It is a pleasure to invite you all to read the attached talk just given by Dr. Karen A. Plavan at Sam Shoemaker's second and last major church. We owe such a debt to Karen that I can't cover it all in this message. However, here are some points: (1) Karen holds a Ph.D. degree and is a professor of counselling and chemical dependency at University of Pennsylvania. (2) She is an adjunct professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. (3) She is co-chair of the Board of Oasis Center in Pittsburgh. (4) She arranged three different talks by me in Pittsburgh and also was one of the speakers at our Second Nationwide A.A. History Conference in Delaware. (5) Karen was instrumental in my publication of the second edition of the Shoemaker book--New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A.; and she joined the daughter of Sam Shoemaker and the widow of Shoemaker's assistant minister in writing a Foreword to the book. (6) On more than one occasion, Karen arranged for me to speak to her students and others in Pittsburgh. (7) She serves as one of our leadership advisors on the new and fast-growing International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com). (8) And it was she who arranged with Dr. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh to establish and house the Shoemaker Room there--to which benefactors enabled me to donate and place there a large collection of Rev. Sam Shoemaker's books, articles, sermons, correspondence, and other historical data. Aloha and love to my good friend Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D.
Dick B.
“A Talk on SAMUEL MOOR SHOEMAKER”
Sunday, January 31, 2010
by
Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D.
Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, PA
Good Morning. Every morning Sam took time for quiet prayer and meditation. In the gospel, Jesus went to a deserted place to pray. Sam too knew the importance of taking Quiet Time for himself -- time for prayer – talking to God and for meditation – time to listen to God.
I am grateful to The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis and The Rev. Walter Szymanski for inviting me to speak. It is an honor to be here today to celebrate with you this first feast day proclaiming the 12th Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, the Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker a “Holy Man.”
What does it mean to be called a Holy Man or a Saint? St. Paul declared that anyone in Christ is a saint. We are all called to be saints. Saints are living people among us; sometimes we may not notice them. Some of us may have some preconceived notions about who is a saint. You may believe that you have to be perfect to be a saint. If this were true, we would have no saints.
A Sunday school teacher asked her students the question, “Who is a saint?” One student looked up at the beautiful stained glass windows and said, “A saint is someone who lets God’s light shine through them.” And this was eminently true of Sam -- the Light shined through Sam to help thousands, millions of people around the world to find God. Sam was a Life Changer.
Bardwell Smith said: “Sam was deeply in touch with the living God and because of this, hundreds of lives came alive to the same experience … such is part of what constitutes the vocation of sainthood.”
Norman Vincent Peale said: “I have known many men in the ministry who have been quite outstanding in their effectiveness. … But no one excelled Sam Shoemaker in sheer spiritual depth and persuasive power.”
Who is Sam Shoemaker? If he were alive today, he would most likely ask you to tell him your story. He then would be very interested in knowing if you had turned your will and your life over to God. If you hadn’t, he would say “First things First,” and would ask you to get on your knees and do so.
During the coffee this morning, Charles Jarrett recounted a personal story of how Sam Shoemaker helped him to get in touch with the Power of God. As you could see, Sam was a Life Changer.
Who was Sam Shoemaker? Sam Shoemaker conceived of his role in the church as three fold – as a pastor, priest and preacher. Newsweek named him one of the ten best preachers in America in 1955. He was also a counselor, coach, mentor, evangelist, a radio and TV host. But, most importantly, Sam was a “Life Changer.”
Sam was born on December 27, 1893. He had a sister who was 8 years older, yet he felt like an only child. He spent his summers at his family home, Burnside, 10 miles north of Baltimore. Sam loved nature and found God in the woods at Burnside. According to his mother, he was a witty, spontaneous joy to be around.
He attended St. Georges School in Newport, RI and graduated from Princeton University where he made a decision to enter the ministry as his life vocation. Sam studied for ministry at General Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1922.
After college, Sam visited China on a “Princeton in Peking” project. It was there in January 1918, that Sam met The Rev. Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman, a Lutheran minister, Penn State Chaplain, and YMCA secretary.
In 1921, Buchman started a movement called: “A First Century Christian Fellowship,” later to be called the “Oxford Group,” a Christian movement that attracted thousands of people in the US and Europe during the 20s and 30s.
Frank Buchman said the only sane people in an insane world are those controlled by God or those that surrendered their self will for God’s will. In 1938, the Oxford Group changed its name to Moral Rearmament and is still alive in their mountain home in Caux, Switzerland.
Sam felt that this meeting (with Buchman) was the greatest turning point in his life. It was here that he was first introduced to the Four Absolutes – honesty, purity, unselfishness and love, the essence of the Sermon on the Mount. These were to be the yardsticks or targets by which he would measure his life.
Sam liked to keep it simple. Immediately, he began applying these principles to himself. He surrendered his life to God’s will. He said, “God if you want me to stay in China, I will.” (Deep down, he did not want to stay in China.) Sam was honest with himself and with Buchman. He also wrote a letter of amends to his father asking for his forgiveness.
The result was that Sam felt a life change in himself. He felt forgiven and free. And here was the real beginning of his life ministry – a Life Changer. He then wanted to pass on to others what he had received.
In Sam’s first book published in 1923 “Realizing Religion” he describes the discontentment, unhappiness, disconnectedness often felt by men and called it “a spiritual malady” which results when people are estranged from God. Sam said: “We were meant to be God’s companions.” He said that sin or character defects separate us from the love of God and that honesty is the first step in knowing God.
Sam began to travel with Frank throughout the US and abroad and it was on a trip with Frank in Egypt in 1924 that Sam received a call to Calvary Church in New York City. He began his ministry in 1925 and ministered there for 26 years. Not wasting any time, he opened the Calvary Rescue Mission a year later. It was here that Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) began his spiritual journey.
AA was formed nine years later in 1935. AA is a fellowship of men and women who have a common desire to stop drinking. It was founded by two alcoholics Bill Wilson, a stock broker from New York and Bob Smith, a Doctor from Akron, Ohio. At the Calvary Rescue Mission, Bill Wilson, an atheist was born again in 1926. He visited the church even though he did not attend regularly.
Recalling Sam, Bill said: “I remember that first day I caught sight of him. It was a Sunday service at his church. I was still rather gun shy and diffident about churches. I can still see him standing there before the lectern. His utter honesty, his tremendous forthrightness struck me deep. I shall never forget it.”
Sam took a liking to Bill and asked him to help other alcoholics. Bill Wilson took on the challenge. A year later, Bill joined Sam in a processional from Calvary Episcopal Church, NY to Madison Square.
Sam led the group in full vestment as people witnessed as to what God had done for them. A reporter for the New York Herald quoted Sam: “We fix flats, or rather Christ fixes them. If any of you are flat tires running on your own rims, come with us and Christ, and let us help you pray.”
Sam married Helen Smith, the daughter of the late Hon. H. Alexander Smith, US Senator from NJ in 1930 and they had two children. It was during this time, the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, that Sam became very active in the Oxford Group, and Calvary House served as a US headquarters for the Group. He even took a sabbatical in 1932 to travel for the Oxford Group
Sam had a genuine appreciation for those who struck out against the establishment. He also had a deep sensitivity to the unrest within the church and in the world. It was difficult for Sam to call the church to task for failing to be the “Body of Christ.”
Sam believed that creative social change came primarily from changing individuals -- the same work done in the Oxford Group. And Sam considered this personal work with individuals to be the most important work in his entire ministry. He was a Life Changer!
He believed that every parish should build small groups for deepening the spiritual life of the individual, and at Calvary Church in NY, he had a meeting for alcoholics on Tuesdays and an Oxford Group meeting on Thursdays. Both groups used the same principles: The four moral absolutes – honesty, purity, unselfishness and love combined with the 5 C’s – Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Continuance, were the foundation of both groups.
Sam referred to working these 5 C’s or steps as “Soul Surgery.” He said it all starts by making a decision to turn one’s life over to God. This decision can be found in the 3rd step of AA today.
The first step – Confidence -- was all about having faith and confidence that others would keep your confidence and had confidence in you. This is the cornerstone or the spiritual foundation of AA today. It is called anonymity.
The second step -- Confession called for absolute honesty and was translated into Steps 4 & 5 of AA.
The third step – Conviction called for a conscious realization of the seriousness of our sins or defects of character. Sam would often say: “Is there any apology that you won’t make? Make it now!” This step is now Steps 6 & 7 of AA.
The fourth step – Conversion is Choice to use free will to surrender one’s will over to God’s will, the 3rd step of AA.
Lastly, the fifth step – Continuance -- which required one to help the next person change their life. The idea of continuing to carry the message and this word is found in the 10th, 11th and 12th steps of AA. One continues to take personal inventory, Continues to watch for resentments, Continues to improve one’s conscious contact with God, Continues to carry the message to help others, Continues to do this for a lifetime, and Continues to grow in God’s Grace.
