Appendix
How Early Cleveland A.A. Carried the
Original Message, Applied the Big Book and Twelve Steps, Maintained the First
Century Christianity Highpoints, and Attained a Documented 93% Success Rate
Cleveland A.A. was not founded until just after A..A.’s
First Edition of the Big Book was published in April of 1939. Cleveland
followed on the heels of Bill Wilson’s “new” program and therefore adopted the
Big Book and the Twelve Steps. But it also brought with it from the original
Akron Christian Fellowship the Bible, the Four Absolutes—Honesty, Purity,
Unselfishness, and Love—and “most of the old program.” Its 93% success rate and
fast growth from one group to thirty in a year make its principles and
practices of unique importance in conveying the facts through a beginners’
meeting and incorporating them in “carrying this message.”
International Christian Recovery Coalition followed up on
its extensive investigation throughout Vermont of the origins, roots, and
pioneer history of A.A.. Our researchers unearthed reams of evidence as to what
we now call the “New Era of A.A. History in Vermont. The researchers learned
and reported how many of A.A.’s Christian pioneer,, the Christian upbringing of
Bill and Bob, and the influential
pre-A.A. organizations, leaders, principles, and practices moved right into the
founding of the Akron A.A. The success
of these ideas in old school Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship was attested
when Bill and Bob conducted their counting of noses in November, 1937, and
reported that about forty men had maintained continuous sobriety over the two
year period from 1935 to 1937, and that 50% of them continued to remain sober
thereafter.
This November of 2012 another group of researches spent
several days at the Cleveland Central Office and other A.A. spots of interest
and included a visit to the Ohio A.A. archives at the Intergroup Office of A.A.
in Akron. And this Appendix will provide a synopsis of the important results of
the Cleveland-Akron investigation.
We Begin With Some Major Cleveland A.A. History and Where It
Can Be Found
Not only the Cleveland Central Office, but also many writers
drew on the statements, writings, and record of Cleveland beginnings by
Cleveland A.A. founder Clarence H. Snyder.
And the following resources are vital to an understanding of
what the Cleveland AAs did; believed; and practiced in their earliest years.
The resources are:
1. Publications
specifically detailing the role of Clarence H. Snyder in Cleveland A.A.
Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community: A Twelve-Step Guide
for Those Who Want to Believe. This
guide is the most recent and practical road to details about how Clarence commented
on A.A., the Big Book, the Bible, and the Twelve Steps; how he founded retreats for AAs and their families and
showed people exactly how to “take” the Steps in an afternoon and “come to
believe” as a result.
That Amazing Grace: The Role of Clarence and Grace S. in
Alcoholics Anonymous.
This biography of Clarence and his wife Grace was written by
A.A. historian Dick B. who, with his son Ken, spent a week in Florida at
Grace’s home and questioned her about Clarence, herself, their marriage, what
Clarence taught her about A.A. and the Steps, the books Clarence read for
growth—including the Bible, Clarence’s A.A. stories and one-liners, and more.
How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and The Early
Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio. Mitchell K. was sponsored by Clarence. At the
time of Clarence’s death, Mitchell borrowed almost all of Clarence’s papers
from Grace Snyder on the promise to write a biography and then return the
papers to Grace. The papers were never returned, but the book was written and
contains immense amounts of information
on Clarence, Cleveland A.A., and A.A. itself.
My Higher Power The Light Bulb, by Clarence Snyder. Clarence Snyder was a strong Christian
believer. And he wrote this paper, saying: “Phrases such as ‘higher power,’
‘power greater than ourselves,’ or “as we understood Him’ were not created as
an enabling device to justify our membership’s continued avoidance of a
connection with our Creator (page 7).
Going Through the Steps by Clarence Snyder. There are several renditions of the way Clarence
Snyder took people through the Twelve Steps in half a day. This is one.
