Sunday, December 30, 2012

A.A. History: Bill W. and His "Higher Powers"


The History of Alcoholics Anonymous
Ever Wondered How Bill W. Invented a “Higher Power?”


Dick B.
© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved.

My Search for the Curious Nonsense “gods” Floating Around in Recovery Talk

As many know by now, my searches for the history of A.A. began when a young man told me when I was three years sober that A.A. had come from the Bible. I told him I had never heard such a thing in the thousand or more meetings I had attended. He then suggested I read the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. Which I did. And the young man was right.

Then, as many have also heard, I realized that A.A. had many roots. Some had never been researched. Some were scarcely known in the Fellowship. Some had systematically and intentionally been discarded; or, at best, they had been distorted.

By 2000, I was speaking at the archives meeting of the A.A. International Convention in Minneapolis. I reviewed for the large audience A.A.’s major roots--in the Bible, in the Oxford Group, in the writings of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, in Anne Smith’s personal journal, in Quiet Time, and in the literature of Dr. Bob’s own library. But there was much more to be learned.

By the end of that ensuing decade, I had researched and identified many more roots—some large in importance, some mythical or incomplete as they had been reported, some virtually unknown, and some correctly highlighted.

These included Dr. William D. Silkworth, Professor William James, Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, the Salvation Army, the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, the Young Men's Christian Association (the YMCA), gospel rescue missions, conversions, and the evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, F.B. Meyer, and Billy Sunday.

But by that time, critics of A.A. were pumping out new assertions and assumptions. They erroneously claimed that New Thought was the basis for A.A. They also pointed to spiritualism as the basis for A.A. They pointed to Bill Wilson’s obsession with adultery and LSD as evidence of imbalance. They even claimed that Free Masonry had put its nose under the tent of A.A. Little documentation, but lots of attacks.

Critics also made stronger arguments that A.A. was not for Christians, that it was the product of “automatic writing,” and that it amounted to “twelve steps to destruction.” Most important, they claimed that no Christian could fellowship with other AAs based on what the naysayers termed biblical injunctions. Strangely, some critics recognized that those who mentioned God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, and religion in A.A. were often intimidated and denounced by a few “bleeding deacons” who cited “the Traditions” and “Conference-approved” status as supposed authority for their remarks. And these objections fostered new Christian fellowships like Teen Challenge, Celebrate Recovery, and Footprints.

The First Look at What Rev. Shoemaker Called the “Absurd Names for God”

Along the way, I was asked to publish a study of all the “nonsense gods” that had crept into the A.A. picture— idols like a “Higher Power,” “a Power greater than ourselves,” “God as we understood Him,” and one’s “own conception of God.” Plus some 50 or more other absurd names for the new deity that was emerging in A.A., in treatment, and in writings. An A.A. that ranged from light bulbs to the Big Dipper to a rock to Mighty Mouse—not Mickey, but Mighty! And, to explain as much as I had found to that time, I published God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st Century in 2002.

Still, the clamor against A.A., by a few Christians, by many atheists and humanists, and by many many disgruntled AAs—as well as “erudite scholars” seeking to change the recovery movement and foster a new “therapeutic” program—increased and reached far beyond the darkness that was already clouding A.A.’s original reliance on the Creator for deliverance from alcoholism.

The Increasing Body of Evidence about Modern Recovery’s Nonsense “Higher Powers”

Many years ago, I accurately identified the fact that it was mostly the New Thought writers who had invented the “higher power” idea as an integral part of their theology.

Their curious chain of efforts began at least around 1900 with Ralph Waldo Trine and Professor William James. It grew with the Emmanuel Movement. And it reached a temporary peak in the writings of Emmet Fox. But these people and movements were just seed planters as far as the revision of recovery ideas was concerned. Successors to and admirers of the early planters somehow believed they could fertilize and propagate widely the idea that higher powers, not-gods, and pseudo “spirituality” were an integral part of the origins and history of A.A. and effective recovery. But they weren’t. Dr. Bob did a lot of reading about such matters; but, as he pointed out in his last major address, they believed the answer to their problems was in the Bible. And the Bible sure didn’t talk favorably about not-gods, “spirituality,” or some man-made “higher power.”

In another article just posted on my main blog (www.mauihistorian.blogspot.com), I listed all the subsequent advocates of some peculiar higher power, of some strange and undefined spirituality, and of absurd names for “a” god. Just any old god that came to their mind—a Coke bottle, Santa Claus, “Something,” a  tree, a door knob, a light bulb. These folks were not all New Thought advocates. To their ranks I added an occasional Oxford Group writing, an occasional remark by Rev. Shoemaker, numerous theories by a few A.A historians, and lots of inventions by counselors, clergy, and AAs themselves.

