GREAT BRITAIN: Return of the Prophet

The Buchmanites were excited. "Dr. Buchman's return is naturally something we are worked up about,"explained one, frantically dusting the Oxford Group's headquarters in Berkeley Square. The old "Soul Surgeon"—who looks like Gandhi fully clothed and well fed on the very best melted butter—was back after seven years.

Tom Driberg, cocky Daily Express columnist (pen name: William Hickey) and leftist M.P., was excited too. Buchman, he protested in the House of Commons, was nothing but a "soapy racketeer who never repudiated his admiration for Hitler and Himmler." Before the war his MRA (Moral Re-Armament) had been surrounded by an...