Distinguished Leaders Now Using the New Class

Distinguished Leaders Now Using

“Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery”

by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010)


Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, Inc., Christian treatment program, San Juan Capistrano

New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc., Christian treatment, training, and counseling, Huntington Beach

Robert Turner, M.D., professor, Neurologist, Medical University of South Carolina

Father Bill Wigmore, ordained Episcopal priest, President and CEO of the largest treatment complex in Texas

Serenity Group, Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California

Serenity Place, Inc., and Won Way Out Christian Recovery Program, Bill Boyles, CEO, Dover and Wyoming, Delaware

Anonymous Men's Step Study Leader, Honolulu, Hawaii

Anonymous A.A. historian and researcher, East Coast of the United States

Anonymous A.A./N.A. historian, interning alcohol and drug counselor, State of New York

Anonymous Christian A.A. history student, Ohio

Anonymous Christian recovery worker, Orange County, California

Bill Wilson Discussing Jesus Christ

Bill Wilson Discussing Jesus Christ

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved


Wow! Wow! and Wow!

Despite all the protests that Bill Wilson never wrote of Jesus Christ, and despite those who have spurned Bill’s statement about the “Lord” and “cure” on page 191 of the Big Book, most don’t realize the truth of what we found and recorded in our recent title, The Conversion of Bill W. (www.DickB.com/Conversion.shtml).

Now, thanks to a phone call with an assiduous A.A. history researcher and friend on the East Coast, our attention was called to a letter Bill wrote—dated 1940—and published in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, As Bill Sees It (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976). Thanks to our friend. And blessings to the readers.

114
No Personal Power

“At first, the remedy for my personal difficulties seemed so obvious that I could not imagine any alcoholic turning the proposition down were it properly presented to him. Believing so firmly that Christ can do anything, I had the unconscious conceit to suppose that He would do everything through me—right then and in the manner I chose. After six long months, I had to admit that not a soul had surely laid hold of the Master—not excepting myself.

“This brought me to the good healthy realization that there were plenty of situations left in the world over which I had no personal power—that if I was so ready to admit that to be the case with alcohol, so I must make the same admission with respect to much else. I would have to be still and know that He, not I, was God.”

LETTER, 1940



DickB@DickB.com

www.DickB.com

Gloria Deo

A.A. and Surveys of Its Success Rates

A.A. and Surveys of Its Success Rates

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

In order to get correct statistics on the success rates of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a searcher needs first to decide on the period and the program for which information is sought. Thus, if we are talking about the original A.A. “Christian fellowship” program founded in Akron in 1935, there are many recorded statistics relating to the 75% success rate early A.A. claimed among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the original Akron Alcoholics Anonymous program, and the documented 93% success rate for early A.A. in Cleveland. [Please see Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed. (2010) for details: www.DickB.com.]

As to later years, the statistics available to date have been mostly speculative, but indicate a low success rate. Why do I say most modern surveys of A.A. success rates have been “speculative?” My reasons include: (1) that the surveys were not done on a sound statistical basis; (2) the Alcoholics Anonymous population is constantly changing; and (3) many modern surveys of A.A. rates are skewed by those who can’t or won’t define the differences between the original Akron A.A. program founded by Bill W. and Dr. Bob beginning in the summer of 1935, the significantly-changed Alcoholics Anonymous program presented in the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (“the Big Book”) in April 1939, and the much-more-changed situation existing in A.A. at the time the Second Edition of the Big Book was published in 1955, several years after both Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Dr. Bob and his wife Anne had died.

DickB@Dickb.com

www.DickB.com

Gloria Deo

Our Ministry to Christian Trainers and Trainees of the Recovery Arena

Our ministry to Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery: We want to arm the trainers and trainees with accurate, truthful facts about the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in the origins, founding, original program, and successes of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935. The... message is for AAs, NAs, 12 Steppers, Counselors, Program directors, facilitators for homeless, corrections, sober living, Christian recovery groups and programs, and Christian treatment programs.
God is still alive and well in recovery, and the afflicted and their trainers need to know it.
www.dickb.com/realhistory.shtml

Our Pilot Class is Running Successfully at Pacific Hills

Great news about Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, Inc. (at San Juan Capistraon) and its Christian treatment program. Pacific Hills has now been presenting the Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class with success for about two months. And we were told today that they are happy with the results. Onward and upward. Aloha, Dick B.

It's time to sign up for the new class

The “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” Class

By Dick B. and Ken B. (2010) on four DVD's



Yes, Dick . . . I hear you, but how many messages will you be sending about my signing up for the new “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class by Dick B. and Ken B. on four DVD's?

Answer . . . As many as it takes to make sure all the International Christian Recovery Coalition leaders, advisors, and participants know that the time has come to let alcoholics, addicts, and others who still suffer know just how much God loves them and just how much that mattered in the victories of the early A.A. pioneers.

Sooooooo . . . If you have a passion for loving and serving others by supplying the exact facts; and if you want to employ our “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class to train the trainers and help the runners, we’d welcome your call:

1. Call Ken B. for an application or information: (808) 276-4945.
2. Call Dick B. for a lengthy phone conversation: (808) 874-4876.
3. Make a choice, fill out the application, and get started!


God Bless, Dick B.

DickB@DickB.com
www.DickB.com

Gloria Deo

Support for “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” Class Instructors

Support for “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” Class Instructors

By Ken B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
One of our major focuses is on "training the trainers." In fact, that is the subtitles of one of my dad's books:
Real Twelve Step Fellowship History: The Old School A.A. You May Not Know: Training the Trainers by Dick B.

That book is one of the 29 titles included in the "Dick B. Christian Recovery Reference Set" that we recommend to groups hosting the “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” (“IFCR”) class.

Here are some of the resources we make available to help train and support class instructors who will present the IFCR class:

1. Each student has access to a Class Guide for Students which presents many of the key points covered in the IFCR class. This makes it possible for the students both to see and hear the material on the DVD's, and to read along in the Class Guide for Students. (Because the students can watch the DVD's and follow along in the Class Guide for Students, the class instructors do not have to do a great deal of teaching and don't have to "master" the material to the extent a teacher presenting the material "live" would need to do.)

2. The class instructors have access to the Class Instructor's Guide which includes a considerable amount of background material relating to the IFCR class, the complete text of the Class Guide for Students, questions and answers for each of the four class sessions, and "transcripts" from the audio version of the IFCR class. The Class Instructor's Guide provides the key materials class instructors will need to present the class effectively.

3. We provide to the class instructors access to The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010) which includes very considerable background information for the IFCR and specific documentation for just about all the statements of an historical nature made in the IFCR class. The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide represents our best effort to date to consolidate in one place the key findings of our 20 years of research into the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes. And the third edition was prepared in conjunction with our putting together the audio and video versions of the IFCR class, so The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., is closely aligned with the IFCR class.

4. IFCR class instructors associated with groups, programs, or ministries who choose to purchase “The Dick B. Christian Recovery Reference Set”—see the center column of the www.DickB.com front page for more information—will have access to 29 key volumes by the “unofficial historian of A.A.,” Dick B., on early A.A.'s astonishing successes. These titles provide a nearly-exhaustive presentation of the roles played by GOD, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the 75% success rate early A.A. claimed among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable," "last-gasp-case," "real" alcoholics who thoroughly followed the original Akron A.A. "Christian fellowship" program developed by A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob beginning in the summer of 1935. Much of the thoroughly-documented historical information contained in these titles is almost unknown outside of the people to whom Dick B. has been sharing over the past 20 years.

5. My dad and I also make ourselves available by phone, email, and regular mail to answer a reasonable amount of godly questions relating to the IFCR class from class instructors (after they have studied the Class Instructor's Guide and The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.).

6. If items 1-5 above still don't answer godly questions from IFCR class instructors relating to the IFCR class, my dad and I are available on a paid consulting basis to handle further questions.

I hope this brief review of resources that my dad (Dick B.) and I make available to IFCR class instructors will help with your presentation of the IFCR class. You can reach me (Ken B.) by email at kcb00799@gmail.com or by phone at (808) 276-4945. Please remember that 2:00 PM on the east coast of the U.S. is 8:00 AM in Hawaii, and 11:00 AM in California is 8:00 AM in Hawaii.

AA-Studying the Twelve Steps

AA-Studying the Twelve Steps

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

What is it you want to study?

There are many ways to study the Twelve Steps.

One is to memorize their language. Another is to note that the “published” 12 Steps are not themselves the “steps we took.” Hence, you can and should study the instructions as to “how” to take the Steps; and only when you have followed the instructions successfully, can you say that you have “taken” a Step—i.e. made an inventory, made amends.

Another study possibility is to look at the varied ways in which they Steps were written before they were finally published. Another is to explore the myth of the so-called “six steps”—which actually were nothing more than Bill Wilson’s description of the “word-of-mouth” ideas he claimed were being used prior to publication of the Big Book—whereas there actually were many ways in which these six “ideas” were expressed, and yet no evidence that they formed any part of the Original Akron program.

Another is to look at the language of the Steps in the early drafts at Stepping Stones and GSO, and see how these differed from the language which ultimately came under consideration. And then there’s a way to study the great compromise Bill and three other people—Ruth Hock, Fitz Mayo, and Hank Parkhurst—adopted in order to appease atheists and agnostics, and did so only as the Big Book was going to the printer.

