An Intense Look at Old School Akron A.A.
Group Number One—A Christian Fellowship—Its Roots, Specific Sources, and Persuasive
Recovery Techniques
By Dick B.
2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Common Observations as to Akron
A.A’s Resemblances to First Century Christianity Practices
Do you realize how
many different observers commented on the resemblance of the early Akron A.A.
Group Number One fellowship to First Century Christianity in action? Certainly
enough to warrant exploration of the language and sources that prompted the
Comments and Observations:
(1) The
Akronites themselves: (a) A.A.
cofounder Dr. Bob called the Akron A.A. group “a Christian fellowship.”[1] (b) Bob E., a well-known
Akron A.A. pioneer, wrote to Nell Wing (A.A.’s first archivist) confirming that
Dr. Bob told his business friends that the alcoholic squad people were “a
Christian Fellowship.”[2] (c) Bob E. wrote the same
information to Bill W.’s wife Lois on an Akron “Four Absolutes” pamphlet, of
which Dick B. obtained a copy during an Akron Founders Day Conference.
(2) The
Frank Amos Report to Rockefeller: When he came to Akron to see what the
Akron
A.A. Christian Fellowship was, and how well it was succeeding, Rockefeller
agent Frank Amos soon wrote: (a) “Dr. Howard S. . . aged about 35. . . had been an alcoholic had been
cured by Smith and his friends’ activities and the Christian technique
prescribed.”[3]
(b) “Of the 110 members then in the program, 70 were in the Akron-Cleveland
area. . . , that ‘in many respects, their meetings have taken on the form of
the meetings described in the Gospels of the early Christians during the first
century.”[4]
(3) Akron
Group Leader Henrietta Seiberling’s Views: According to letters to, or interviews by, Dick B., the two daughters
of Henrietta B. Seiberling wrote about their mother’s emphasis on First Century
Christianity in her life and in her teachings to early Akron AAs.
Bill W. pointed out that Henrietta had introduced Bill to Dr. Bob; that
during the summer of 1935, she counseled many an alcoholic family, was eagerly
sought out for great spiritual insight and what help she could give, and that she
and Anne [Smith] had infused a much-needed spirituality into both Bob and Bill.[5] Henrietta’s older daughter Mary confirmed
this.[6] Henrietta’s younger
daughter Dorothy told Dick B. in an interview in her New York home: “I think
mother had dedicated herself to living a different kind of life—the 1st
century Christianity principles. . . . They (Henrietta, Dr. Bob, and Bill W.)
were bound together to share experiences and to help each other in the journey
of living a God directed life. . . . As to First Century Christianity—trying to
follow the teachings of Christ without an overload of dogma, doctrine, or
church traditions.[7]
(4) Anne
Ripley Smith, Dr. Bob’s Wife, emphasized the importance of the Bible and of the
Book of Acts: Dr. Bob’s wife
can best be described by what she said and did, rather than by the words of
those who knew her. And the authoritative text pertaining to Anne Ripley Smith
is Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal,
1933-1939: A.A.’s Principles of Success, 3rd ed.
We
think it fair to say that Anne Smith (often called “the Mother of A.A.”) lived by the basic principles and
practices of First Century Christianity. In brief, she wrote as to some of them:
(a) Conversion is the turning to God, the decision, the surrender, 46; (b) A
maximum experience of Jesus Christ leads to a radical change in personal life,
bringing about a selfless relationship to people about one, 46; (c) God is willing
to take my past spiritual experience and weld it in a new spiritual experience.
God has spoken. The moment I hear and obey His voice and come to the place of
complete surrender on every area of my life, is the moment of rebirth, reunion with Christ and a start
on great revival campaign. . . (d) Surrender involves the explosive experience
of a Holy Ghost conversion, the expulsive power of a new affection, 46; (e)
Witness to some friend who has come to
you, practice daily surrender, daily Quiet Time, blocks to Guidance, let all
your reading be guided, unite with a fellowship of kindred souls, 52; (f) Prayer--a
way to find God’s will not to change it. . . . Not about our needs but taking
matters to God and having communion with Him (Your Heavenly Father knows ye
have needs of all these things.[8]), 56-57; (g) Giving
Christianity away is the best way to keep it. We can’t give away what we haven’t
got, 69; (h) Winning others, 71; (i) Bible study and reading. As to these, Anne
wrote:
Let all your reading be guided. . . . Of
course the Bible ought to be the main Source Book of all. No day ought to pass
without reading it. . . . Begin reading the Bible with the Book of Acts and
follow up with the Gospels and then the Epistles of Paul. . . . The Psalms
ought to be read and the Prophets, 82, 60.
(5) Many
others noted the resemblance of Akron A.A. ideas and practices to verses in the
Gospels and Book of Acts: There
are many others who noted the resemblance to 1st Century
Christianity as reported in the Book of Acts:
(a) Dr. Bob said: “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. . . . We used to have daily meetings at a friend’s house.
. . . It wasn’t until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had
been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. I didn’t write
the Twelve Steps. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and
tangible form. We got them, as I said, as a result of our study of the Good
Book. . . . “[9]
Telling of Dr. Bob’s view of Christianity and early Akron A.A., Bill W.
said about Dr. Bob’s remarks in a particular situation: “He reminded us that
most of us were practicing Christians. Then he asked, “What would the Master
have thought?”[10]
(b) A.A. General Service Conference-approved
book, “PASS IT ON,” tells of Bill
W.’s
moving in with the Smiths in the
summer of 1935 and says: “Bill now joined Bob and Anne in the Oxford Group
practice of having morning guidance sessions together, with Anne reading from
the Bible: ‘Reading from her chair in the corner, she would softly conclude,
‘Faith without works is dead’”[11] And--as Dr. Bob described
this stress on the Bible—the early Akron AAs
were “convinced that the answer to our problem was in the Good Book. To
some of us older ones, the parts we found absolutely essential were the Sermon
on the Mount [Matthew Chapters 5-7], the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, and
the Book of James.”[12]”PASS IT ON” said of these Bible segments: “The Book of James was
considered so important, in fact, that some early members even suggested ‘The
James Club’ as a name for the Fellowship.”[13]
(c) Several of the Rockefeller people involved with the February 1938
report concerning early A.A. that Frank Amos prepared for John D. Rockefeller,
Jr., commented on the similarities between early A.A. and First-Century
Christianity:
As to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., himself: “Rockefeller was impressed [by
Frank Amos’ report of February 1938 which Willard Richardson had approved and
passed along to Mr. Rockefeller].” Richardson was in charge of Rockefeller charities.