So at Calvary Church in New York, both the alcoholic group and Oxford Group used the same principles -- the four moral absolutes and the 5 C’s -- which influenced the writing of the 12 steps of AA. Sam said this basic approach was fundamental to anyone with problems. And he added with humorous insight, “for everyone has a problem, is a problem or lives with a problem.”
Billy Graham called Sam Shoemaker “a giant among men.” He said: “I doubt that any man in our generation has made a greater impact for God on the Christian world, than did Samuel Shoemaker…”
And nowhere did he make this impact greater than his influence on the writings of the 12 steps of AA.
Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson are the two best known founders of AA. Bill asked Sam to write the 12 steps, Sam declined. Sam told Bill that the steps should be written by a alcoholic and that Bill was the one to do it. Bill closeted himself in the book-lined study at Calvary House with Sam, and the two men hammered out the basic ideas for the Big Book of AA. In addition, Bill submitted his Big Book manuscript to Sam in advance of its publication in 1939. Humbly Sam would deny any involvement at all in AA and would not take any credit for the creation of AA. However, we now know better.
Bill Wilson wrote of Sam Shoemaker: “Every river has a wellspring at its source. AA is like that too. In the beginning, there was a spring which poured out of a clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker… He began to teach us the principles and attitudes that afterwards came to full flower in A.A.’s 12 Steps for Recovery. The streams of understanding and love that were gathered together by God in 1935 to create AA will always be the source of our infinite wonder, inspiration and gratitude. Some may say, but Sam is not a stream, he is just a great man! But we of AA know better. We know he is both.”
“He channelled to the few of us who then saw and heard him, the message, the understanding, the loving concern, and therefore the Grace that enabled our small band and all the countless thousands who followed afterward to walk in the Consciousness of God – to live and to love again, as never before.”
“Sam passed on to us the spiritual keys by which so many of us have since been liberated.”
In AA, only members of AA speak at conventions. However, Sam was invited to speak at two conventions. The first was in St. Louis in 1955. Here Bill Wilson wrote the following: “The important thing is this: the early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in the US, and from nowhere else.”
“AA owes a debt of timeless gratitude for all that God sent us through Sam and his friends in the days of AA’s infancy.”
At the 1960 AA convention in Long Beach, CA Bill said of Sam: “The 12 Steps of AA simply represented an attempt to state in more detail, breadth, and depth, what we had been taught – primarily by you.
Without this, there could have been nothing – nothing at all… Though I wish the co-founder tag had never been hitched to any of us, I have no hesitancy in adding your name to the list.” “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that I founded AA. If it wasn’t for Sam Shoemaker, AA would never have been born.
One day the 12 steps of Recovery as they are used to help transform the lives of people with all types of addictions may be viewed as the largest spiritual movement of our lifetime. And that, perhaps, is Sam Shoemaker’s greatest legacy – as the spiritual director or co-founder of this spiritual movement that has changed millions of lives. Sam was a Life Changer indeed.
Sam was called to Pittsburgh in 1952 and was known for his ministries here at Calvary Episcopal Church. One of his ministries was to young married couples in the church. Sam could talk them into doing practically anything. Sam would say “get changed, get together and get going!”
Sam was also known to take people to the top of Mt. Washington to pray over the City of Pittsburgh, a tradition still today. Sam prayed that “one day Pittsburgh would be as famous for God as it was for steel.”
Sam Shoemaker was the “Pittsburgh Man of the Year” in 1956. He had a radio show on KDKA Radio from 1952-1961, and an Episcopal Hour called: “The Art of Living.” He started the Pittsburgh Experiment where he challenged people to experiment in faith and to pray with a prayer partner for 30 days and to witness the results. Upon his retirement in 1962, he said that the growth of this ministry was the high point of the year.
After Sam left Pittsburgh, he continued his writings and broadcast ministries. He was influential in bringing together national leaders to share their experiences, which resulted in the President’s Prayer breakfast in Washington, DC and other prayer breakfasts around the country.
Sam said: “My job is to reach as many people as I can for Christ before I die, and that will be my testimony. I haven’t the time or strength to try to explain to the people in the structure what I am doing. I am too busy engaged in doing it.”
Two months before Sam died, he wrote: “I have by no means, done what I should have done with all that I have been given… It’s been a great run…I’am thankful for it and for all the people who helped to make it so.”
Often people ask me why I work with individuals and families with addictions. I do this for two reasons. First God called me to do this work. Secondly, in today’s reading from Isaiah, it says: “your children have fainted, and lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net.” This is true today; young people are on every street corner in the net of addictions, trying to get out. Every year an average of 250 young people die from addictions in Allegheny County.
Like Sam and along with two other Episcopal clergy here in Pittsburgh -- The Rev. Walter Szymanski and The Rev. Dr. Jay Geisler, we are all called to work in this ministry at the Oasis Recovery Center. We stand at the door to help people find recovery. Standing by the door is where Sam Shoemaker felt most comfortable – helping people find God and to change their lives. Sam was a Life Changer.
His wife Helen said: “He knew if he stood by the door and remained willing to reach out to men and women involved in even the most sordid of sins – inevitably he would be given supernatural grace and power with which to help them.” We too will be given God’s Grace if we stand by the door. God calls all of us to be saints in spite of our brokenness. God calls all of us to let our light shine. What door has God called you to stand by and to let your light shine through?
I think it is appropriate to end the sermon by reading a poem that Sam wrote entitled, “I Stand by the Door.” I asked Dr. David Bandler, like Sam a Princeton University alumnus, and a Board Member of The Oasis Recovery Center, to read “I Stand by the Door.”
B., Dick. New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and AA. Hawaii: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., Pittsburgh ed, 1999.
Shoemaker, Helen Smith. I Stand by the Door. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.
Shoemaker, Sam. Realizing Religion. New York: Association Press, 1923.
Shoemaker, Sam. Confident Faith. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1932.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Power of God in Earliest A.A.
The Power of God in Earliest A.A.
How the First Three A.A. Members Got Sober and Were Cured
A.A. Number One (Bill W.)
Learned as a child that his paternal grandfather, William C. (“Willie”) Wilson, was cured of alcoholism by a conversion in Vermont.
Received a Christian upbringing and training in the Congregational Churches at East Dorset, Vermont, and at Manchester, Vermont. Studied the Bible and took a four-year Bible course at Burr and Burton Academy where he attended daily chapel and weekly church services and became YMCA president.
Years later was told on his third visit to Towns Hospital by his psychiatrist, Dr. William D. Silkworth, that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, could cure him of his alcoholism.
Was visited by his friend Ebby Thacher, who told Bill that he (Ebby) had “got religion”, had gone to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, and had made a decision for Christ.
Was told by Ebby that God had done for him what he could not do for himself.
Concluded that Ebby had been healed and reborn at Calvary Rescue Mission.
Visited Calvary Church, heard Ebby give testimony, decided that he needed the help Ebby had received, and that maybe Calvary Rescue Mission could help him also.
Went to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission and made his own decision for Jesus Christ.
Wrote that he had been born again and had found religion.
Concluded that, in his dire straits, he then and there needed the help of the Great Physician
that Dr. Silkworth had recommended to Bill for help.
Proceeded (despairing, depressed, and drunk) to Towns Hospital for the fourth and last time.
Concluded he would call on the Great Physician; cried out to God for help; and had his
famous “white light” experience in which he sensed the presence of “the God of the Scriptures.”
Consulted with Dr. Silkworth; read the book, The Varieties of Religious Experiences, by
William James; and believed he had had a valid religious experience and had been cured.
Never again doubted the existence of God. Never drank again. And said the Lord had cured him of his terrible disease.
A.A. Number Two (Dr. Bob)
Received a Congregational Christian upbringing by his family, his church, his Sunday school, the Christian Endeavor Society, and the St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
After many intervening years of uncontrollable drinking, finally conceded at a meeting of a Christian group at the home of T. Henry Williams in Akron that he had a drinking problem and wanted to quit.
Knelt with group members at the home of T. Henry Williams and prayed for his deliverance.
Continued to drink but was miraculously put in touch with Bill W. in May of 1935.
Was persuaded by Bill’s story that the Lord had cured Bill, and that helping other alcoholics was a resource he (Dr. Bob) had never seized upon to maintain sobriety.
Had one last binge and decided to quit for good in June of 1935.
Concluded and announced that he and Bill W. had found a cure for alcoholism, and then sought, with Bill W., to help other alcoholics get sober by the same spiritual means.
Never drank again, and later wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
The founding of A.A. in June 1935 was, by common agreement, fixed as being when Dr.
Bob had his last drink on what may have been June 10, 1935—both of the founders then
having attained what was proven to be permanent sobriety.