Then there is the study of how the 12 Steps compare with the basic ideas which came from the Bible, as Dr. Bob stated they did. Thus, where--among the Steps—can you find traces of the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13? Also, as some groups try to look at the Steps, is there a Bible verse that matches every Step? Or, as others do, must you substitute the words “higher power” or “Jesus Christ” in the Steps because you think that best represents the Steps as you understand them or as others ought to understand them?

Or, do you want to know the various sources which really contributed to the language and instructions for the Steps as found in the Big Book? If so, you won’t find them in the Big Book or the Steps. You need some study!

Or, have you attained the point in sobriety and recovery, where your mind is on its way back, and where you are able to look at facts, history, and resources, and gain a better understanding of what Twelve Step programs are really about, how they vary, why they vary, and in what way they may have elements in common.

For Those Who Plan to Learn for Themselves and Only Then Teach the Facts

There are at least sixteen different sources of the ideas in the Big Book and in the Steps. See Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Bible as a Youngster in Vermont.

Here are some of those sources, and there is resource material to help you research, study, and understand each: (1) The Bible. (2) Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. (3) Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939. (4) Quiet Time. (5) the YMCA. (6) Salvation Army. (7) Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. (8) Rescue Missions. (9) Conversion. (10). Oxford Group. (11) Evangelists and revivalists. (12) William D. Silkworth, M.D. (13) Professor William James. (14) Dr. Carl Jung. (15) “New Thought” writings such as those of Ralph Waldo Trine and Emmet Fox. (16) Personal experience of the founders.

To help you look at each step and learn the varied sources from which Bill Wilson drew the language, you can profitably study: (1) Dick B., By the Power of God. (2) Dick B., Twelve Steps for You. (3) Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book. (4) The James Club and the Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials (www.dickb.com/titles.shtml). And to see precise parallels between the teachings of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, Jr. and the language Bill Wilson used, see Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. , 2d ed. (www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml).


Add to these thoroughly researched studies, one or two secular studies by AAs such as those by Joe and Charlie. Be aware of the date when they were written and how much has been discovered since that date. Look to see if the secular study accurately and fully takes into account the varied sources. Endeavor to see to what extent the Big Book itself actually instructs you as to “how” to take each of the Steps. Keep in mind that the Big Book language was never more than suggestive—suggestive, only. As the Big Book points out: Each person in the personal stories tells in his own language and from his own point of view how he established his relationship with God. And then was able to join others in the conclusion at the end of the Step language that “God could and would if He were sought.”

dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com

A.A.—Dr. Bob’s Bible—The “Good Book” in A.A.

A.A.—Dr. Bob’s Bible—The “Good Book” in A.A.
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved


The Good Book is the Bible

A very-limited number of anti-A.A. Christian writers have recently condemned Christians who attend A.A. because Dr. Bob frequently called the Bible the “Good Book.” They’ve claimed therefore that neither he nor any other AA who used such terminology could be a Christian.

Here are some simple facts from Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and then from some A.A. General Services Conference-approved literature.

(1) “good book”: .n. often cap G & B (1860): BIBLE
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1993), page 502.

(2) Dr. Bob specifically referred to the Bible as the “Good Book” five times in his last
major speech to AAs in Detroit in 1948.
The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last
Major Talks (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975),
pages 11, 12, 13, 14.

(3) In the same speech, Dr. Bob specifically mentioned “the Lord” (p. 13); “the Sermon
on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James” (p.
13); himself as “simply used as God’s agent” (p. 14); “our Heavenly Father” (pp. 15,
19, 20); “Christ said. . . My strength cometh from My Father in heaven;” (p. 19); and
“God’s grace” (19).

Dr. Bob’s familiarity with the English Language, the Bible, and the words “Heavenly Father,” “Good Book,” “Christ,” “God’s grace,” as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, and the Book of James, can be found exemplified throughout A.A. literature. Thus both Dr. Bob and Bill W. stated that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7) contained the underlying spiritual philosophy of A.A. Both acknowledged that the Book of James was a favorite in early A.A. to the point that AAs wanted to call their society the James Club. Actual quotes from the Sermon and the Book of James are sprinkled throughout A.A. literature—“Thy will be done;” “Heavenly Father;” “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” “Faith without works is dead;” “Confess your faults one to another;” “Father of lights;” “God.”

Bob was raised and trained in the St. Johnsbury Congregational Church where he and his whole family were regularly in attendance. He was trained in the Sunday school, the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society; the YMCA; daily chapel at St. Johnsbury Academy; and by his deeply religious parents—Judge Walter Smith and Mrs. Susan H. Smith. In later years, Bob attended an Episcopal Church in Akron. Dr. Bob and his wife Anne Smith were charter members
of the Westside Presbyterian Church in Akron; and Dr. Bob became a communicant at St. Paul’s
Protestant Episcopal Church in Akron not long before his death.

Yes! Only someone bound to prove that AAs never were and cannot be Christians would seize on the idea that they had proved their point because Dr. Bob referred to the Bible as the “Good Book.”

As a youngster, and long before I became either a drunk or an A.A. member, I didn’t have to use the dictionary to determine whether or not someone was not a Christian because he or she called
the Holy Bible the “Good Book.” Good it was, and plainly those who called it “Good” were very
clear on that point. In fact, I’d never heard it called the “bad book.” And I doubt that the anti-AAs have ever gone that far themselves.

For more, see The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml; and The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml


dickb@dickb.com; www/dickb.com

A.A.—Dr. Bob’s Bible—A.A. Group No. 1

A.A.—Dr. Bob’s Bible—A.A. Group No. 1

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous All rights reserved

When I first went to Founders Day in Akron, Ohio, in the early 1990’s, Dr. Bob’s daughter Sue Smith Windows took me to the Wednesday meeting of the King School Group. This the first A.A. Group. Bill Wilson called it Akron Number One. And it was Dr. Bob’s group.

There for many years—and at the meeting Sue and I attended—Dr. Bob’s Bible was brought to the podium before the meeting started. It was returned to its place of safekeeping after the meeting concluded. I looked in the front of the Bible and saw three inscriptions, each signed, and each containing a dedication by the first three AAs—Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and Bill Dotson. And here is what they say:

It is the hope of the King School Group whose property this is that this book may never cease to be a source of wisdom, gratitude, humility & guidance as when fulfilled in the life of the Master. Dr. Bob Smith.

Dear Friends at Akron Group # 1 This is the anniversary of the founding of AA-the 24th. As I stand here in King School, memory is at flood tide. On behalf of all AAs I give thanks for the gifts of grace beyond [?] that had their beginning here. Gratefully Bill Wilson. Akron, June/59.

It is a great pleasure and privilege to be permitted to extend to the King School Group my deep appreciation of their very dear friendship and fellowship and to hope that we may all grow in grace and brotherly love. Bill Dotson

Thus were the respects paid by first three AAs to their first group, to the Bible, and to its significance in A.A.—particularly as it was quoted and taught by Dr. Bob.

The following three remarks by Dr. Bob about the Bible are now recorded in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature:

In the early days. . . our stories didn’t amount to anything to speak of. When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions. But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James [The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 13]

I didn’t write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as a result of our study of the Good Book [The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, 14]
[Dr. Bob was always positive about his faith, Clarence said. If someone asked him a question about the program, his usual response was:] “What does it say in the Good Book?” [DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980, 144]

See Dick B., The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials, 4th ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2005); www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml

Contacting Leaders Personally About the New Class

Contacting You about
the “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” Class on Four DVD's

To all our leaders and A.A./N.A. recovery friends

Now that you are all back from “spring break” and not yet on summer vacation, either Ken or I will be contacting a number of you personally in the next two-week planning period to discuss with you how you might utilize the new four-DVD Class. We deeply hope you will think
about this in the interim. And here is the news:

1. Two Christian Treatment Programs are already running the class for their clients.
2. The first individual has acquired the class to use for her own education.
3. We are awaiting what we believe will be favorable action from the following friends:
Two or three Christian recovery groups on Oahu
A church-backed Christian recovery outreach in Northern California
An A.A. fellowship connected with a church ministry in the Bay Area
A rescue mission program in New Jersey
A street ministry program connected with a church in Escondido
A large Bible-based, 12 Step outreach program in Miami
A bridge ministry in Tennessee
4. Several different groups and participants in the International Christian Recovery
Coalition who are counselors, AAs, NAs, Christian materials distributors, large church
recovery programs, prison and community outreach individuals and groups,
and others to whom we have sent specific proposals based on their interest.
5. We have duplicated and printed a number of sets of the class materials for the “pilot
program” of the class, and they are in stock now and ready for your use. We are fired up
and ready to go.

Building on the Foundation of Last Year’s Mariners Church Community Center International Christian Recovery Coalition Conference

Last May, we personally phoned, emailed, and wrote those Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena who had been carrying the Christian recovery message. And the response was immense. Leaders came from Canada, Maine, New York, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, Colorado, and from many parts of California. There was no charge. They came at their own expense. Many supported the Conference with exhibits and donations. And the results have compounded exponentially into tremendous support for the International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com); and we can provide important resources Coalition participants will need in order to carry on their own outreach all over the world.

Please be prepared for our contact and plan on acquiring a class for your own use

Questions and communications prior to our contact are also welcome at my phone (808) 874 4876 and email dickb@dickb.com, and at Ken’s phone (808) 276 4945 and email kcb00799@gmail.com

Recovery Study Group Resources

Recovery Study Group Resources

A.A. History, Christian Recovery Origins, Big Book-Bible, Step Study-Bible, James Clubs

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved


What Folks Have Been Asking

From all over the world, several inquiries come in almost daily. Usually, the inquirer says: I love your materials. Or, I never knew. Or, I always thought A.A. had Christian origins. Or, I thought there was a Bible background to the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, and A.A. itself. Or, I want to start a group. Or, I’d like to present my church with some Christian recovery ideas. Or, where do I begin? Or, what do we do? Or, do you have some materials that can guide us in setting up group studies and fellowships that provide Bible emphasis, Big Book 12-Step study, details about what the early AAs did in their “Christian fellowship” founded in 1935 for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate.