But there remained the puzzling question: Why did Bill Wilson use such strange synonyms for what he openly acknowledged that they key to recovery and healing was the power of the Creator. Almighty God, the “God of our fathers,” our Maker, our Heavenly Father, and the Father of Light—all biblical descriptions of Yahweh.  However, Bill capitalized all sorts of strange names, and he put them in his writings. In so doing, he bequeathed a state of total confusion about what these strange new gods were and what they could do for the alcoholic who still suffers.

The Best Early Resource for the Wilson Self-made god Language that I Have Thus Far Found

Ralph Waldo Trine was a New Thought writer who published In Tune with the Infinite. Trine may have been the first to invent this new “Higher Power.” But even Trine never seems to have stooped to calling his higher power a light bulb, the Big Dipper, Something, Ralph, or “not-god.”

Recently, however, I stumbled upon the following book Trine published in 1917. Here is the citation: Ralph Waldo Trine, The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit (New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1917). And it is filled with data which foreshadowed Bill Wilson’s love affair with New Thought writing and idolatrous language.

Here are some ideas which can provide homework for those who wonder about strange A.A. Big Book language—language that never came from the Bible, but was usually capitalized to indicate it referred to some “God,” and was concurrently accompanied by all sorts of quotes from the Bible and references to the Creator, Almighty God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible itself.

The “Higher Power” That Ralph Waldo Trine Promoted

Here are some references by Trine to “this higher power”:

. . . we open our lives so that this Higher Power can work definitely in and through us. [p. 40]

. . . guidance of this higher wisdom and in all forms of expression to act and to work augmented by this higher power. [p. 166]

Here are some of the sources for ideas that Trine mentioned in support of his characterizations:

Our own William James, he so splendidly related psychology, philosophy, and even religion, to life in a supreme degree, honored his calling and did a tremendous service for all. [p. 9]

Containing a fundamental truth deeper perhaps than we realize, are these words of that gifted seer, Emmanuel Swedenborg: There is only one Fountain of Life, and the life of man is a stream there from, which if it were not continuously replenished from its source would instantly cease to flow. [p. 33]

The Emmanuel Movement in Boston in connection with Emmanuel Church . . . is an attestation of this. That most valuable book . . . Religion and Medicine. [p. 142]

[the higher power] is making actual the proposition enunciated by Emerson . . . [p. 166—This was a reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson who some have claimed was the author of the whole “New Thought Movement.”]

And if you are wondering how a few Christian A.A. critics have managed to manufacture, label, tar and feather A.A. as spiritualist and an offspring of Emmet Fox (an adherent of New Thought), just look at the roster of Trine’s New Thought advocates—William James, Emmanuel Swedenborg, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. And at least two of these had in fact dabbled in spiritualism. Just as Bill Wilson himself had through having been introduced to Swedenborgian ideas by his marriage to and the family of Lois Burnham Wilson, his wife.

The contemporary erring Christian critics ignored the plain teachings of the New Testament that “even” Christians walked after  the flesh, were carnal in their meanderings, and violated God’s commandments. See Romans, Chapter 8, for example. But Wilson’s vagaries—ranging from New England Congregationalism in his youth to atheist thinking after his girl’s death in high school to Swedenborgian influences to born-again Christianity at the Calvary Mission to spiritualism so common to Lois’s religion to Roman Catholic doctrine to psychic experiments—could not alter A.A. or even Wilson’s status as a Christian.

For Wilson’s long experience with Christianity stems from recently documented about the role that Bill’s grandparents played at East Dorset Congregational Church (where Bill heard Scripture read, salvation and the Word preached, Christian hymns sung, and Christian confession and creed a part of the church doctrine). It  came from Bill’s Bible study with his grandfather Fayette Griffith, the Sunday school Bill attended, the revivals he saw,  the conversions he beheld, and the conversion experience of his grandfather Willie which cured Willie of alcoholism for life. Bill’s experience also came from extensive Christian training at  the Congregational-dominated Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester Vermont where Bill attended daily chapel, heard sermons, heard Scripture read, participated in prayer meetings, and attended Manchester Congregational Church. Bill was also president of the Young Men’s Christian Association at the Seminary. And years later, after uncontrolled drinking, Bill made his decision for Jesus Christ at Calvary Mission—the validity of which is for God and God alone to judge—not some anti-A.A. Christian writer. Bill wrote at that time: “For sure I’d been born again.”