And, according to Richardson, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. saw the parallel with
early Christianity; and, along with this, he spotted a combination of medicine
and religion that appealed to all his charitable inclinations.[14]
Albert Scott, chairman of the board of trustees of New York’s Riverside
Church, chaired a meeting in Rockefeller’s private board room. After reviewing
the Amos report and hearing each alcoholic tell his own personal story, Scott
exclaimed: “Why this is first-century Christianity!” And he added: “What can we
do to help?”[15]
(d) John D. Rockefeller, Jr., arranged a dinner for Bill W. and other
AAs on February 8, 1940, at The Union Club on Park Avenue and 69th Street in New York City. John
D. had planned to attend, but he was too ill to do so. So, he sent his son,
Nelson Rockefeller, to host the dinner.[16] As Bill’s wife Lois,
records in her memoirs: “When Nelson finally got up to talk, there was a great
deal of expectancy. He told how impressed his father was with this unique
movement, which resembled early Christianity.”[17]
(e) There were two groups that had a strong influence on early
Alcoholics Anonymous and made much of First Century Christianity—The first was Dr.
Frank N.D. Buchman and the “A First Century Christian Fellowship,” later known
as the Oxford Group. The second was Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. and his
Calvary Church and Calvary Mission. Both with their emphasis on the Oxford
Group, but frequently calling it “A First Century Christian Fellowship.”
The Oxford Group certainly was one of the two proponents of “A First Century
Christian Fellowship.” For a time, it was also known as the “Groups.” Still
later its name was changed to Moral
Re-Armament, but primarily in the pre-A.A. period, it was known as a “A First
Century Christian Fellowship.”[18] And Dick B. found much evidence
for the popularity of the name “A First Century Christian Fellowship” among the
libraries and effects of various Oxford Group leaders, activists, and employees
in the period beginning in 1923 to the founding of A.A. in 1935. Dick B. personally met and had
discussions with many of the Oxford Group leaders of that period..
And A.A.’ General Service Conference-approved Literature referred to
the name—“A First Century Christian Fellowship.”[19]
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., and his circle ware the other “First
Century Christianity” nomenclature proponents. Thus, in the Episcopal Church Archives in Austin,
Texas, my son Ken B. and I (Dick B.) found
a lengthy article by Shoemaker—“A First Century Christian Fellowship: A Defense
of So-Called Buchmanism by one of its leaders,” Reprinted from Churchman, circa, 1928.[20]
(6) Others
using the First Century Christianity language: Still others, whose comments are relevant here
included the First Century Christian principles and practices we mentioned in
our discussion of what Henrietta Seiberling had said on the subject:
(a) The first is Clarence H. Snyder, who got
sober in February, 1938 and was sponsored
by Dr. Bob. Clarence stayed sober for the rest of his long years. In
Ohio, Clarence had to sit down and meet with Roman Catholic alcoholics and the
hierarchy of their Church to explain to them that alcoholics were not
intentionally violating the Church’s teaching by reason of their reading aloud
from the King James Version of the
Bible, “witnessing,” and confessing their faults one to another.[21] He said that the “alcoholic
squad” was working with these drunkards; and, through this life-changing
program, this “First Century Christian Fellowship” was turning them into “good
Catholics.”
But that Roman Catholic Church did not buy his line.[22]
Clarence also remembered being taken into T. Henry Williams’ bedroom
for a “full surrender.” The men (likened to the “elders” in James 5:14) all got
down on their knees in an attitude of prayer. They all placed their hands on
Clarence, and then proceeded to pray. These people introduced Clarence to Jesus
as his Lord and Savior. They explained to Clarence that this was First Century
Christianity. Then they prayed for a healing and removal of Clarence’s sins,
especially his alcoholism.[23]
(b) Two other Akronites told Dick B. eye witness
stories similar to that of Clarence’s.
One Akron A.A. pioneer was Larry Bauer. Larry both phoned and wrote
Dick B. that, for his “full surrender,” he had been taken upstairs and “they
made me a born again man.” The second Akron pioneer was Ed Andy of Lorain,
Ohio. In a telephone conversation several years ago, and before the date of his
death, Ed Andy told Dick B. of his surrender and said “They wouldn’t let you in
unless you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”
(7) The
powerful Vermont Congregational viewpoint: Of particular interest is a book by T.D. Seymour Bassett, The Gods of the Hills: Piety and Society in
Nineteenth Century Vermont.[24] Our readers must bear in
mind what many AAs and A.A. writers do not know--that both Bill W. and Dr. Bob
had extensive training in and by, and connections with, Congregational Churches
in Vermont.[25]
And this all occurred in the period of their lives that extended from birth
until completion of their respective training at Vermont academies.
The
families of both men belonged to and were prominent in Vermont Congregational
Churches. Both cofounders, as young men, went to a Congregational Sunday school.
Bill W. went first to the East Dorset Congregational Church in East Dorset,
Vermont. Then, when he became a student at Burr and Burton Seminary, Bill W.
very likely attended a good many seminary required services at Manchester
Congregational Church. Dr. Bob attended the North Congregational Church of St.
Johnsbury and its Sunday school. All his family attended, and his mother and
father were both involved in church administration. Bob then attended the Congregationalist
St. Johnsbury Academy and there was required to go to a Congregational church
service each week and to Daily Similarly, Bill was required at Burr and Burton
to attend Daily Chapel where there were sermons, hymns, prayers, and reading of
Scripture. The strict Daily chapel attendance was required of, and observed by
both cofounders during their four years of high school education at the
academies.
And,
in his book, The Gods of the Hills, Bassett
wrote at page 213:
The Congregational Way was primitive
Christianity revived, after centuries of departures from the congregational
principles of St. Stephen and the Jerusalem elders.”