Our Answer? Yes!

Here Are Several of My Books That Provide Specifics

Dick B., By the Power of God (www.dickb.com/powerofgod.shtml). A guide to groups.
Dick B., Good Morning!: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A.
(www.dickb.com/goodmorn.shtml). The how and why of Christian “meditation.”
Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book (www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml). A.A.'s biblical
roots.
Dick B., The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook (www.dickb.com/guidebook.shtml). Guide.
Dick B. The James Club and the Original A.A.’s Absolute Essentials
(www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml). Compares Big Book-James, Sermon, 1 Corinthians
Dick B. Twelve Steps for You (www.dickb.com/12StepsforYou.shtml). Step origins one-by-one.
Dick B. When Early AAs Were Cured and Why (www.dickb.com/alcoholismcured.shtml).
The original program details.

Our Latest Suggestion

Acquire a “site license”to use and present our new Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery class by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010) on four DVD’s, accompanied by a Class Guide for Students, a Class Instructor's Guide, and The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010). This class presents a thorough analysis of A.A.’s roots from the history before its founding in June 1935 through the publication of the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”) in April 1939. Plenty of resources. Plenty of study subjects. A terrific way to start your group on its way.

Some Dick B. Articles Available Free Online
That Provide Specific Suggestions for Groups and Studies

I have also written a number of articles through the years which have spawned James Club groups, Christian recovery groups, Good Book-Big Book study groups, and others. Click on my Dick B. Articles page: http://www.dickb.com/articles.shtml. Then go to the blue boxes which list articles and click on the following articles for a start:

A.A. History Study Guide
A.A. Study Groups
Guide for Recovery Groups
Study Group Topics
The James Club Groups
Study The Steps
New Study Groups
The James Club

The Final Step—Starting a Group

Review the resources online. Decide what your group or approach might be. Contact Dick B. by email or phone (DickB@DickB.com; 808 874-4876). Or contact Ken B. by email or phone (kcb00799@gmail.com; 808 276-4945). Ken can tell you how and where to buy the books, where to locate the articles online, and how to sign up for our “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class. And either of us can tell you what other groups are doing around the world and what approach might be most helpful to you.

Gloria Deo

A.A. - Belief in God - Shoemaker's Experiment of Faith

A.A.’s Experiment of Faith and Cofounder Sam Shoemaker

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

The Quandary of Faith

I’m not one who talks much about “faith” because the word comes from a Greek root that can be defined either as “faith” or “belief.” And I prefer the position that A.A.’s Dr. Bob took and required of all the early AAs he helped. It really came from the Book of Hebrews:

Heb 11:6 (KJV):
But without faith, it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

As was his manner, Dr. Bob made it real simple. It was a “Do you or don’t you” approach. And it is spelled out in the account on page 144 of DR. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980). Dr. Bob visited Clarence Snyder on the last day of Clarence’s hospitalization. Dr. Bob asked Clarence flat out: “Do you believe in God, young fella? Not a god, God?” Clarence waffled and said he “guessed so.” But Dr. Bob would have none of that. He said: “Either you do or you don’t.” And when Clarence said, “I do;” Bob said “Now we are getting some place.” And they prayed together. Clarence was healed!

Bill Wilson and Sam Shoemaker preferred the open door approach. Both of them wrote that “God either is, or He isn’t.” And they suggested there was a choice. But the choice was a dire one. Believe and be victorious. Or don’t believe and die! And Shoemaker, as was his manner, suggested an experiment of faith. In effect, Shoemaker said that if you obeyed God’s will, you’d realize from the results that it was the genuine thing. Shoemaker fudged a bit in his reliance on John 7:17. Here is what that verse said:

John 7:17 (KJV):
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I [Jesus] speak of myself.

Oxford Group author A. J. Russell said that John 7:17 was Sam’s favorite verse. And Sam certainly quoted it innumerable times. But the verse, even as Shoemaker had learned it and used it, came from Shoemaker’s thought: “Do and know.” This idea became Shoemaker’s experiment of faith—a subject about which Shoemaker wrote a book. Shoemaker thought that if you did God’s will, the willed result would occur, and you would know. The concept gave rise to Shoemaker’s talk of “willingness” and to the incorporation of that idea in A.A.’s Steps 2, 6, and 8: Be willing to act—to believe, to ask, and to make amends—and, when you do, you’ll realize its effectiveness. Presumably because you were acting in accord with God’s will.

The problem is that Jesus wasn’t talking about taking 12 Steps. There weren’t any. Here is the immediate context of his statement in John 7:17:

John 7:14-16 (KJV):
Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

He was rejecting the claims of others that he (Jesus) wasn’t speaking of his own ideas. Jesus said, in John 7:16: “My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me.” Centuries later, religious writers began to speak of “obedience as the organ of spiritual knowledge.”

If you take all that complicated reasoning, you may conclude, as did Bill Wilson, that it applies to taking A.A.’s steps and then finding out they work. And Bill was building on Shoemaker’s other idea that if you “surrender as much of yourself as you understand to as much of God as you understand,” you’ll come to know God. “Act as if” said Shoemaker, and then you’ll find and know.

The Choice is Ours

We can go along with Dr. Bob. We can say, “Yes,” I do believe in God. Then come to Him by accepting Jesus as Lord, obeying God's will, and growing in understanding. Or we can go along with Shoemaker and his pupil Bill Wilson, and go the “come to believe” route which is embodied in the Twelve Steps and begins with Step Two—as it was originally worded—“Came to believe that God could restore us to sanity.”

I didn’t “come to believe.” I believed. I didn’t know what sanity meant. But I did know what 2 Timothy 1: 7 said:

2 Tim 1:7 (KJV):
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.

As directed in Romans 12:2, I renewed my mind. I kept saying what God said and believing it to the best of my ability.

I didn’t blame God for my fears or my excessive drinking and disasters. I just believed in God. I just believed that God was not the author of those troubles. I believed that God was a God of power and of love. And I believed that whatever crazy thinking and behavior had led me to hopeless alcoholism, God could take care of that too. Call it restoring me to a sound mind. Even Bill Wilson wrote in the Big Book that God has restored us to sanity. And He did! There was no quandary of faith. There was proof that believing God produces results.

See Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. (www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml).

A.A. History: “Old School A.A.” Applied to 12 Step Recovery Today

A.A. History: “Old School A.A.” Applied to 12 Step Recovery Today

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Are the Recovery Needs Today Different from Those at A.A.’s Founding?

Some may think that alcoholics, alcoholism—even addiction—present different problems today than those which the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” overcame in the 1930’s. But are they?

Let’s examine what hasn’t changed. Alcoholics—even addicts—are those who have lost the ability to control their drinking or drugging. Alcoholism—even addiction---may well be defined today as a mental and physician condition that leads afflicted people almost inevitably to excess and disaster and repetition every time they pick up the first drink or drug. And A.A. added a couple of other points: (1) Afflicted people must concede to their innermost self that they have the problem, have been unable to lick it on their own, have not received help from human resources, and have reached the point where they are willing to turn completely to God for help. (2) God can and will and does help when He is earnestly sought. And the words of Hebrews 11:6 give testimony to that fact. None of these factors has changed. In fact, neither Prohibition, Wars on Drugs, incarceration, “treatment,” “therapy,” “behavior modification,” “mutual support groups,” or mental facilities have made any more than a dent in the problem. That situation has not changed.

The Need for “Divine Aid” Is as Great Today as It Was in 1935

The original, “old school,” Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program was as simple as it was effective. Its seven points were summarized by Frank Amos for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in an investigation of the original program conducted in February 1938. The program summary is published on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980). That simple, seven-point program was so effective that early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the original program. And we have laid out the program and the documentation of its success in our new title, The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2010). (Please see www.DickB.com for more details.)

Alcoholics and addicts today are just as hopeless, just as un-empowered, just as incapable of ending their misery on their own as they were in 1935. In short, they have been and continue to be “licked.” And even the current edition of A.A.'s basic text—i.e., the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, affectionately known as the “Big Book” and published in 2001—rests its case on what many know as the “abc’s” which are set forth as follows on page 60:

(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could relieve us of our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought.

Early AAs proved this in their simple program. And AAs today still recite or listen to the abc’s at almost any and every meeting they attend. They admit they are licked. They admit that no human power has relieved them of their alcoholism. They embark on a path to a relationship with God which can and will heal them if they are willing to go (and do go!) to any lengths to seek and receive that healing. The solution in 1935 was God. The solution in 2010, for those who want it, is still God. And that hasn’t changed.

What, Then, Were the Practices in Which the Early AAs Engaged

This article, and several that follow, will specify, document, and amplify each of the 14 principles and practices in which the early AAs engaged to achieve the 75% success rate they claimed. And this is to the end that every person in A.A., every person in a Twelve-step Fellowship, and every person who uses a 12-Step treatment approach can see that the original, “old school” A.A. practices of early A.A. can be applied today with the same successful results, if they become known, are learned, are applied, and are tested for their effectiveness. And we believe they can and will produce the same results in A.A., 12-Step Fellowships, and 12-Step treatment approaches if the program and the afflicted person are willing to seek and receive God’s help.

