Bill W., Dr.
Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism:
“The Rest of the
Story”
A Four-Video
Project Proposal by Dick B. and Ken B.
© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Key
points:
1. A.A.
claimed an overall 75% success rate for its early days [Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., “Foreword to Second Edition,” xx].
And the third A.A. group in the world founded in Cleveland on May 11, 1939,
claimed a documented 93% success rate during its first three years (May 1939 to
June 1942) [DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers, 261]. The Cleveland A.A. group used the Big Book and its 12
Steps, and kept “most of the ‘old program,’ including the Four Absolutes and
the Bible, . . .” [Mitchell K., How It
Worked, 108.]
2. This
video series will focus on:
a. The
“old-school” way of carrying A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob’s message of a
cure for alcoholism to those who still suffer.
b.
“Training
the trainers” about the original Akron A.A. seven-point program which Bill W. and
Dr. Bob began developing over the summer of 1935 [DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131], and how its principles and
practices can be applied in today’s recovery arena to enhance substantially the
effectiveness of Christian recovery efforts.
3.
Dick
B. has sponsored more than 100 men in their sobriety, has been researching the
history of Alcoholics Anonymous for more than 23 years, and has authored 46
titles and more than 1,500 articles on A.A. history and the Christian Recovery
Movement.
Well-known
historian of A.A. Dick B. and his son Ken have begun producing a
ground-breaking new video series which will include:
·
A
series of four videos, each about one hour in length and comprised of a number
of short segments five-to-fifteen minutes in length;
·
An
instructor’s guide;
·
A
student guide; and
·
The Dick B.
Christian Recovery Guide by Dick B. and Ken B.
A Big
Book sponsor’s guide and a 12-Step guide will also be recommended.
The
series will be titled:
“Bill
W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story.”
The
goal of this video series is to reach those who are endeavoring today to cure
alcoholism--long thought to be “medically-incurable” by the doctors of Bill W.
and Dr. Bob’s day (1934 to 1939), and still thought to be “medically-incurable”
by many doctors more than 70 years later.
The
facts of history have demonstrated to us and countless others that Bill W. and
Dr. Bob received from God in the mid-1930’s a way to cure hardcore alcoholics,
and it worked.
Those
facts also show that Bill W. allowed that cure to be diluted by the time it was
first presented publicly in the “basic text” of the Alcoholics Anonymous Society,
the book Alcoholics Anonymous
(affectionately known as “the Big Book”), first published in April 1939.
Dick
B. and Ken B. are currently developing a professional-quality video series and
accompanying instructional materials which will tell “the rest of the story.”
That story will include the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the
Bible in early A.A.’s astonishing successes with “medically-incurable”
alcoholics who thoroughly followed Bill W. and Dr. Bob’s suggested path to
recovery.
In
plain and simple terms, Dr. Bob described A.A.’s first group in the world,
known as “Akron Number One,” as “a Christian fellowship.” [See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 118.]
The
long-ignored and unreported part of the story of early A.A.’s history is about
precisely how Christianity became a part of the cure of alcoholism (and of the
often-related abuse of “high-powered
sedatives” and other drugs) developed by Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
The
elements of the “Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the
Story” video series are these:
1.
The
Christian upbringings of A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob in Vermont;
2. The
similarities between the principles and practices seen in the Gospels and the
Book of Acts, and those found in the early A.A. program in Akron (and, to a
significant extent, in the early A.A. program in Cleveland—which began on May
11, 1939);
3.
The
strong revival in pre-A.A. days of “First Century Christianity” in America from
the mid-1850’s to the mid-1930’s, as illustrated by the Christian predecessors who
were successful in helping alcoholics, addicts, and derelicts before A.A. began,
and who influenced early A.A.’s principles and practices (especially in Akron),
including:
a.
The
Young Men’s Christian Association;
b.
The
Congregational Churches of Vermont (and, more broadly, of New England);
c.
The
Gospel Rescue Missions;
d.
Great
Christian evangelists such as Dwight L. Moody and F. B. Meyer;
e.
The
Salvation Army;
f.
The
program of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, in which Dr. Bob
was involved as a youth (and in which his parents, Judge Walter P. Smith and
Susan H. Smith, were also involved); and
g.
“A
First Century Christian Fellowship”--formed in 1922 by Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman,
a Lutheran minister (also known as “the Oxford Group” beginning in September
1928)—of which Bill W. and Dr. Bob were members when they met.
4.
How
the principles and practices of the Gospels and the Book of Acts, of A.A.’s
Christian predecessors, and of early Akron A.A. can be applied today to carry more
effectively the message to those who are still suffering.
All
of these historical factors can play a major part today in the application of
the principles and practices of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, and of the
Apostles (and others) in the Book of Acts (i.e., “First Century Christianity”),
in today’s recovery scene based on currently-available, in print, A.A. General
Service Conference-approved literature. Practices such as prayer, Bible study,
“Quiet Time,” reading of Christian literature, witnessing, conversion to God
through His Son Jesus Christ, daily meetings, and major emphasis on service to
God and others about us.
This
video series will show how applying these principles and practices can arrest
the decline in successes, the decline in numbers, the growth of secularism, and
other problems prevalent in today’s 12-Step programs.
The
greatest verification of the efficacy of “old-school” Akron A.A. can be found
in: (a) the belief in God, (b) the long biblical training; and (c) the
compassionate service to others by the first three AAs. Each man hit a
desperate bottom. Each turned to God. Each stated that he had been cured or
healed by the power of God. Each believed the answer to his problems was in the
Bible. Each served God and others alcoholics for the rest of his life. And each
never used liquor (or abused high-powered sedatives) again.
AA
Number One, Bill W., for example, is quoted in the current edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, as follows:
“. . . [T]he
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.” [Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 191]
AA
Number Two, Dr. Bob, believed he had been cured by prayer, stated that he and
Bill W. had found a cure for alcoholism, and ended his personal story in the
Big Book with the declaration:
Your
Heavenly Father will never let you down! [Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 181]
And
AA Number Three, attorney Bill D. of Akron—following his almost-instantaneous
cure after months of hospitalization, and having been strapped to his hospital bed
on and off—said:
That sentence [which
Bill W. had spoken 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
telling people about it,” has been a sort of a golden text for the A.A. program
and for me. [Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 191]
And
these earliest A.A. successes occurred before there was a Big Book, before
there were any 12 Steps or 12 Traditions, before there were any recitals of “drunkalogs,”
and before there were any “additions” by Alcoholics Anonymous.
As
Albert Scott (chairman of the trustees for Riverside Church) stated at a
meeting of representatives of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with Bill W., Dr. Bob,
Bill W.’s brother-in-law, Leonard Strong, Dr. William D. Silkworth, and a few
of the other New York and Akron AAs around the end of 1937:
“Why, this is
first-century Christianity!” . . . “What can we do to help?” [‘Pass It On,’ 184]
Perhaps
you or someone you know can provide talent, skills, ideas, and/or financial
assistance for the completion of this effort. If you would like to help with
this new project, or would like to know more, please contact Dick B. by email
at DickB@DickB.com or Ken B. on
his cell phone at 1-808-276-4945.
Dick
B., Executive Director
International
Christian Recovery Coalition
“Christian
Recovery Radio with Dick B.”
Information
about A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob
Gloria Deo
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