A.A. Number Three (Bill D. of Akron)
In 1935, was already a Christian, a deacon of his church, and a Sunday school teacher.
Had nonetheless been hospitalized many times as a “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable” drunk.
Was in Akron City Hospital when Dr. Bob phoned the hospital, said he and Bill W. had found a cure for alcoholism, needed to work with another drunk, and arranged to tell Bill D. their stories.
Was told by Dr. Bob and Bill W. that he could turn to God for healing and should then help others.
Did turn to God for help when Bob and Bill had left, found release, and was cured
Confirmed his cure by endorsing Bill W.’s statement that Bill W. (and he) had been cured by the Lord, and declaring that Bill W.’s statement (found in the current edition of the Big Book on page 191) was the “golden text of A.A.” for him and for others.
Became the third AA and caused Bill W. to declare that the first A.A. Group was founded the day Bill D. left the hospital a free man, never to drink again—July 4, 1935.
Conclusion
Each of the first three AAs believed in God. Each was or had become a Christian at the time the decision was made to stay sober permanently. Each turned to God, was cured, never drank again, and immediately began helping others.
A.A. was founded and the first group was founded at a time when there were no Twelve Steps. There were no Twelve Traditions. There was no basic text or Big Book. There were no drunkalogs. And there were no meetings as we know them today. The men had and studied the Bible, and the sought God’s help and received it. That was the power of God in earliest A.A.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
How the First Three A.A. Members Got Sober and Were Cured
A.A. Number One (Bill W.)
Learned as a child that his paternal grandfather, William C. (“Willie”) Wilson, was cured of alcoholism by a conversion in Vermont.
Received a Christian upbringing and training in the Congregational Churches at East Dorset, Vermont, and at Manchester, Vermont. Studied the Bible and took a four-year Bible course at Burr and Burton Academy where he attended daily chapel and weekly church services and became YMCA president.
Years later was told on his third visit to Towns Hospital by his psychiatrist, Dr. William D. Silkworth, that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, could cure him of his alcoholism.
Was visited by his friend Ebby Thacher, who told Bill that he (Ebby) had “got religion”, had gone to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, and had made a decision for Christ.
Was told by Ebby that God had done for him what he could not do for himself.
Concluded that Ebby had been healed and reborn at Calvary Rescue Mission.
Visited Calvary Church, heard Ebby give testimony, decided that he needed the help Ebby had received, and that maybe Calvary Rescue Mission could help him also.
Went to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission and made his own decision for Jesus Christ.
Wrote that he had been born again and had found religion.
Concluded that, in his dire straits, he then and there needed the help of the Great Physician
that Dr. Silkworth had recommended to Bill for help.
Proceeded (despairing, depressed, and drunk) to Towns Hospital for the fourth and last time.
Concluded he would call on the Great Physician; cried out to God for help; and had his
famous “white light” experience in which he sensed the presence of “the God of the Scriptures.”
Consulted with Dr. Silkworth; read the book, The Varieties of Religious Experiences, by
William James; and believed he had had a valid religious experience and had been cured.
Never again doubted the existence of God. Never drank again. And said the Lord had cured him of his terrible disease.
A.A. Number Two (Dr. Bob)
Received a Congregational Christian upbringing by his family, his church, his Sunday school, the Christian Endeavor Society, and the St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
After many intervening years of uncontrollable drinking, finally conceded at a meeting of a Christian group at the home of T. Henry Williams in Akron that he had a drinking problem and wanted to quit.
Knelt with group members at the home of T. Henry Williams and prayed for his deliverance.
Continued to drink but was miraculously put in touch with Bill W. in May of 1935.
Was persuaded by Bill’s story that the Lord had cured Bill, and that helping other alcoholics was a resource he (Dr. Bob) had never seized upon to maintain sobriety.
Had one last binge and decided to quit for good in June of 1935.
Concluded and announced that he and Bill W. had found a cure for alcoholism, and then sought, with Bill W., to help other alcoholics get sober by the same spiritual means.
Never drank again, and later wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
The founding of A.A. in June 1935 was, by common agreement, fixed as being when Dr.
Bob had his last drink on what may have been June 10, 1935—both of the founders then
having attained what was proven to be permanent sobriety.
A.A. Number Three (Bill D. of Akron)
In 1935, was already a Christian, a deacon of his church, and a Sunday school teacher.
Had nonetheless been hospitalized many times as a “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable” drunk.
Was in Akron City Hospital when Dr. Bob phoned the hospital, said he and Bill W. had found a cure for alcoholism, needed to work with another drunk, and arranged to tell Bill D. their stories.
Was told by Dr. Bob and Bill W. that he could turn to God for healing and should then help others.
Did turn to God for help when Bob and Bill had left, found release, and was cured
Confirmed his cure by endorsing Bill W.’s statement that Bill W. (and he) had been cured by the Lord, and declaring that Bill W.’s statement (found in the current edition of the Big Book on page 191) was the “golden text of A.A.” for him and for others.
Became the third AA and caused Bill W. to declare that the first A.A. Group was founded the day Bill D. left the hospital a free man, never to drink again—July 4, 1935.
Conclusion
Each of the first three AAs believed in God. Each was or had become a Christian at the time the decision was made to stay sober permanently. Each turned to God, was cured, never drank again, and immediately began helping others.
A.A. was founded and the first group was founded at a time when there were no Twelve Steps. There were no Twelve Traditions. There was no basic text or Big Book. There were no drunkalogs. And there were no meetings as we know them today. The men had and studied the Bible, and the sought God’s help and received it. That was the power of God in earliest A.A.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
YMCA, Vermont's "Great Awakening," AA Founders
AA Origins and History
The YMCA, Vermont’s “Great Awakening of 1875,” A.A.’s Founders
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) played an important, but relatively unknown, role in the lives of A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
The YMCA history begins in England. In 1836, when George Williams (later, Sir George Williams) was about 16 years old and working as a sales assistant in a London draper’s store, he gave his life to Jesus Christ, and began to pray and to seek God. In 1844, Williams—together with a group of fellow drapers—founded the first Young Men’s Christian Association in London, England, on June 6, 1844. Its purpose was “to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets.”
The American effort began in Boston. The first YMCA in the United States (and the second in North America) was established in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1851.
Cephas Brainerd, Chairman of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations from 1867 to 1892, identified two “distinctive features” of the YMCA in America:
1. It has been wholly undenominational, and based upon the belief that the average American young man, outside of church influence, was more open to the approaches of such an agency; and,
2. Work has been performed almost wholly by Christian laymen, because these were best fitted to carry it on; and, also, because the ministry could not under the limitations of human strength, as well as denominational exigencies, perform it.
Dr. Bob's exposure to the YMCA began with his parents, Walter P. and Susan H. Smith. Bob's father, Walter P. Smith, moved to St. Johnsbury in the autumn of 1869, and was State's Attorney for Caledonia County (in which St. Johnsbury is located) from 1874 to 1876. Bob's mother, Susan A. Holbrook, graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1874, and was a teacher at the Academy from 1874 to 1876. The two were married on August 15, 1876. And Dr. Bob was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont on August 8, 1879.
The relevant link of the YMCA to early A.A. begins with the "Great Awakening" of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, in which YMCA lay leaders played a major role.
In 1875 came the notable wave of religious uplift which none who witnessed it will ever forget.
THE GREAT AWAKENING OF 1875
Under auspices of the State Committee of the Y. M. C. A., meetings were held [in St. Johnsbury] February 6, 1875, at the Town Hall Sunday afternoon, and in the evening at the South Church. H. M. Moore of Boston and R. K. Remington of Fall River, laymen, were principal speakers. It was at once apparent that deep interest was awakened, and this continued so manifestly that three weeks later, these brethren, at our request, returned, accompanied by F. O. Winslow of Boston and S. E. Bridgman of Northampton. Sunday meetings were held at the Avenue House Hall, and at the South Church, and at the latter place Monday afternoon and evening; a thousand people were in attendance. On Tuesday forenoon the wheels of the scale factory were stopped, men crowded into the machine shop where the voice of prayer and song superseded the hum of machinery. In the evening there were 1200 people at the South Church and 140 rose to say that they had begun the Christian life. The interest continued, union meetings were held thrice a week in the different churches, usually conducted by laymen, almost every one present taking some brief part. Half-hour noon meetings were begun, which continued several years. On the 27th of March, Moore, Remington, Winslow and Littlefield came again, on invitation; large assemblies met at the Avenue House Hall, at North and South Churches ; also next day at the Universalist Church, which was filled, 'deep interest being manifest.' In the evening of Monday, March 28, there were 1400 people crowding the Academy Hall and passage-ways and 300 more in room No. 10 ; more than 100 rose for prayers. During the next six weeks there was a steady, quiet continuance of the revival spirit, which received a fresh impulse by the return once more, when urgently invited, of the Massachusetts brethren. This was on Sunday, the 8th of May. Neither North nor South Churches could contain the crowds that flocked to the evening meeting, and Academy Hall was again the place of assembly. On Monday, another gospel meeting was held at the Scale factory, and in the evening some 1500 people were together again at the Academy, where, as so often before, large numbers gave expression to their interest or their purpose to live a Christian life. These and similar scenes during the year following will be forever memorable in the history of our town. The whole atmosphere of the place seemed charged with religious feeling; no one questioned the immense reality of spiritual forces that were so distinctly transforming men's lives and lifting the standards of thought and conduct in the community. The religious life stood out as a manly thing to be manfully followed; the dominant note was not so much the old time solemnity, as the joy of opportunity, the cheer of the good news to every man. Everybody was singing the bright "Winnowed Hymns," and repeating cheer-inspiring verses from the Bible. Gospel meetings, so called, with a lay brother in the chair, were a popular attraction; there was no distinction of church or creed; all, as in apostolic times, were "continuing daily with one accord in fellowship together and in prayers, with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people." Like the friends from Massachusetts who had left their business to bring messages to us, laymen of this town went out in bands of two to five, holding gospel meetings not only in the school districts but in near or distant towns ; the influence of the religious uplift here was extended for a hundred miles around, and left its permanent mark on this community.