(8) Two
books on Christian healing carried the First Century resemblance still
further. Each book was owned by Dr. Bob, studied by him, and circulated to
members of the Akron A.A. Group Number One Christian Fellowship:[26]
(a) The first book is that of Ethel Willitts, Healing in Jesus’ Name: Fifteen Sermons and
Addresses on Salvation and Healing, 2d ed. Ethel Willitts was an evangelist who
spent several months in Akron after A.A. was founded and before the Big Book
was written. At pages 94 and 95 of Healing
in Jesus’ Name, she points to 1 Corinthians 12:27, 28. She reminds that God
provided for teachers, miracles, and gifts of healing. She adds:
We are now living in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy
Spirit, the miracle worker, should be working in our churches even more so than
in the early times. . . . In the early church times, God established teachers
who taught salvation and healing and went about healing all manner of sickness
and all manner of diseases. They were, like Paul, declaring the whole counsel
of the Lord.
(b) The second book contains James Moore
Hickson’s reports on thousands of Christian
healings. In Heal the Sick, Hickson points out at
page 3: “The Early Church accepted the commission and obeyed the command, and
the healing of the sick formed a natural part of her ministry. The healing
ministry continued for some centuries. . . . ”
The Relevant Practices of First
Century Christians Reported in the Gospels and the Book of Acts That Were
Commonplace in the Akron A.A. Group Number One “Christian Fellowship”
1. Receiving
power and witnessing: [Jesus]
“showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them forty days. . . . [and said] For
John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence. . . . 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 in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”[27]
2. Fellowship
with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and other believers: Many have concluded that the author of 1 John
was one of the apostles. And that author wrote: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also
may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ.”[28]
3. Receiving
the gift of the Holy Ghost: The
Book of Acts reported as to those present in Jerusalem for the day of
Pentecost: “Men and Brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.” [29]
4. Those
who gladly received the word were baptized, and the same day three thousand
were added to their number.[30]
5. Continuing
stedfastly in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and in
prayers.[31]
6. Power
after the Holy Ghost was come upon them.[32]
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus.[33]
7. Appearing
to the Apostles after his resurrection, Jesus told them: (a) Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature.[34] (b) He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. . . [35] (c) And these signs shall
follow them that believe: In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues. . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover.[36] (d) And they went forth
and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word
with signs following. Amen.[37]
8. The
first healing: At the Temple
Gate called Beautiful, Peter and John healed the man lame from birth.[38] Peter commanded him, “In
the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.”[39] Asked by what power or by
what name the impotent man was made whole, Peter said: “by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. . . even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
. . . Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”[40]
9. By
the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people (and they were all with one
accord in Solomon’s porch. . . . And believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and women.)[41]
10. A
multitude were healed—every one: “There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem,
bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they
were healed every one.”[42]
11. And
all that believed were together, and had all things in common. . . . And they,
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house
to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising
God, and having favor with the people. And the Lord added to the church daily
such as should be saved.[43]
12. And
daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus Christ.[44]
13. These
daily meetings of the Apostles followed the path of Jesus who said: “I was with
you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be
fulfilled.[45]
The Relevant, Documented
Practices of both the Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship as well as Many Other Early
AAs Should Here Be Reviewed, Pondered, and Compared With the First Century
Practices
1. Qualifying the newcomer as an alcoholic
wanting to quit for good and who will do anything that will help him abstain.[46] The A.A. Big Book states,
as to relief from alcoholism, “God could and would if He were sought.” Compare
the verse from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount—often explained by Dr. Bob as
meaning first things first. Hence Bob quoted Matthew 6:33: “And seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteosnes; and all these things shall be added
unto you.” Compare also the language of Hebrews 11:6—frequently referred to by
Oxford Group people and by Rev. Samuel Shoemaker: “But without faith, it is
impossible to please him [God]” for he that cometh to God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
2. Hospitalization was a “must” and was a way to
assure safe detox and to prevent seizures or DT’s.[47]
3. The newcomer was then required to make a decision
to quit drinking forever.[48]
4. Belief in God was required.[49]
5. Coming to God through accepting Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior was required.[50]
6. Asking God in the name of Jesus Christ to
take alcohol out of your life and to test their lives in order to live by
Christian principles such as the Four Absolute standards of Jesus.[51]
7. Fellowshipping with like-minded believers occurred
daily[52] As Dr. Bob described it,
“We used to have daily meetings at a friend’s house.” (The Co-Founders, 13)
8. Learning from the Bible what God promises,
expects, and renewing their mind to it.[53]
9. Prayer – both individual and group.[54]
10. Quiet Time – Bible, prayer, Guidance,
devotionals.[55]
11. Study time – individual or group – Bible (The
Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 were
considered “absolutely essential” to the program.)[56]
12. Study time – eyes on the page by individual
or group – Joe and Charlie Big Book tapes.[57]
13. Sponsor time – taking newcomers through the
12 Steps – with guidebook—evidenced by the Our
Faith Legacy authored by three Clarence H. Snyder sponsees and their wives..[58]
14. Communicating daily.[59]
15. Breaking bread together daily.[60]
16. Visiting other believers daily in meetings or
in homes or groups.[61]
17. Study time – Christian devotionals – Runner’s Bible – Corinthians – Jesus’ Sermon
– James.[62]
18. Church services, group Bible studies,
religious services.[63]
19. Speaker meetings that focus on the solution,
not war stories, or recitals of misery and failures. Instead, talking about
what God has done for them, talking about the Big Book and Steps, talking about
the Bible, talking about A.A.’s historical roots, and talking about living
sober.[64]
20. Looking for someone to help and sponsor.[65]
21. Helping others get straightened out the same
way – welcome and courteously help them at meetings or elsewhere, provide
rides, sit with newcomers who timidly come to meetings, pray with and for them,
go to wholesome activities together – sports, dances, barbeques, movies, TV and
popcorn, comedy shows, music, amusement parks, plays, athletic games, other
games, chip meetings, birthday parties, roundups, conferences, area meetings –
Unity, Gratitude Nights, etc. [66]
22. Become a qualified speaker – covering God,
Jesus Christ, Bible, Big Book, Steps, and what you did to maintain sobriety and
move toward a useful, abundant life.[67]
23. Become a qualified sponsor – teach the Big
Book, the Steps, the history, the Bible, and prayer.[68]
24. Participate in your own recovery – and do it
within your own meetings, commitments, service work, setups, cleanups,
greeting, coffee-making, or literature person.[69]
25. Stick with the winners and stay away from
temptation, slippery places, slippery people.[70]
26. Attend to health matters, dental matters, injuries,
and illnesses; family matters, custody matters; criminal, civil and domestic
issues; as well as missed court dates and lack of response to court orders, and
tickets.[71]
27. Get a job. Or pursue vocational training,
educational programs, and housing needs. Also, possibly, volunteering for
charitable, church, non-profit, organizational work while looking for the other
solutions; or, at the same time as working at a job, school, or finding a
housing solution.[72]
28. Take pride in appearance.[73]
Starting a Productive Recovery Journey
Todey--Applying and Combining Old-school Akron A.A. Biblical
Techniques or Programs, with Today’s Successful 12-Step approaches; And
Bending Every Effort to Harmonize the Two, Using A.A. General-Service
Conference-approved Literature as a Topical Tool.