In following articles, I will present, one-by-one, the 14 practices that were effective in 1935 and can be again today.

DickB@DickB.com
www.DickB.com

Gloria Deo

The 14 Practices of "Old School A.A." - A Series

The 14 Practices of Early A.A. Will Work in Today's A.A. if Known and Applied. Dick B

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Early A.A.'s Original Program--"Old School A.A." was summarized for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1938. It consisted of seven points. They are published today in A.A. General Service Conference-approved Literature: DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), page 131.

These seven points, as summarized, can be applied in today's A.A. as much as they were applied with such great success in the original Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship program founded in June, 1935.

In fact, they fit exactly with the so-called abc's that AAs hear read at almost any and every meeting they attend.

But the summary needed to be fleshed out with the history of the actual principles and practices that were summarized. And there are 14 of them which are just as well documented as the seven points themselves. But these practices required homework, research, and investigation to be unearthed and presented.

Today, they are best documented in two of my books. The first is The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010--available on my main website: www.dickb.com. The backdrop for the practices is covered in my title, Real Twelve Step Fellowship History (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc.) www.dickb.com/realhistory.shtml.

Ensuing articles will specify, document, and flesh out each of these 14 practices of "old school" A.A. and show how they apply to recovery today.

Richard Gordon Burns, JD, CDAAC, Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae
May, 2010
Richard Gordon Burns, J.D., CDAAC
(Pen Name: Dick B)

Personal:

Born: Stockton, California, May 15, 1925
Two married sons: Ken and Don
Residence: P.O. Box 837, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii 96753-0837
Phone/fax: 808 874 4876
Email: dickb@dickb.com
URL: http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
URL: http://www.dickb-blog.com
URL: http://freedomranchmaui.org.
URL: http://DrBob.info
URL: http://www.ANEWWAYOUT.COM
URL: http://www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com


Education:

J. D. Leland Stanford Junior University, Law – 1951
B.A. Leland Stanford Junior University, Major: Law – 1949
A.A. (Honorable Mention) University of California, Berkeley, Economics - 1948

Career:

News reporter, Stockton Record, Stockton, California
Sergeant; U.S. Army; 1943-1946; Information/Education Specialist;; ASTP; The Infantry School, Fort Benning, GA.; 86th. Infantry Division; 766 Military Police Battalion; Honorable Discharge
Special college training: Army Information & Education Branch at Washington
And Lee University, Virginia.
Attorney, Clausen & Burns, San Francisco, 1951-1961
Attorney: Solo Practitioner, Corte Madera, CA, 1961-1986
Consultant, Wyoming Pacific Oil Company, 1955 –
Consultant, UNITI, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2003 -
Author/Publisher, California and Hawaii, 1990 –
Executive Director, Freedom Ranch Maui Incorporated, 2006 –
Executive Director, International Christian Recovery Coalition, 2009 –
Certified Christian Drug, Alcohol & Addiction Counselor
Curriculum Advisory Council, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug
Counselors Institute
American Association of Christian Counselors

Honors:

Eagle Scout
California Scholastic Honor Society
Delegate, American Legion Boys State, Sacramento, California
Phi Beta Kappa, Junior Year, University of California. Berkeley
President, Inter-Fraternity Scholastic Honor Society, U.C. Berkeley
Legislation Editor, and later, Case Editor, Stanford Law Review
Josephus Award, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute
Marquis Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in
The West, Who’s Who in Law, and Who’s Who in Finance

Listed:

Gale’s Contemporary Authors
International Authors and Writers Who’s Who
Heritage Who’s Who
Bowker’s Books in Print (Authors).

Lecturer: Archives 2000 (AA International Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Principal Speaker:

Leadership Meting, Lifelines, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California, 2010
Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery, Filming, New Life Spirit
Recovery, Inc., Huntington Beach, California, 2010.
Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery, Staff meeting, Pacific Hills
Treatment Centers, Inc., San Juan Capistrano, California, 2010.
The Good Book and The Big Book, Neighborhood Church, Neighborhood
Alcoholics for Christ, Escondido, California, 2010
The Good Book and The Big Book, His Place Church meeting, Huntington
Beach, CA, October, 2009
Rock Recovery Bonfire Meeting, San Diego, California, October, 2009
Christian Origins of A.A., Church of the Open Door recovery meeting, Glendora, California, October, 2009
“Black Experience” A.A. Meeting on Oahu, Hawaii, September, 2009
Christian Recovery in Brazil TV Filming, Honolulu, Hawaii, September, 2009
Step Study Meeting, Kailua, Hawaii, September, 2009
Address to mental health and substance abuse professionals and patients at
Spark Matsunaga Veterans Administration Medical Center, Honolulu,
Hawaii, September, 2009
Alumni, Hina Mauka Treatment Program, Kaneohe, Hawaii, September, 2009
3 Day A.A. History Seminar, Men’s Step Study Graduation Campout, Oahu,
Hawaii, September, 2009.
International Christian Recovery Leadership Conference, San Juan Capistrano,
California, 2009
History and Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous, Turning Point Fellowship,
Cornerstone Church, Livermore, California, 2009
The James Club of Norco, California, 2009
A New Way Out History Recovery Conference, Irvine, California, 2009
Nationwide History Recovery Conference, Pasadena-North Hollywood-San
Dimas, California, 2008
Dr. Bob’s Birthplace and Boyhood Home, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 2007
Men’s Step Group Graduation Seminars (2 days), Oahu, Hawaii, 2006, 2007
City Team Recovery Conference (4 days), MayMac, Santa Cruz, California, 2006
Believers 12 Step Study Group, Maui, Hawaii, 2006
Community Recovery Meeting, Kona, Hawaii, 2006
Nine annual A.A. Heritage Seminars, 1995 through 2005, at the birthplace of A.A. Co-Founder Bill Wilson, the Wilson House, East Dorset, Vermont
Annual Dinner, Oregon Lawyers Assistance Program, Portland, Oregon, 2005
Stan Hywet Museum and Gardens Opening of the Gate Lodge Home of Henrietta Buckler Seiberling in Akron, Ohio, 2004
The First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous History Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, February, 2003
The Second Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous History Conference in Wilmington, Delaware, August, 2003
The Golden Text of A.A. History Seminar, Nashville, Tennessee
Hope Chapel Recovery History Meeting, Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii, 2002
A.A. History Workshop, Ala Moana Hotel, Oahu, Hawaii, 2001

Speaker:

Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Conference, Palm Springs,
California, August, 2009
Two Television (two hours each) Presentations with Bob Noonan, Interviewer,
Irvine, California, 2009
Alcoholics Anonymous History Film, Claremont, CA; April 21, 2008
Reaching Out To the Faith Community Conference, Windward Community
College, Kaneohe, HI, 2008
Transformation Hawaii Christian Athletes Workshop, Honolulu, 2008
Three Youth with A Mission Addictive Behavior School Seminars, University of the Nations (YWAM, Kona, Hawaii), 1996, 1998, 2007
Christ Ship Reclamation and Recovery Project Meeting, Honolulu, HI, 2007
125th Anniversary, Christian Endeavor International, Cannon Office Building, Washington, D.C., 2006
A.A. History Cruise, Dawn Princess to Alaska, 2006
A.A. History Cruise, Mariner of the Seas to Caribbean, Sober Celebrations, 2005
Tampa Bay Clean and Sober Conference, Tampa, Florida, 2005
Christian Life Enrichment Retreats for AAs and their families in Wisconsin, Florida, and California (eight retreats), 1996 – 2005
Pre-Conference Seminar, Research Society on Alcoholism, Vancouver, B.C., 2004
Two Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation Conferences on Addiction and A.A. History. Pittsburgh, 1995, 1997
Keynote Speaker, Bill Wilson-Samuel Shoemaker Memorial, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Two International Conventions of Alcoholics Victorious, New Jersey and California
International Convention of Overcomers Outreach, Inc., California
Conferences of Overcomers in Minnesota and Florida;
Conference of four Protestant churches training others for recovery ministry:
“Shepherding the Shepherds,” Costa Mesa, California;
Luncheon session for students at the Lutheran Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota;
The N.E.T Ministries Conference at Okeechobee, Florida;
The first international conference of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition .at Indian River in Florida, called by Bishop Frank Costantino;
Two “Day in Marin” Alcoholics Anonymous History Conferences in Mill Valley, California, 1991 and 1992;
“Rule 62” AA conference in Kentucky;
Commemorative program in Akron, Ohio, introducing The Akron Genesis of
Alcoholics Anonymous, with former Congressman John F. Seiberling, Orator Rev. T. Willard Hunter, Oxford Group activist James Draper Newton, and Dr. Bob’s daughter Sue Smith Windows;
Spiritual History retreats, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, for
alcoholics and their families in Hawaii and California
Frequent interviews on Christian and secular radio talk shows
in North Carolina, Utah, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Detroit, Toronto, Indiana, Nevada, California, Oregon, and elsewhere
Television presentation on A.A. history for Cornerstone TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Publications:

39 published titles on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, its spiritual roots, and its early successes--all listed and described in Bowker’s Books in Print and at the author’s website: http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml

Over 350 published articles on this subject: See http://www.dickb-blog.com
Examples on http://DrBob.info. http://www.RecoveryLife.com; http://aa-history.com; http://www.silkworth.net;

Weekly radio show on Take Twelve Radio, Albany, Oregon, Station KHLT.