The “Higher Power” Deities Which Crept into Bill’s Later A.A. Thinking

Here are some of New Thought advocate Ralph Waldo Trine’s own capitalized deity names along with other ideas that so typically seemed to invite Wilson’s creation of unique and strange new gods and a supposed possible “relationship” with them:

Infinite Power [p. 10]

Life Force of all objective material forms [p. 10]

The Supreme Intelligence God [p. 11]

Divine Wisdom . . . Divine Power . . . Divine Voice [no page number given]

Voice of the Spirit [no page number given]

Eternal Divine Life . . . Divine Being [p. 25]

. . . eternal, Unity. . . . This Unity is God. All things have come from the Divine Unity [p. 29]

God-consciousness [pp. 33, 91]

Let’s look at Wilson’s capitalized man-made “gods” whose presence is still extant in one form or another in the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 2001:

Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind . . . Spirit of Nature . . . Czar of the Heavens [p. 12]

Power beyond ourselves . . . Supreme Being . . . Power greater than ourselves [p. 46]

All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence [p. 49]

Spirit of the Universe [p. 52]

Great Reality deep down within us [p. 55]

Presence of Infinite Power and Love [p. 56]

Our Director . . . the Principal . . . new Employer [pp. 61-62]

Great Fact [p. 164]

These man-made Wilsonian deities can simply not be found in the King James Version of the Bible that early AAs studied prior to publication of the Big Book in April 1939.

Were these new gods? New names for a “god?” Wilson’s own self-made “god?” Or lingo that he had picked up from his association with writings of William James, Swedenborg, and Fox? I don't know.

What we do know is that Wilson also placed a far greater emphasis on biblical descriptions of God—as God is known or described in the Bible from which Dr. Bob said the basic ideas of the Twelve Steps had come. Originally, there were no absurd names for God in the Steps. And the Big Book refers to Almighty God with biblical descriptions many many many times—e.g., “God,” “Creator,” “Maker,” “Father of Lights,” “Father,” and “Heavenly Father.”

But the duality of references—some New Thought and some biblical—clearly opened a door to what Wilson called the “broad highway” which he paved when he deleted “God” from Steps Two, Three, and Eleven just before the first edition of the Big Book went to print. And Wilson himself made it clear he created the Step duality to appease atheists and agnostics.

[See, for example, the photo of the hand-written notes and amendments in the “printer's manuscript of the Big Book found in The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010), page 58. See also Bill’s explanation on pages 166-67 of Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age that the substitution of “a Power greater than ourselves” for “God” in Step Two, and the addition of the modifying phrase “as we understood Him” (emphasis in the original) to “God” in Steps Three, and Eleven were changes made to assuage atheists and agnostics.]

Bill seemed to lay the primary responsibility for those major changes in the Twelve Steps at the feet of his partner, Henry Parkhurst, claiming that Parkhurst “had come to believe in some sort of ‘universal power.’” [Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 163]. But this was the same “[partner”] who was drunk soon after Big Book was published.

And Bill’s wife, Lois Wilson, confirmed that a “universal” program had been agreed upon. In fact, her comments indicated a leaning in that direction. In Lois Remembers: Memoirs of the Co-founder of Al-Anon and Wife of the Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (NY: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., 1987), Lois made the following remarks:

The pros and cons were mostly about the tone of the book. Some wanted it slanted more toward the Christian religion; others, less. Many alcoholics were agnostics and atheists. Then there were those of the Jewish faith and, around the world, of other religions. Shouldn’t the book be written so that it would appeal to them also? Finally, it was agreed that the book should present a universal spiritual program, not a specific religious one, since all drunks were not Christian. [p. 113]

Then, near the close of 1935, the powers-that-be behind the Calvary Mission forbade the alcoholic boys living there to come to the Clinton Street meetings, saying that Bill and I were “not maximum.” This not only hurt us but left us disappointed in the group’s leadership. . . . In spite of the rebuff, Bill and I were not immediately discouraged with the Oxford Group as a whole. . . . But in the summer of 1937 Bill and I stopped going to OG meetings. [p. 103]

God, through the Oxford Group, had accomplished in a twinkling what I had failed to do in seventeen years. One minute I would get down on my knees and thank God . . . , and the next moment I would throw things about and cuss the Oxford Group. [p. 99]

I felt I already had the knowledge and discipline these kinds of folks were seeking. [p. 98]

Bill belonged to a team for a while, but I didn’t. [p. 93]

I felt no personal need for their teachings. I had had a sound spiritual training [from her Swedenborgian family and church]. . . I did not think I needed the Oxford Group. [p. 91]

As for me, I had never believed in emotional conversions. [p. 88]

I tried to get the Y to send me abroad as an aide to the wounded. . . . But the National Board of the YWCA refused because of my religion. Their letter of rejection stated that Swedenborgians (the sect to which I belonged) and Unitarians were not considered Christians! . . . This seemed to me not only narrow but illogical, a “non-Christian” could instruct children but could not aid wounded soldiers. [p. 26]

It will be for others to decide how much Lois’ background and prejudices influenced Bill Wilson’s eventual surrender to universalism and Swedenborgian ideas. This surrender had taken place despite Bill’s Christian upbringing as a youngster in Vermont, his conversion to God through Jesus Christ at Calvary Mission, and his active participation in the Bible studies, prayer meetings, required conversions, and Quiet Times in Akron.