2. Central
Bulletin, Volumes I, II, III, covering 1942 to 1944. Copies of these first three volumes were
provided to us by Bob M., archivist at
Cleveland Central Office and bore the masthead of the Four Absolutes of
the Oxford Group—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love—in all but the first
two editions in 1942 which substituted “Truth” for “Purity.” These Bulletins
cover just about every activity we unearthed in our research and tell us much
about Cleveland A.A., its groups, its focus on the Bible and Prayer, and
its reports on Cleveland principles and
practices and activities.
3. Evidence
located on our research trip to Cleveland and Akron where we saw the originals
of many of the evidentiary items summarized here.
Some Key Points About Cleveland A.A.
Clarence Snyder got sober February 11, 1938. He was
sponsored by A.A.’s Dr. Bob. He formed the first Alcoholics Anonymous Group in
Cleveland, Ohio on May 10, 1939.
Clarence described his early Akron days as follows:
He was hospitalized and required by Dr. Bob to profess his
belief in God. Just prior to his
discharge from the Akron City Hospital and also at a later “regular” meeting of
the Akron Fellowship, Clarence was introduced to Jesus Christ and led to accept
him as Lord and Savior. In the latter
event, T. Henry Williams, Dr. Bob, and a couple of other Oxford Group members
went into T. Henry’s bedroom. They all got down on their knees. They all placed
their hands on Clarence and then proceeded to pray. They led Clarence to accept
Jesus as Lord and Savior. They explained to him that this was First Century
Christianity. Then they prayed for a healing and removal of Clarence’s sins,
especially his alcoholism Clarence said
that when a new person was invited to the regular Wednesday meeting, he or she,
one at a time, was taken aside and had the tenets of the Oxford Group explained
to him or her. A major Oxford Group practice involved “Guidance. . . Guidance
at a meeting took place during mandatory ‘quiet time.’ New people were told they had to read the Bible.
The King James Version of the Bible. They were instructed to do this on a daily
basis. Clarence said the newcomers were also told to read The Upper Room daily.
. . the new people were then instructed on the Four Absolutes.”
As previously stated, Clarence said that Cleveland brought with it the Big Book the
Twelve Steps, the Bible, the Four
Absolutes, and “most old program.” And that “old program” has not only been
summarized above; it was also covered in this current book, Carry This Message.
. .
Two years after the publication of the Big Book, Clarence
made a survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping
most of the “old program,” including the
Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had
maintained uninterrupted sobriety.
The Cleveland Groups had the highest percentage of success
in A.A. A year after its founding, Cleveland
had about thirty groups and several hundred members. Wilson wrote:
Yes, Cleveland’s results were of the best. Their results
were in fact so good, and A.A. membership elsewhere was so small, that many a
Clevelander really thought A.A. had
started there in the first place. The
Cleveland pioneers had proved three essential things: the value of personal
sponsorship; the worth of the A.A. book in indoctrinating newcomers, and
finally the tremendous fact that A.A.,
when the word really got around, could now grow to great size.
The 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer Articles
There is a caveat concerning currently circulating versions
of these articles. Elrick B. Davis wrote a series of seven articles for the
Cleveland Plain Dealer between October and November, 1939. The articles
appeared in this main Cleveland newspaper only five months after the first A.A.
group was formed in Cleveland. Davis repeatedly referred to the “cures” of the
AAs. Yet some time later, an author or editors unknown to us meticulously
removed the words “cure” and “cures” from this article.
Carrying the subhead “Cured,” for example, Davis wrote:
The basic point about
Alcoholics Anonymous is that it
is a fellowship of “cured” alcoholics. And that both old-line medicine
and modern psychiatry had agreed on the one point that no alcoholic could cured. Repeat the
astonishing fact: These are cured. They have cured each other. They have done
it by adopting, with each other’s aid, what
they call “a spiritual way of life.”.
Another major subhead is “Prayer.” Davis wrote:
These are the alcoholics that “Alcoholics Anonymous” cures. Cure is
impossible until the victim is convinced that nothing he or a “cure” hospital
can do, can help. He must know that his disease is fatal. He must be convinced
that he is hopelessly sick of body and of mind – and of soul. He must be eager
to accept that help from any source—even God. . . .