The Minutes of the annual meeting of the General Convention of Congregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont for 1875 reported a related event which impacted the St. Johnsbury Academy during the time Dr. Bob's mother was teaching there:
About the middle of February [1875] Russell Sturgis Jr., President of the Young Men's Christian Association of Boston, visited St. Johnsbury and conducted meetings for two or three days. He addressed himself chiefly to Christians and incited them. . . . A few words from him to the students of the academy were very effective.
The impact of this series of YMCA meetings in St. Johnsbury during 1875 was so large that M. B. Critchett singled out the town by name in his report at the May 1875 YMCA Annual Convention for the United States and British Provinces, stating:
A brother from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, tells me that, since the first visit made to that place this season [in early February of 1875], 1,500 souls have been converted.
To get some perspective on the magnitude of this number of conversions, according to the 1870 U.S. Census, the Town of St. Johnsbury had a population of 4,665 people. And according to the 1880 U.S. Census, the town's population was 5,800.
Following the "Great Awakening" of 1875 in St. Johnsbury and its aftermath—in which lay members of the YMCA played such an important part—we find that Walter P. and Susan H. Smith are listed for the first time in North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, church records in the church's Year Book for 1878. The year after Bob's birth in 1879, we find Bob listed for the first time in the church's records in the Church's Year Book for 1880. And one year after Bob began attending the St. Johnsbury Academy in 1894, his father became President of the St. Johnsbury YMCA in 1895, serving as President until at least 1897. (The massive YMCA building, erected on Eastern Avenue by Henry Fairbanks in 1885, was only about one block from where Bob was attending school at the Academy, and there were many events held at the YMCA building for students at the Academy during the time Bob attended.)
Bill Wilson's involvement with the YMCA is even more specifically documented. During at least part of the time he attended Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont, from 1909 to 1913, he was President of the YMCA. In addition, when Bill was 16, his girlfriend at Burr and Burton Academy, Bertha Bamford, the daughter of the rector of Manchester's Zion Episcopal Church, was President of the YWCA.
Briefly stated, the Young Men’s Christian Association (as it existed at the time of Dr. Bob’s youth) was emphasizing the following ideas which can be found in the earliest days of A.A. development:
1. Conversion to Christ;
2. Bible study;
3. Prayer meetings;
4. Personal evangelism—often called “personal work”—by lay Christians; and
5. A non-denominational approach.
Points to Remember about the Young Men’s Christian Association and its impact on A.A.
• In Dr. Bob’s younger days in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, the YMCA and its influence were everywhere to be seen: The YMCA had been instrumental in bringing about The Great Awakening of 1875 that transformed the village of St. Johnsbury, catalyzed hundreds of conversions to Christ, counted Dr. Bob’s father as one of its presidents, and directly impacted North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, and St. Johnsbury Academy in which Dr. Bob and his family were so much involved.
• In Bill Wilson’s days at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont, the YMCA, its activities, and its Bible study groups were a big part of Academy life; and Bill Wilson was president of the school YMCA, as his girl friend Bertha Bamford was president of the YWCA.
• The inescapable YMCA ideas that can be seen in the younger days and in the later sober days of both Dr. Bob and Bill W. were: (1) the necessity for conversion to Christ; (2) study of the Bible; (3) prayer; (4) personal evangelism by lay Christians; and (5) work that was non-denominational in nature.
Three of our titles will be excellent resources for your study of this subject: The Golden Text of A.A.—dealing with the early A.A. requirement of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont—providing the most comprehensive account of Dr. Bob’s early St. Johnsbury days and the thorough Christian training and Bible study which he received; The Conversion of Bill W.—dealing with Bill W.’s own extensive Christian training and Bible study as a youngster in East Dorset, Vermont, and Manchester, Vermont; and also with Bill’s long exposure to the idea of conversion to Christ as a cure for alcoholism.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
The YMCA, Vermont’s “Great Awakening of 1875,” A.A.’s Founders
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) played an important, but relatively unknown, role in the lives of A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob.
The YMCA history begins in England. In 1836, when George Williams (later, Sir George Williams) was about 16 years old and working as a sales assistant in a London draper’s store, he gave his life to Jesus Christ, and began to pray and to seek God. In 1844, Williams—together with a group of fellow drapers—founded the first Young Men’s Christian Association in London, England, on June 6, 1844. Its purpose was “to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets.”
The American effort began in Boston. The first YMCA in the United States (and the second in North America) was established in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1851.
Cephas Brainerd, Chairman of the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations from 1867 to 1892, identified two “distinctive features” of the YMCA in America:
1. It has been wholly undenominational, and based upon the belief that the average American young man, outside of church influence, was more open to the approaches of such an agency; and,
2. Work has been performed almost wholly by Christian laymen, because these were best fitted to carry it on; and, also, because the ministry could not under the limitations of human strength, as well as denominational exigencies, perform it.
Dr. Bob's exposure to the YMCA began with his parents, Walter P. and Susan H. Smith. Bob's father, Walter P. Smith, moved to St. Johnsbury in the autumn of 1869, and was State's Attorney for Caledonia County (in which St. Johnsbury is located) from 1874 to 1876. Bob's mother, Susan A. Holbrook, graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1874, and was a teacher at the Academy from 1874 to 1876. The two were married on August 15, 1876. And Dr. Bob was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont on August 8, 1879.
The relevant link of the YMCA to early A.A. begins with the "Great Awakening" of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, in which YMCA lay leaders played a major role.
In 1875 came the notable wave of religious uplift which none who witnessed it will ever forget.
THE GREAT AWAKENING OF 1875
Under auspices of the State Committee of the Y. M. C. A., meetings were held [in St. Johnsbury] February 6, 1875, at the Town Hall Sunday afternoon, and in the evening at the South Church. H. M. Moore of Boston and R. K. Remington of Fall River, laymen, were principal speakers. It was at once apparent that deep interest was awakened, and this continued so manifestly that three weeks later, these brethren, at our request, returned, accompanied by F. O. Winslow of Boston and S. E. Bridgman of Northampton. Sunday meetings were held at the Avenue House Hall, and at the South Church, and at the latter place Monday afternoon and evening; a thousand people were in attendance. On Tuesday forenoon the wheels of the scale factory were stopped, men crowded into the machine shop where the voice of prayer and song superseded the hum of machinery. In the evening there were 1200 people at the South Church and 140 rose to say that they had begun the Christian life. The interest continued, union meetings were held thrice a week in the different churches, usually conducted by laymen, almost every one present taking some brief part. Half-hour noon meetings were begun, which continued several years. On the 27th of March, Moore, Remington, Winslow and Littlefield came again, on invitation; large assemblies met at the Avenue House Hall, at North and South Churches ; also next day at the Universalist Church, which was filled, 'deep interest being manifest.' In the evening of Monday, March 28, there were 1400 people crowding the Academy Hall and passage-ways and 300 more in room No. 10 ; more than 100 rose for prayers. During the next six weeks there was a steady, quiet continuance of the revival spirit, which received a fresh impulse by the return once more, when urgently invited, of the Massachusetts brethren. This was on Sunday, the 8th of May. Neither North nor South Churches could contain the crowds that flocked to the evening meeting, and Academy Hall was again the place of assembly. On Monday, another gospel meeting was held at the Scale factory, and in the evening some 1500 people were together again at the Academy, where, as so often before, large numbers gave expression to their interest or their purpose to live a Christian life. These and similar scenes during the year following will be forever memorable in the history of our town. The whole atmosphere of the place seemed charged with religious feeling; no one questioned the immense reality of spiritual forces that were so distinctly transforming men's lives and lifting the standards of thought and conduct in the community. The religious life stood out as a manly thing to be manfully followed; the dominant note was not so much the old time solemnity, as the joy of opportunity, the cheer of the good news to every man. Everybody was singing the bright "Winnowed Hymns," and repeating cheer-inspiring verses from the Bible. Gospel meetings, so called, with a lay brother in the chair, were a popular attraction; there was no distinction of church or creed; all, as in apostolic times, were "continuing daily with one accord in fellowship together and in prayers, with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people." Like the friends from Massachusetts who had left their business to bring messages to us, laymen of this town went out in bands of two to five, holding gospel meetings not only in the school districts but in near or distant towns ; the influence of the religious uplift here was extended for a hundred miles around, and left its permanent mark on this community.
