Alcoholics
Anonymous History
Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Christian Roots
Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Christian Roots
Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
I am one of the tens of thousands (probably hundreds of
thousands) of Christians who deeply appreciate the recovery from alcoholism and
addiction that Alcoholics Anonymous made possible in our lives. Many of us have
been criticized for mentioning Jesus Christ and the Bible in our talks at
meetings. But most of us know that God is our sufficiency. We ask Him in the
name of Jesus Christ to deliver us. And we recover. So did Bill Wilson as he is
quoted on page 191 of the latest edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Many of us who are Christians involved in A.A. do believe
in God, the accomplishments of His Son Jesus Christ, and the truth about both
that is found in the Bible. Many of us, as Christian members of Alcoholics
Anonymous, had no idea whatsoever that early A.A. was a Christian fellowship,
that its members believed in God, surrendered to Jesus Christ, and studied the
Bible on a daily basis. Many of us had no idea whatsoever that the early,
Christian-oriented A.A. claimed an overall 75% success rate among the
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp case” alcoholics who
thoroughly followed the pioneer A.A. program. And many of us never learned that
the Original Akron program is summarized rather well in on page 131 of the A.A.
General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.
How could so many of us have been unaware of these facts?
The answer, in part, is that, as the First Edition of
A.A.’s Big Book manuscript was being written and edited in 1938 and early 1939,
many additions, omissions, and changes were made to the highly-successful Akron
Christian program Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing in the summer of 1935.
For example, as Bill W. stated on pages 166-67 of the A.A. General Service
Conference-approved book, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:
We [Bill W., Hank P., Ruth
Hock, and John Henry Fitzhugh M.] were still arguing about the Twelve Steps.
All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word
of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had
consistently used the word "God," and in one place the expression
"on our knees" was used. Praying to God on one's knees was still a
big affront to Henry. He argued, he begged, he threatened. He quoted Jimmy
[B.—i.e., Jim Burwell] to back him up. . . . Though at first I would have none
of it, we finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. . . . In
Step Two we decided to describe God as a "Power greater than
ourselves." In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words "God as
we understood Him." From Step Seven we deleted the expression "on
our knees." . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no
faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. [Emphasis
added]
Bill W.’s wife Lois spoke about another major change on
page 113 of her autobiography, Lois Remembers:
Finally it was agreed that the
book should present a universal spiritual program, not a specific religious
one, since all drunks were not Christian.
Such major manuscript changes from the Original Akron
A.A. “Christian Fellowship” program obscured the simple solution the A.A.
pioneers in Akron discovered; specifically, that a cure for alcoholism was
available through reliance on Almighty God, coming to Him through His Son Jesus
Christ, and reading and studying the Bible—along with the other principles and
practices of the early days. [For the Frank Amos summary of the Original Akron
A.A. “Program,” and the other principles and practices of the Akron fellowship,
see: Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Manual (Kihei,
HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2009), 44-46, 49.]
The Lesson Learned from
the First Three AAs
Early AAs knew one another. They visited one another.
They had address books with the phone numbers (if a given member had a phone)
and addresses of the other members. And they kept rosters which showed the
sobriety dates and sobriety history of the members.
The 75% overall success rate early A.A. claimed was
remarkable because it was attained by what Bill W. called the
“seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp” cases who gave their
all to God and received the blessed healing and deliverance that followed.
Bill W. and Dr. Bob did indeed state that there were
“failures galore.” But there weren’t failures galore among the real hardcore
members who turned to God and gave the program everything they had.
A very important part of the historical record is how the
first three AAs got sober in late 1934 and in 1935. For, as they made clear, when
they got sober:
There was no Big Book (Alcoholics
Anonymous was published in April 1939);
There were no Twelve Steps;
There were no Twelve
Traditions;
There were no “drunkalogs”; and
There were no “meetings to
make”—at least of the kinds normally seen in today’s A.A.
The Creator of the heavens and the earth was there. See,
for example, Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.:
“my Creator” (page 13)
“My Creator” (76)
“our Creator” (pages 25, 68,
72, 75, 83)
“a living Creator” (page 28);
“his Creator” (page 56, 80,
158)
“their loving and All Powerful
Creator” (page 161)
The “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ, was there. See, for
example: Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in
Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 59ff.
The Bible (which Dr. Bob often called the “Good Book”)
was there. See, for example, page 13 of the A.A. General Service
Conference-approved pamphlet, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous
(Item # P-53; available for reading online at http://aa.org/pdf/products/p-53_theco-foundersofAA.pdf; accessed 8/5/09):
At that point, our stories didn’t
amount to anything to speak of. When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve
Steps, either; we had no Traditions.
But we were convinced that the
answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the
parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James.
A.A. Number One, Bill W., learned from Dr. Silkworth that
Jesus Christ could cure him. Bill learned from his old drinking friend Ebby
Thacher that Ebby had been to the altar at Calvary Mission in New York and been
reborn, causing Ebby to tell Bill that God had done for him (Ebby) what Ebby
could not do for himself. Bill then went to the altar at Calvary Rescue
Mission, made a decision for Christ, wrote that he had been born again for
sure, and then decided to seek the help of the “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ.
