Methods Revealed

Russell Barbour lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he is a member of the local human relations commission.

In August, 1961, four MRA agents approached the commission. They wanted endorsement for an Easton showing of a new MRA film called "The Crowning Experience."

"They began," Barbour afterwards wrote, "by indicating that the mayor of Easton had received them with open arms and was a devotee of their cause—a claim which, we later discovered, did not square with the facts."

Barbour and his fellow commissioners finally gave the film their endorsement, a formality that they supposed ended their dealings with the MRA men.

"In the light of what has happened since," Barbour says, "the general opinion is that we let ourselves be taken in."

"We found ourselves exposed to continual harassment by MRA teams seeking to convert us," he reported. "With something less than good manners (the MRA members) insinuated themselves and managed to obtain from us food and lodging."

"They claimed—erroneously and to our embarassment—that we had sponsored and paid for the dinner that preceded the showing of the film."

"Without authorisation they sent out invitations to the dinner over our chairman's name."

"But this was only the beginning. In MRA publications and in regular news media there appeared statements reputedly made by local community leaders, all in support of the movement."

"The catch; these leaders had never made these statements. A barrage of name-dropping ... developed. We were deluged with testimonials, presumably from the lips of world leaders from U Nu of Burma to Robert Kennedy. Our experience led us to doubt the authenticity of these quotations."

Mr. Barbour also deals with an MRA press release on what was going on in Easton. He documents, point by point, and refutes, half a dozen lies which it contained.

This press release reported a triumph for the MRA film and the MRA agents who had brought about its showing.

—With acknowledgements to "The Christian Century" and "MacLean's"