100 plus audio talks on the Dick B. Blog site: http://www.dickb-blog.shtml; http://dickb.com/index.shtml.

15 session television series on the Dick B. A.A. historical collections in Maui – presented on Community Public Television stations in the Hawaiian Islands for Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii.

Five radio/TV show repeat interviews: People Helping People; Take 12 Radio;
Recovery Life; Last Call; Danny Fontana Show; CityTeam radio.

Eight hour podcast: Just For Today

Memberships:

American Historical Assn. (AHA)
Organization of American Historians (OAH)
American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC)
Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS)
Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA)
Assn for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition (ISAAC)
International Christian Recovery Coalition
Christian Assn for Psychological Studies (CAPS)
Association of Christian Drug & Alcohol Counselors
The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP)
Coalition of Prison Evangelists (COPE)
Press Club of San Francisco (during California residence)
Maui Writers Guild
Stanford Alumni Association
Delta Tau Delta
Phi Delta Phi (legal fraternity)
Phi Beta Kappa

Religious, Civic, and Community Leadership Activities:

President: Mill Valley Community Church (UCC), Mill Valley, California
Advisor to God’s Way Ministry, a Christian Church, Maui, Hawaii
Elected Director, Almonte District Sanitary Board of Marin County, California President: Community Church Retirement Center (The Redwoods) in Mill Valley,
California
President: Corte Madera Chamber of Commerce, Corte Madera, California
President: Corte Madera Center Merchants Council, Corte Madera, California
Founder: Marin County Chamber of Commerce, San Rafael, California
President: Almonte District Improvement Club, Marin County, California
Vice-President (and Secretary), Lions Club of Corte Madera
Vice-President, Enchanted Knolls Homeowners Assn, Mill Valley, California Director: Clean Fuels Hawaii, Oahu, Hawaii
Executive Director, Freedom Ranch Maui Incorporated, Maui, Hawaii
Executive Director, International Christian Recovery Coalition Curriculum Advisory Committee, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug
Counselors Institute, Redlands, California

Additional Comments:

As an attorney, wrote, presented briefs, and participated in oral arguments before United States Supreme Court (briefs in two cases); U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; U.S. District Courts in San Francisco, Alaska, Sacramento; California Supreme Court; Nevada Supreme Court; California District Courts of Appeal; trials in Superior and Municipal Courts throughout the State of California, and the Nevada District Court (Reno).

(1) As a member of the law firm of Clausen and Burns in San Francisco, handled merger of Young Men’s Christian Assn of California with Trustees of Young Men’s Christian Assn; (2) reorganization under Exec. Secretary Roy Sorensen of Metropolitan YMCA in San Francisco; (3) all legal matters for Metropolitan YMCA in San Francisco; (4) In Clausen and Burns law firm, and later as solo practitioner, general practice; (5) Major building construction projects. (6) Wills, trusts, probate, and estates; (7) Extensive litigation and arbitration practice; (8) Domestic relations; (9) Corporate law; (10) Non-profit organizations and exemptions, (11) Appellate practice. (12) Small business problems.

As a recovered member of a Twelve Step Fellowship clean and sober since April 21, 1986: attended thousands of meetings; regional and international conferences; Big Book Seminars; weekend spiritual retreats; speaker at hundreds of meetings; served as G.S.R., secretary, treasurer, greeter, and set-up helper; was a patient and later led groups at a local treatment center; participated in many fellowship outings at Yosemite Valley, the Russian River Area, Westminster Woods Retreats, the Sacramento Spring Fling, International Conventions, Area conventions in Fresno and Monterey and Oakland and Honolulu, Maui Roundup, Maui Mini-Conference, and dances; sponsored more than 100 men in their recovery; brought many of these men to Christ and into Bible study and A.A. history presentations and participation; and led most in their study of A.A.’s basic text and guided them in their “taking” the Twelve Steps.

As an historian and writer, 20 years. Published by Baker Book House, Glen Abbey Books, Hazelden Foundation Educational and Publishing, The Bishop of Books, Good Book Publishing Company, Paradise Research Publications, Inc., and Came to Believe Publications – over 175000 copyrighted books in print.

END

Gloria Deo

A.A. 12-Step Christian Parallels

A.A. 12-Step Christian Parallels
The Comprehensive Oxford Group-Shoemaker Relationship with A.A.

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

The Two, Definitive, Relevant A.A. Books by Dick B.

This is the final article on A.A. 12-Step Parallels that came directly from Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., whom Bill Wilson described as a “cofounder” of A.A., whom Bill initially asked to write the 12-Steps, and whose Oxford Group ideas formed the heart of the life-changing program of action that Bill Wilson codified into A.A.’s basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous (affectionately known as the “Big Book”).

The most important research and resource book on A.A. and Shoemaker is Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., Pittsburgh ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999). See www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml; ISBN 1885803-27-3. Important Forewords were written by Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Counselor Education-Chemical Dependency, Pennsylvania State University, and Adjunct Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Also by Nickie Shoemaker Haggart, LCSW, younger daughter of Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, Jr. And also by Mrs. W. Irving Harris, wife of Shoemaker’s Assistant Minister, long-time Oxford Group activist, and resident of Calvary House where Shoemaker lived in New York. There is no work on Shoemaker that comes close to this resource in detail or scope in that it is comprehensive (over 650 pages), is accurate, is filled with bibliographical and footnote documentations, and contains appendices supplementing the research and writing in the text. This is the book you will want to own and study in order to learn the extent to which Shoemaker’s books, articles, sermons, pamphlets, and ministry at Calvary Church in New York directly impacted on the writing and views and approach to recovery incorporated by A.A.’s cofounder Bill W. in the Big Book.

The second most important work is Dick B., The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works, new rev ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998). See www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml; ISBN 1885803-19-2. There is no other accurate, comprehensive work on the relationship between A.A. and the Oxford Group. The author read hundreds of Oxford Group books, pamphlets, and materials. He became a good friend of the leading, surviving Oxford Group leaders and writers in the United States and Great Britain. These included Garth Lean, Frank Buchman’s biographer; James D. and Eleanor Forde Newton, principal American Oxford Group activists of the 1920’s and 1930’s as well as personal friends of both Buchman and Shoemaker; and T. Willard Hunter—longtime Oxford Group employee and friend of A.A.

I undertook a definitive history of the Oxford Group as it related to A.A. and also laid out the 28 Oxford Group principles that impacted directly on A.A. This is a book you will want to own and study in order to learn the over-all influence of the Oxford Group on the life of its founder Dr. Frank Buchman, its principal American leader Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, and its Alcoholics Anonymous adherent William G. Wilson (Bill W.). The book is filled with Oxford Group language, biographies, and citations that show the immense amount of Oxford Group ideas incorporated into—and parallels that exist between the Oxford Group and—A.A.. It is a necessary complement to the New Light book on Shoemaker.

Other Dick B. Works That Fill in the Oxford Group-Shoemaker Picture

In 2006, Dick B. published the third edition of his voluminous bibliographical work on the spiritual roots of A.A. It is Dick B., Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous: A 16-Year Research, Writing, Publishing, and Fact Dissemination Project, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006). See www.dickb.com/makingknown.shtml; ISBN 1-885803-97-4. In this work, I laid out all of the Oxford Group, Shoemaker, biblical, and other books, materials, articles, and writings I had incorporated in my historical works. I indicated where they can be found today at such A.A. historical repositories as the Wilson House, Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron. I specified the distinguished sources from which these materials had been acquired and/or purchased. And I assembled the largest-known, annotated bibliography of directly-relevant A.A. historical roots materials. The book is a must for those wanting the complete written sources of A.A. history.

In 2000, I also published a practical guide for the study and use of Oxford Group and Shoemaker books and materials in relation to the Twelve Steps, the Big Book, and A.A. history. The book garnered a Foreword by Ozzie Lepper, President/Managing Director of The Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont. It is Dick B., By the Power of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2000). See www.dickb.com//powerofgod.shtml. ISBN 1-885803-30-3. This book is in wide use by groups in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain who use it to study each of the Twelve Steps in company with the material from the Oxford Group, Shoemaker, biblical, and Anne Smith sources which gave rise to them.

One additional recent book I wrote provides a suitable, utilitarian view of each of the Twelve Steps, their particular root sources, and how to study them in that perspective and really gain an understanding of the Steps as they were intended to be understood. This book is Dick B., Twelve Steps for You: Take the Twelve Steps with the Big Book, A.A. History, and the Good Book at Your Side, 4th ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2005). See www.dickb.com/12StepsforYou.shtml; ISBN 1-885803-98-2.

There You Have Them—A Compact Series on A.A.-12 Step Roots

Too often, writers have missed A.A.’s real Oxford Group connection. They erroneously think A.A.’s “program” came from the Oxford Group. They ignore the gross differences between the Akron A.A. Bible-based, “Christian fellowship” program founded in June 1935, and the New York A.A. Oxford Group text—i.e., the Big Book—published four years later in April 1939. They are often highly critical of the Oxford Group while ignoring the fact that its ideas were never discarded by Bill Wilson when he penned the Big Book. In fact, he incorporated them. And he laid the source at the feet of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, a principal American leader of the Oxford Group. See The Language of the Heart: Bill W.’s Grapevine Writings (NY: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1988), 298. Students of the A.A. Big Book and Twelve Steps now have the luxury of actually learning what Bill acknowledged about A.A.’s Shoemaker source. Far more important, this package of 5 books will enable them to research for themselves, study for themselves, and learn the real sources of the Twelve Step recovery ideas.

