Addiction, Alcoholic Rehab, Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounders, Bill Wilson
and Dr Bob Smith, Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Initial Christian Roots
How They’ve Been Forgotten; And How They
Can Help Recovery Today
By Dick B.
© 2013 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
Learn About Them
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 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 Akron A.A. group claimed an overall 75% success rate among
the “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” real alcoholics
who thoroughly followed the pioneer A.A. program. And many of us never learned
that the Original Akron program is summarized rather 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 Manual (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2009),
44-46, 49.]
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 at Calvary Rescue Mission, 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 Calvary Church itself. He heard
Ebby give testimony from the pulpit; and Bill decided that he too needed help
and needed the same help that Ebby had received. 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. Deeply depressed and despairing, Bill proceeded drunk to Towns
Hospital where he was greeted by Dr. Silkworth. At Towns Hospital, Bill cried
out for help, had a dramatic indescribably “white light” vital religious 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—a
doubt he had entertained ever since his girl-friend Bertha Bamford died from
surgery just before their graduation from Burr and Burton Seminary in
Manchester, Vermont. Bill had then and there blamed God and turned his back on
God for a time.
But then, at Calvary Mission in New York, Bill had handed
his life over to Jesus Christ. He wrote “For sure, I’d been born again.” His
doctor (Silkworth) had used a long-known expression for referring to Jesus
Christ. Silkworth had called Him the “Great Physician;” and after his rebirth at the mission, Bill staggered
drunk, depressed, and despondent to Towns Hospital for the last time. He
decided to call on the Great Physician for help. Bill cried out. He sensed the
presence of the “God of the Scriptures.” He was cured and never drank again.
And Bill W.’s message became: “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.” (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.,–a Christian since his youth in
St. Johnsbury, Vermont–prayed for deliverance on the rug at the home of T.
Henry Williams in Akron. Miraculously, help showed up quite soon in the form of
a visit of Bill W. to Akron. Henrietta Seiberling declared Bill’s visit to be
“Manna from Heaven.” She and Dr. Bob both believed Bill’s phone call was an answer
to their prayers. 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 thereafter 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 out another drunk to help. They
found A.A. Number Three, the hospitalized Akron attorney Bill D., also 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. He had been told to find
other drunks to help; and he did so.
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.
What These Three Stories Show Us Today
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 many
AAs and others seem hungry to hear.
These first three AAs recovered by the power of God. Because
of their experience, 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 hope you, the reader, will 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 have had
complete release from alcoholism and addiction. 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 his mention of 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. And His help—the help of the Creator of the heavens and
the earth—stands at the ready awaiting a call from those who believe.
Those in prisons, jails, mental wards, hospitals, A.A.,
N.A., other Twelve Step Fellowships, the Armed Forces, veterans facilities,
homeless shelters, treatment programs, rehabs, detoxes, and counseling offices.
Anywhere! Anywhere at all!
Dick B.: PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; (808)
874-4876 ; Email: DickB@DickB.com;
See Dick B. and Ken B., Stick
with the Winners! http://mcaf.ee/s50mq,
and
Pioneer Stories in
Alcoholics Anonymous http://mcaf.ee/gj7iw
Gloria Deo
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