Dick B. discusses the meaning and
significance of the subtitle of the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill
W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the
November 11, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick
B." show
Dick B.
© 2013 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
YOU MAY HEAR THIS RADIO SHOW RIGHT NOW!
Note: Dick B. and Ken
B. have now presented six radio shows previewing their forthcoming five videos
and accompanying study guide. The six shows are archived and may be heard by
you at your convenience.
The first show provided an outline of
the scripts for the five videos—particularly highlighting what the videos would
contain. The next three were a presentation of the dozens and dozens of
questions about A.A. that will enable the reader and viewer to decide for himself
just how much of the A.A. History story
he has heard, read about, or studied. The next show enabled Dick to present the
Introduction that will be part of the videos and open the Study Guide. And this
evening, Monday, November 11, 2013, Dick told what the “rest of the story is.”
In substance, it is about the endless
details of A.A. history that have virtually never been researched, published,
or discussed by writers and historians. It outlines for the listener the
various epochs of “the rest of the story.” The first has to do with the many
remarks that early Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship practices much resembled
the activities of First Century Christians as recorded in the Book of Acts.
The next epoch has to do with the
pre-A.A. Christian organizations and people who, from the 1850’s forward, were
helping drunks to be delivered by the power of God—the YMCA, Salvation Army,
Rescue missions, Great evangelists like Moody and Sankey, Congregationalism in
Vermont, and Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. Next, the Christian
upbringing of both Bill W. and Dr. Bob in the Congregational churches at their
villages—North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury, East Dorset
Congregational Church, and the Manchester Congregational Church. The cofounders
heard sermons, hymns, reading of Scripture, prayer meetings, training in
salvation and the Word of God. They went on to matriculate at Congregational
dominated academies. And the curricula and requirements of each were very much
the same: Required church attendance, required Bible study, required prayer
meetings, daily chapel which always consisted of a sermon, reading of
Scripture, hymns, and prayer. And the YMCA was active in both academies—St.
Johnsbury Academy and Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester (where Bill
attended and took his four year Bible study course.
The activities in Vermont bore fruit
when the first three AAs got sober. Each was a believer in God and a born again
Christian. Each had studied the Bible extensively. Each was licked and
determined to give up liquor for good. Each turned to God for help. Each was
cured. And each was told he must help others once he got well. And this is what
each did.
Next came the original Akron A.A.
Christian fellowship recovery program—summarized on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. And the
sixteen Christian practices that implemented the program summarized. Next, Bill
obtained permission to write a book; and he began in the spring of 1938.
However the book had two distinctly different parts: (1) The chapters that Bill
had written based on the teachings of Dr. William Silkworth, Professor William
James, and Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.
(2) The personal stories of the pioneers in which they told how they
established their relationship with God and what they had done in the Akron
program. Their stories told how they had practiced the Akron A.A. program—there
was no format but for an alleged six “word of mouth” ideas that were conducted
differently by different areas and had distinctly different approaches. (3) The
Wilson portion of the book was not complete until the Akronite stories were
written, and the stories were about the Akron program—not the unwritten book
being produced by Bill.
Finally came to compromise in the
printer’s manuscript in which a mere four people completely changed Bill’s
steps and removed God from Steps 2, 3, and 11. And the entire character of the
fellowship changed in the ensuing 15 years during which Bill was deeply
depressed and in which Dr. Bob and his wife died.
The last portion of the
missing link was and is the procedure by which the old school program can be
applied in A.A. today, using A.A.’s own
conference-approved literature. It calls
for hearing and learning the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible
played in early A.A. and its astonishing results, as well as hearing and
learning that they can play that same role today for those who want God’s help
in overcoming alcoholism and addiction.
You may hear Dick B. discuss the
meaning and significance of the subtitle of the forthcoming, five-video series
"Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story"
on the November 11, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with
Dick B." show here:
http://mcaf.ee/jusq3
or here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/11/12/dick-b-discusses-what-he-means-by-the-rest-of-the-story
Episodes of the "Christian
Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:
www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com
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