Gloria Deo

Proposals for Your Purchase of Foundations Class on their Way

This is an update on our progress in completing and now being able to make available at several levels and prices the new Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class.

Recent Steps:

First. We have duplicated and bound the three guidebooks that are part of the class--Instructor's Guide, Students' Guide, and Third Edition of Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide. They are ready to go out with the DVD's and constitute the entire class.


Second. We have assembled components for individual, group, and other categories of purchasers. As an example,the Class Component descriptions for individual purchase are as follows:

The "pilot program" version of the IFCR class that is available for individuals for their personal/private use has two (2) components. The first component is comprised of four DVD's (or four audio files in .mp3 format) with the following content:


Class 1/Session 1: The Founding, Activities, and Summary of the Original Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” Program
Part 1: How the First Three A.A. Members Got Sober and Were Cured

Part 2: The 14 Practices the Early Akron Aas Used to Achieve Astonishing Successes

Part 3: The Original, Seven-Point, Akron A.A. Program Summarized by Frank Amos for John D. Rockefeller, Jr.


Class 2/Session 2: Christian Organizations and People That Shaped the Recovery Ideas of the Original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program before It Began

Part 1: Seven Pre-A.A. Organizations and People That Fed to A.A. the Necessity for Salvation and the Word of GOD

Part 2: The Extensive, Christian, Biblical Training Bill W. Received in East Dorset and and Manchester, Vermont

Part 3: Dr. Bob's “Excellent Training” in the Bible as a Youngster in St. Johnsbury, VT.


Class 3/Session 3: The Manner in Which the A.A. Society Came about, Beginning about 1931

Part 1: The Relevant Events in Bill W.'s Life, Including His Early Friendship with Ebby Thacher.

Part 2: The Relevant Events in Dr. Bob S.'s Life, Beginning in the Early 1930's in Akron

Part 3: Bill W. and Dr. Bob Meet at the Home of Henrietta Seiberling on May 12, 1935


Class 4/Session 4: The A.A. Program Changes Between June 1935 and April 1939

Part 1: The Akron Program Successes between June 1935 and November 1937

Part 2: The Change of Course Bill W. Began to Take

Part 3: Work on the Big Book Between the Spring of 1938 and April of 1939

Part 4: Battles over Big Book Content and Language

Part 5: The Closing Phases of the Altered Akron Program

The second component for individual purchasers is a 23-page Class Guide for Students in 8 1/2" x 11," spiral-bound, "hard copy" format, which presents many of the key points in written form which are made in the DVD's (or audio files). This Guide allows a student to read along and make notes while watching the DVD's (or listening to the audio files).


Third. We have invested in a first-class DVD duplicator which enables us to duplicate all four DVD's which comprise the class. We have hired a consultant to set it up. And we are ready to roll out sets of DVD's to accompany the class materials.


Fourth. We are now sending out specific proposals by email to each of the folks who have requested the class and/or information enabling them to purchase the class. These are tailored to the type of use intended. They are licenses to use the materials for a year, and they specify prices charged for the license.


Fifth. When we complete processing of those classes requested and purchased; answering the questions from potential licensees; and shipping those ordered, we will be making proposals to others who already want to obtain and use the class, promote its use by others, and get their own presentations going.


We are very thankful for the responses that have come in just since we announced the class is now ready. God Bless. Contact dickb@dickb.com

AA History - 12 Step Language from Shioemaker, 10-12

A.A. 12-Step Christian Parallels
from
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Steps Ten through Step Twelve

We have many times documented the frequent statements by A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson that his friend Rev. Sam Shoemaker was the major source of the Big Book ideas and Twelve Steps.

And you can find almost exact parallels between the language Bill Wilson used in the Big Book and the language Shoemaker wrote in his many Christian books, articles, and pamphlets. Sometimes Bill’s parallel language is found in the instructions of the Big Book for “taking” the Steps. Sometimes his language is found in the Steps themselves.

Here, Step by Step, are a few of those parallels. Key words and phrases appear here in bold face. Moreover, in a number of my books, I have carefully stated and reviewed every parallel quote I have found in Shoemaker’s many writings. Those books which contain the totality of my work on Shoemaker-Wilson language parallels are included at the close of this series of articles.

Here Are the Parallels in the Steps Ten through Twelve

Step Ten: Shoemaker wrote: “There is need for re-dedication day by day, hour by hour, by which progressively, in every Quiet Time, the contaminations of sin and self-will are further sloughed off (for they do have a way of collecting).” “It may help to keep our object in view if we choose five words which will cover the usual stages of development: Confidence, Conviction, Conversion, Conservation [later changed to “Continuance”]”
“All the values of continuance would thus be conserved.” “We believe entirely that conversion is the experience which initiates the new life. But we are not fools enough to think that the beginning is the end. All subsequent life is a development of the relationship with God which conversion opened.”

Step Eleven: Shoemaker wrote: “Whatever be one’s theories about prayer, two things stand: man will pray as long as God and he exist, and the spiritual life cannot be lived without it. . . . But it is an art—the art of discerning God’s will—and one must learn it. . . . And we are praying best when we come quite empty of request, to bathe ourselves in his presence, and to ‘wait upon Him,’ with an open mind, concerned far more with His message to us than with anything we can say to Him.” “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” “I plead again for the keeping of the ‘Morning Watch’—coming fresh to God with the day’s plans unmade, submitting first our spirits and then our duties to Him for the shedding of His white light upon both.” “Contact with God is our normal condition, as normal as water is for a fish.” And Shoemaker spoke specifically of: Being “in touch with God.” A sense of the “power and presence of God.” “God consciousness.”

Step Twelve: Shoemaker wrote: (1) About the “experience of God;” “vital experience of Jesus Christ;” “religious experience;” “spiritual experience;” “spiritual awakening.” “They have ‘got something.’ That is an evasive phrase for saying they believe in and trust God.” “Before anything else is suggested about a change and a cure, the first impression that people of God ought to give is the impression of. . . ‘The Everlasting Mercy’ . . . . When we know ourselves to be beyond the reach of any merely human help, the first Face of God we need to see is the Face of Love. . . . Now there is just one answer for any sin and any need on the face of this earth. And that lies in the forgiveness of God for the past and the Grace of God for the future. I take that to be the spiritual angle of A.A. because it is the spiritual angle of all mankind.” (2) “You will never do effective work with individuals unless you have first fully caught their attention and made them want what you have.” “God help us to give freely, as He has given to us.” “The best way to keep what you have is to give it away.” “We must begin giving away what we have, or we shall lose it. One of the first impulses after we hear a good story is to find someone to tell it to. And one of the first impulses after we have had a real Christian experience is to want to impart it to others.” (3) “Faith without works is dead.” “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own shelves.’ “Pentecost was more than a promise to obey the Sermon on the Mount. . . . We shall not get past the rather matter-of-fact and spiritless Christianity so prevalent today until we learn that the Holy Spirit still guides and empowers.” “It is plain that the first thing America needs is to stop sentimentalizing over the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, and face honestly the difference between ourselves and those essential laws.”

As stated, the foregoing are not the only parallels to each Step. We list many others in several of my titles covered at the end of this series of articles.

Meanwhile, the reader may enjoy some specific, itemized, and numbered word and phrase parallels between Shoemaker language and either Big Book or Step language as we have listed them in: Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism (148 parallels), pages 153-70; and Dick B., The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous (202 parallels from both Shoemaker’s and other Oxford Group writings—Shoemaker being the principal American Oxford Group leader in the 1930’s), pages 276-77, 341-64.

A Point to Remember about Shoemaker and A.A.

You do not have to agree with Shoemaker’s sayings, quotes from the Bible, and writings relevant to A.A. ideas and language. But you may want to learn what Bill Wilson was really trying to do when he digressed and led AAs away from the Bible-oriented Akron A.A. program to Shoemaker’s Oxford Group ideas. Bill was then using and talking about language he had heard day after day from Shoemaker and his circle in the days of Bill’s extensive Oxford Group involvement from late 1934 to 1937 and his continued discussions with, and fanning of, Shoemaker’s enthusiasm for helping drunks through Oxford Group life-changing ideas.

dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com

Gloria Deo

AA History - 12 Step Language from Shioemaker, 7-9

A.A. 12-Step Christian Parallels
from
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Steps Seven through Step Nine

We have many times documented the frequent statements by A.A. Cofounder Bill Wilson that his friend Rev. Sam Shoemaker was the major source of the Big Book ideas and Twelve Steps. In 1955, Newsweek named him one of the ten greatest preachers in the United States. Shoemaker was known as a great communicator, and was described by his associate Rev. W. Irving Harris as a Bible Christian.

There are many persuasive instances where you can find almost exact parallels between the language Bill Wilson used and the language Shoemaker wrote in his many Christian books, articles, and pamphlets. Sometimes Bill’s parallel language is found in the instructions of the Big Book for “taking” the Steps. Sometimes his language is found in the Steps themselves.

Here, Step by Step, are a few of those parallels. Key words and phrases appear here in bold face. Moreover, in a number of my books, I have carefully stated and reviewed every parallel quote I have found in Shoemaker’s many writings. In each case, the parallels are present, and the examples are numerous. Those books which contain the totality of my work on Shoemaker-Wilson language parallels are included at the close of this series of articles.

