A.A. History: Descriptive Titles Bill W. Gave to Two A.A. Founders

A.A. History: Descriptive Titles Bill W. Gave to Two A.A. Founders Dick B. © 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved Most accurate and complete A.A. history accounts tell of the position of A.A. Cofounder Bill Wilson in recognizing and appreciating the important service of others who were principals in the shaping of Alcoholics Anonymous ideas. In fact, the titles which Bill W. bestowed were not only descriptive; they highlighted the type of service rendered. Comments about A.A. Co-founder Dr. Bob One of the good sources for this information about Dr. Bob’s titles is the book by Bill’s long-time secretary and archivist: Nell Wing, Grateful to Have Been There: My 42 Years with Bill and Lois and the Evolution of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d exp and rev ed. (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1998) “Fisher of Men”: Nell wrote, at page 89: “Dr. Bob, in Bill’s phrase, was the “fisher of men. . .” In Matthew 4:18-19, Jesus called to Peter and Andrew who were casting a net into the sea and were fishers: “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” “Prince of all Twelfth-steppers”: Nell wrote at page 90: “Dr. Bob became, as Bill described him, ‘the prince of the Twelfth Steppers’—a title for which he was well qualified, growing out of his natural instinct as a doctor for helping people, combined with his intense desire as an alcoholic to administer to his fellow sufferers.” Bill Wilson himself said: “It had been decided that Bob would attend mostly to the questions of hospitalization and the development of our Twelfth Step work. Between 1940 and 1950. . . he had treated 5,000 drunks at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. His spiritual example was a powerful influence, and he never charged a cent for his medical care. So Dr. Bob became the prince of all twelfth-steppers. Perhaps nobody will ever do such a job again.” See The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), page 34. “The Rock Upon Which A.A. Was Founded”: Nell wrote at page 90: “Bill often described Bob as ‘the rock upon which A.A. was founded.’” In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-25), Jesus said: “Therefore whosoever heareth these saying of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock” Comments about Dr. Bob’s Wife, Anne Ripley Smith “Founder and Mother of A.A.”: Bill W. wrote: “Anne was the wife of Dr. Bob, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. She was, quite literally, the mother of our first group, Akron Number One. . . . In the full sense of the word, she was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous” The Language of the Heart: Bill W.’s Grapevine Writings (NY: The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., 1998), pages 353-54. And both of Dr. Bob’s children stated quite clearly that “Bill W. called her the ‘Mother of A.A.’” Children of the Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob’s Kids By Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows as Told to P. Christine Brewer (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1992), pages 29, 41, 132) www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml; www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml Gloria Deo

The "Mustard Seed" Project Starts Now - A New Way Out

The Maui Christian Recovery Resource Center

a project of

The International Christian Recovery Coalition
P.O. Box 837, Kihei, Maui, HI 96753-0837
(808) 874-4876 or (808) 276-4945
DickB@DickB.com
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com

The “Mustard Seed” Project Starts Now—A New Way Out


My son, Rev. Ken B., and I have just completed three exploratory Christian recovery efforts:

Over the past 2 ¼ years, we have traveled widely in California and Oahu taking the temperature of the Christian recovery needs, existing enthusiasm, and potential for Christian recovery growth.

· We have spoken at more than 25 conferences and meetings to learn the facts and resources.

· We attended and spoke at the Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors (ACADC) Institute in Palm Springs. We introduced the Christian Recovery Resource Centers project and learned how licensed Christian recovery counseling might fit in.

· We just returned from giving a lecture as part of “The Alcohol and Other Drugs Awareness Hour” lecture series held at the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences on the Eisenhower Medical Center campus in Rancho Mirage, California. (This lecture series is also known as the “Betty Ford Center Alcohol Awareness Hour.”) The talk was open to the patients, alumni, and staff of the Betty Ford Center's rehabilitation program, as well as to the general public. We were privileged to learn the broad scope of a top-notch treatment program—including possible intervention, assessment, detox, counseling, treatment, family and children programs, fitness facilities, aftercare, and alumni work. We also learned a great deal about the interaction of the programs with Alcoholics Anonymous and professionals.