There is no blinking the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous, the amazing
society of ex-drunks who have cured each other of an incurable disease, is
religious. Its members have cured each other frankly with the help of God.
Every cured member of the Cleveland Fellowship, like every cured member of
other chapters now established in Akron,
New York, and elsewhere in the country, is cured with the admission that he
submitted his plight wholeheartedly to a Power Greater than himself.
His cure is a religious experience. He had to have God’s
aid. He had to submit to a spiritual housecleaning.
This reportorial view that alcoholics could be and were
cured by God was shared by alcoholics and by writers across the United States.
In our book Cured!: Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts, 2d ed. (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), we have shown how unanimous was
the early view that alcoholism was curable by the power of God and that countless
sources so proclaimed the cure. Quoting the source, bibliographic information,
and the actual statements, we set forth the “cure” words of Bill Wilson (p.
15), Dr. Bob (pp. 15 -16), A.A. Number Three (p. 16), Clarence Snyder (p. 16),
The Rev. Dr. Dilworth Lupton (p. 16), Larry Jewell who wrote a series of
articles in the Houston Press in 1940 (pp. 16-17), Theodore English in
Scribner’s Commentator, in 1941 (p. 17), William D. Silkworth M.D. (p. 17), t
he person who drafted one of the early proposed covers for the First Edition of
Alcoholics Anonymous (p. 17), Morris Markey whose 1939 Liberty Magazine article
called “Alcoholics and God, which spoke of “A Cure that borders on the
miraculous—and it works.” It quoted Bill Wilson also as saying: “I’ve got religion.
. . And I know I’m cured of this drinking business for good.” (p. 17), and the
famous medical writer Paul de Kruif who wrote for A.A.’s own Grapevine that
“The A.A. medicine is God and God alone. This is their discovery. . . . It is
free as air—with this provision: that the patients it cures have to nearly die
before the y can bring themselves to take it (p. 18).
And this array of persuasive writing spread across the best
known news and magazine writings in America. See Richard K., So You Think Drunks
Can’t Be Cured? Press Releases by Witnesses to the Cure (Haverhill, MA: Golden
Text Publishing Company, 2003); New
Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous (Haverhill, MA: Golden Text
Publishing, 2005). In fact, A.A. itself sells material quoting almost all of
these articles.
Returning to the Vast Amount of Evidence in Cleveland A.A.’s
Central Bulletin
As stated, we were provided with the first three volumes of
this important record of what was happening in Cleveland; and time here is best
served by summarizing the informative contents:
The Masthead: The Four Absolutes of the Oxford Group were
prominently displayed in almost all the mastheads of this periodical. They
said: “Unselfishness, Honesty, Purity, and Love.”
The featured prayer each issue: Some examples are the prayer
based on Psalm 90; the prayer titled “God’s Love;” the prayer at the turning of
the year which concluded “Bless this
year, O heavenly Father, to Thy glory and to our good, for Jesus’ sake,
Amen;” “The Secret: ‘I met God in the morning. . . . You must seek Him in the
morning, if you want Him through the day;” “Love’s Supremacy”—quoting from 1
Corinthians 13:3; “A Pledge” that “liquor is anathema and that the love of God
shall replace it and ever remain permanent in our hearts. . .”; “The Soldier’s
Prayer”—“Where’ere I go, whate’r my task, The counsel of my God I ask. . .;” “A
Prayer of Praise”—“When all Thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys. . .
Through all eternity to Thee A joyful song I’ll raise. . .” And there are many
more.
The Editorial each issue. Volume I – No. 3 writes of tricky
habits and speaks often of “the Devil within us.” For example, “The Devil
within us is the prompting of our nerves, which leads us either to act without
thinking or to think up excuses for denying the lessons we have learned.”
The Steps: Volume I – No. 3 discusses “The First Step” and
concludes with this prayer:
Lord, I am powerless over alcohol. Whenever I yield to it,
my life is unmanageable. Whenever I yield to it, I no longer am a man, and I
harm my family, my neighbors and myself. Lord, deliver me from temptation, and
strengthen me as I cast drink from my life,
News From The Camps. Soldiers in the service, including
Clarence H. Snyder, wrote messages from their various posts.
