A.A. Cofounder Dr. Bob’s Youngstown, Ohio, Talk about
the Bible and Prayer
By Ken B. (based on research done by Dick B.)
© 2015 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob gave a lead (“talk”) in Youngstown,
Ohio, in the early 1940’s in which he described the role of prayer and Bible
reading in the lives of A.A. members at that time. In his talk, Dr. Bob said in
part:
Members of Alcoholics Anonymous
begin the day with a prayer for strength and a short period of Bible reading. They find
the basic messages they need in the Sermon
on the Mount, in Corinthians
and the Book of James.[1]
Dr. Bob also indicated in that talk that he himself had been
an ardent reader of the Bible, as will be seen in the fuller discussion about
his talk presented below. In fact, the A.A. General Service Conference-approved
book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers
states that Dr. Bob “. . . read the Bible from cover to cover three times and
could quote favorite passages verbatim.”[2]
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers also
states about Dr. Bob:
(Dr. Bob was always positive about
his faith, Clarence said. If someone asked him a question about the [A.A.]
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.’”)[3]
Here are some of author Wally P.’s comments about the
summary by A.D. LeMinte [or “Le Monte”[4]]
of Dr. Bob’s talk given in Youngstown, Ohio, in the early 1940’s.
A fifth pamphlet that came out of
Akron in the 1940s was titled What Others Think of Alcoholics Anonymous.
This pamphlet was published by the Friday Forum Luncheon Club of the Akron A.A.
Groups.
The
pamphlet consisted of a series of reprints from various newspaper articles
written in the early 1940s about Alcoholics Anonymous. The pamphlet was
described in an article in the February 1943 newsletter, the Cleveland Central Bulletin: . . .[5],[6]
The pamphlet contained a “lead”
given by Dr. Bob in Youngstown, Ohio. Dr. Bob’s words were summarized by A.D.
LeMinte of the Youngstown, Ohio Vindicator . . .[7]
The speaker told how he ended 35
years of steady drinking after trying various methods that included hospital
and sanitariums. Ardent reading of the Bible and an earnest desire to stay
sober also failed. He still got drunk every night. Then he met the other
founder-to-be, who had been sober for four months and had learned that the way
to convince himself was to convince some other drunk.
Then they began
working on a third alcoholic and this practical cure for drunkenness was born.
Members of
Alcoholics Anonymous begin the day with a prayer for strength and a short period
of Bible reading. They find the basic messages they need in the Sermon
on the Mount, in Corinthians and the Book of James.
“But that is not
enough,” the speaker said, “for you cannot honestly accept what you read
without putting it into practice, and that means you must help somebody else. .
. .”[13] [8]
So here we see again the importance of the Bible and prayer
in early A.A.—particularly in Ohio.
Gloria
Deo
[1] Dick
B., The Good Book and The Big Book:
A.A.’s Roots in the Bible, 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1997), 21. See also: The
Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major
Talks (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972,
1975), 13.
[3] DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 144.
[4] The
last name of the writer of the article in the Vindicator is spelled “Le Monte” in at least two other sources: (1)
Stephanie Muravchik, American
Protestantism in the Age of Psychology (Cambridge University Press, 2011),
126, fn. 57. [Muravchik’s source of the pamphlet: “Pamphlet Box 3, file ‘Ohio,’
GSOA” (“GSOA” = “General Service Office Archives, New York City”)]; and (2) Bill
Lash, “What Others Think of AA (1940s),” [post/message] 5318, in
“AAHistoryLovers” Yahoo Group, Oct 23, 2008: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aahistorylovers/conversations/messages/5318;
accessed 2/19/2015. [Lash’s source of the pamphlet: “. . . found
in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, archives”—i.e., the A.A. archives in that city.]
[5] Wally
P., But, for the Grace of God . . . (Wheeling, WV: The Bishop of Books, 1995), 43. Thus we know that
Dr. Bob gave his talk in Youngstown, Ohio; and that A.D. LeMinte [or “Le
Monte”] wrote the related article in the Vindicator;
by no later than February 1943.
[6] A
purported transcript of the entire What Others Think of Alcoholics Anonymous
pamphlet may be found here: Bill
Lash, “What Others Think of AA (1940s),” [post/message] 5318, in
“AAHistoryLovers” Yahoo Group, Oct 23, 2008: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/aahistorylovers/conversations/messages/5318; accessed 2/19/2015.
[7] Wally
P., But, for the Grace of God . . . , 43.
[8] Wally
P., But, for the Grace of God . . . , 45. Footnote 13 on page 46 of
Wally P., But, for the Grace of God . . .
, states: A.D. LeMinte, “Alcoholics Anonymous Co-Founder Tells of Breaking
35-Year Drunk” Vindicator; reprinted
in What Others Think of Alcoholics
Anonymous (Akron, OH: Friday Forum Luncheon Club of Akron A.A. Groups,
1944) 4-5.
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