If it were not for New York City's "Oxford Group," clearly there would be no Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous today. The Fellowship exists in 154 countries in the world, devoid of controversial positions, politics and religious opinion; it is open to all faiths, and to the agnostic and the atheist.
The "12 Steps," as written by Bill Wilson in 1939 (photo with wife, Lois, right), contain Step 1, the problem, which was diagnosed for the first time by William Silkworth M.D., a New York physician, who worked at the Charles Townes Hospital in Manhattan. Step 2, the solution to the problem.. a "spiritual awakening," was arrived at by one of the most influential psychiatrists of the twentieth century, Karl Jung. Steps 3 through 12, seeking the solution by taking action, all came from reworking fundamentals taken from and inspired by New York's Oxford Group, intellectuals who gathered at Manhattan's Calvary Episcopal Church in an attempt to remove religion from spirituality by focusing on the writings of the first century Christians, ie, before Christianity became a "religion." What was-to-become The Fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous had a brief but essential interaction with the Oxford Group for approximately three years, and because the Oxford Group were non-alcoholics, the alcoholic new-comers were called "The Drunk Squad of the Oxford Group" before the “12 Steps” were written down. The “12 Steps” came from Dr. Wm. Silkworth, Dr. Karl Jung, and New York City’s "Oxford Group." None of these sources were alcoholic.
That being said, as to the premise.. the “Oxford Group” Christian movement that had a following in Europe and America in the 1920’s and 30’s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Dr. Frank Buchman, of Swiss descent (photo below). In 1908 he claimed a conversion experience in a chapel in K
eswick, England, and later he initiated a movement called “A First Century Christian Fellowship” in 1921, and by 1931, this had grown into a movement which attracted thousands of adherents, many well-to-do, which became known as the “Oxford Group.”
The "12 Steps," as written by Bill Wilson in 1939 (photo with wife, Lois, right), contain Step 1, the problem, which was diagnosed for the first time by William Silkworth M.D., a New York physician, who worked at the Charles Townes Hospital in Manhattan. Step 2, the solution to the problem.. a "spiritual awakening," was arrived at by one of the most influential psychiatrists of the twentieth century, Karl Jung. Steps 3 through 12, seeking the solution by taking action, all came from reworking fundamentals taken from and inspired by New York's Oxford Group, intellectuals who gathered at Manhattan's Calvary Episcopal Church in an attempt to remove religion from spirituality by focusing on the writings of the first century Christians, ie, before Christianity became a "religion." What was-to-become The Fellowship of Alcoholic Anonymous had a brief but essential interaction with the Oxford Group for approximately three years, and because the Oxford Group were non-alcoholics, the alcoholic new-comers were called "The Drunk Squad of the Oxford Group" before the “12 Steps” were written down. The “12 Steps” came from Dr. Wm. Silkworth, Dr. Karl Jung, and New York City’s "Oxford Group." None of these sources were alcoholic.
That being said, as to the premise.. the “Oxford Group” Christian movement that had a following in Europe and America in the 1920’s and 30’s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Dr. Frank Buchman, of Swiss descent (photo below). In 1908 he claimed a conversion experience in a chapel in K
eswick, England, and later he initiated a movement called “A First Century Christian Fellowship” in 1921, and by 1931, this had grown into a movement which attracted thousands of adherents, many well-to-do, which became known as the “Oxford Group.” The name itself, "Oxford Group," originated in South Africa 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.
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, and the change must change others.
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. "I thank Heaven for a man like Adolph Hitler, 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 that Hitler Nazis’ does Antisemitism. Bad, naturally. I suppose Hitler sees a Karl Marx in every Jew. But think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to the control of God? Or Mussolini? 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 dictatorship 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!"
By the end of the 1930s’ the "Oxford 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), and it became the movement's new name.
Karl Jung (photo on right) became aware of the Oxford Group in the 1920's when Alphonse Maeder, 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 Oxford Group could have for someone with the psychoanalytic sophistication of Maeder. For a time Jung was respectful of Maeder's convictions, but when his relationship with Maeder deteriorated in the late 1930’s, his attitude toward the Oxford Group also became more negative.
In November 1941, Moral Re-Armament/Oxford Group was ousted by Rev. Sam Shoemaker 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. "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."In 1946, Moral Re-Armament (MRA) bought and restored a large, derelict hotel at Caux in Switzerland, and this became a center for reconciliation across Europe, bringing together thousands including German Chancellor Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman.
After Buchman's death in 1961, Peter Howard 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 on Mackinac Island, Michigan.Moral Re-Armament crusaded in Holland, featuring big newspaper ads written by Howard, condemning the spread of homosexuality ("It can be cured").
In 2001, Moral Re-Armament became “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. The organization is committed to transforming society, beginning with change in individual lives and relationships.
These tenets are a continuation of those of the organization's predecessor, Moral Re-Armament, launched in 1938, from what was The Oxford Group. The name "Initiatives of Change," adopted in 2001, reflects the emphasis of the organization in effecting social change beginning with personal change.