Events were numerous and regularly announced. They included:
New Year’s Eve Jamborees, The Annual Dinner, the A.A. Male Chorus, A.A. on
Radio, the Crawford Men’s Training System, Dr. Lupton’s Lecture, a Boxing Show,
a recent booklet published by Akron, a Clergymen Round Table, Community
Meetings, A party honors Dr. Smith, Missionary meetings at the Salvation Army
Social Center, a Boat Ride, Founders’ Anniversary Party, Annual “All A.A.
Picnic,” AA Bowling League, A Workhouse Round Table, Alcoholics Study, AA Mass
Meeting, Minstrel Show, Dance, Bowling League, Summer Recreation, Marty Mann
visit to Pittsburgh, Saturday Social Group with baseball, games, and even
fishing. Yale Clinic. And West Side Social Club with clambake.
Readers could also find listings of meetings, inspirational
poems, alcoholic quips, discussion of the Lord’s Prayer, Hospital Committee
Reports, Central Office notices and activities. And more
The Spiritual and Structural Emphasis
There was a pamphlet instructing people on the Four
Standards. Clarence Snyder said: “These were Biblical principles the Oxford
Group people had taken from the teachings of Jesus Christ found in the Bible.
Clarence Snyder said this about how the Cleveland meetings
were being conducted: “. . . Not too much stress on spiritual business at
meetings. Prayer and Bible reading was a prerequisite, but only at home. The
meetings were very simple. They opened with a prayer or the reading of a verse
from the Bible. This was followed by the leader’s speaking for one half hour to
forty-five minutes. Then the meeting was over. The remainder of the meeting was
spent with members and their families in fellowship with each other. Plenty of
hot coffee and doughnuts to go around.
Personal contact with prospective members, as well as with
those who were attending meetings was what made the membership grow in numbers
and in strength of sobriety. Clarence believed that in order for a prospective
member to get well, his entire family had to get well also. Members of the group visited the
homes of those who had sent in
inquiries. AAs spoke with the wives and husbands of alcoholics either prior to,
or during their hospitalizations. Family members were invited to attend
meetings, were given a copy of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and were told to
read the daily devotional The Upper Room. Members of the A.A. group shared with
prospective A.A.’s and their families their own personal stories as to how they got well and how A.A. had restored
their family life and belief in God.
The groups began informally meeting in a private home.
Several activities in Cleveland were unique.
1. Rotation
of Leadership: The first documented Central Committee Meeting was held on
August 1, 1941. Rotation of Committee members was discussed; and “It was
decided that one man shall not serve more than four (4) consecutive terms. The
term of the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman shall be for three (3) months.
2. Hospitalization
and membership procedures: Clarence wrote Bill W. in September 1940. He said
several groups “did not permit a rummy to attend meetings unless he had been
hospitalized or talked to by ten men.” Later, a person had to either be
hospitalized, talked to by five members, or passed on by the Central Committee.
Records showed that the Hospital Committee paid for many of
the admissions out of the Central Committee funds.
There were special rules for “retroverts.” or “slippers.”
The Hospital Committee laid down this rule: “A man or a woman who has been
sponsored, and has attended at least one A.A. meeting and then takes a drink,
is considered a retrovert or slipper. . . . Retroverts may not be placed in a
hospital unless arrangements can be made for their complete isolation from new
patients. Except for visitation by sponsor, retroverts will be left completely
alone for two days and two nights. The retroverts will not be permitted to
mingle with new patients.
3. There was
an announcement in 1944 that a new pamphlet on Sponsorship was being readied
for sale. Clarence Snyder wrote it. The authors of Our Legacy guide have included
this pamphlet in full, and it was printed under the title, A.A. Sponsorship . .
. Its Opportunities and Responsibilities.