The Minutes of the annual meeting of the General Convention of Congregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont for 1875 reported a related event which impacted the St. Johnsbury Academy during the time Dr. Bob's mother was teaching there:
About the middle of February [1875] Russell Sturgis Jr., President of the Young Men's Christian Association of Boston, visited St. Johnsbury and conducted meetings for two or three days. He addressed himself chiefly to Christians and incited them. . . . A few words from him to the students of the academy were very effective.
The impact of this series of YMCA meetings in St. Johnsbury during 1875 was so large that M. B. Critchett singled out the town by name in his report at the May 1875 YMCA Annual Convention for the United States and British Provinces, stating:
A brother from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, tells me that, since the first visit made to that place this season [in early February of 1875], 1,500 souls have been converted.
To get some perspective on the magnitude of this number of conversions, according to the 1870 U.S. Census, the Town of St. Johnsbury had a population of 4,665 people. And according to the 1880 U.S. Census, the town's population was 5,800.
Following the "Great Awakening" of 1875 in St. Johnsbury and its aftermath—in which lay members of the YMCA played such an important part—we find that Walter P. and Susan H. Smith are listed for the first time in North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, church records in the church's Year Book for 1878. The year after Bob's birth in 1879, we find Bob listed for the first time in the church's records in the Church's Year Book for 1880. And one year after Bob began attending the St. Johnsbury Academy in 1894, his father became President of the St. Johnsbury YMCA in 1895, serving as President until at least 1897. (The massive YMCA building, erected on Eastern Avenue by Henry Fairbanks in 1885, was only about one block from where Bob was attending school at the Academy, and there were many events held at the YMCA building for students at the Academy during the time Bob attended.)
Bill Wilson's involvement with the YMCA is even more specifically documented. During at least part of the time he attended Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont, from 1909 to 1913, he was President of the YMCA. In addition, when Bill was 16, his girlfriend at Burr and Burton Academy, Bertha Bamford, the daughter of the rector of Manchester's Zion Episcopal Church, was President of the YWCA.
Briefly stated, the Young Men’s Christian Association (as it existed at the time of Dr. Bob’s youth) was emphasizing the following ideas which can be found in the earliest days of A.A. development:
1. Conversion to Christ;
2. Bible study;
3. Prayer meetings;
4. Personal evangelism—often called “personal work”—by lay Christians; and
5. A non-denominational approach.
Points to Remember about the Young Men’s Christian Association and its impact on A.A.
• In Dr. Bob’s younger days in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, the YMCA and its influence were everywhere to be seen: The YMCA had been instrumental in bringing about The Great Awakening of 1875 that transformed the village of St. Johnsbury, catalyzed hundreds of conversions to Christ, counted Dr. Bob’s father as one of its presidents, and directly impacted North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, and St. Johnsbury Academy in which Dr. Bob and his family were so much involved.
• In Bill Wilson’s days at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont, the YMCA, its activities, and its Bible study groups were a big part of Academy life; and Bill Wilson was president of the school YMCA, as his girl friend Bertha Bamford was president of the YWCA.
• The inescapable YMCA ideas that can be seen in the younger days and in the later sober days of both Dr. Bob and Bill W. were: (1) the necessity for conversion to Christ; (2) study of the Bible; (3) prayer; (4) personal evangelism by lay Christians; and (5) work that was non-denominational in nature.
Three of our titles will be excellent resources for your study of this subject: The Golden Text of A.A.—dealing with the early A.A. requirement of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont—providing the most comprehensive account of Dr. Bob’s early St. Johnsbury days and the thorough Christian training and Bible study which he received; The Conversion of Bill W.—dealing with Bill W.’s own extensive Christian training and Bible study as a youngster in East Dorset, Vermont, and Manchester, Vermont; and also with Bill’s long exposure to the idea of conversion to Christ as a cure for alcoholism.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Monday, February 15, 2010
Where Did Early A.A. Come From?
Where Did A.A. Come From?
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
The Variety of Stories
I’ll venture a guess: When most of us come into the rooms of A.A., we probably don’t hear, or learn, or even care where A.A. came from. Lots of us are sick, confused, frightened, and more worried about our problems than we are about how A.A. began.
There are some other hindrances. Some like to say that A.A. has no teachers. In general, this is true today though there are notable exceptions like those found in well-presented Big Book Seminars. But origins usually take a back seat because the “teachers” haven’t researched or learned the facts. There certainly were good teachers when A.A. first began—Dr. Bob, his wife Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry Williams, Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, and the Bible! But these vanished with the passage of time. They were replaced with “opinions.” But the most opinionated of the talkers often had more prejudices, misinformation, and lack of knowledge than the people they were talking to. And then there were the historians. A.A. has no official historians. And the great majority of those who venture into this misty scene are historians who have belonged to A.A. but frequently have never painstakingly taken the time to learn or present or cover the complete picture. Finally, as AAs, most of us are strongly urged never to talk beyond our own experience. The problem is that we seldom have had any experience as far as A.A.’s roots go. Further, we are urged to say “I”, instead of “We” and “You” when we hold forth, and the uninformed “Ayes” often win the day despite their inexperience.
Enough of the variety. Let’s talk about the question.
What Most Don’t Know
I had gone to perhaps a thousand meetings, mostly in Marin County, California, by the time I was three years sober. Here’s what little I learned about A.A.’s roots: My sponsor showed me a painting of Bill and Bob, and I had no idea who Bob was. In my 28 day treatment program, we were told to say, “I’m a friend of Bill W.,” if we were asking a stranger for help. One evening, an active AA named Nick softly murmured in our Sunday night meeting that he had a bit of “A.A. trivia” to share. He said it was “Founders Day.” And that’s the last I heard of that for a long time. Finally, a young man who knew I was interested in the Bible (his name was John) came up to me at a Step meeting in San Rafael, after I had been sober about three years. He asked if I knew that A.A. had come from the Bible. I responded that I had never heard such a thing though I had attended over a thousand meetings. He suggested I read DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. And I did. And I there got my first glimpse of an A.A. I had never ever heard discussed at my treatment center, my A.A. meetings, or by the many speakers I had heard. Sure enough, A.A. did come from the Bible! Dr. Bob said so in a major speech he gave to AAs in 1948. So I went to A.A.’s International Convention in Seattle to learn more. But I didn’t. I began hearing about the Oxford Group—and not in particularly appealing language. So I started my 20 year quest focusing on the Oxford Group, interviews, travel, and as many useful written materials as I could find. But it was like pulling teeth to attempt extracting accurate details from existing oldtimers, literature, and archives. The best sources were Dr. Bob’s son, his daughter-in-law, his daughter; Congressman John Seiberling and his two sisters; the daughter of T. Henry Williams; and the remaining family of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker—his wife and two daughters. Also the two General Service archivists, Nell Wing and Frank Mauser. And a host of Oxford Group activists and leaders I searched out. Yet everywhere I spoke, it was clear to me that the listeners had frequently heard little or nothing about A.A. and the Bible, Dr. Shoemaker, the Oxford Group, or a host of other important elements of the A.A. picture.
The First Part of the Answer
After twenty years of research, I could start here at a number of different places. But, in many ways, our recent findings have been the most important in defining early A.A.’s beginnings. You’d find most of these recent answers in our titles, The Conversion of Bill W. and Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous. Since publication of those books, we have published The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 2d ed., 2009, and are about to release the third edition. We have also prepared for editing and publication a long-awaited biography of Dr. Bob—The Prince of All Twelfth-Steppers.
As time and this discussion progress, we will detail further what we here present in outline. And the facts are these: There were probably seven major Christian people or organizations whose ideas and practices impacted heavily on where and how A.A. started. The backdrop for all is the Bible; and we’ll discuss that soon.