The bottom line is that we are more convinced than ever that a new, onrushing, Christian recovery movement is in progress. It needs to be A.A.-friendly, Bible-friendly, and Treatment-friendly; and it needs to be founded on a knowledge of the Christian roots of A.A. It also needs to work harmoniously and interactively with 12-Step programs, Christian recovery facilities and programs, medical and intervention skills, family and child orientations, biblical truths, prayer habits, fitness, aftercare, sober living, and a new life plan—“A New Way Out!”

So we returned to sunny, beautiful, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii.

And we were blessed to have two different families interact with us upon our return—both very much in need of help with the usual difficulties surrounding alcoholism and drug addiction,. They have cried out for Christian help.

The parents and the children in need are Christians. The parents are amenable to a full-bore approach that utilizes medical help and evaluation; Christian churches and fellowships; 12-Step program principles, practices, and participation; comprehensive treatment embracing professional counseling, intervention, and an emphasis on Bible study and prayer; and solving the problems that occur during the course of obtaining and securing sobriety.

We will begin now! We hope soon to have a local office for meetings. We hope to attract committed Christian helpers in the medical (including psychiatry and psychology), religious, counseling, substance abuse, community resource, fitness, and sober living fields—all the while encouraging all to learn the Christian origins and highly-effective program of early A.A., and the application of early A.A.'s principles and practices in the 12-Step fellowships today.

We will act as para-counselors who meet with those in need; assess their problems; apprise them of resources—Christian and otherwise—which will be helpful to their recovery; and suggest references in the areas of intervention, detox, counseling, fellowships, 12-Step programs, treatment, aftercare, and community assistance.

Our capabilities stem from Dick B.’s 24 years of continuous sobriety; his writings about, and knowledge of, the recovery movement, and A.A. history and fellowships; his long work with suffering alcoholics and addicts in the 12-Step scene; and his work with Rev. Ken B. in Bible fellowships consisting almost exclusively of Christian AAs seeking to get well with the help of the power and love of God.

What do we ask? Spread the word. Watch for developments. Suggest resources. Volunteer to help us meet needs. Provide needed transportation, community assistance, and appropriate referral opportunities.

For more information concerning “Christian Recovery Resource Centers and Persons” worldwide, please see:

http://christianrecoverycoalition.com/christian-recovery-resource-centers.shtml

We look forward to hearing from you.

Dick B., J.D., CDAAC
Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, recovered alcoholic
Executive Director, the International Christian Recovery Coalition
www.DickB.com

FOREWORD BY RAY G. TO NEW DR. BOB BOOK

Today’s excerpt from the soon-to-be released Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous:

Foreword

My wife and I have known, visited, and traveled with Dick B. for quite a number of years. And he has been as a guest in our Ohio home many times when he has come to Akron, Ohio, to visit, research, and speak on early A.A.’s spiritual roots and successes. We both know Dick as an AA who has not only devoted many years and many books to making the history of early A.A. more widely known, but also that Dick has had a particular interest in the wonderful contributions that Dr. Bob and his wife Anne Smith made to that recovery scene at the beginnings of A.A.

As archivist at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, Ohio, and as one who takes the archives all over the country so that others will be blessed with an opportunity to see and learn, I have welcomed Dick’s many books on Dr. Bob, Anne, Henrietta Seiberling, and the Akron roots.

But this new book uncovers, to an extraordinary degree, a virtually unknown and yet vitally important part of Dr. Bob’s past—his days as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Dr. Bob had made a number of telling statements about his beginnings both in Vermont and in Akron.

He said that he had had “excellent training” in the Good Book “as a youngster.” He twice remarked that he had refreshed his memory of the Good Book in order to set forth the elements of recovery and cure. And he said many times, “We believed that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book,” and he added that old timers believed that the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 were absolutely essential to their program.

Dick has relentlessly pursued Dr. Bob’s library and reading, Anne Smith’s spiritual journal, Henrietta Seiberling’s papers, T. Henry and Clarace Williams’ remarks, and the original Akron seven-point program as Frank Amos reported it to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He has put a useful picture before us all. More importantly, he showed what pioneer AAs actually did as they emerged from a seemingly-hopeless, medically-incurable state to establish their relationships with God. They achieved a documented, 75%-to-93% success rate—a real model that needs to be known today.