This pamphlet stands today as an excellent guide for those undertaking
sponsorship, and it is far superior in content to the materials since published
by A.A. itself.
4. Clarence
summarized to Mitchell K. his view of the difference between New York and
Mid-West A.A. Clarence felt that the approach in Ohio was, “Trust God, Clean
House, and Help Others.” He felt that the approach in New York was, “Don’t
Drink and Go To Meetings. Clarence felt the emphasis on spirituality was what
made Ohio A.A. so successful.
5. Two years
after the publication of the [Big] book, Clarence made a survey of all of the
members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most of the “old program,”
including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those
surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety. Clarence opined that even with
New York’s ‘moral psychology’ approach to recovery ‘had nowhere near our
recovery rate.
6. Clarence
had the following significant things to say about A.A.’s Eleventh Step:
How do we listen? God’s revealed will and love for us are in
the Bible. Reading and learning God’s word gives us the material on which to
meditate. . . . We all know how to meditate; if you have worried, you have
meditated. Worry is meditating on the negative. A positive slogan or an uplifting Bible truth can be run through your
mind in the same way . . . as a positive meditation . . . . When we get
receptive, God speaks to us through other people, through answered prayers, and
through opened and closed doors. If it’s from god, it will not disagree with or
contradict the Bible.
Insights That Came from our Week Spent with Clarence’s Wife
Grace
When the Big Book was published in the Spring of 1939 and
Clarence had founded the first meeting of “Alcoholics Anonymous” in May of
1939, Clarence began developing specific methods for using the Good Book, the
Big Book, and the Four Absolutes in taking newcomers through the Twelve Steps.
But Clarence always “qualified” new
people in the same way that he had qualified Grace before he would take her
through the Steps.
Clarence made clear that the prayer and meditation in the
Eleventh Step were the means by which you “build spiritual contact with God.”
A vital part of the highly-successful Cleveland
recovery program was the development of
full social lives for the newly recovered men and their families. As Clarence
put it to Grace, ”They had t o replace their drinking life with something of
substance with their wives and family included.” The Cleveland AAs had seven
bowling leagues. They had softball teams. Clevelanders had house parties along Oxford Group house party lines.
And they frequently held picnics.
Clarence had many expressions he passed along to Grace. We
called them “Life Lines;” and here are a
few:
In response to the statement, “I’m in a relationship,”
Clarence would often reply , “God does not honor relationships. He only honors
holy matrimony.”
In response to the question, “Where did that come from in
the Bible:” Clarence would reply, “Do you own a Bible?” If the person didn’t,
Clarence would give him or her a Bible. He would say, “That’s a textbook. Not a
novel. Not something to spot read here and there. It’s a study. Get the Word in
your heart. ‘Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against
thee’” (Psalm 119:11).
Clarence said, “You know from experience that when you run
around, are in a hurry and get busy , you need to get physically quiet so that
God can speak to you, and you can hear Him. God says, “Be still, and know that
I am God.” (Psalm 46:10).
Clarence said: “Don’t ever open your Bible to read until you
have first asked the Holy Spirit to illuminate what you need to know for that day.”
Clarence said, “The Bible and the Big Book are textbooks.
You never get finished. There is always new revelation when you ask for it.”
Clarence said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. That‘s why Grace and I would read the Bible aloud together,
attend church, and listen to good teachings.”
Clarence said: “Call him who he is. ‘Be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom
he may devour.’” (1 Peter 5:8)
Clarence explained why he took people through the Steps in
two days. He said: “In early A.A., people were coming in so fast there was no
time for slow recovery and taking a long time to work the Twelve Steps.” He
simply asked: “How long do you want to stay
sick?”
Clarence said: “A.A. is like a dessert--like a cake. We have
our Big Book, which is the cake. We have our Steps which are the icing on the
cake. Going through the Steps is like whipping cream. But the cherry on top is
getting this living God—the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You want all the
goodies of A.A. The ‘Prayer and Praise’ portion after the retreat is where you
get the cherry on top!” In acts 1:8, Jesus gave as his last message: But ye
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
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