Alcoholics Anonymous History
Looking at Its Oxford Group Link in Context
Dick B.
Copyright 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Note! You can get a thoroughly reviewed, accurate, and
complete account of the relationship of Alcoholics Anonymous with the Oxford
Group, also known as “A First Century Christian Fellowship.” Obtain a copy of The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous,
2d ed. by Dick B., www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml.
No facet of Alcoholics Anonymous History has been more
bungled than A.A.'s connection with the Oxford Group. There are some relevant
fundamentals concerning the relationship. But there are far more erroneous
pieces of information still being promulgated by many today. Consider the
following:
Yes, after he got sober, Bill Wilson became involved with
the Oxford Group on the East Coast. But the real activities that brought about
Bill’s sobriety had little to do with the Oxford Group at and before the time
he got sober. Bill actually learned the solution to alcoholism--Conversion to
God through Jesus Christ--from his friend Ebby Thacher and from his physician
Dr. William D. Silkworth.
To be sure, Bill also learned about the Oxford Group from
Rowland Hazard and Ebby Thacher. But he did not rely on Oxford Group principles
and practices (their life-changing program) when he: (1) made his decision for
Jesus Christ at Calvary Mission in New York; (2) became born again and so
stated in his autobiography; (3) decided he needed to turn to the Great
Physician Jesus Christ for help and so stated in his autobiography; and (4) went
to Towns Hospital, cried out to God for help, had his indescribably white light
experience--sensing God's presence—and exclaiming “Bill, You are a free man.
This is the God of the Scriptures.” .See Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W. (www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml). See
also Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The Little
Doctor Who Loved Drunks. And see Bill’s
own words in The Language of the Heart,
page 284.
And Bill Wilson never drank again. Later, Bill went to
Oxford Group functions on the East Coast and belonged to its businessmen's team.
But Bill and his wife were “kicked out” of the Oxford Group in 1937. When Bill
got authority to write a book on the A.A. program, he worked out his Step ideas
with Rev. Sam Shoemaker prior to publishing the Big Book in 1939. See The Language of the Heart, pages 297-98.
What about Dr. Bob and the Oxford Group link?
Bob specified the Bible as the source of A.A.’s basic ideas.
He said the basic ideas for A.A. came from the Bible. He said he had nothing to
do with the writing of the Twelve Steps. He said that the Bible's Book of
James, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 were the absolute
essentials for the Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship program founded by Bill W.
and Dr. Bob in 1935. See The Co-Founders
of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks,
pages 13-14. Did Dr. Bob attend a small Oxford Group meeting once a week at T.
Henry Williams' house? Yes. Did he get sober by applying Oxford Group
principles? No. He got sober earlier by joining the little Oxford Group people
and families in praying for his deliverance--and, with his prayers answered,
met with Bill Wilson, and then got sober as the two studied the Bible for three
months in the summer of 1935.
For most writers, the story has ended there. But the
Christian Fellowship program developed and practiced by Bill, Bob, Bill Dotson,
and the pioneers as a daily discipline—much like that of the Apostles in First
Century Christianity. It is summarized in A.A.’s own literature at DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, page
131. The sixteen Christian practices that implemented the Akron program and the
comments about their daily First Century Christianity are covered in Dick B.
and Ken B., Stick with the Winners! How
to Conduct More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings Using Conference-Approved
Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and Workers in the Recovery
Arena.
How, then, to what extent, and if at all, did the Oxford
Group’s twenty-eight life-changing principles and practices become a part of
Bill Wilson’s new A.A. program and previously non-existent Twelve Steps?
Bill Wilson did that primarily by working with Rev. Sam
Shoemaker in 1938 and 1939 and then codifying Oxford Group ideas in ten of A.A.’s
new Twelve Steps and recovery program produced in 1939 in its Big Book first
edition... Bill spelled out the real sources of those Twelve Steps and ideas in
The Language of the Heart, pages
297-98!
Gloria Deo
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