Whether they fully
understand their own words or descriptions, those who speak today of early
Akron A.A. in terms of its likeness to First Century Christianity need to learn
more, discern more, reframe more, and tolerate more if they are to focus on
their own recovery and useful lives as well as reaching out to help those who still suffer and truly want God’s
help.
The importance of the principles and practices of the early
Apostles (to the extent accepted and applied successfully by the Akron A.A.
pioneers) is simply the fruit of aligning one’s life with what the Bible
discloses to be God’s will for man. For the Big Book frequently and both
directly and indirectly speaks of doing God’s will and “Thy will be done.” And, however perfect or imperfect they were
individually, the early Christians were close in person or time to the Exemplar,
being doers of God’s Word, and not hearers only, deceiving their own selves.[74]
Briefly, then, let’s
review what the Apostles were attempting to do and the results they were able to
achieve when they walked in fellowship with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the
Bible.
Asked, “Master which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said .
. . “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[75]
And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his
brother also. . . . For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments are not grievous.[76]
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they
have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me. . . . Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth.[77]
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that
I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go
unto my father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son.[78]
Said Jesus: “I was daily with you in the temple teaching. . . .”[79]
Some of the Apostles
were actually present to hear Jesus’s words. And those First Century Christians
followed the foregoing principles cited above, applying them in learning the
Word, prayer, fellowship, comradeship, worship, witnessing, healing, and conversiond
(1) They that gladly received his word were
baptized: and the same day there were added
unto them three thousand souls (Acts 2:41).
(2) They continued daily with one accord in
the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, and ate their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart (Acts 2:46).
(3) They continued stedfastly in the
apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers
(Acts 2:42).
(4) And fear came upon every soul: and many
wonders and signs were done by the apostles (Acts 2:43).
(5) And all that believed were together, and
had all things common (Acts 2:44).
(6) Peter and John went up together into the
temple. Peter approached a man lame from
his mother’s birth who asked an alms. Peter said: “Silver and gold have I none;
but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up
and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up: and immediately
his feet and ancle bones regained strength. And he leaping up stood; and
walked, and entered with them into the temple. Walking and leaping and praising
God. (Acts 3:1-3, 6-8)
(7) And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong. .
. . the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the
presence of you all. (Acts 3:16)
(8) Asked by what power or by what name have ye done this, Peter said,
Be it known unto you all,, and to all the people of Israel
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified, whom God raised
from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you whole. . . . Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. . . . And with great power gave the
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was
upon them all” (Acts 4:7, 10, 12, 33)
(9)
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the
people (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. . . . And
believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women. (Acts
5:12,14)
And We Believe the
Documentation of What the Early Akron A.A. Group Number One Christian
Fellowship Did is Fully Supported by, and Shown to Be Appropriate and Available
Primarily by A.A. General Service Conference-approved Literature
In the homes of early
A.A. Christian Akronites, they studied the Bible, had prayers, read literature,
used Quiet Time devotionals, visited newcomers in the hospital, led the
newcomers to profess belief in God and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
fellowshipped together daily, broke bread together, and hung out with
like-minded believers, asked God to take alcohol out of their lives and to help
them live by cardinal Christian principles. And it worked! Those who were real
alcoholics, who were determined to stay away from liquor for good, who were
willing to do whatever it took, and who followed the seven point program
summarized on page 131 of DR. BOB and the
Good Oldtimers had a remarkable percentage of success—both in Akron and in
Cleveland. And they publically and frequently gave testimony that they had been
cured.[80]
The Value of the Old School Akron A.A.
Program Is That It Came From and Was Embraced by and Successfully Applied in Earlier,
Pre-A.A. Substantial and Successful Christian Recovery Work, And Then Tested as
to the Efficacy of Those Christian Roots for Four Years (1935-1939), and
Thereafter—Even as the efficacy of God’s Help in Recovery Is Still Being Tested
and Successful Today!
Here is a timeline of the solid roots of
early Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship
1. The teachings of Jesus and the records of the
Apostles as sketched above.
2. The Christian organizations and people of the
1900’s who served and healed, and turned from fighting liquor and saloons to
helping the” unworthy” derelicts, criminals, prostitutes, alcoholics, and
addicts.[81]
They
employed various and differing techniques, but the fundamental and needed
Christian ingredients were similar: (a) Belief in God. (b) Conversion to God
through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (c) Standing on the truth
and teachings of Scripture. (d) Prayer meetings. (e) Scripture reading.
(f) Quiet Time. (g) Sermons. (h) Hymns (i)
Revivals. (j) Rehabilitating Lives. (k) Changing lives. (l) Attaining remission
of sins. (m) Being healed of all manner of sicknesses and diseases. (n) Being
redeemed from the power of darkness, and (k) Assuring Everlasting life. And
these practices are just as welcome to, and compatible with, the needs of
thousands of dedicated 12-Step people today.
3. The people and entities that constituted the
Christian roots and sources of A.A. were: (a) Young Men’s Christian
Association. (b) Gospel Rescue Missions. (c) Evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira
Sankey, F.B. Meyer, Henry Drummond, Allen Folger. (d) Salvation Army (e)
Congregationalism. (f) Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, and
belatedly and to a degree. (g) A First Century Christian Fellowship—often
spoken of as the Oxford Group.