The seven influences were:
The rescue missions (one of which is where Bill Wilson himself made his decision for Christ in 1934). Jestingly, these missions have been said to provide “soup, soap, and salvation.” But they were highly effective in helping the destitute and the drunk. They did emphasize the Bible. They did invite people to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And, in the case of A.A. itself, the Calvary Rescue Mission brought both Bill Wilson and his “sponsor” Ebby Thacher to Christ before the earliest recovery days began in New York in 1934. And this conversion involved a practice that was a “must” in early A.A.
The evangelists and revivalists (whose preaching was either heard by Bill and Bob, and or had certainly been impacting on their churches, communities, and families where they were youngsters in Vermont.)
The YMCA had a different focus in its early days from that so often seen today. It was non-denominational in its witnessing; and it was peopled with lay workers who organized Gospel meetings, union meetings, and conversions in the New England of the founders’ youth. It was particularly successful in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where Dr. Bob was born and raised.
The Salvation Army may not have played directly at the Vermont scene. But its record of helping bums in the slums set a high standard for ideas that permeated early A.A. Harold Begbie’s book, Twice Born Men, was immensely popular among the pioneers. And it told the story of how sometimes burly ex-drunks would approach drunks and criminals in the slums of London, offer them salvation, and (when successful) enlist them in God’s Army—helping others just as they had been helped.
The least known organization, and yet the largest at its peak (about 4.5 million members world-wide) was the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society. This organization was founded in Portland, Maine in 1881—two years after Dr. Bob was born. Its stated mission was “For Christ and Church.” Its aim was to bring young people back to the church fold; and Dr. Bob’s church, family, and Christian Endeavor activity brought much to the early A.A. Christian techniques—confession of Christ, conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, Quiet Hour, reading of Christian literature, and “love and service” to others—a slogan A.A. later adopted.
Two other influences have been given too much stress by writers as far as pioneer Akron A.A. is concerned. But they are important because both Dr. Bob and Bill W. started on the road back to sobriety through the efforts of a limited group of Oxford Group people in Akron and in New York. And Bill himself later modified the A.A. program of 1935 so that it incorporated the life-changing ideas of the Oxford Group via the teachings, primarily of an American leader—Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church of New York. It was Shoemaker who taught Bill the principles; it was Shoemaker who conferred with Wilson over the Big Book and Twelve Step ideas; and it was Shoemaker whom Bill finally dubbed a “cofounder of A.A.”
These seven influences provided the framework for what first became the Original A.A. program founded in Akron in 1935 as a Christian Fellowship; and for what Bill Wilson later modified to constitute the A.A. “program of recovery” he set forth in A.A.’s basic text Alcoholics Anonymous.
You may find our title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History to be a good overview of the development of A.A.’s earliest days. But what we have said here marks the first of many short discussions about where A.A. really came from.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
The Variety of Stories
I’ll venture a guess: When most of us come into the rooms of A.A., we probably don’t hear, or learn, or even care where A.A. came from. Lots of us are sick, confused, frightened, and more worried about our problems than we are about how A.A. began.
There are some other hindrances. Some like to say that A.A. has no teachers. In general, this is true today though there are notable exceptions like those found in well-presented Big Book Seminars. But origins usually take a back seat because the “teachers” haven’t researched or learned the facts. There certainly were good teachers when A.A. first began—Dr. Bob, his wife Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry Williams, Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, and the Bible! But these vanished with the passage of time. They were replaced with “opinions.” But the most opinionated of the talkers often had more prejudices, misinformation, and lack of knowledge than the people they were talking to. And then there were the historians. A.A. has no official historians. And the great majority of those who venture into this misty scene are historians who have belonged to A.A. but frequently have never painstakingly taken the time to learn or present or cover the complete picture. Finally, as AAs, most of us are strongly urged never to talk beyond our own experience. The problem is that we seldom have had any experience as far as A.A.’s roots go. Further, we are urged to say “I”, instead of “We” and “You” when we hold forth, and the uninformed “Ayes” often win the day despite their inexperience.
Enough of the variety. Let’s talk about the question.
What Most Don’t Know
I had gone to perhaps a thousand meetings, mostly in Marin County, California, by the time I was three years sober. Here’s what little I learned about A.A.’s roots: My sponsor showed me a painting of Bill and Bob, and I had no idea who Bob was. In my 28 day treatment program, we were told to say, “I’m a friend of Bill W.,” if we were asking a stranger for help. One evening, an active AA named Nick softly murmured in our Sunday night meeting that he had a bit of “A.A. trivia” to share. He said it was “Founders Day.” And that’s the last I heard of that for a long time. Finally, a young man who knew I was interested in the Bible (his name was John) came up to me at a Step meeting in San Rafael, after I had been sober about three years. He asked if I knew that A.A. had come from the Bible. I responded that I had never heard such a thing though I had attended over a thousand meetings. He suggested I read DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. And I did. And I there got my first glimpse of an A.A. I had never ever heard discussed at my treatment center, my A.A. meetings, or by the many speakers I had heard. Sure enough, A.A. did come from the Bible! Dr. Bob said so in a major speech he gave to AAs in 1948. So I went to A.A.’s International Convention in Seattle to learn more. But I didn’t. I began hearing about the Oxford Group—and not in particularly appealing language. So I started my 20 year quest focusing on the Oxford Group, interviews, travel, and as many useful written materials as I could find. But it was like pulling teeth to attempt extracting accurate details from existing oldtimers, literature, and archives. The best sources were Dr. Bob’s son, his daughter-in-law, his daughter; Congressman John Seiberling and his two sisters; the daughter of T. Henry Williams; and the remaining family of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker—his wife and two daughters. Also the two General Service archivists, Nell Wing and Frank Mauser. And a host of Oxford Group activists and leaders I searched out. Yet everywhere I spoke, it was clear to me that the listeners had frequently heard little or nothing about A.A. and the Bible, Dr. Shoemaker, the Oxford Group, or a host of other important elements of the A.A. picture.
The First Part of the Answer
After twenty years of research, I could start here at a number of different places. But, in many ways, our recent findings have been the most important in defining early A.A.’s beginnings. You’d find most of these recent answers in our titles, The Conversion of Bill W. and Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous. Since publication of those books, we have published The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 2d ed., 2009, and are about to release the third edition. We have also prepared for editing and publication a long-awaited biography of Dr. Bob—The Prince of All Twelfth-Steppers.
As time and this discussion progress, we will detail further what we here present in outline. And the facts are these: There were probably seven major Christian people or organizations whose ideas and practices impacted heavily on where and how A.A. started. The backdrop for all is the Bible; and we’ll discuss that soon.
The seven influences were:
The rescue missions (one of which is where Bill Wilson himself made his decision for Christ in 1934). Jestingly, these missions have been said to provide “soup, soap, and salvation.” But they were highly effective in helping the destitute and the drunk. They did emphasize the Bible. They did invite people to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And, in the case of A.A. itself, the Calvary Rescue Mission brought both Bill Wilson and his “sponsor” Ebby Thacher to Christ before the earliest recovery days began in New York in 1934. And this conversion involved a practice that was a “must” in early A.A.
The evangelists and revivalists (whose preaching was either heard by Bill and Bob, and or had certainly been impacting on their churches, communities, and families where they were youngsters in Vermont.)
The YMCA had a different focus in its early days from that so often seen today. It was non-denominational in its witnessing; and it was peopled with lay workers who organized Gospel meetings, union meetings, and conversions in the New England of the founders’ youth. It was particularly successful in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where Dr. Bob was born and raised.
The Salvation Army may not have played directly at the Vermont scene. But its record of helping bums in the slums set a high standard for ideas that permeated early A.A. Harold Begbie’s book, Twice Born Men, was immensely popular among the pioneers. And it told the story of how sometimes burly ex-drunks would approach drunks and criminals in the slums of London, offer them salvation, and (when successful) enlist them in God’s Army—helping others just as they had been helped.
The least known organization, and yet the largest at its peak (about 4.5 million members world-wide) was the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society. This organization was founded in Portland, Maine in 1881—two years after Dr. Bob was born. Its stated mission was “For Christ and Church.” Its aim was to bring young people back to the church fold; and Dr. Bob’s church, family, and Christian Endeavor activity brought much to the early A.A. Christian techniques—confession of Christ, conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, Quiet Hour, reading of Christian literature, and “love and service” to others—a slogan A.A. later adopted.
Two other influences have been given too much stress by writers as far as pioneer Akron A.A. is concerned. But they are important because both Dr. Bob and Bill W. started on the road back to sobriety through the efforts of a limited group of Oxford Group people in Akron and in New York. And Bill himself later modified the A.A. program of 1935 so that it incorporated the life-changing ideas of the Oxford Group via the teachings, primarily of an American leader—Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., rector of Calvary Episcopal Church of New York. It was Shoemaker who taught Bill the principles; it was Shoemaker who conferred with Wilson over the Big Book and Twelve Step ideas; and it was Shoemaker whom Bill finally dubbed a “cofounder of A.A.”