But then there were Lois’s Swedenborgian convictions (including those perhaps pertaining to the Wilson obsession with spiritualism); Lois’s distaste for conversions; her resentments against the Christian ideas of the Oxford Group; and her strange omission of mention of A.A.’s biblical roots and practices. These certainly could have added fuel to the fire for the last-minute compromise that resulted in the major changes relating to “God” made in Steps Two, Three, and Eleven, and opened up the “broad highway” to multiple gods and no God that swept into A.A. as the years went by.

Note also that in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Bill had said of the Episcopal clergyman
Sam Shoemaker: “It was from him that Dr. Bob and I in the beginning had absorbed most of the principles that were afterward embodied in the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous” (p. 39). And, before he yielded at the last minute to the urgings of his partner Henry Parkhurst, Bill said:

We 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. . . . Though at first I would have none of it, we finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. [Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pp. 166-67]

And sadly, the compromises that resulted have moved many a sick alcoholic away from the God of the Bible through the years since the Big Book was first published.

Is All This Confusion Fuel for Condemning A.A.? Absolutely Not!

For many it is. For others in A.A., it all seems perfectly normal. Settling for a “convenient” God or an “expedient” God is okay with them. A.A. historian Wally P. so claimed. One thing we know is that many AAs don’t know Who God is, or how to “find” Him, or to Whom they are supposed to pray. Is it the Creator? Is it a rock? Is it Somebody? Is it Santa Claus? Is it the Great Fact? Is it the Spirit of the Universe? Is it Creative Intelligence? Is it Ralph? Is it Gertrude? Is it a tree? Or is it a light bulb? For all these absurd names keep popping up—regularly!

If Dr. Bob were still alive, he would be focusing on God, his Heavenly Father. If Bill Wilson were still alive, who knows? If a few want to condemn A.A. because of some strange ideas emanating from Trine, Swedenborg, James, and Fox—who were not involved in A.A.--so be it. But for me, there was a clear challenge based on the history of A.A. itself to find out and report the role of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the A.A. that was founded and flourished before the nonsense gods made their mysterious and confusing entrance into “recovery.”

Some of us still want to help drunks. Some of us came into A.A. as drunks and were helped by AAs. Some of us saw the clear promise in A.A.’s Big Book that God could do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Lots of us have learned by experience what God actually can do. Lots of us do not support those who talk of the gods of Ralph Waldo Trine, spiritualism, and some “scholar’s” linguistic manufacture. More and more of us are becoming part of a current, growing movement to report and talk about the deeds, healings, power, forgiveness, and love of the one true living God.

My own experience is that a newcomer (properly armed with the same power of which Dr. Bob spoke—“Your Heavenly Father”) has little or no taste for or interest in relying on rocks, trees, light bulbs, or idols. The malady is too serious; the consequences unchecked are too disastrous; and the stakes too high to warrant playing around with a man-made creation that couldn’t answer the prayer of a cricket.

Those who today argue that A.A. is not Christian are right. Those who argue that no Christians should be in A.A. are patently ignorant of the thousands and thousands of Christians who participate in A.A. They don’t know AAs’ own ignorance of the great compromise based on the fears of Wilson, the prejudice of Parkhurst, the belated carnal Christian walk of Bill, or the influence of Bill’s wife. A compromise that has caused many to stop helping drunks rely on Almighty God for their recovery.

The revisionists patently ignore the fact that today the Red Cross, the United Way, the YMCA, the Armed Forces, the Congress, and the Constitution authorize no litmus test that will bar either Christians or non-Christians from the service work that all constantly render. Isolation and prohibition will not stop the devil’s intrusion, nor can they stop the work of Almighty God—with Whom nothing is impossible.

Gloria Deo

 

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous 1st ed. Ken B. Interview


"Ken B. speaks about the new title, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God’s Role in Recovery Confirmed!, on the December 29, 2012, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show.

 


 

By Dick B.

© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

You can hear the Ken B interview right now!
 

 

You may hear Dick B.'s son Ken speak about their new title, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God's Role in Recovery Confirmed! (December 2012), on the December 29, 2012, episode of the “Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B.” show here:

 

http://mcaf.ee/sk0wz

 

or here:

 


 

Episodes of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:

 


 

[Ken’s attention is directed particularly to our new book just released: Personal Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God’s Role in Recovery Confirmed! The latest title is available right now in paperback and in eBook formats on www.Amazon.com (Kindle), and will be available any day now in a variety of eBook formats through www.Smashwords.com (use “Dick B.” as the search term and deactivate the “adult filter, even though these are not “adult” books), and other regular distribution sources.]

 

Synopsis of Ken B. Christian Recovery Radio Interview

 

Dick B.'s son Ken talks about the new book he and his dad released this month, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God's Role in Recovery Confirmed! (December 2012). When Bill W. and Dr. Bob met in Akron, Ohio, on May 12, 1935 (Mother's Day), both were members of a group named "A First Century Christian Fellowship" (also known as the Oxford Group). Bill and Bob developed a program of recovery over the summer of 1935 which John D. Rockefeller's agent Frank Amos summarized in seven points in February 1938. (See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131.)