The loose end, the one that aids materially in understanding how and why the early AAs put together such a remarkable program, was what Dr. Bob had learned as a youngster. What Dr. Bob had meant when he said he had received “excellent training” in the Good Book. And Dick and his son Ken have not only traveled to St. Johnsbury, Vermont; assembled books and records; interviewed; and corresponded; they have produced a detailed picture of the biblical influences on Dr. Bob from his parents, his North Congregational Church, his Sunday School, his Christian Endeavor Society activities, and his matriculation at St. Johnsbury Academy. Bob was surrounded by wholesome, godly, Christian training; and he brought the results to Akron to help thousands of AAs get well as he and Bill W. fashioned their early spiritual program of recovery.

I recommend this book highly to AAs and to all those who want to know why Dr. Bob so certainly and emphatically believed he was qualified to say, “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” Dick shows you the sources at St. Johnsbury that produced such conviction.

Ray G., Archivist, Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, Ohio

Be a Part of Something Great –

To the Glory of God

I would like to ask your help in fulfilling a great need and dream concerning Dr. Bob and his “excellent training” in the Bible “as a youngster” in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Particularly as 2007 closes and we look forward to a stellar 2008.

My son Ken and I were finally able to visit St. Johnsbury recently, after having wanted to do so for a long time, for investigation and research there, beginning at 297 Summer Street where Dr. Bob was born. Our trip led to the idea and conclusion that we needed to secure benefactors to enable us to buy, acquire, and assemble a first-class library of manuscripts, books, records, pictures, and other items that would accurately portray the immense amount of religious training that we could see was made available to Dr. Bob by his parents, his church, his Sunday School, the Christian Endeavor Society, revivals, Gospel meetings, conversions, and YMCA outreach. These, as well as the whole Congregational atmosphere in Vermont; in St. Johnsbury; and, in particular, at the famous St. Johnsbury Academy where Bob’s parents were involved and where Dr. Bob received further extensive training through Daily Chapel, required church and Bible study attendance, Congregationalist sermons and talks, and texts.

This plan to put Dr. Bob’s youth back in the recovery picture has enormous proportions and immense value to those who really want to know where the early Akron A.A. program came from, how its ideas were shaped by the “Good Book,” and what Dr. Bob learned in St. Johnsbury and translated to the Akron pioneer program he and Bill W. founded, and he led.

We have been assembling this history for a decade. And, since our trip to St. Johnsbury, we have worked unceasingly for over a month preparing a core library--a multi-volume set of resource binders with thousands of pages of exhibits, citations, and resources. We have also begun work on a new, companion book about Dr. Bob’s youth to accompany the core library.

We request that you (or a group of like-minded people you know) help us fulfill this dream by:

• Purchasing for $50,000.00 my “core library” of resources on early A.A.—especially including thousands of pages of materials relating to Dr. Bob’s youth in St. Johnsbury.

• Purchasing my remaining inventory of about 20,000 A.A. history books at a minimum average price of $10.00 per book—which is about a 50% discount on the book prices. Benefactors may arrange to have boxes of these historical books sent to Dr. Bob’s Home, church, and/or archives in Akron, Ohio; or to the Griffith Library at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont; or to Stepping Stones; or to GSO; or to the Seiberling Home in Akron, Ohio; or to other mutually-agreed-to places which will help carry the message to those who still suffer. These would be sent as boxes of books, one or more at a time, for $400.00 per box.

In order to encourage participation in this information outreach idea by those of you who have shown a consistent interest in making known the facts concerning the documented, 75%-to-93% success rate of the pioneer AAs among seemingly hopeless, medically-incurable, real alcoholics who thoroughly followed the original path, I have decided to present to you free of charge in serial form (i.e., one by one) the Introduction and chapter highlights of the more than 20 volumes of historical information I have assembled that will form a part of the core library to be donated at no charge to the non-profit facility most willing to steward and promote the history outreach.