4. The Christian Upbringing of Dr. Bob and Bill
W. in Vermont can be seen in the original A.A. recovery formula:
(a)
As to Dr. Bob: The Great Awakening of 1875 in St. Johnsbury where an entire
village was transformed, Dr. Bob and his family trained him and themselves in
salvation and the Word of God. North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury
provided—with its documented confession, creed, baptism, sermons, hymns, prayers,
reading of Scripture; Sunday school; YMCA connections; St. Johnsbury Academy—with
its required daily chapel offering sermons, prayers, hymns, reading of
Scripture; required weekly church attendance, required Bible study, and the
ever-present school YMCA activities.
(b)
As to Bill W.: The conversion and cure of Grandpa Willie Wilson alcoholism, Bill
W. and his family trained Bill in Christian precepts, East Dorset
Congregational Church (the Wilson family owned Pew 15, and the Griffith family
were regular attenders) provided—with its documented confession, creed, baptism,
sermon, hymns, reading of Scripture, Temperance meetings, revivals, conversion
meetings; Sunday school; Bible reading with grandfather Griffith and friend
Mark Whalon. Burr and Burton Seminary (which Bill attended for four years)
provided—with its required four year Bible study course--Bill W.’s presidency
of the seminary YMCA, his girlfriend’s presidency of the seminary YWCA, daily chapel—with sermons, prayers, hymns,
reading of Scripture; required attendance at Manchester Congregational Church—Ebby
Thacher’s attendance at the seminary with Bill W. for a time and Ebby’s
boarding with the Manchester Congregational Church pastor, Rev. Sidney K.
Perkins; And then Bill W. and Ebby’s attendance at Norwich Military Academy – with
similar but less stringent religious requirements.
5. How the First Three AAs got sober before
there were any Big Books, Steps, Traditions, War Stories, or Meetings such as
those today. The first three AA were each believers in God, Christians, and Bible
students. Each hit bottom, decided to quit for good, turned life over to God
for help and direction, and served others[82]:
(a)
As to Bill W. – The very start of Bill’s recovery success involved Dr. Silkworth’s
advice to Bill W. and his wife at the lowest possible bottom about cure by the Great
Physician Jesus Christ; Ebby’s new birth at Calvary Mission and his testimony
to Bill; Bill’s acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at Calvary
Mission; Bill’s writing his brother-in-law that he “found religion;” and then
writing in his autobiography that “For sure I’d been born again. Yet--again
drunk and despairing--Bill remembered possible help from Great Physician,
checked into Towns Hospital; decided to call on the Great Physician; cried out
to God for help; had a vital religious experience in his hospital room with blazing
indescribably white light; the sense of being on a mountain top, feeling a
breeze of the spirit,[83] and thinking: “Bill, you
are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.”[84] Bill lost all of his doubts
about God. He never drank again. He feverishly set about trying to help other
drunks with a Bible under his arm, telling them they must give their live to
God,[85] and that the “Lord” had
“cured” him.[86]
(b)
Dr. Bob—Next in the recovery line of miracles, Dr. Bob attended Henrietta
Seiberling’s special meeting in Akron, admitted he was a secret drinker,
dropped to his knees with the others present, and prayed for deliverance. Bob’s
prayers were answered when stranger Bill W. called Henrietta Seiberling asking
for a drunk to help, Henrietta believed those prayers were answered, arranged a
meeting between Bob and Bill where Bob perceived the importance of service, Bob
had one last drinking binge, and decided to “go through with the program,” and
never drank again. Both men decided to help other drunks.[87]
(c) Bill D. was the first successful AA—A.A.
Number Three—with whom Bill W. and
Dr. Bob worked and then succeeded. Bill D.—an Akron at torney--had been
a church deacon and Sunday school superintendent. Bill D. was desperately
drunk in Akron City Hospital, then heard Bill and Bob witness to him, then
turned to God for help. And then Bill D. was cured; and walked from the
hospital a free man. Bill D. went on to serve and help many newcomers. He was
discharged from the hospital on July 4, 1935; and Bill Wilson called that date,
the date of the founding of A.A.’s first
group—Akron Group Number One.
(d) The technique
of these first three AAs—believers in God, Christians, and students of
the Bible—was this: They had hit their bottom. They quit for good. Each
sought God’s
help. Each was cured and said so. And
(e) Each Began intense work helping others.
6. The early Akron A.A. Group Number One
Christian Fellowship program was founded on several, simple, basic ingredients:
(a) Their basic ideas from the Bible.[88] (b) Becoming a Christian was
required. (c) Hospitalization was required. (d) Most of the program’s
principals and practices were based on the Young People’s Society of Christian
Endeavor program: Conversion meetings, Bible studies, prayer meetings, topical discussion of
biblical subjects. Quiet Hour. Reading and discussing Christian literature, and
Socializing.[89]
7. Four years later (in 1939), Bill introduced
his “new version” program with Twelve Steps in the Big Book.[90] He claimed its ideas were taken from three
totally different sources: (a) Dr. William D. Silkworth—who defined alcoholism
(and who, we now know, told Bill that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could
cure Bill; (b) Professor William James—who validated for Bill vital religious
experiences curing alcoholics; and (c) Rev. Sam Shoemaker who gave Bill the
remainder of the Steps from Oxford Group principles.[91]
Using Dick B and Ken B. Books
and Conference-approved books to Launch Christian Fellowship Meetings for
Christians and those AAs who want God’s help
[Utilize Stick with the
Winners, Pioneer Stories, Experience Strength and Hope, Big Book, DR. BOB,
Co-Founders]
[1]
A.A. General Service Conference-approved
book, DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers, 118.
[2]
Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics
Anonymous, Newton ed., 187, n. 11; and 198, n.50. The letter was dated
March 14, 1975, and a copy was made available to Dick B. during his
investigation at Stepping Stones in September, 1991.
[3]
DR. BOB, 129.
[4]
DR. BOB, 135-36.
[5]
The Akron Genesis, 79-80.
[6]
Daughter Mary Seiberling Huhn wrote Dick B., “But it wasn’t until the advent of
the Oxford Group to Akron and her subsequent involvement with the smaller group
and then A.A. that mother became intensely interested in the teachings and
story of Jesus. . . . She clung to the inspiring version of First Century
Christianity as it paralleled Christ’s own methods.” Dick B., The Akron Genesis, 90-94.
