Buchman, Veriede (founder of The Fellowship) and Dominionism

[AntiFascist]

As this "Herescope" blogsite entry indicates, there is a section of Jeffrey Sharlet's book "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" which outlines Frank Buchman's influence on the founding principles of the Fellowship:

http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/early-experiential-emergents.html

The following brief excerpt reveals not only how the two men first met, but also gives indications of the Dominionism and the mystical hyper-pietism that would characterize both men and their subsequent movements.

In the early 1930s, he and Abram crossed paths…. The two met, and Abram suggested to Buchman that he come on with Goodwill as a chaplain, to infuse the organization with his ‘life-changing’ evangelical fervor. Buchman answered by proposing a Quiet Time.

Besides confession of sexual sin, Quiet Time was the core practice of Buchmanism: a half-hour-long period of silence in which the believer waited for “Guidance” from God. Guidance was more than a warm feeling. It came in the form of direct orders and touched on every subject of concern, from the transcendent to the mundane.... Guidance meant not just spiritual direction but declaring one’s own decisions as divinely inspired....

“What did God say to you?” Buchman asked Abram when their Quiet Time was completed. Abram believed he had heard God’s voice several times in his life, and had even considered the possibility that he might be a prophet, but he had not yet been exposed to the idea that God spoke to men regularly and in detail. “He didn’t say anything,” Abram confessed, disappointed.

Well, Buchman replied, God had spoken to him. “God told me, ‘Christianize what you have. You have something to share.’”

Blander words no Sunday school teacher ever spoke, but to Abram they seemed like a revelation….

Thereafter he transformed his daily prayer ritual into Buchmanite Quiet Time. And, soon enough, God filled the silence with instructions: go forth, he said, and build cells for my cause like Buchman’s.

…When Buchman spoke of Christianity’s “new illumination,” “a new social order under the dictatorship of the Spirit of God” that would transform politics and eradicate the conflict of capital and labor, Abram took him literally. (pp. 126-8)

Buchman opposed both Communism and Fascism, but he was first and foremost an anti-Communist. He had tried to meet with Adolph Hitler in order try to convert him. According to this Wikipedia entry he is credited with making these pro-fascist statements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buchman

"I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism"

"…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."

[sam sarrha]

1. Palin's a Dominionist.. we almost had that...School kids say'n the Pledge of Allegiance in Tongues.!

[unapatriciated]

2. I found this an interesting post from 2005

veriede plotted against roosevelt, he feared and hated the workers movement and unions.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3063754

[AntiFascist]

3. Thanks for that unapatriciated!

"As with today’s Fellowship, Vereide and Buchman were merely front men for anti-Socialist big businesses who hid behind the façade of a Christian evangelical movement."

It seems like things haven't really changed all that much in 80 years.