Alcoholics Anonymous
History and Its Christian Roots
Dick B.
© 2013 Anonymous.
All rights reserved.
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 and ask Him for deliverance, in
accordance with His will, 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 quite 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.
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 Guide (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc)
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”
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 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 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. At Towns Hospital, Bill cried out for help, had a dramatic, blazing,
indescribably “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., prayed for deliverance on the rug at the home of T. Henry Williams in
Akron. Miraculously, help showed up in the 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 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 a drunk to help. They found A.A. Number Three, the hospitalized Akron
attorney Bill D., 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. 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.
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 newcomers, sponsors, meetings,
conferences, Christian leaders and workers, and A.A. writers seem hungry to
hear today
The first three AAs
recovered by the power of God. And other “seemingly-hopeless,”
“medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” 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 want you, the reader, to 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 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. His help is
available in prisons, mental hospitals, A.A., other Twelve Step Fellowships,
homeless shelters, rehabs, treatment programs, and counseling offices.
Dick B.: PO Box 837,
Kihei, HI 96753-0837; (808) 874-4876; Email:
DickB@DickB.com;
www.DickB.com
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