 

As Dr. Bob said in his last major talk: "In early A.A. days, . . . we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book." (See The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks, Item # P-53, page 13.) After Bill and Bob "counted the noses" of those who had recovered as of November 1937, Bill was commissioned to write a book that would present the highly-successful, original Akron A.A. "Christian fellowship" program. (See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 123 and 118.) Bill W., however, wrote what he called "the new version of the program, now the 'Twelve Steps.'" (See Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 162.)

 

Bill's statement at the Rockefeller Dinner on February 8, 1940, that A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics who thoroughly followed their path is mainly speaking about the original Akron program, as the Big Book had only been published April 10, 1939. When Clarence S. founded the A.A. group in Cleveland, which had a documented 93% success rate without relapse(!), he had done it with "by keeping most of the 'old program,' including the Bible and the Four Absolutes." (See Mitchell K., How It Worked, 108.) Our new book talks about success!

 

[I took the liberty of closing out Ken’s enlightening talk about God and A.A. and mentioned the many healing books and talks and conferences that have taken place over the years since 1850. Efforts by Christian people and organizations such as

the great evangelists (Moody, Sankey, Meyer, Folger), the Gospel Rescue Missions, the Salvation Army, Young Men’s Christian Association, Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, and the Vermont Congregational Churches. These and the Congregational churches and academies that figured so prominently in the Christian upbringing of Bob and Bill in Vermont were focused on employing the power they received as children of God and helping others by serving God.

 

I read the following from Power to Heal: Experiencing the Miraculous, by Joan Hunter, where she wrote:

 

God is not looking for your ability. He is looking for your availability. He is not looking for superstars; He is looking for servants. Does the Scripture say: “Well done, good and faithful superstar”? No, it says, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23), page 49.]

 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Bill W. and Dr. Bob on the stage together in 1948 in Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium


Bill W. & Dr. Bob together at The Shrine Auditorium in March 1948: "The Tidings" article 03 26 48.PDF [sent by Hermine Lees of The Tidings staff to Ken B.]

 

Subject: The Tidings article 03 26 48.PDF [sent by Hermine Lees of The Tidings to Ken B.]

[Note to readers: If you would like a copy of this vitally important historical record of Bob and Bill in Los Angeles where they were talking of Divine Aid, prayer, cultivating the habit of prayer, and studying the Bible, see for yourself. Contact dickb@dickb.com; and we will see that you get a pdf sent to you]

Aloha to you, Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena!!

 

Dick B. (www.DickB.com) has quoted from and referred to a copy of an article from The Tidings he received several years back which discussed an event held in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles at which Bill W. and Dr. Bob spoke together. Here is some background information about this important article in which Bill W. and Dr. Bob note the role of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (and--in Dr. Bob's case--of the Bible) in early A.A.'s astonishing successes.

 

Because the last number in the year date (i.e., the "8" in "1948") was difficult to read in the copy given to Dick B., he cited the article as being from page 17 of the Friday, March 26, 1943, issue of The Tidings. Because the staff of The Tidings had been unable to locate such an article with the date of March 26, 1943, they reported to a least one person--in addition to reporting to me this month (i.e., March 2008)--that they didn't have such an article.

 

After considerable personal research, I came to the conclusion that there was probably a simple "typo" involved in which the "8" in "1948" had been mistaken for a "3" (as in "1943"). When I contacted The Tidings and suggested that the date might actually be Friday, March 26, 1948, Hermine Lees, a Staff Writer at The Tidings, was able to confirm to me almost immediately that there was such an article. At my request, she faxed the article to me. I have attached a scanned copy of her fax to me ("The Tidings article  03 26 48.pdf"). She told me in an email message that she had felt that she needed to retype the two paragraphs in the first column of the copy of the article she faxed to me, and I hand-wrote her comments at the bottom of the document she faxed to me. And I drew a line around what Hermine typed so that it would be clear that that portion of text was separate from the photocopy of the article she sent me. Please also note that the copy sent to me by Hermine Lees does not include the ads and other information surrounding the original article about Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

I am also including a scanned copy of the original article which Dick B. had used in his various discussions of the appearance of Bill W. and Dr. Bob at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

 

And, speaking of the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes with "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics who thoroughly followed the path of the pioneer AAs, please see our just-released titled, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God's Role in Recovery Confirmed! by Dick B. and Ken B. (2012), now available in paperback and eBook formats from Amazon.com:

 

     Paperback: http://mcaf.ee/mzqor

 

     eBook (Kindle): http://mcaf.ee/yex8u    [This book will be available in other eBook formats any day now from www.SmashWords.com]

 

Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous quotes many examples of A.A. pioneers sharing about God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Christianity in the "Personal Stories" section of the first edition of the Big Book (1939). Those pioneers were testifying to the tremendous effectiveness of the "old program" which John D. Rockefeller's agent, Frank Amos, summarized in seven points--not six, not 12!--on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. Those 29 testimonies--26 of which were not included in the fourth edition of the Big Book (2001)--are not talking about what Bill Wilson called "the new version of the program, now the 'Twelve Steps'" (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 162) which he wrote in the first 11 chapters of the first edition. Bill's "new version of the program" didn't exist yet! No, here is what Mitchell K., the biographer of Clarence S, the founder of A.A. in Cleveland, states:

 

"Two years after the publication of the [Big] book [on April 10, 1939], Clarence made a survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most of the 'old program,' including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety." (Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, 108; bolding added. See also DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 261.)

 

Would you like to see a 93% success rate among "medically-incurable" alcoholics (and addicts)--with no relapses among them!--in your A.A. meeting and/or Christian recovery meeting today? Please check out the resources mentioned in this article.

 

One more thing: Whatever you do, please have a large stack of The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (Item # P-53--http://aa.org/lang/en/catalog.cfm?category=4&product=70) available at all of the A.A. meetings and Christian Recovery meetings you attend and/or supervise, and give them to everyone who comes to those meetings. Consider highlighting key pages in Dr. Bob's and Bill's talks in that pamphlet about the "Good Book," our "Heavenly Father," and "the Master." And perhaps include a business card and/or write your name and phone number in the back of the pamphlet. Atheists and agnostics have become children of God reading this pamphlet! (Want to know more about this pamphlet? Please ask me!)

 

In GOD's love,

 

Dick B.'s son, Ken

 

Dick B.'s main Web site: www.DickB.com

Dick B., Executive Director

The International Christian Recovery Coalition: www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com

"Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B.," "Russell S. Talks," and other Christian Recovery resources: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Is A.A. Christian? You Decide


Is A.A. Christian?

Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

More and more, people are Googling in the question: Is A.A. Christian?

 Is it?

Some, including a few Christian writers who are anti-A.A., are quick to jump in and answer with a Bible verse or two, an admonition or three, and plenteous irrelevant condemnations alleging in error that A.A. sprang from spiritualism, Masonry, LSD use, New Thought.

Instead of pondering this biased speculation, why not investigate for yourself and then decide for yourself. Making sure you look at all the evidence, and not just some undocumented material by someone who not dislikes A.A. and Christian AAs but is determined to dissuade thousands and thousands from seeking help in it.

Again: Is A.A. Christian?

Why not start with facts before attempting to answer the question in any meaningful, useful, and helpful way!

One very clear set of facts can be found in the words of cofounder Dr. Bob’s last major speech published in The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks. Dr. Bob said the early AAs had no Steps, no Traditions, no drunkalogs, (and, of course, no Big Book text). They simply believed the answer to their problems was in the Bible. They assiduously studied Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, and 1 Corinthians 13. And Dr. Bob went on to say that even the basic ideas of the Twelve Steps (published four years after A.A. was founded) came from the study and effort that had been going on in the Bible from 1935 until the Steps were published in 1939.

Was A.A. Christian then? Dr. Bob called it a Christian Fellowship! And many observers said it was First Century Christianity in action.

How about the later years after the Big Book was published in 1939 and after Dr. Bob had died at the end of the 1940’s?

You might first ask  "What is A.A.?" Or, "What A.A. literature--past or present--can shed light on the question?" Or, "Who is asking the question?" Or, “Is the questioner studying A.A., condemning A.A., researching A.A., trying to prove the affirmative that AA was and is Christian? Or, trying to argue the negative, contending that Christians will go to hell if they set foot in a meeting. Or, stating that the Bible prohibits attending A.A., or stating flatly that A.A. is Christian or not Christian. And then ask: to what period in A.A.'s 75 years or so, does the questioner refer?

You can start by finding out the major influences on A.A. historically.

These are the Young Men’s Christian Association, Christian evangelists like Dwight Moody and F.B. Meyer, the Salvation Army, the Gospel Rescue Missions including the one where one cofounder made his decision for Jesus Christ, and The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. One comprehensive, documented study can be found in Dick B. and Ken B.’s, Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous. Another is Dick B.’s, The Conversion of Bill W. Still another can be found in Dick B.’s Real Twelve Step Fellowship History. And if the inquirer investigates the footnotes, the quotes, and the bibliographies in those books, he will find the documentation.

You can move on to look at the Christian upbringing of A.A.'s cofounders Dr. Robert H. Smith and William G. Wilson in Vermont. You will mostly have to look outside of A.A. for details. But the books above will be helpful. And so will several more recent ones by Dick B. and Ken B. But two A.A. Conference-approved books can start you on your quest. One is DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (1980). Another is "Pass It On." And still another is the autobiography of Bill W. himself. Another, the biography of Bill's doctor, "The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks." Still others, the works on Bill by Susan Cheever and Nan Robertson.