Please consider:

• Donating $50,000.00 (by yourself or with others as a group) to make possible the immediate placement of the entire Dick B. “core library.” As an alternative, please also consider donating $5,000.00 (or more in multiples of $5,000.00) to make possible an immediate, partial shipment of one or more of the ten (10) segments of the “core library”; and

• Donating $400.00 (or more in multiples of $400.00) to make possible the sending of one (or more) box(es) of my history books to the historical spots that AAs and other 12 Step people really cherish, hunger to see, and frequently visit—such as Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, the Seiberling Gate Lodge in Akron; the archives in Akron; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron; the Griffith Library at, and the Wilson House itself in, East Dorset, Vermont; Stepping Stones; and/or other, mutually-agreed-upon places.

Please enjoy the enclosed or attached Introduction, excerpts, or chapters from the forthcoming companion volume about Dr. Bob as they come to you. Please send your check to: Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; and, if you wish your contribution to be deductible for tax purposes, make your check payable to: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron.

For more information, please see: www.DrBob.info. Or email Dick B. at: dickb@dickb.com

** Revised on November 14, 2007 **

Gloria Deo

A Brand New godless Recovery Approach Today

A brand, new godless recovery program hits the internet

Dick B.

© 2008 by Anonymous. All rights reserved

I’m not going to dignify the new idolatrous internet presentation by providing the URL. But I will tell you that it is becoming widely circulated. It represents the worst of revisionist recovery chatter. Boldly, it asserts that, while A.A. had Christian beginnings (and it erroneously describes them), someone agreed that it should be changed to admit people of all faiths and persuasions. True! It does, and that’s a settled situation. But it does not preclude believers from believing.

The problem is that it just shakes off totally our early A.A. program and successful history which, according to Dr. Bob, took its basic ideas from the Bible. The presentation doesn’t mention the decisions for Christ or the pioneer Christian Fellowship (as Dr. Bob called it), and the essential studies of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians. Nor does it mention Morning Quiet Time—a must in early A.A. Nor the prayer meetings. In short, it just doesn’t mention real A.A. See my title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History.

Now don’t get your hopes up about finding information from this new lecturing crowd. If you are a believer in God, a Christian, a Bible student, or one in search of a relationship with God, you will find little in this presentation that is accurate, and even less that is helpful. Oh sure. If you want to choose your own god, it will tell you that you can. If you don’t want to believe in anything, it will tell you that you can. If you prefer giving some higher power idol a name, why of course you can call it Ralph, Gertrude, a Coke bottle, a radiator, a tree, the Big Dipper, good orderly direction, or your A.A. group. And these days people won’t even laugh at you.

You’ve heard it all in meetings. You’ve read it all in recent literature. And the woods are full of therapists and learned teachers who don’t believe in God, who remind us of the First Amendment, and who know they won’t get their government grants or insurance payments if they tell the truth about A.A.’s being a religion—a fact that has been established by court after court in recent litigation. So, of course, they call it “spiritual, but not religious.” You may ask “what religion?” I would answer—the religion, denomination, church, and Bible of your choice. For in today’s A.A. you still have that religious choice. You’ve got the history to show that it always existed. And you’ve got the new research that shows it was the real position of the founders before Bill and Hank decided to form a corporation, sell stock, and revise the ideas so that stock could be sold, then books could be sold, and then members of all types could buy.

When confronted with erroneous truths and tempting but evil offers, Jesus took the position: Get thee behind me, Satan. The author of the Book of James wrote in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But remember, he will be back! And it’s OK accidentally to let him light in your hair, but be sure not to let him make a nest there. Perish the day when I will waste any more time listening to teachers or preachers talk about some unknown “higher power” or “spirituality” or “god of their understanding.” Anyone still has the right to believe in the God that the founders worshipped, prayed to, and asked for guidance. See James, Chapter One—a favorite of Bill’s and Bob’s/

What’s the bottom line? Don’t we have enough people already trying to move Americans, schools, churches, and even the poor AAs and addicts away from God? I think so, but I also suggest that the more you listen, the more you might begin to wonder if God has any place in your life. After all these dudes (there’s a man and a woman at the start) have college degrees and sincerity. But for those who rightly wish to choose the power of God, it is not only unpleasant but distracting to listen to the new, recover less recovery speakers tell us why we need to move ourselves completely out of the path to a relationship with God which the Big Book mentions so often. I submit my Heavenly Father is available at all times in all places and in all situations. Dr. Bob said it far better in the last line of his personal story: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (Big Book, p. 181).

Gloria Deo

Dickb@dickb.com