These seven influences provided the framework for what first became the Original A.A. program founded in Akron in 1935 as a Christian Fellowship; and for what Bill Wilson later modified to constitute the A.A. “program of recovery” he set forth in A.A.’s basic text Alcoholics Anonymous.
You may find our title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History to be a good overview of the development of A.A.’s earliest days. But what we have said here marks the first of many short discussions about where A.A. really came from.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
The Real "Power" Behind Alcoholics Anonymous
The Real "Power" Behind Alcoholics Anonymous.
By Dick B.
Copyright 2010 Anonymous
The year 2010 will mark our new series of books, DVD's, audios and articles emphasizing the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in the origins, Original A.A. program, and astonishing successes of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in June, 1935. These new resources will explore how the A.A. Society was changed in character in 1939 in order to sell books and to placate atheists and agnostics. And the resources will assure Christians: (1) Christians in the recovery arena today area not alone. (2) A.A. itself can no longer be characterized as a Christian Fellowship. (3) There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Christians in A.A. today. (4) The present-day program has more than enough room for the beliefs, principles, and practices of Christians in A.A. and other segments of the recovery community. (5) The vital role of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible is still available in A.A. and anwhere else where those who are suffering want God's help. (6) There is need for Christians and others still suffering to step up to the plate and learn what God can do for them if they want his help.
Because:
The real "Power" behind A.A. is the power of God.
Even today, A.A.'s Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous declares:
1) There is One who has all power--that One is God (p. 59)
2) That God could and would [relieve our alcoholism] if He were sought (p.60)
3) God either is, or He isn't (p. 53)
4) And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God (p.45)
5) That Power, which is God (p. 45)
The real "Power" behind Alcoholics Anonymous is the power of God!
Are there those in A.A. or who write about A.A. who believe otherwise? There sure are. Some talk about a "higher power." Some say that their higher power can be a light bulb, the A.A. group, a chair, a rock, a radiator, Ralph, the "Big Dipper," a "Coke Bottle, "Something," "Somebody," or just a "not-god." Others--including many publishing present-day A.A. literature--say you don't have to believe in anything at all.
So either God is, or He isn't. Our own choice is to thank, praise, ask wisdom from, seek healing by, gain forgiveness through, and be assured of victory because we believe in and turned for help to Almighty God--described in the Big Book as Creator, Maker, Father, Heavenly Father, Father of lights, and (elsewhere) as the "God of our fathers." That's the One with all power. And early AAs obtained that power by believing that God is (Hebrews 11:6) and that you can come to Him and be made whole by the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God raised from the dead, and by whose name seekers must be saved (John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 4:7-14; Romans 10:9-10.
The real "Power" behind Alcoholics Anonymous is the power of God--the power that was made available by the accomplishments of His Son Jesus Christ for all who wished to become children of the living and true God, and obtain His help.
God Bless, Dick B. www.dickb.com, 2010
By Dick B.
Copyright 2010 Anonymous
The year 2010 will mark our new series of books, DVD's, audios and articles emphasizing the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in the origins, Original A.A. program, and astonishing successes of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in June, 1935. These new resources will explore how the A.A. Society was changed in character in 1939 in order to sell books and to placate atheists and agnostics. And the resources will assure Christians: (1) Christians in the recovery arena today area not alone. (2) A.A. itself can no longer be characterized as a Christian Fellowship. (3) There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Christians in A.A. today. (4) The present-day program has more than enough room for the beliefs, principles, and practices of Christians in A.A. and other segments of the recovery community. (5) The vital role of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible is still available in A.A. and anwhere else where those who are suffering want God's help. (6) There is need for Christians and others still suffering to step up to the plate and learn what God can do for them if they want his help.
Because:
The real "Power" behind A.A. is the power of God.
Even today, A.A.'s Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous declares:
1) There is One who has all power--that One is God (p. 59)
2) That God could and would [relieve our alcoholism] if He were sought (p.60)
3) God either is, or He isn't (p. 53)
4) And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God (p.45)
5) That Power, which is God (p. 45)
The real "Power" behind Alcoholics Anonymous is the power of God!
Are there those in A.A. or who write about A.A. who believe otherwise? There sure are. Some talk about a "higher power." Some say that their higher power can be a light bulb, the A.A. group, a chair, a rock, a radiator, Ralph, the "Big Dipper," a "Coke Bottle, "Something," "Somebody," or just a "not-god." Others--including many publishing present-day A.A. literature--say you don't have to believe in anything at all.
So either God is, or He isn't. Our own choice is to thank, praise, ask wisdom from, seek healing by, gain forgiveness through, and be assured of victory because we believe in and turned for help to Almighty God--described in the Big Book as Creator, Maker, Father, Heavenly Father, Father of lights, and (elsewhere) as the "God of our fathers." That's the One with all power. And early AAs obtained that power by believing that God is (Hebrews 11:6) and that you can come to Him and be made whole by the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God raised from the dead, and by whose name seekers must be saved (John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 4:7-14; Romans 10:9-10.
The real "Power" behind Alcoholics Anonymous is the power of God--the power that was made available by the accomplishments of His Son Jesus Christ for all who wished to become children of the living and true God, and obtain His help.
God Bless, Dick B. www.dickb.com, 2010
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.,
For more information, please see: www.DrBob.info. Or email Dick B. at: dickb@dickb.com
** Revised on November 14, 2007 **
Gloria Deo
The Morning Quiet Time Practices of our A.A. Pioneers
The Morning Quiet Time Practices of our A.A. Pioneers by Dick B., February, 2008
© 2008 by Anonymous. All rights reserved.
When one hears about prayer and meditation in A.A., I immediately turn today to what the study of A.A. history has disclosed:
First, Dr. Bob boldly made the statement in Youngstown, Ohio that early AAs started their day with a study of the Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13, and the Sermon on the Mount. In his last major address, he said the oldtimers believed these three segments of the Good Book were absolutely essential. And I invite our fellowship people to open their Bibles--morning or not--and take the time to read these three segments. Not some commentary on them. Not some devotional that quotes them. The verses themselves. And I predict it will open your eyes to the simplicity, beauty, and power in early AA lives. See The James Club and the Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials by Dick B.
Second, Anne Smith gathered AAs and their families each morning at the Smith home at
Third, there was a practice long before A.A. In Christian Endeavor (to which Dr. Bob belonged) it was called the Quiet Hour. In the 1880's and in the Oxford Group thereafter it was called Quiet Time. In the YMCA and Shoemaker's early days, it was called the Morning Watch. Generally, it called for prayer, Bible study, reading of a devotional like the Upper Room or The Runner's Bible, and then asking God for guidance. That practice--whatever called--was a required part of the early A.A. program in
Finally, as an example for all of us, Dr. Bob observed a period of prayer three times a day. He would pray, study a familiar Bible segment, ask God's guidance, and then--as he put it--go about his Father's business. See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On.
All these observances led most of the early AAs to suggest that The James Club be the name for their fellowship. That, said
Perhaps knowledge of these practices will be of those looking for a way to turn to God each day the same way that the members of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship in
God Bless, Dick B.
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
A.A. and Religion Today
A.A. and Religion Today
Dick B.
Copyright 2008 by Anonymous. All rights reserved
A.A. is a religion
I think it fair to say that those who claim A.A. is not a religion are probably those who do not want A.A. to be a religion. Also those who don’t realize that it doesn’t matter a whit whether A.A. is or isn’t a religion. Days, months, and many recent years have been fruitlessly devoted to arguing that A.A. is not a religion.
What A.A. literature says: Take a look first at the Third Edition of A.A.’s basic text and personal stories, which contain these statements:
“They had told of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action” (3rd ed., p. 9)
“It began to look as though religious people were right after all” (3rd ed., p. 11)
“Of necessity there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious” (3rd ed., p. 19)
“Not all of us join religious bodies, but most of us favor such memberships” (3rd ed., p. 28)
“Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?” (3rd ed., p. 56)
“If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also” (3rd ed., p. 87)
“If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing (3rd ed., p. 87)
“Be quick to see where religious people are right” (3rd ed., p. 87)
“The big A.A. book had not been written and there was no literature except various religious pamphlets” (3rd ed., p. 291)
“Dr. Bob always emphasized the religious angle very strongly, and I think it helped” (3rd ed., p. 292).
“Our more religious members call it ‘God-consciousness’.” (3rd ed., p. 570)
Read my titles Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed.; Anne Smith’s Journal, 3rd ed.; The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed.; The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible; 2d ed,; The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials; Real Twelve Step Fellowship History, God and Alcoholism, and The Conversion of Bill W. (http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml). There you will find hundreds of documented statements about early A.A. and the Bible, its old fashioned prayer meetings, required conversions to Jesus Christ, its Biblical references, and even the very name (“James Club”—from the Book of James in the Bible) that AAs favored as the name for their Society.