[7]
The Akron Genesis, 101-02
[8]
Anne thus paraphrases Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, Matthew
6:32: “for your heavenly Father
knoweth ye have need of all
these things”
[9]
A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlet P-53, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their
Last Major Talks, 13-14
[10]
The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, 39.
[11]
“PASS IT ON,” 147.
[12]
The Co-Founders of A.A., 13
[13]
Page 147.
[14]
Robert Thomsen, Bill W. (NY: Harper
& Row, 1975), 275; Dick B. and Ken B., Stick
with the Winners!, 41-42.
[15]
A.A. General Service Conference-approved
book,Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of
Age, 148.
[16]
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, 42.
[17]
Lois Remembers (New York: Al-Anon
Family Group Headquarters, Inc.), 187, 128-29.
[18]
Dick B., The Oxford Group &
Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works, 2d ed., 1-2, 28, 31,
73, 83-85, 94. 121.. 140, 220. 286, 370.
[19]
DR. BOB, 53-54; “Pass It On,”
[20]
See Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism:
God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed., 12, 68, 141. 166,. 233, 236, 263, 318-320, 375-77, 388, 414, 444,
484, 506, 512, 556-57,
[21]
See James 5:16 which was said to be the origin of the “confessing” and later of
the idea of A.A.’s Fifth Step. See “PASS
IT ON,” 129.
[22]
Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of
Clarence H. Snyder and The Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland,
Ohio, 84.
[23]
Mitchell K. How It Worked, 70.
[24](Montpelier,
VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2000), 213.
[25]
See the latest published book by Dick B. and Ken B., Bill W. and Dr. Bob, The Green Mountain Men of Vermont for many of
the newly discovered Vermont details about the Cofounders. And also see the two
earlier books: Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in Early A.A.; and Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His
Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont.
[27]
Acts 1:3, 5, 8.
[28]
1 John 1:3.
[29]
Acts 2:37-38: “. . . . Men and Brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall received the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
[30]
Acts 2:41: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same
day there were added unto them about three thousands souls.”
[31]
Acts 2:42.
[32]
Acts 1:8.
[33]
Acts 4:33.
[34]
Mark 16:15.
[35]
Mark 16:16.
[36]
Mark 16:17-18.
[37]
Mark 16:20.
[38]
Acts 3:1.
[39]
Acts 3:6.
[40]
Acts 4:7, 10, 12.
[41]
Acts 5:12, 14
[42]
Acts 5: 16.
[43]
Acts 2:44, 46, 47.
[44]
Acts 4:42.
[45]
Mark 14:49.
[46]
“In the early program, an alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic,
incurable from a medical standpoint, and that he must never drink anything with
alcohol in it.” DR. BOB, 131.”When I
asked Dr. Bob how he evolved his thinking on alcoholism, he replied, ‘If you’re
allergic to strawberries, you don’t eat them, do you? Well, an alky is the same
way. He’s allergic to alcohol. His body
just won’t handle it. . . they’re actually drinking poison, because their
systems just won’t tolerate it. . . Once you
get sensitized to anything, there is no way you’re going to handle it
from then on.” DR. BOB, 113-14. “He screened most of the patients
himself in the early days, either before or after they were admitted. After
making the rounds in the morning, he
would sometimes say. . . Sister, that monkey up there doesn’t want the program.
. . . Sister, he just isn’t ready.” DR.
BOB, 105. Dr. Bob would ask a wife: “Does your husband want to stop
drinking, or is he merely uncomfortable. Has he come to the end of the road?”
Then Dr. Bob would tell the man himself, “If you are perfectly sure you want to
quit drinking for good, if you are serious about it, if you don’t merely wish
to get well so you can take up drinking at some future date, you can be relieved.
DR. Bob, 109.
[47]
“We intend to stress the hospitalization of all cases possible. . . . After he
is defogged, we feel him out, then give him the book and lots of conversation.”
DR. BOB, 168. “Hospitalization was
another must in the early days.” DR. BOB.
102-03.
[48]
“There are two kinds of people to watch in A.A.—those who make it and those who
don’t. . . . Another thing Dr. Bob put quite simply. “The first one will get
you.” According to John R. he kept repeating that. DR. BOB, 226-27.
[49]
DR. BOB, 144.
[50]
“These people introduced Clarence to Jesus as his Lord and Savior. They
explained to Clarence that this was First Century Christianity.” Mitchell K., How It Worked, 70; “Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the
life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. See also John
3:14-18, Acts 4:10-12, 33, Romans 10:8-13.
[51]
In the “full surrender,“ they prayed for a healing and removal of Clarence’
sins, especially his alcoholism. Upon Clarence’s discharge from the hospital,
Dr. Bob had prayed something like this: “Jesus! This is Clarence Snyder. He’s a
drunk. Clarence! This is Jesus. Ask Him to come into your life. Ask Him to
remove your drinking problem, and pray
that He manage your life because you are unable to manage it yourself.” Mitchell
K., How It Worked, 58.
[52]
DR. BOB, 148.
[53]
When I was researching the books that Dr. Bob had in his library, I
found The Runner’s Bible: Spiritual
Guidance for People on the Run. Dr. Bob’s son told me this was a favorite
of his father’s. And other books showed Bob distributed the book to others. It
is filled with the promises of God and the verses that contain them. These include “Be of Good Cheer, Thy Sins Be
Forgiven Thee,” “I Will Help Thee: With God nothing is impossible,” “Behold, I
will Heal Thee,” “For Thine Is The Power,” “The Lord Shall Guide Thee
Continually,” Thou Shalt Walk In Thy Way Safely,” “Peace Be Unto You,” “Happy
Shalt Thou Be,” and others. See Romans 12:1-2 for the importance of renewing
your mind to what the word says.
[54]
“Prayer, of course, was an important part of Dr. Bob’s faith. . . . He prayed
not only for his own understanding, but for different groups of people who r e quested him to pray
for them.” DR. BOB, 314-15. Members
held “a regular old-fashioned prayer meeting.” DR. BOB, 101. “We had much prayer together in those days.” DR. BOB, 111.
