A.A. “Conference-approved” Literature
That Frequently Mentions the Bible and God
Yep! You heard or read that correctly
A Two-Part Discussion of the Long
Overlooked Big Book Personal Stories
Dick B.
Copyright 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
Part One: A.A.’s “Experience, Strength
and Hope” Publication
Protests by the Hundreds and Hundreds
“You can’t say that!” “You can’t read that!” “You can’t put
that book on the table!” “You are reading from something that’s not ‘Conference-approved!’”
“You can’t sell that here because it’s not ‘Conference-approved?” “Furthermore,
it’s a ‘violation’ of the Twelve Traditions!”
For at least forty years in meetings, this or that AA has
winced and sometimes shouted reproof when someone mentioned the Bible, talked
about Jesus Christ, or read from some literature that early AAs read. Sometimes it was about verses
from the Bible. (That happened to me when I read from the Book of James to an
audience of at least 800 AAs with Dr. Bob’s son and the principal author of “Pass
It On” and an Oxford Grouper sharing). Nobody left the meeting. But secretive,
indirect phone calls from my grand-sponsor and sponsor started ringing as soon
as the Conference was over. Secretive, but clearly intended to intimidate.
There was also the claim that anything in A.A. before 1939
and the Big Book was not really A.A. Also the claim that the Akron A.A.
Christian Fellowship founded by Bill W. and Dr. Bob in 1935 was “pre-A.A.” You
can still find that distortion floating around on websites today.
And, since the First Edition of the Big Book had not been
copyrighted by the A.A. hierarchy, it too fell under the condemnation of not Conference-approved. So a least a
generation heard and passed along the view that, if Bill W. hadn’t said it and
copyrighted it and received royalties from it, it somehow should not be touched,
used, or approved in an A.A. meeting.
This attempted suppression—the early A.A. program blackout—was
often excused by calling the early A.A. practices and principles the “flying
blind” period or the “trial and error” period. Or other denigrating names even
though the practices were launched and used by Bob and Bill themselves. And
those “flying blind” and similar phrases can still be found in A.A.
Conference-approved literature today.
Finally!
The shackles began to fall. The doors began to open. The
literature began to appear—though sometimes through non-A.A. publishers. And
then: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. published in 2003 Experience, Strength and Hope: Stories from
the First Three Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. And the copyright page,
bearing date 2003, said: “This is A.A.
General Service Conference-approved literature.”
There were caveats—warnings—in the introductory portions. But
pages ix-x did say:
The importance of these personal
stories cannot be overstated. Co-founder Bill W. articulated it in a 1954
letter: “The story section of the Big Book is far more important than most of
us think. . . . it is the written equivalent of hearing speakers at an A.A.
meeting; it is our show window of results. . . . Thus in the pages that follow,
you will meet a large number and variety of A.A.’s from earlier times, whose
stories are no longer part of our basic text, but are most emphatically part of
our common experience.
However,
Page xi said,
As a collection, therefore, they greatly enrich our knowledge of “what
we used to be like” as a Fellowship.
Most of the A.A. writers got sober before
the Twelve Traditions had been adopted, many of them in that chaotic period when A.A. was flying blind
and learning from its many mistakes. (italics added)
Do you, as an intelligent reader, think the First Edition personal
testimonies were merely a “collection” of writings from bygone days in a period
when early AAs nonetheless called themselves a Christian Fellowship, were
likened to First Century Christianity, were studying the Bible daily, were
having old fashioned prayer meetings daily, were observing Quiet Time daily, were
using Christian devotionals daily, were reading Christian literature daily, were
witnessing daily, and were insisting on a belief in God and taking newcomers
upstairs to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?
If so, then how does a reader explain the fact that the Big
Book itself stated the personal stories enabled each member, in his own
language, and from his own point of view, to tell how he established his
relationship with God. Was that just an antiquated explanation or collection of
flying blind or trial and error thoughts about how the Creator had entered
their lives in a way that was truly miraculous? Were that the case, both the
book and the stories were useless. Not!
Was this just what “we used to be like?”
Did the Twelve Traditions somehow trump or supersede God,
Jesus Christ, the Bible, prayer, and Quiet Time?
Were the daily Akron fellowship meetings in Dr. Bob’s home
and other homes, and those at T. Henry‘s Wednesday night meetings nothing more
than pointlessly “chaotic?”
Did the sober teachers of AAs and at the meetings—Anne Ripley
Smith, Henrietta Buckler Seiberling, T. Henry Williams, Clarace Williams, Rev.
Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rev. W. Irving Harris, and Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman
merely “fly blind” and make “many mistakes?”
That’s not how Bill Wilson explained the God-given results
surveyed in November, 1937.
Do you really believe that, collectively, the teachers and
students who were at it daily--reading the Bible, praying, and asking God for
guidance--were wasting lives in a riotous “chaotic” program of far less
importance and value than the often vulgar, “relationship-questing,” and mindless
chatter of uninstructed diverse “meeting makers” today? Or are drunks, drunks?
Were drunks, drunks? Are addicts, addicts? Were addicts, addicts? Were and are
they just people who have unmanageable lives and cannot help themselves or be
helped by others? People simply flying blind toward God and making mistakes
along the way?
That is not what the First, the Second, the Third, or the
Fourth editions tell us. The “mistakes” and shortcomings of the afflicted can
scarcely be compared with the truth of the Bible that early AAs studied daily.