Then you can look at how the first three AAs got sober. And what they had to say about God, Christianity, the Bible, and how they were delivered from alcoholism.

A.A. Number One, Bill Wilson, was told by his doctor (Silkworth) that the "Great Physician" Jesus Christ could cure him. Bill made a decision for Jesus Christ at the altar of Calvary Mission in New York. Bill wrote that he was "born again." And Bill decided to call on the "Great Physician" for help. Finally, Bill cried out to God for help at Towns Hospital. Bill had a "white light experience." He sensed the presence of "the God of the Scriptures," as he phrased it. And he never drank again. But he did immediately go about with a Bible under his arm, telling his story, and telling drunks they must give their lives to God in order to get well. Bill had been raised a Christian in East Dorset and Manchester, Vermont. He had studied the Bible in both places. He had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in New York. And, in A.A.'s own Big Book, he was quoted as saying "the Lord has cured me of this terrible disease."

A.A. Number Two, Dr. Bob Smith, had been a member of St. Johnsbury's North Congregational Church when his parents were raising him to believe in Jesus Christ and study the Word of God. Bob and his whole family were deeply involved in the North Congregational Church, with Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, with the Young Men’s Christian Association, and with the Congregationalist St. Johnsbury Academy. And, as to it all, Dr. Bob stated he had received excellent training in the Bible as a youngster.

When Bob at last began his march to sobriety, he knelt on the rug in Akron with a group of Christians and prayed to God for his deliverance. Shortly, his prayers were answered by the visit of his new friend-to-be, Bill Wilson. And Dr. Bob soon quit drinking forever, studied the Bible intensely, and was a member of at least two Christian churches in Akron, Ohio—a Presbyterian church and an Episcopal Church, the latter a year before he died.

A.A. Number Three, Bill Dotson, an Akron attorney, and a drunk, had long believed in God, taught Sunday school in and was a Deacon of a Christian church in Akron. Dotson received the witness of Bob and Bill while in the Akron City Hospital. He turned to God for help. And he was instantly cured. In A.A.'s Big Book, Dotson (like Bill Wilson) declared that the Lord had cured him also.

Early AAs in the group founded by Wilson, Smith, and Dotson called themselves a Christian fellowship. All newcomers were required to profess belief in God, to make a decision for Jesus Christ, to study the Bible, to make a surrender of their lives to God, and to attend "old fashioned prayer meetings." They also were urged to fellowship with other believers and attend a religious service once a week.

Was Akron A.A. Christian in the 1930's? You be the judge.

Did A.A. as a Society change its face when it published its Big Book in 1939?

It removed the word "God" from its Second, Third, and Eleventh suggested Steps of recovery. It tossed out some 400 pages of its draft manuscript--all said to have contained Christian and biblical materials. And it avowedly declared it did so in order to placate atheist and agnostic drunks who wanted to get sober in the Society.

At that point, was A.A. Christian after its Big Book and Steps were published in April 1939?

You be the judge.

What about today's A.A? It has changed again so that the Lord's Prayer no longer closes many of its meetings. It often refuses to sanction groups that study the Bible, mention Jesus Christ, or study Christian literature. A.A.’s present-day publications more and more call the Society "spiritual but not religious"--even though the courts have mostly rejected this statement. Its literature more and more says that you don't have to believe in anything at all to be a member of A.A.

 Is today's A.A. Christian? You be the judge.

But! The point made here is that you can be the judge. You can be a Christian in A.A. You can believe what you wish, read what you wish, worship where you wish, and "be" whatever you wish to be. A.A. has no authority, no power, no leader, and no employee who can exclude anyone from its membership or censor books or "govern" what groups do or do not do.

Therefore, today there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of Christians in A.A. And they are neither barred, nor evicted, nor suppressed by anything except by rude, boisterous, and sometimes insulting remarks of a few intolerant "bleeding deacons"--as Bill Wilson used to call such dissenters.

In the opinion of the author, based on the foregoing evidence: (1) A.A. was Christian to the core in its origins. (2) A.A. founders and the first three AAs were Christians in their upbringing. (3) The same three were believers in God and Christians when they turned to God for help and were cured. (4) The Akron fellowship was not only Christian, but said so.

Today, as a member of A.A., you can believe in God, be or become a Christian, believe what you wish, worship where you wish, belong to a Christian denomination if you wish, read the Bible and Christian literature if you wish, and talk about what you wish in meetings.

A.A. is not organized. Its leaders are but trusted servants. They do not govern. Groups are expected to turn to and follow the guidance of "a loving God" as He may express Himself in their group conscience. And anyone who disagrees can, as an A.A., buy a coffee pot and take his resentment and disagreement with him to a group he and another alcoholic can form or to which he may choose to belong--Christian or not.