Here Are the Parallels in the Steps Seven through Nine

Step Seven: Shoemaker wrote: “Self-surrender has always been and must always be regarded as the vital turning point of religious life.” “Let go. Abandon yourself to Him. Say to Him, ‘Not my will but Thine be done.” “God in mercy strip us this day of the last vestiges of self reliance, and help us to begin anew trusting to nothing but His grace.” “The heart of surrender does not lie in asking God to take our problems and solve them for us because we have been unable to do so. It lies in giving ourselves to Him for the doing of His will.” “There is, I dare say, no moment of comparable importance to the soul’s history to this, when in humility and honesty we tell God in prayer that we want Him to take us over, remove ours sins, and change our lives.”

Step Eight: Shoemaker wrote: “For most people there is wrapped up in the decision to surrender to God the necessity to right all wrongs with men, and it generally means a specific wrong or act or attitude toward somebody in particular. This is the hurdle of restitution.” “. . . over in the corner of their minds and memories, motionless but not dead, is an old resistance against someone. Vaguely we know we are in for a difficult letter, or visit. But we put it off. . . ..” “The soundest approach I know to religious discovery is found in St. John’s Gospel, chapter 7, verse 17: “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” We are always busy getting “willing to do His will,” and this means changing many of our ways.”

Step Nine: Shoemaker wrote: “The first necessity is to get straight with all other people: those we have written off our list, those we dislike and disapprove of, those with whom we come into daily but not always wholly loving and honest contact.” “We are usually guided to see our part in the wrong. The other person may have been primarily responsible for the trouble, but if our resentment, anger, self-pity was wrong, let us share that.” “What reception we find in the other person is not our responsibility—only that we go to him in love and in honesty and clear away any wrong on our side.”

As stated, the foregoing are not the only parallels to each Step. We will list references to them all as can be found in our various titles. This will be done in the final article in this series.

Meanwhile, the reader may enjoy some specific, itemized and numbered word and phrase parallels between Shoemaker language and either Big Book or Step language as we have listed them in two titles. See New Light on Alcoholism (148 parallels), pages 153-70; and The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous (202 parallels from both Shoemaker’s and other Oxford Group writings—Shoemaker being the principal American Oxford Group leader in the 1930’s), pages 276-77, 341-64.

Again, we have not listed each and every parallel here because there are many many specific examples in Shoemaker’s writings. And, as to each of those listed in this series on Steps Seven through Nine, the relevant footnote contains a citation to the page where you can find the Shoemaker-Oxford Group language quoted in the specified Shoemaker title.

dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com

Gloria Deo

Alcoholics Anonymous, Amends, Restitution, and Bible Origins

Alcoholics Anonymous, Amends, Restitution, and Bible Origins

A.A. Bible Refresher: Steps 8 and 9

Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

The making of amends and restoring for things wrongfully taken are rooted in the Bible. And there are particular verses from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from the Gospel of Luke, and
from the Book of Numbers that provided what Dr. Bob was later to state were the basic ideas
studied by A.A. cofounders long before the Steps were written and the Big Book was published.[1]
Making Amends and Restitution Is a Vital Part of Recovery Fellowships

You can see from the basic Bible sources about to be listed that God’s will, as expressed in the Old Testament and in the words of His Son Jesus Christ, required reconciliation with, and amends to a wronged adversary. And the intensive training of Dr. Bob in the Bible as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont is now well documented. As of late, the same is true of Bill Wilson’s Bible study as a boy in East Dorset, Vermont and in his four-year Bible course at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont. The commandments of God and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ teachings were not news to these cofounders of A.A.

The Original Akron Christian Fellowship that Bill and Bob founded in 1935 embraced the requirement of restitution.[2]

So did the so-called word-of-mouth six ideas that Bill Wilson and his wife Lois described as existing prior to the publishing of the Twelve Steps in 1939.[3]

A.A.’s Big Book added Steps Eight and Nine to the process and gave explicit instructions as to how amends were to be made. Moreover, the same “continuance” process was involved in the instructions for taking and practicing Step Ten.

And, as a personal note, I can say that taking Steps Eight and Nine and practicing Step Ten became important elements in the new life I was able to establish after attaining sobriety in 1986.
They were involved in restoring relations with my family, my minister, my friends, my former law associate, the Internal Revenue Service, and the criminal court in which I not only pleaded guilty but made a very substantial restitution to the entity harmed. It is my belief that the new life in sobriety does not really begin until the old wounds are bandaged and healed.

And here, for what assistance it may render to Christians and other Bible students in understanding what God’s Word had to say to the pioneers who studied it, are the verses
specifically and frequently mentioned in the materials they used..
The Basic Amends Ideas Early AAs Studied in the Bible

Matthew 5:23-24 (part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount):

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee: Leave there thy gift before the alter, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.[4]

Matthew 5:25 (part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount):

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge3, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou has paid the uttermost farthing.[5]

Luke 15:11-31, 19:1-10 (Jesus’ accounts of the Prodigal Son and of Zacchaeus, the tax collector)

In the early 1930’s, the British journalist, A.J. Russell, wrote For Sinners Only.[6] Russell wrote an entire chapter on “restitution” and much on Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. Russell covered all sets of verses we have covered here, and his book was very popular in among Oxford Group adherents, was widely circulated among Akron AAs, was often recommended by Bill Wilson’s mentor Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., and was specifically suggested by Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Smith for reading by AAs and their families.[7]

For Sinners Only referred to Jesus’ Prodigal Son story in Luke, Chapter 15. And Russell wrote: “Sending prodigal sons back to the earthly as well as their Heavenly Father is a specialty of the Oxford Group.”[8]

For Sinners Only also cited the conversation between Jesus and Zacchaeus recordexd in
Luke 19:1-10. Zacchaeus had told Jesus that if he had taken anything from any man by false accusation, he had restored the man forefold. Jesus responded approvingly, “This day is salvation come to thy house.”[9]

Numbers 5:5-7 (“he shall make restitution for his guilt in full, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him in respect of whom he hath been guilty”)[10]

The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: “When a man or woman wrongs
another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged.”[11]
________________________________________
[1] There are many sources which relate restitution, restoration, and amends to the Bible. But the following are more directly relevant to our simple presentation here. See Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible. Bridge Builders ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1997), 159-60; The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living that Works, New Rev. ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 315-17, 349. The relevance of the Bible passages we mention is also discussed in two of the recovery Bibles cited in detail below—The Life Recovery Bible and Celebrate Recovery Bible. Similar but less adequate recognition and discussion can also be found in Dr. Robert Hemfelt and Dr. Richard Fowler, Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), Recovery Devotional Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 149, 1039-40, 1143-44. The difficulty with all four, viewed from my standpoint, is they fail to recognize the historical significance at A.A.’s beginnings of the verses they cite. The reason may well be that none of the writers was sufficiently conversant with the Original A.A. program founded in 1935, and which considered the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, and the Book of James to be absolutely essential to the success of the early program. See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 71, 96-97, 144, 151, 183, 213, 228, 310-11.

[2] Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939:A,A.’s Principles of Success, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 109; DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 75.

[3] Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, Newton ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 256-59..

[4] Specifically learned and followed by Dr. Bob in making amends. See DR, BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 308, Quoted in The Runner’s Bible, Comp. and ed. by Nora Holm (Lakewood, CO: Acropolis Books, Publisher, 1998), 136—this being a daily devotional widely used by Dr. Bob and circulated among early AAs. Quoted on the dedication page of RHS, the memorial AA Grapevine issue at the time of Dr. Bob’s death. For a thorough review of the many other sources of this verse, read by AAs, from the writings of Oswald Chambers, E. Stanley Jones, Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Leslie D. Weatherhead, and others, see Dick B., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible. Bridge Builders ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1997), 159-60. For the quotation and handling of these verses in one of the popular recovery Bibles, see The Life Recovery Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992), 1009-11; Celebrate Recovery Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 1142-43; Recovery Devotional Bible, 1039-40; Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery, Matthew, p. 5..

[5] Holm, The Runner’s Bible, 108; Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (New Jersey: Barbour and Company, 1963), 182—a devotional used in early Akron A.A. and by Bill and Lois Wilson; The Upper Room for 1/12 36 or 1/12/39—the devotional most in use in the early Akron A.A. See also, Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, 159; and The Life Recovery Bible, 1011; Celebrate Recovery Bible, NIV (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 1142-43; Recovery Devotional Bible, 1040; Serenity, Matthew, p. 5.

[6] A. J. Russell, For Sinners Only (London: Hodder & Stoughton, Ltd., 1932).

[7] Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939: A.A.’s Principles of Success, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998), 83.

[8] Russell, For Sinners Only, 129; Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, 160; Celebrate Recovery Bible, xxxiii-iv;1280, 1282; The Life Recovery Bible, 1118-19; Serenity, 111; Recovery Devotional Bible, 1136-37..

[9] Russell, For Sinners Only, 135; Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, 160; The Life Recovery Bible, 1124-15; Recovery Devotional Bible, 1143-44; Serenity, 115-17; Celebrate Recovery Bible, 1124-25.

[10] Russell, For Sinners Only, 19. The language is as rendered in Russell’s book.

[11]See Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, 160. The translation above can be found in Recovery Devotional Bible: New International Version, 149. See also Celebrate Recovery Bible, 164; The Life Recovery Bible. 152.

Six Steps - Language Source from Sam Shoemaker

A.A. 12-Step Christian Parallels
from
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Steps One through Step Six

We have many times documented the frequent statements by A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson that his friend, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, was the major source of the Big Book ideas and Twelve Steps. In 1955, Newsweek named him one of the ten greatest preachers in the United States. Shoemaker was known as a great communicator, and was described by his associate, Rev. W. Irving Harris, as a Bible Christian.