[55]
“Morning devotion and ‘quiet time’ . . . were musts. DR. BOB, 136. “The leader would open with a prayer, then read
Scripture. . . . After the meeting closed with the Lord’s Prayer, all the men
beat it to the kitchen for coffee,” DR,
BOB, 139, 141. “Morning quiet time continued to be an important part
of the recovery program in 1938-39, as
did the spiritual reading from which the early members derived a good deal of
their inspiration”. . . . said Duke P. . . “When I started, they stressed
morning quiet time, daily reading, and daily contact. . . . The Bible was
stressed as reading material, of course.” DR.
BOB, 150-51/
[56]
In his last major speech, Dr. Bob said: “In early A.A. days. . . . When we
started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps. . . 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. The
Co-Founders, 13.
[57]
The world-wide importance and effective study of the Big Book as the basic text
of A.A. certainly reached its peak with
the seminars Joe McQ. and Charlie P. of Arkansas conducted on a line by line
study basis. And Dick B. was fortunate to be able to attend several of these
annual events in Sacramento, California, to bring a large number of sponsees
with him to attend as well, and to become friends with both Joe and Charlie and
receive their support.
[58]
In 2005, Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timers and their Wives completed and
published Our Legacy to the Faith
Community: A Twelve-Step Guide for Those Who Want to Believe. Compiled and
edited by Dick B. (Winter Park, FL: Came to Believe Publications, in which
these authors endeavored faithfully to show how Clarence Snyder used the Big
Book with his sponsees and showed them how to take the Twelve Steps in an
afternoon.
[59]
“Daily contact was emphasized. Ernie G., the second A.A. partial success of
Bill and Dr. Bob, would drive around making business calls, then stop in at an
AA place for a cup of coffee, maybe make another call, and then stop into
another AA lpace and have another. Then, maybe someone would invite a group in
for the evening. A lot of them had breakfast together every morning. We had an
intense loyalty to each other. We would meet each other on payday to make sure
nothing happened.” DR. BOB, 148. Dr.
Bob said: “We used to have daily meetings at a friend’s house. The Co-Founders, 13. “Contacts by phone
or face-to-face were needed.” DR. BOB, 146.
[60]
“I could see Clarence was getting nervous. So I’d say, ‘Well, let’s go down and
see Henrietta and Bill D—And we’d just pick up and go down to see them. They
might be sitting down to dinner or whatever it was, but the would welcome us
in. . . . We felt the same privilege with Bob and Anne.. . . . Sometimes, they were having bread and
milk for dinner. Well there was always some more bread and milk for us. . . .
We always planned something for Saturday night,’ said T. Henry, ‘a party here
or somewhere else, with plenty of food and lots of coffee. That was the night
people needed it. Annabelle and Wally G---had
lots of get togethers. . . and so did Mother G.—And of course, as we got a
little more money, we’d have parties at our house. We had covered-dish suppers
and picnics. . . .for a long time, we just had coffee and tea and crackers. . .
. Ernie’s mother used to throw a party every two weeks.. . . She’d make the
doughnuts, and though everybody was broke, we all bought something. It was
nothing unusual to see 25 or 30 people
over there drinking coffee and eating doughnuts. DR. BOB, 146-47/
[61]
“They handed out little address books
with everybody’s name in it. Very few people, of course, had phones then. . . .
But the ones who had phone numbers, there they were. And when they said, ‘Drop
in on us—anything,’ they meant it. . . . the telephone played an important role
in A.A. from the very beginning . . . . They’s say, ‘Put a nickel in that
telephone and call before you take a drink. If they don’t answer, call
somebody else. . . . Wade. . . He’d pick
up the phone and say, ‘How are you?. . . . All right How’s your pigeon
[sponsee]? And that was the end of the conversation.’” DR. BOB, 145-46.
[62]
“When I started, they stressed morning quiet time, daily reading and daily
contact. They also told me I had to do something about my alcoholism every day.
. . . The Bible was stressed as reading matter of course. . . . There was that
little nickel book The Upper Room. .
. . They figured we could afford a nickel for spiritual reading. They impressed on us that we had to read that
absolutely every morning. . . Though there was a good deal of reading material
around at this time, there was definitely a need for literature directed
specifically to the alcoholic.” DR. BOB, 151.
Bill Wilson remembered. . . They would start out in the morning reading from The Upper Room and say the prayers. . .
. I think there may have been times when we attributed it to their morning
meditation.. . . I sort of always felt that something was lost from A.A. when
we stopped emphasizing the morning meditation.” DR. BOB, 178.
[63]
“Not all of us join religious bodies, but most of us favor such memberships.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 28, “If we belong to a religious
denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that
also. . . . There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be
obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious
people are right. Make use of what they offer.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 87. “He must have
devotions every morning—a ‘quiet time’ of
prayer and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature.” DR. BOB, 131.
[64] “As the Akron group began
gathering at King School in 1940, a definite style evolved. . . . When the time
came, the speaker would go upfront, wait for quiet, and introduce himself. He
opened with a prayer of his own choosing, then gave a five-minute ‘lead.’
Usually it would be on a specific subject—a passage from The Upper Room or a verse from the Bible. Then he asked other
members to make short comments. DR. BOB. 220.
[65]
Dr. Bob said of himself and Bill W.: “We had both been associated with the
Oxford Group, Bill in New York, for five months, and I in Akron, for two and a
half years. Bill had acquired their idea of service. I had not. The Co-Founders, 11. “With the last
drink under his belt and the idea of service in his heart, Dr. Bob was eager to
join Bill in finding another drunk to “fix,” as they put it in those days. DR, BOB, 76. Dr. Bob said: “I spend a
great deal of time passing on what I learned to others who want and need it
badly.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 180. “In late June, Dr. Bob put in a call to Akron City Hospital. He
explained to the nurse in the receiving ward that a man from New York had just
found a cure for alcoholism. . . . Dr. Bob explained that he had tried it, and
that it involved working with other alcoholics.” “Pass It On,” 152-53.
[66]
In explaining the original Akron A.A. program, as published in DR. BOB on page 131, Frank Amos wrote:
“He must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.
states: “Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant
thought of others and how we may help meet their needs,” 20; “Carry this
message to other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is
our Twelfth
suggestion: ‘Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no
one else can.,’” 89.