At Towns Hospital, Bill cried out for help, had a dramatic spiritual blazing “indescribably
white light” experience, perceived that he had been in the presence of the “God
of the Scriptures” (as Bill wrote on page 284 of The Language of the Heart),
and never drank again. Bill proclaimed he never again doubted the existence of
God. And his message became: “The Lord has cured me of this terrible disease,
and I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.” (Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 191) No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve
Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God that
Bill had sought and relied upon.
A.A. Number Two, Dr. Bob S., prayed for deliverance on
the rug at the home of T. Henry Williams in Akron. Miraculously, help showed up
in the visit of the total stranger, Bill W., to Akron. Henrietta Seiberling
declared Bill’s visit to be “Manna from Heaven.” Bill soon moved in with Dr.
Bob and his wife, studied the Bible with them, and nursed Dr. Bob back from
one, brief and last binge. Dr. Bob never drank again. He and Bill decided they
needed a drunk to help. And Dr. Bob told
the nurse at City Hospital that he and Bill had found a cure for alcoholism. No
Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No Twelve Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings.
Just the power and love of God that Dr. Bob had sought and relied upon. Dr. Bob
closed his story in the Big Book with these words:
Your Heavenly Father will never
let you down!
Bill W. and Dr. Bob did seek out a drunk to help. They
found A.A. Number Three, the hospitalized Akron attorney Bill D., a Christian.
After Bill D. heard what Bill W. and Dr. Bob had to share, Bill D. decided to
entrust his life to God’s care. Shortly, when Bill W. and Dr. Bob returned to
the hospital, Bill D. told them what had happened. Bill D. then left the
hospital a free man and never drank again. No Big Book. No Twelve Steps. No
Twelve Traditions. No drunkalogs. No meetings. Just the power and love of God
that Bill D. had sought and relied upon. Bill D. found himself echoing Bill
W.’s statement on page 191 of the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:
The Lord has cured me of this
terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.
Bill D. called Bill W.’s statement the “golden text of
A.A.” for him and for others.
Three men! The first three AAs. All healed by the power
of God—never to drink again!
What they did is scarcely known by AAs and recovery
workers today. I know, for I have spoken and written about it in front of
audiences all over the United States and in Canada—in person, in books, in
articles, in emails, in phone calls, and on radio and television. Yet that is
the message they seem hungry to hear.
These first three AAs recovered and said they were cured by
the power of God. And other “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last
gasp case” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the early Akron A.A. “Christian
Fellowship” program path were able to recover by the power of God. But what I
especially want you, the reader, to take away from this discussion is that what
was done in 1935 and the next three years can be done and is being done today.
Benefitting Today from
the “Lessons Learned” by A.A.’s Pioneers
I’m a proponent of A.A. I recovered immediately when I
entered the rooms of A.A. in 1986 and have never relapsed since. I credit the
support I received in A.A., the work I did in learning the program of recovery
in the Steps and helping others to take those Steps, and the complete
dedication I had to the A.A. way. But I have never for one moment doubted that
God must ultimately receive the credit—just as He received the credit from the
mouths of the first three AAs—Bill W., Dr. Bob S., and Bill D. I believed and
still believe that once a person has become a child of the living God through
Jesus Christ, he can diligently seek God’s help, ask for it in the name of
Jesus Christ, and be healed—whether involved in the A.A. program or not. And
the challenge then becomes one of maintaining fellowship with God, His Son
Jesus Christ, and other believers, and heeding the warning about temptation in
Chapter One of the Book of James.
When a Christian in A.A. is buffeted with intemperate
remarks from others about his mention of, or belief in the Creator of the
heavens and the earth, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, his faith, or his
church, he needs to stand solid on the real recovery factor that is available
in A.A. today, just as it was available in the Christian Fellowship founded in
Akron in 1935.
A.A. was founded on statements such as this: God could
and would if He were sought. He can. He will. He does. And He is available to
every drunk or addict who wants to seek and obey Him. That was proved in 1935.
It is being proved today among those Christians in recovery who choose to avail
themselves of His help. His help is available in prisons, mental hospitals,
A.A., other Twelve Step Fellowships, homeless shelters, treatment programs, and
counseling offices.
The problem with naysayers is that they cherry pick
stories, irrelevant associations, and certainly sins and shortcomings which,
they say, prove that, if any suffering alcoholics stray into A.A., they are
disobeying God and most surely on the way to destruction. If that were true,
then the teachings of Jesus and the other New Testament books would be of no
importance. But they are. Anyone who reads the first six chapters of the Book
of Acts, and then the story of Paul’s conversion, will have no problem with the
need to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. In fact, a look at Romans 10:9 will provide the
starting place—followed by ample statements that obedience to God’s commandments
and asking in accordance with His Word, are a necessary part of receiving the
promises in 1 John 5:14 -15.
Gloria Deo
No comments:
Post a Comment