How an American idea influenced Swiss morality

The Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, formerly Moral Rearmament, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. swissinfo.ch looks at an international evangelical and anti-communist movement which has left its mark on Swiss conservatives – both before and after the Cold War. It was during the first half of the 20th century, when the West was at war and in crisis, that an American evangelist had an idea that would develop into the Moral Rearmament movement.  Frank Buchman (1878-1961) was convinced he had the solution to saving the world from the torments it was going through. In the 1930s, he and his followers founded the Oxford Group, which played a role in the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. But Buchman, a man with conviction and Swiss roots, didn’t plan on stopping there. Faced with what he saw as the vices of capitalism and devil-led projects of atheists, he stressed the need for a “moral rearmament”. In 1938, that became the official name of the ...