Alcoholics Anonymous History And Its Initial Christian Roots
How They’ve Been Forgotten; And How
They Can Help Recovery Today
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Learn About Them
I am one of the tens of thousands
(probably hundreds of thousands) of Christians who deeply appreciate the
recovery from alcoholism and addiction that Alcoholics Anonymous made possible
in our lives. Many of us have been criticized for mentioning Jesus Christ and
the Bible in our talks at meetings. But most of us know that God is our
sufficiency. We pray to Him in the name of Jesus Christ. And we recover.
Many of us who are Christians
involved in A.A. do believe in God, the accomplishments of His Son Jesus
Christ, and the truth about both that is found in the Bible. Many of us, as
Christian members of Alcoholics Anonymous, had no idea whatsoever that early
A.A. was a Christian fellowship, that its members believed in God, surrendered
to Jesus Christ, and studied the Bible on a daily basis. Many of us had no idea
whatsoever that the early, Christian-oriented A.A. claimed an overall 75%
success rate among the “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp
case” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the pioneer A.A. program. And many of
us never learned that the Original Akron program is summarized rather well in
on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and
the Good Oldtimers.
How could so many of us have been
unaware of these facts?
The answer, in part, is that, as the
First Edition of A.A.’s Big Book manuscript was being written and edited in
1938 and early 1939, many additions, omissions, and changes were made to the
highly-successful Akron Christian program Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing
in the summer of 1935. For example, as Bill W. stated on pages 166-67 of the
A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of
Age:
We [Bill W., Hank P., Ruth Hock, and
John Henry Fitzhugh M.] were still arguing about the Twelve Steps. All this
time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the
original draft, in which, you will remember, I had consistently used the
word “God,” and in one place the expression “on our knees” was used.
Praying to God on one’s knees was still a big affront to Henry. He argued, he
begged, he threatened. He quoted Jimmy [B.—i.e., Jim Burwell] to back him up. .
. . Though at first I would have none of it, we finally began to talk about the
possibility of compromise. . . . In Step Two we decided to describe God as a
“Power greater than ourselves.” In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words
“God as we understood Him.” From Step Seven we deleted the expression “on our
knees.” . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith;
this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. [Emphasis added]
Bill W.’s wife Lois spoke about
another major change on page 113 of her autobiography, Lois Remembers:
Finally it was agreed that the book
should present a universal spiritual program, not a specific religious one,
since all drunks were not Christian.
Dover Publications has recently
released its reprint of the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous with an extensive introduction by me [Dick
B.]. This new A.A. history resource is of immense value today for several
reasons: (1) It contains the personal stories which were expressly placed in
the Big Book as testimonies to the efficacy of the A.A. program as Bill
expressed, though modified, it in the first portion of the basic text. Most of
these testimonials have been removed, story by story, as A.A. has chosen to
publish edition after edition over the years—editions that changed the whole
tenor of A.A. recovery by the new personal stories inserted. (2) The Dover
Publications reprint contains the original A.A. ”solution.” That solution was a
“spiritual experience.” It emanated from the writings and views of Professor
William James of Harvard who was called one of three sources of the 12 Steps as
claimed by Bill Wilson. It also emanated from the views of world renowned Swiss
psychiatrist, Dr. Carl Gustav Jung who passed along to A.A. the idea that those
with the mind of a chronic alcoholic could find release through a vital
religious experience—a conversion experience. And it emanated from the language
of Rev. Sam Shoemaker who wrote in one of his earliest books that those
suffering from spiritual misery—separation from God by people who were meant to
be His companions—needed (a) to find God. (b) a vital religious experience. (c)
Jesus Christ. Yet that clear solution—a vital religious experience, a spiritual
experience, a conversion experience was soon dumped by Wilson in favor of his
nebulous phrase “spiritual awakening” which eventually became a “personality
change” sufficient to overcome alcoholism. (3) The Dover Publications reprint
enables readers to contrast the Bill Wilson program of the 1939 Twelve Steps in
the main body of the First Edition with the testimonial stories at the rear of
the book where alcoholics attested to the efficacy of the Akron A.A. Christian
Fellowship which derived from the study and effort in the Bible that Bill and
Bob undertook in 1935 as they developed the “old school” program in Akron.
Such major changes to the Original
Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” program obscured the simple solution the A.A.
pioneers in Akron discovered; specifically, that a cure from alcoholism was
available through reliance on Almighty God, coming to Him through His Son Jesus
Christ, and reading and studying the Bible—along with the other principles and
practices of the early days. [For the Frank Amos summary of the Original Akron
A.A. “Program,” and the other principles and practices of the Akron fellowship,
see: Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Manual (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2009), 44-46, 49.]
The Lesson from the First Three AAs
Early AAs knew one another. They
visited one another. They had address books with the phone numbers (if a given
member had a phone) and addresses of the other members. And they kept rosters
which showed the sobriety dates and sobriety history of the members.
The 75% overall success rate early
A.A. claimed was remarkable because it was attained by what Bill W. called the
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp” real alcoholic cases
who gave their all to God and received the blessed healing and deliverance that
followed. Bill W. and Dr. Bob did indeed state that there were “failures
galore.” But there weren’t failures galore among the real hardcore members who
turned to God and gave the program everything they had.
A very important part of the
historical record is how the first three AAs got sober in late 1934 and in
1935. When they got sober:
There was no Big Book (Alcoholics
Anonymous was published in April 1939);
There were no Twelve Steps;
There were no Twelve Traditions;
There were no “drunkalogs”; and
There were no “meetings to make”—at
least of the kinds normally seen in today’s A.A.