[67]
In the last line of his personal story, Dr. Bob said: “Your Heavenly Father
will never let you down!” Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 181. In the Bill D. personal story, Bill W.
said to Bill D.’s wife: “Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me,
curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it
and telling people.” And Bill D. wrote: “That sentence, ‘The Lord has been so
wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep
telling people about it,’ has been a sort of golden text for the A.A. program
and for me.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 191. The third edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous, at pages 216-17, contained the following personal story of a
Cleveland AA which states: One evening I had gone out after dinner to take on a
couple of double-headers and stayed a little later than usual, and when I cam
home Clarence [Cleveland A.A. founder Clarence H. Snyder] was sitting on the
davenport with Bill W. I do not recollect the specific conversation that went
on but I believe I did challenge Bill [Bill W.] to tell me something about A.A.
and I do recall one other thing: I wanted to know what it was that worked so
many wonders, and hanging over the mantel was a picture of Gethsemane [There
are many famous paintings of Jesus’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and
this was a picture of that scene] and
Bill [Bill W.] pointed to it and said, ‘There it is.” As to Dr. Bob and the
Bible, DR. BOB states the following
on page 144: “(Dr. Bob was always positive about his faith, Clarence said
[Clarence H. Snyder]. If someone sked him a question about the program, his
usual response was: ‘What does it say in the Good Book?: Suppose he was asked,
‘What’s all this ‘First Things First?” Dr. Bob would be ready with the
appropriate quotation: ‘Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you.’”). As to the first Cleveland meeting: “There is no record of what
happened at the first meeting except for a Grapevine account years later noting
that it was led by Dr. Bob who ‘put his foot on the rung of a dining room
chair, identified himself as an alcoholic, and began reading the Sermon on the
Mount” [Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7]. DR.
BOB, “ “The widow of an old-timer
remembered Bob standing up at the meeting with ‘the Good Book under his arm’
and recalled that he used to say the
answers were there if you looked for them, because people back in the Old
Testament were just like the people of this century and had the same problems. .
. . Dr. Bob donated that Bible to the King School Group.” DR. BOB, 227-28. “An early Chicago member wrote that “Dr. Bob was
the first group leader I heard refer simply and without ostentation to God. He
cited the Sermon on the Mount as containing the underlying spiritual philosophy
of A.A.” DR. BOB, 228.
[68]
The best example of both the teaching and the sponsor’s responsibility can be
found in Clarence’s Sponsorship Pamphlet, written in 1940. See Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community, 78-82.
[69]
There are many recorded instances in A.A. writings that show that AAs are “not
a glum lot.” Many can be found in the Personal Stories in each of the four Alcoholics Anonymous editions. In
Chapter 11 of the 4th edition, is Chapter 11, “A Vision For You.”
There, Bill W. sets forth the life that he sees for the successfully recovered
A.A. member, 151-64. Other literature (such as Living Sober, How It Worked, That Amazing Grace, and But for the Grace
of God)
adequately describe the lives that recovered alcoholics
lived – baseball, dances, bowling, choir, plays, and the following from Dick
B., That Amazing Grace: The Role of
Clarence and Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous, 78-79: 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 (his wife) “They had to 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 party lines. And they frequently held picnics. Food was brought to
newcomer meetings. Stale donuts were obtained from the Salvation Army, and the women would make a stock pot of soup and
feed the newcomers. Fellowship meetings were attended by the wives and children
of the alcoholics. The wives would prepare coffee and food. And Clarence
established spiritual retreats for alcoholics and their families. See Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community..
[70]
At page 281 of DR. BOB, there is the
story of Alex who was tempted by the lure of drink and the thought of a bar,
but then would take a taxicab over to Bob’s. And Dr. Bob would say: “Stay away
from that place. They got nothing in there that you can’t get somewhere else,
whether it’s food, cigarettes, or a Coke.” Dr. Bob advocated that members stay
in dry places whenever possible. “You don’t ask the Lord not to lead you into
temptation, then turn around and walk right into it.”
[71]
Based on my own experience over a period of 27 years in A.A., sponsoring over
100 men, I frequently see a newcomer with painful or broken tooth and jaw
conditions. Also with wants, warrants, failures to appear, and upcoming court
dates overlooked.. I also see family battles, child custody issues, and divorce
litigation. And I insist that these matters be addressed by appropriate
professionals, whether they be dentists, criminal attorneys, or domestic
relations attorneys. All of these problems—left uncared for or shelved—can soon
put the newcomer in a slippery place he’s been to before and give him the
incentive to flee rather than fight, and drink
rather than respond to such needs appropriately.
[72]
Again, my personal experience as a sponsor has shown that the homeless,
jobless, beleaguered, seemingly worthless, guilt-ridden, ashamed newcomer is in
a slippery place that taunts him with a drinking solution rather than
challenging him to overcome and climb out of the pit of despair, whether
self-imposed or involuntary uncontrolled, and leading to seemingly purposeless,
endless, worthless, and depressed attitudes of failure and despair and drink.
[73]
Again, from personal experience, whether one is an attorney or employing one, a
professional, a job-seeker, a salesperson, or a public figure, I know the
importance of wearing decent clothing, personal cleanliness, and self-esteem.
Lacking these and other traits, one can easily slip into despondence and
thinking of himself or herself as a “loser.” And then to a drink solution.
Appearance makes a difference—whether to the alcoholic
or the other person, or both.
[74]
See James 1:21-25.
[75]
Matthew 22: 36-40.
[76]
1 John 4:21, 5:3.
[77]
John 17:8, 17.
[78]
John 14: 12-13
[79]
Mark 14:49
[80]
Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the
Winners, 25-47.
[81]
Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the
Winners, 47-49.
[82]
This information is covered in detail in Dick B. and Ken B., Bill W. and Dr. Bob: The Green Mountain Men
of Vermont; Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous; The Dick B. Christian Recovery
Guide, 3rd ed; Dick B., The
Conversion of Bill W; Real Twelve Step Fellowship History.
[83]
Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the
Winners, 61-65.
[84]
See A.A. General Service Conference-approved book The Language of the Heart, 281-86, 296-300.
[85]
William G. Borchert, The Lois Wilson
Story: When Love Is Not Enough, 170.
[87]
Dick B. and Ken B., The Green Mountain
Men of Vermont.
[88]
See The Co-Founders, 13-14.
[90]
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 162.
[91]
The Language of the Heart, 296-300.
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