Co-founder Dr. Bob’s own personal story set the frame and religious challenge:
“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. . . . Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (3rd ed., p. 181)
Co-founder Bill Wilson explained in the following words his own cure by the power of God:
“Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people” (3rd ed., p. 191)
The point is not whether A.A. is a religion. It is. Nor is the point that A.A. is allied with some particular sect or denomination. It isn’t. The point is that its own Bible roots, its own religious practices, its own history of religious conversions, and the words of its own founders show that this “unique” religion was and is in fact a religion—whatever importance that fact may have in helping the still suffering alcoholic to be cured. In fact, early members called themselves a “Christian Fellowship.” Likened to the meetings described in the Book of Acts, the organization could hardly escape the religious label.
The “religion” findings and rulings in six court decisions: The United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit has now joined four other courts in ruling that Alcoholics Anonymous is a
religion.and therefore that government compulsion of A.A. attendance violates the First
Amendment of the
Recently, Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., and Charles Bufe with Archie Brodsky published their title Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in AA, NA, or 12-Step Treatment (
Kerr v. Farrey (1996). The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (
Warner v. Orange County Department of Probation (1999). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed 2-1 a district court ruling that recommending an inmate plaintiffs participation in Alcoholics Anonymous as a condition of probation violated the Establishment Clause (p. 118)
Evans v.
The four decisions do not stand alone of this matter of A.A.’s religious character.
De Stefano v. Emergency Housing Corp (2002). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that A.A. is a religious activity and accordingly OASAS funding of providers who mandate patient participation in A.A. and, by extension, other government funding of providers who mandate participation in A.A. is a violation of the principle of separation of Church and State (This is a summary taken from Volume 8 of Visions, July, 2002, published by NAATP).
“Appeals court says requirement to attend AA unconstitutional” Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer [San Francisco
“Saturday, September 8, 2007
“Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
“In fact, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
“Rulings from across the nation since 1996 have established that ‘requiring a parolee to attend religion-based treatment programs violates the First Amendment,’ the court said. ’While we in no way denigrate the fine work of (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous), attendance in their programs may not be coerced by the state’."
The authoritative status of these six decisions has yet to be decided by the United States Supreme Court as far as the First Amendment aspect is concerned. But the factual determinations are persuasive on the question of A.A. as a religion.
Tribunal after tribunal has taken a look at the Big Book and its 400 references to God; a look at the Twelve Steps and their unmistakable references to God and the Biblical phrase
“Father of light,” the prayers in A.A. meetings; and the language which puts the steps on a path to a relationship with God. While there has been much sympathy for the A.A. cause by various courts in various jurisdictions, the majority see A.A. as a religion; and so do I. In fact, when I was practicing law, a distinguished
A.A.’s basic text provides a conclusive answer to the reasoning mind: Compared to the ruling that a humanist organization is religious, even these obfuscations do not remove A.A. from the religion category. In fact, I have found no significant writing between 1935 and 1939 that alters the Big Book declarations which explicitly speaks of “that Power, which is God” (3rd ed., p. 46), saying, “Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God” (3rd ed., p. 29), and “many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives” (3rd ed., p. 51), and “Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us” (3rd ed., p. 77), and “How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done” (3rd ed., p. 85). In fact, many an AA goes into a church and kneels to say his “Third Step Prayer.” Bill adds: “We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. . . The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God’ (3rd ed., p. 68).
And how much more time will be spent by good-hearted people denying the obvious. The real question is not what A.A. is or what it isn’t. The real point posed by Hebrews 11:6 and by Rev. Sam Shoemaker and by Bill Wilson in the Big Book is that God either is, or He isn’t. Bill added, “We had to have God’s help” (p. 62). The alcoholic has a choice. According to A.A.’s basic text, he can choose to believe that God is, and rewards those who diligently seek Him; or he can go on to the disaster, destruction, and even death yielding to temptation and resuming self-destruction.
A Probable Suffering Newcomer Viewpoint
My own experience: I didn’t come into A.A. looking for a religion. I already had one—the Christian religion. I didn’t come into A.A. thinking I was joining a church. I already belonged to one—a community church in
I simply had one objective at the beginning—to feel better than I did. Quickly I got the point that alcohol and sleeping pills might possibly be at the heart of my troubles, and that quitting these was part of the game. My understanding of the miseries of alcoholism was hastened when I had three grand mal seizures in the first week, was taken to ICU in an ambulance, and wound up in a 28 day treatment program—but only after I had met and grabbed a sponsor who insisted that I was to attend an A.A. meeting every day. That’s something I did before I had the seizures. And that’s something I did for many years after I left the treatment center. Turning to God later became a necessity to whip the fear, the depression, the anxiety, and the seemingly insuperable problems. I did so with my sponsor and his sponsor battling my religious inclinations at every opportunity. That was 21 years ago. I am fully enthusiastic about A.A. I am fully recovered, and I have been healed of alcoholism—this despite the fact that modern A.A. literature says you can’t be cured. And to make a long story short, I wasn’t cured by quitting drinking. I wasn’t cured by going to meetings. I wasn’t cured by studying the Big Book and taking the Twelve Steps. I wasn’t cured by finding some absurd “higher power,” or by attaining “spirituality,” or by relying on a light bulb or a tree or a group or “something” or “somebody.” No. I was cured by Almighty God; and so were the early A.A. pioneers between 1935 and 1938.
The earliest message in pioneer A.A. and the optional message today: Early AAs had to be told about and renounce alcohol as their nemesis, their temptation, their poison. Most had to be hospitalized to avoid the seizures that I had naively walked through. Most had to be introduced to God at the earliest possible moment. Dr. Bob’s most significant question at the close of brief early hospitalization was: “Do you believe in God?” And there was only one satisfactory answer. When Ebby Thacher witnessed to Bill Wilson and said “I’ve got religion,” Bill noticed what had happened. Ebby declared to Bill that God had done for him what he hadn’t been able to do for himself. Bill went to Calvary Rescue Mission, knelt at the altar, accepted Christ, wrote “I’ve got religion” and also that he was “born again.” At
END
Gloria Deo
A.A.'s Dr. Bob and Some Quotable A.A. History Remarks - on "Cure"
A.A.’s Dr. Bob and Some Quotable A.A. History Remarks
About the Matter of “Cure”
Dick B.
© 2008 by Anonymous. All rights reserved
- Bill Wilson said: “By the fall of 1937 we could count what looked like forty recovered members. One of us had been sober three years, another two and a half, and a fair number had a year or more behind them. As all of us had been hopeless cases, this amount of time elapsed began to be significant. The realization that we “had found something” began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious experiment. . . . If forty alcoholics could recover, why not four hundred, four thousand – even forty thousand?” (The Language of the Heart (NY: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1988), p. 10.
- Bill Wilson said: [about meeting A.A. Number Three]: “Two days before this, Dr. Bob had said to me, ‘If you and I are going to stay sober, we had better get busy.’ Straightaway, Bob called
- Dr. Bob said about his first meeting with Bill Wilson: “But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard’s experiences known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 180).
- Bill Wilson said to Henrietta Dotson, wife of AA Number Three: “Henrietta, 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., p. 191).
- Bill Wilson had the following conversation with
- Bill Dotson [A.A. Number Three] said: “I thought, I think I have the answer. Bill was very very grateful that he had been released from this terrible thing and he had given God the credit for having done it, and he’s so grateful about it he wants to tell other people about it. That sentence, ‘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 golden text for the A.A. program and for me” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 191).
- Frank Amos reported to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: “Dr. Howard S---, general practitioner at
As documented in A.A. literature, accounts by pioneer AAs, newspaper articles across the U.S., and the founders themselves: Early A.A. had a 75% to 93% success rate among seemingly hopeless, medically incurable, real alcoholics who went to any lengths to establish their relationship with God.
Gloria Deo
dickb@dickb.com
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Dr. Bob and Alcoholics Anonymous
New Featured Information Website devoted exclusively to information on Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, providing little known information about Bob's days as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont; his excellent training there in the Bible; his days at North Congregational Church, Sunday School, prayer meetings, Christian Endeavor Society, YMCA activities, and daily chapel at St. Johnsbury Academy where weekly church attendance and Bible study were required. Featured too are the basic Bible ideas such as conversions, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, Quiet Hour, love, and service Bob transmitted into the first and earliest A.A. Fellowship he and Bill Wilson founded in Akron in 1935. Also the basic points of the early Christian Fellowship program in Akron. The site is: http://DrBob.info. God Bless, Dick B.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