The Creator of the heavens and the
earth was there. See, for example, Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.:
“my Creator” (page 13)
“My Creator” (76)
“our Creator” (pages 25, 68, 72, 75,
83)
“a living Creator” (page 28);
“his Creator” (page 56, 80, 158)
“their loving and All Powerful
Creator” (page 161)
The “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ, was
there. See, for example: Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the
Creator’s Role in Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc.,
2006), 59ff.
The Bible (which Dr. Bob often called
the “Good Book”) was there. See, for example, page 13 of the A.A. General
Service Conference-approved pamphlet, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous
(Item # P-53; available for reading online at http://aa.org/pdf/products/p-53_theco-foundersofAA.pdf;
accessed 8/5/09):
“At that point, 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 that
we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth
chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James.”
A.A. Number One, Bill W., learned
from Dr. Silkworth that Jesus Christ could cure him. Bill learned from his old
drinking friend Ebby Thacher that Ebby had been to the altar at Calvary Rescue
Mission, and been reborn, causing Ebby to tell Bill that God had done for him
(Ebby) what Ebby could not do for himself. Bill then went to Calvary Church
itself. He heard Ebby give testimony from the pulpit; and Bill decided that he
too needed help and needed the same help that Ebby had received. Bill then went
to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, made a decision for Christ, wrote that
he had been born again for sure, and then decided to seek the help of the
“Great Physician,” Jesus Christ. Deeply depressed and despairing, Bill
proceeded drunk to Towns Hospital where he was greeted by Dr. Silkworth. At
Towns Hospital, Bill cried out for help, had a dramatic spiritual “white light”
experience, perceived that he had been in the presence of the “God of the
Scriptures” (as Bill wrote on page 284 of The
Language of the Heart), and never drank again. Bill proclaimed he never
again doubted the existence of God. And his message became: “The Lord has cured
me of this terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking about it and
telling people.” (Alcoholics Anonymous,
4th ed., 191) No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve Traditions. No
drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God that Bill had sought
and relied upon.
A.A. Number Two, Dr. Bob S.,–a
Christian since his youth in St. Johnsbury, Vermont–prayed for deliverance on
the rug at the home of T. Henry Williams in Akron. Miraculously, help showed up
quite soon in the form of a visit of Bill W. to Akron. Henrietta Seiberling
declared Bill’s visit to be “Manna from Heaven.” Bill soon moved in with Dr.
Bob and his wife, studied the Bible with them, and nursed Dr. Bob back from
one, brief and last binge. Dr. Bob never drank again thereafter and told the
nurse at City Hospital that he and Bill had found a cure for alcoholism. No Big
Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just
the power and love of God that Dr. Bob had sought and relied upon. Dr. Bob
closed his story in the Big Book with these words:
“Your Heavenly Father will never let
you down!”
Bill W. and Dr. Bob sought out
another drunk to help. They found A.A. Number Three, the hospitalized Akron
attorney Bill D., also a Christian. After Bill D. heard what Bill W. and Dr.
Bob had to share, Bill D. decided to entrust his life to God’s care. Shortly,
when Bill W. and Dr. Bob returned to the hospital, Bill D. told them what had
happened. Bill D. then left the hospital a free man and never drank again. He
had been told to find other drunks to help; and he did so. No Big Book. No
Twelve Steps. No Twelve Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power
and love of God that Bill D. had sought and relied upon. Bill D. found himself
echoing Bill W.’s statement on page 191 of the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:
“The Lord has cured me of this
terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.”
Bill D. called Bill W.’s statement the
“golden text of A.A.” for him and for others.
What These Three Stories Show Us
Today
Three men! The first three AAs. All
healed by the power of God—never to drink again!
What they did is scarcely known by
AAs and recovery workers today. I know, for I have spoken and written about it
in front of audiences all over the United States and in Canada—in person, in
books, in articles, in emails, in phone calls, and on radio and television. Yet
that is the message they seem hungry to hear.
These first three AAs recovered by
the power of God. Because of their experience, other “seemingly-hopeless,”
“medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” real alcoholics, who thoroughly
followed the early Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” program path, were able to
recover by the power of God. But what I especially hope you, the reader, will
take away from this discussion is that what was done in 1935 and the next three
years can be done and is being done today.
Benefitting Today from the “Lessons
Learned” by A.A.’s Pioneers
I’m a proponent of A.A. I recovered
immediately when I entered the rooms of A.A. in 1986 and have never relapsed
since. I have had complete release from alcoholism and addiction. I credit the
support I received in A.A., the work I did in learning the program of recovery
in the Steps and helping others to take those Steps, and the complete
dedication I had to the A.A. way. But I have never for one moment doubted that
God must ultimately receive the credit—just as He received the credit from the
mouths of the first three AAs—Bill W., Dr. Bob S., and Bill D.
When a Christian in A.A. is buffeted
with intemperate remarks from others about the Creator of the heavens and the
earth, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, his faith, or his church, he needs to
stand solid on the real recovery factor that is available in A.A. today, just
as it was available in the Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935. A.A.
was founded on statements such as this: God could and would if He were sought.
He can. He will. He does. And He is available to every drunk or addict who
wants to seek and obey Him. That was proved in 1935. It is being proved today
among those Christians in recovery who choose to avail themselves of His help.
And His help—the help of the Creator of the heavens and the earth—stands at the
ready awaiting a call from those who believe. Those in prisons, jails, mental
wards, hospitals, A.A., N.A., other Twelve Step Fellowships, the Armed Forces,
veterans facilities, homeless shelters, treatment programs, rehabs, detoxes,
and counseling offices. Anywhere! Anywhere at all!
Dick B.: PO Box 837, Kihei, HI
96753-0837; (808) 874-4876 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (808) 874-4876
end_of_the_skype_highlighting; Email: DickB@DickB.com;
Gloria Deo
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