There are many persuasive instances where one can find almost exact parallels between the language Bill Wilson used in the Big Book and the language Shoemaker used in his many Christian books, articles, and pamphlets.

Here, Step by Step, are a few of those parallels. Key words and phrases appear here in bold face. Moreover, in a number of my books, I have carefully stated and reviewed every parallel quote I have found in Shoemaker’s many writings. In each case, the parallels are present, and the examples are numerous. Those books which contain the totality of my work on Big Book-Shoemaker parallels are included at the close of this series of articles.

This study of Steps One trough Six begins with the parallels between Shoemaker’s introduction to the idea of “finding God” and Bill Wilson’s original insistence that one who takes the Twelve Steps must find God. In Realizing Religion, Shoemaker wrote: “You need to find God. You need a vital religious experience. You need Jesus Christ”

Here Are the Parallels in the First Six Steps

Step One: Shoemaker wrote: “It [sin] makes a gap between myself and the Ideal which I am powerless to bridge. It distances me from the All-holy God.” He also frequently referred to the prayer, “O Lord, manage me, for I cannot manage myself.”

Step Two: Shoemaker wrote: “I told him that I knew if he would make that act in faith, he would find himself not the possessor of, but possessed by, a Force outside himself, greater than himself.” Shoemaker also wrote: “They seemed to be propelled by a vast Power outside themselves.”

Step Three: Shoemaker wrote the following: (1) “He went into his room, knelt by his bed, and gave his life in surrender to God.” (2) “She surrendered to God her groundless fears, and with them turned over her life for His direction.” (3) “[H]e had made the greatest decision of life, to surrender himself unconditionally and for always to the will of God.” (4) “That night I decided to launch out into the deep and with the decision to cast my will and my life on God” (5) “They prayed together, opening their minds to as much of God as he understood.”

Step Four: Shoemaker wrote: “It would be a very good thing if you took a piece of foolscap paper and wrote down the sins you feel guilty of. . . . One of the simplest and best rules for self-examination that I know is to use the Four Standards, which Dr. Robert E. Speer said represented the summary of the Sermon on the Mount—Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Unselfishness, and Absolute Love. Review your life in their light. Put down everything that doesn’t measure up. Be ruthlessly, realistically honest.”

Step Five: Shoemaker wrote: “When people’s lives are wrong, they are usually wrong on one or more of these standards. Many quite respectable people have hidden things in their past and their present that need to come out in confidence with some one. . . . If a person is honest with himself and with God, he will be honest also with us and be ready to take the next step, which is a decision to surrender these sins, with himself wholly to God.”

Step Six: Shoemaker wrote: “You see, most of us justify our wrong-doings and excuse them. Even when we admit them, we do not quite want to give them up. . . . Sin hides behind immaturity, we keep up a fence of protection, then when we are found out we whimper like babies. But when we take down the fence of protection, and let another know us well, we are through with shams and self-deception and the attempt to deceive others, even God. It will take some prayer to get to this place, where we want God to take the sin out of us, all of it, and for good.”

As stated, the foregoing are not the only parallels to each Step. We have listed all the references to them that we have found in our various titles. (For more on this, please see the forthcoming third article in this series.) Meanwhile, the reader may enjoy the extensive word and phrase parallels between Shoemaker language and either Big Book or Step language as we have listed them in these two titles: (1) Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism (148 parallels), pages 153-70; and (2) Dick B., The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous (202 parallels from both Shoemaker’s and other Oxford Group writings—Shoemaker being the principal American Oxford Group leader in the 1930’s), pages 276-77, 341-64. As stated, there are many other parallels, and each of those listed in this series on Steps One through Six contains a citation to the page where you can find the Shoemaker-Oxford Group language quoted in my books.

dickb@dickb.com;
www.dickb.com

Gloria Deo

May 3 - Introductory 4 part Class now available for purchase

This morning, May 3, 2010, our new class "Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery" became available for purchase. Shortly, details for, and capability of purchase will be posted on my main website front page with paypal opportunity www.dickb.com. But you can purchase it right now, today.

Right now, you will want to contact my son Ken for precise details on the class, our part in helping you, and the purchase price for a one year license. Please contact Ken B. by phone 808 276 4945; or write me Dick B. by email dickb@dickb.com.

This is a Class that will be a must for those who want to make early A.A.'s Original Christian Fellowship program in Akron a part of any kind of recovery effort based on reliance on God. Its point is that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played a deep and specific role in the origins, founding, program, and successes of the early A.A. program. Its point, also, is that they can play the same role today--no matter who the newcomer is, where he starts his recovery, who his instructors or counselors are, or which route he takes--A.A., N.A., rehab, treatment program, prison, mental ward, homeless situation, therapy, pastoral counseling, Christian Recovery Program, Christ-centered recovery program, or a recovery plan or approach within a church.

The Class contents are these:

First, 4 DVD's lasting about one-hour each. They are independent so that you can start a class wherever and whenver you come in, without waiting for a first class opening. All four are vital. Each of the four tells a different aspect of the Christian recovery roots of A.A. All tell you facts about A.A.'s Christian origins, the Christian training our founders received as youngsters, where the Akron program elements came from (and didn't come from), what the program in Akron really was, how it is summarized in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, how it changed after 1937 when Bill W. began fashioning a new program in his new book, how much more it changed in 1939 just before the Big Book was published, and how none of these factors alters the ability of a suffering newcomer today to seek and rely upon God's help--just as the early AAs did, and just as the abc's in today's A.A. Big Book suggest can be done.

Second, there is an extensive guide for instructors. The instructors may be a sponsor, a speaker, a seminar, a conference, a group, a counselor, a therapist, a recovery program clinician, a pastoral counselor, a recovery group leader, a chaplain, a clergyman, or a program director in a church, treatment program, or charitable agency. This guide introduces the class, it includes the text, and it is accompanied by detailed Question and Answers that can be used to help the instructor and challenge the students.

Third, there is a line-by-line guide for students to read before the class, along with the class, or to take home or to a group for further study.

Finally, to insure documentation for all the points made, the class includes a copy of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010. This is an indispensable resource that enables student, teacher, and questioner to see exactly where the details came from, how they have been documented, and how the documentation can be used to enrich and pass along accurate facts and understanding. It is also a vital research tool that enables the reader to do his own homework, verification, and growth.

Again: If you want to be an instructed instructor, a knowledgeable teacher, a capable leader or speaker or sponsor, and a well-informed student of Christian recovery and how it can be implemented today, this is the class for you. And you can get a lot of mileage out of the class once you purchase it, present it, and use it in a myriad of situations.

Dick B. 808 874 4876; dickb@dickb.com

Higher Power

Higher Power

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Part One

Some of us spend [or waste] a lot of time asking the question: “What is a Higher Power?” Still others provide nonsense definitions and characteristics of “their” “higher power.” Bill Wilson vacillated between “God” and the unusual “Higher Power” he talked about so frequently after Dr. Bob was dead. Compare these inconsistent and conflicting statements by Bill:

You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your ‘higher power.’

Refusing to place God first, we had deprived ourselves of His help. But now the words “Of myself I am nothing, the Father doeth the works” began to carry bright promise and meaning.”

The second statement was first propounded by Dr. Bob in his last major talk in 1948. He said:

I’m talking about the attitude of each and every one of us toward our Heavenly Father. Christ said, “Of myself, I am nothing—My strength cometh from my Father in heaven.” If He had to say that, how about you and me?”

When Dr. Bob talked about his “Heavenly Father,” he was not talking about AA or a higher power. He was using the expression by which Jesus Christ referred to God, His Father. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Not ever one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” In that same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus several times spoke of “your Father which is in heaven;” called for prayer to “Our Father which art in heaven,” and told the assembly about “your heavenly father.”

Both Bill W. and Dr. Bob were Christians at the time A.A. was founded. Both had studied the Bible. Both said that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount contained the underlying spiritual philosophy of A.A. And neither was speaking about his “Heavenly Father” with even the slightest thought of some higher power.

Sometimes, we hear this strange “higher power” described as: “Something.” Sometimes, we hear that it is: “Somebody.” Two authors recently claimed of A.A.: “. . . they can reclaim “God” by calling that “higher power” anything they want, as long as they are ready to admit that they cannot control everything in life.” An A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlet for newcomers states: “However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. Many people call it God, others think it is the A.A. group, still others don’t believe in it at all.” On other occasions, we are told in meetings or our literature that: “It” is a light bulb, a radiator, a chair, the Big Dipper, a rock, Ralph, “ and even a tree.

Reverend John Baker described how Celebrate Recovery came to be and stated the following:

As we progress through the program we discover our personal, loving and forgiving Higher Power—Jesus Christ, the one and only true Higher Power.

However, at my AA meetings I was mocked when I talked about my Higher Power—the only true Higher Power, Jesus Christ. And at church I couldn’t find a place where individuals would openly relate to my struggle with alcoholism.

In this first part, you have the problem. A.A.’s 1939 compromise with atheists and agnostics, has opened the door to every possible conception of a “higher power.” For some it’s the A.A. Group. For some it’s a chair. For some, it’s Something or Somebody. For some it’s Jesus Christ. For some it’s just nothing at all. And, in the next part, we’ll explore why a “higher power” has any place at all in the vocabulary of a practicing Christian in a recovery fellowship. We’ll ask: What happened to God, not “a” god, but God—just as Dr. Bob put it to A.A. newcomers—God that Bob called his “Heavenly Father.”