Joanna Sciortino Nowlan came across a school text she had written aged 10, in 1961, about MRA as “a superior ideology”. This prompted an exchange between her and a contemporary, Edward Peters.
Edward:
Joanna is more or less an exact contemporary of mine. We share similar histories: only children of MRA full-time workers, who lived in many different places during our childhood. We grew up during the 1950s and 1960s when MRA was at its height – both in terms of impact and controversy. We experienced the personal fallout from a period when children were sometimes placed second behind a cause. We also learnt the value of finding a purpose in life.
Joanna:
When I found this text among my papers recently I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry!
What is an ideology? What makes MRA the superior ideology?
An ideology is an idea. It gives us something worth living for, something that gives us peace with God, peace with man and peace with the world. That is M.R.A. Frank Buchman once said “There is enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.” That is true. If I am selfish my neighbour may go without.
M.R.A. is the superior ideology because it is governed by God and God is greater than everything. We are like battlefields in which Good and Evil, God and the Devil fight their battles. If we are honest and pure, unselfish and loving and we let God, he always wins. If you don’t let Him, He doesn’t. I read somewhere about a girl who said that when the devil came knocking at her door she was not strong enough to keep him out. But when she let God in and the devil came knocking she said to God “Would you mind answering the door for me as I am not strong enough?” and God always shut out the devil. That proves that God makes M.R.A. superior to any other ideology. “Man must choose to be governed by God or ruled by tyrants. Moral Re-armament or Communism!”
Edward:
Laugh or cry? Maybe both. I can identify with exactly you how put these things, since I did the same myself. It’s easy to look back with a bit of a shudder. Yet, nestling among the dirty stones there are some jewels. It is such a strange mix of the outrageous and the authentically true!
"Something worth living for, something that gives us peace with God, peace with man and peace with the world” is something rather precious. "If I am selfish my neighbour may go without.” Isn’t that bang on point? And I love the bit about the girl who asks God to answer the door when the devil knocks, since she is not strong enough. Rings true for me.
All this does not though "prove that God makes M.R.A. superior to any other ideology”! This is perhaps where the movement went wrong, and children like us were infected with a fundamental flaw in our thinking which spilled over into attitudes to the rest of the world which have taken decades to change.
Joanna:
Exactly. One of the things I regret most is that for many years I was unable really to make friends – because I had to ‘change’ everybody. I remember being sent to boarding school aged eight and asking, with dismay, “But do they have listen to God?” The horror of being among the great unwashed!!
Whatever may be right about what I wrote, I could not possibly have understood it. The ideas are too big for a ten year old – and it was too heavy a burden of responsibility to lay on a child, to be part of saving the world.
Edward:
Yes. I feel that we were in many ways deprived of the simplicity of childhood. I am surprised that we have turned out as ‘normal’ as we have!
Still, I am grateful for the good things we received which have certainly also enriched our life journeys. Your piece is altogether a fascinating example of what was great about MRA and what was wrong with it.