Yet there has been even more vacuous opining
Page 2 says:
The stories that follow, reprinted
from the first edition, take us back to the “trial and error” days. . . They
were still a little unsure and afraid of this “thing” they had found, still groping
for clear guidelines, still largely “uneducated about their alcoholism.”
(italics added)
[Note the “trial and error,” “thing,”
“groping,” “guidelines,” and “uneducated” words. These while the Big Book spoke—not
of trial and error—but of finding God, not a “thing.” The Big Book did not use
such mischaracterized words as “groping,” “guidelines,” and “uneducated.” The
First Edition personal stories and testimonies were talking not about
uneducated groping or “guidelines.” They talked of a program where Guidance was
sought directly from God and also from His Word—the Bible.]
Much of the terminology is strange
to us: they wrote of “former alcoholics,” described their recovery as a “cure,”
and referred to alcohol in such terms as “John Barleycorn.”
[Once again, the language of the
Big Book itself, on page 191 of its latest edition, still carries the statement
of Bill Wilson (and also A.A. Number Three) that the “Lord had
cured” Bill of his “terrible
disease.” And did not that “cure”—so plainly and simply described—truly make
all three of the first alcoholics “former alcoholics?”]
Do the historical facts validate the foregoing allegations of groping,
unguided stupidity?
Page 3 recants slightly. It says:
. . . the differences between the
stories we hear today and those written in 1939 are not important. These
writers were alcoholics, and their experience rings true to any A.A. member of
any time or place.
Who was doing the investigating, teaching, and writing?
Dr. Bob and Bill’s many mentors deserve the first attention:
Dr. Bob was teacher, learner, and leader! He had graduated
from St. Johnsbury Academy; graduated from Dartmouth; attended the following
medical schools—University of Michigan, Rush Medical College, further medical
training at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; and at Jefferson Medical
School in Philadelphia; and also been awarded a highly coveted internship at
City Hospital. Moreover, he was thoroughly trained in the Bible by his father,
a judge and Academy examiner; by his mother, a state library commissioner,
Academy teacher, and writer; by YMCA workers and Academy teachers; and by
Congregational pastors, teachers, and deacons.
Educated in his Christian home, church, Sunday school, and
prayer meetings. Active in the very demanding and serious Young People’s
Society of Christian Endeavor. Required to attend daily chapel with sermons,
hymns, and Scripture reading; and attend weekly Bible studies.
He said he had received excellent training in the Bible as a
youngster. And his ready and constant references to the Bible in early A.A.
bespeak that training—something that Bill applauded more than once. And then,
in preparation for sobriety, he read the Bible from cover to cover three times as
well as refreshing his memory and reading at least an hour every night.
Anne Ripley Smith, Bob’s wife, was a graduate of Wellesley
and had been a teacher.
Henrietta Buckler Seiberling was a graduate of Vassar and an
avid Bible student and reader.
T. Henry Williams was a brilliant and successful inventor
and a former Sunday School teacher.
Clarace Williams had extensive training to be a missionary.
Dr. William D. Silkworth was considered the leading
authority on alcoholism at that time.
The long-dead
Professor William James and the Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung were
considered tops in the areas where their work and studies had contributed
ideas.
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., was a graduate of Princeton,
a YMCA leader, an author of more than 30 books and countless articles and
sermons, and held many prestigious positions in the Episcopal Church.
Frank Amos, who investigated the Akron program for the
Rockefeller group, was hardly “flying blind” when visited Akron, specifically
summarized their program, and specifically described their successes. Nor were
the Rockefeller people who met with the AAs and were elated to find that theirs
was “First Century Christianity at work.” All the Rockefellers were devoted Christian
readers and spokespeople—not just “trial and error” parishioners.
Bill Wilson himself
Somehow, in 2003, with both Dr. Bob and Bill and all the others,
dead and gone, a “Conference-approved” publication then belatedly labeled the “uneducated,”
“blind” bunch mentioned above.
In a sense, the johnny-come-lately editors in 2002 were
rejecting and disparaging the very education and religious training that had
characterized the leadership of Bill Wilson, and of Dr. Bob before him.
Bill was trained in East Dorset, Vermont by his sage
grandfather Fayette Griffith; by the pastor and people at East Dorset
Congregational Church; by his Oxford Group friends—Ebby Thacher, Rowland
Hazard, Shep Cornell, and Cebra Graves, who all had Christian training; then by
the ministers, teachers, and lay Congregationalists at Burr and Burton Academy,
and then by a similar group at Norwich Military Academy. Bill’s writing
capability and products alone marked him as a man who was hardly flying blind,
tinkering with trial and error, and uneducated in the medical and religious
aspect of the program that he heard and learned frequently from his friends and
mentors, Dr. William Silkworth, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rev. W. Irving
Harris, Dr. Frank Buchman, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.
The Explanatory First Edition
Tool Just Published by Dover Publications
Shortly, we will review the specifics of the First Edition
Big Book and how its personal stories actually explain the original Akron
Christian Fellowship program and boldly talk of the Bible, God, and Jesus
Christ. Ironically, because there was yet to be a Big Book and a body of steps,
they were not even talking about the program Bill had just extracted largely
from Rev. Sam Shoemaker and embodied in the language that preceded the personal
stories.
More important, perhaps, in the second part of this article,
we will review the purpose, contents, and conclusions found in the introduction
to the recently published book by Dover Publications: Alcoholics Anonymous “The Big Book: The Original 1939 Edition Bill W. With a New Introduction by Dick B.
(Minoeola, New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 2011).
Gloria Deo
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