA was rapidly becoming aware of its power as a world leader in car and aviation production and in the agricultural export market. Frank’s vision was that America could give Europe, and the world the idea of a God inspired democracy. Communism and Nazism were already capturing the minds of the youth and the leadership of the country. Frank saw that dictatorship with materialism at its heart would mean the end of civilisation. Devastating industrial strikes, and bad land management had led to great dustbowls where rich green fields had previously existed. Enormous pressure was put on those who dared to challenge the ruthless drive for wealth and power which prevailed but Buchman’s vision and boldness captivated people of great calibre.
Many of Signe’s European colleagues planned to return home after the three months were up. Signe’s father sent her money for her fare home and one day Signe told Buchman that she felt it was time for her to go home too. He looked out into the distance for a while and then he looked at her and suggested that she stay a little longer. He didn’t say much but he had touched something in her heart that was big and beyond her and deep inside she responded positively. Already in Visby he had inspired her to take a decision to start this uncertain journey of getting to know herself, of being honest, and to begin the practice of listening to her inner guiding voice and she sought that guidance now. After that time with Buchman Signe went home to her lodgings and cried. They were tears of relief because in her heart she felt that she should stay, but they were also tears of pain because she was afraid that she might never see her family or country again. At least not for long time. Signe longed to go home to her family and spend time in her home country Norway now that her family was living there again. Growing up as she had in Sweden, she had never had the opportunity to really get to know Norway apart from brief family visits to Sulitjelma and Horten. It was one of the biggest decisions she had ever made. This was right after the initial three months and when all the other Scandinavians left for home Signe stayed in America. The money for the fare was used on dentist bills instead.
Anmäl till blogginlägg
