Alcoholics Anonymous History: Our Latest Project

Alcoholics Anonymous History: Our Latest Project

By Dick B.

© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved

For many years, my son Ken and I have watched as book after book, guide after guide, "Bible" after “Bible,” workbook after workbook, and "scholarly" papers on A.A. have uniformly tended to miss the boat when it came to researching and reporting "real" Alcoholics Anonymous History.



By this, I mean they have often and erroneously attributed A.A.'s origins to the Oxford Group. In so doing, they have failed to research or report the Christian upbringing of A.A.'s cofounders. They have failed to report how the first three AAs got sober without the Oxford Group and without Steps, Traditions, or Big Book. They have failed to report the immense influence of the Bible on A.A. and its founders--in the case of Akron A.A.--and of Rev. Sam Shoemaker--when it came to the language of the Big Book and 12 Steps. And they have failed to give the Bible the prominence it had in early A.A. where it was used at every meeting, taught by the leaders, and read by the newcomers and old-timers alike.



They have fallen into the trap of emphasizing the supposed importance of the Washingtonians while ignoring the fact that this movement--though large--was of short duration, failed utterly, and did not at all emphasize belief in or reliance on God.



They have often failed to report the importance of the Book of James, Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 in early A.A. and even of the quotes in Bill's Big Book from these sources. They have also failed to note how many times the early writings--devotionals like The Runner's Bible and The Upper Room, and books like Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World (1 Corinthians 13)--popped up again and again in the books and pamphlets of early A.A. and even in the Oxford Group at times.



This is not a treatise on what has been missing.



It is a report on why we have recently undertaken several projects in which fine Christian writers who are deep into recovery work have invited us to write introductions or appendices for their publications, including books, workbooks, and even a reprint of the first edition of the Big Book. These publications simply introduce readers of all stripes and hues to the important Christian origins, history, founding, original program, and great successes of the Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship.” They document the principles of the Akron program. They detail the 16 practices that the early AAs used. All when there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Book pages, no drunkalogs, and no meetings as we know them today.



There is a growing, mighty wind of interest and desire to learn accurate Alcoholics Anonymous history, to report it widely, to present it completely, to teach it frequently, to incorporate it in Christian recovery work and literature, and to apply it IN today's 12 Step programs.



We can now name four major publications which have added or are about to add such an A.A. history Foreword, Introduction, or Appendix; and also a number of recent books and articles which we have written that set the stage for the new Christian Recovery Movement. They can and will turn A.A. and recovery eyes back on the origins of A.A. and encourage a reinstatement IN today's fellowships of those principles and practices which led early A.A. to claim an overall 75% success rate in early A.A. and a documented 93% success rate in Cleveland A.A. (where the first A.A. Group was founded on May 11, 1939.)



We are eagerly awaiting any and every opportunity to "beef up" the already-successful Christian recovery work with the Alcoholics Anonymous history elements. Please consider the importance and value of this ongoing Christian recovery tool.