Gloria Deo

 

Monday, December 24, 2012

An AA Myth: "God of our understanding"


The Term “God of Our Understanding,”

Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth

 

By Ken B.

© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Aloha to you, Paul, from Maui, Hawaii!

Thank you for keeping us “in the loop.” Here are some comments on the A.A. history portions of the email message you sent out today.

1. The term "God of our understanding" does not occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001). Please see the attached file "The Term 'God of Our Understanding' Is Not in the Big Book or the 12 and 12" for a detailed discussion.

 

[If you are reading this article on a Dick B. blog or Web site, please contact Ken B. at kcb00799@gmail.com about the availability of this file.]

A.A. cofounder Bill W. decided to write what he described as "the new version of the program, now the 'Twelve Steps.'" (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 162; bolding added). A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's sponsee Clarence S. founded the third A.A. group in the world in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 11, 1939. Clarence's biographer, Mitchell K., states: "Two years after the publication of the [Big] book [on April 10, 1939], Clarence made a survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most of the 'old program,' including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety." (Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, 108; bolding added). Frank Amos' summary of the seven-point "old program"--which he prepared for John D. Rockeller, Jr., in February 1938 (the month and year in which Clarence S. got sober in Akron under Dr. Bob)--is quoted on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. There is no mention in those seven points of "God as we understood Him," "a Higher Power," or "a Power greater than ourselves." Rather, item #2 states:

 

He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope.

Dr. Bob--whom A.A. cofounder Bill W. called "the prince of all twelfth-steppers" because he, accompanied by Sister Ignacia, helped 5,000 alcoholics recover between 1940 and 1950--stated:

I didn't write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. [The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks, 14]

In speaking of very significant "battle over the book," Bill W. stated:

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," . . . We [i.e., Bill W., Hank B., John Henry Fitzhugh M. ("Fitz"), and Ruth Hock] finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. Who first suggested the actual compromise words I do not know, . . . 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." . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. . . . God was still there in our Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that anybody--anybody at all--could accept and try." [Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 166-67; italics in original, bolding added]

Bill W. states the following on page 12 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:

My friend [i.e., Ebby T.] suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"

That paragraph was part of a four-paragraph, handwritten insertion that was made in the "printer's manuscript" of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.. The four handwritten paragraphs were not present in the so-called "Multilith Edition" or "Original Manuscript" of which Bill W. states "four hundred mimeograph copies . . . were made and sent to everyone we could thin of . . ." (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 165). For a very extensive analysis of the question "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" see Appendix 1: "Why Don't You Choose Your Own Conception of God?" in our new title, Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God's Role in Recovery Confirmed! by Dick B. and Ken B., which is now available in 6" x 9" format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/c02zd) and in Kindle eBook format (http://mcaf.ee/3l0e7). It should be available in other eBook formats (e.g., iPad, iPhone, Nook, etc.) from www.SmashWords.com and other sources within the next few days.

The 29 testimonies by the early A.A. pioneers contained in the "Personal Stories" section of the 1939 edition are talking about the "old," highly-successful(!) Akron A.A. "Christian fellowship" program which A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing together over the summer of 1935. Bill W.'s "new version of the program" did not exist! 22 of those personal stories in the first edition were not included in the second edition published in 1955. And four more of the original stories were not included in the fourth edition published in 2001. Thus readers of today's Big Book are receiving very little information about the "old program" for which A.A. claimed a 75% success rate up to the time the first edition was published in April 1939. If you want to see the many testimonies to the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics, check out Alcoholics Anonymous: The Original 1939 Edition with a 23-page Introduction by Dick B.:

 


 

2. Here are some facts about the word "God," capitalized pronouns, and biblical descriptions as they used of the Creator of the heavens and the earth on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of the Big Book:

  • The word "God" [and related word-forms including "God-consciousness" (p. 13), "God's" (pp. 24, 25, etc.), "God-sufficiency" (p. 52), "God-given" (p. 69), and "God-conscious" (p. 85)] occurs 135 times on pages 1-164. If one chooses to omit/disqualify "for God's sake" (p. 24) and "the God of reason" (p. 54), that would leave 133 occurrences fairly clearly referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
  • Capitalized pronouns (i.e., "He," "His," "Him," "Thou," "Thy," "Thee") referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God) occur 81 times on pages 1-164.
  • Biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God), other than the word "God" (i.e., "Creator," "Maker," "the Father," and "the Father of Light") occur 16 times.

So there are 232 (or 230, see above) occurrences of the word "God" and related words on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. I have attached three documents providing all of the actual occurrences of the words and phrases just discussed. In addition, I have attached a document containing the 41 occurrences of non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., "God") for your review.

[If you are reading this article on a Dick B. blog or Web site, please contact Ken B. at kcb00799@gmail.com about the availability of this file.]

3. There is a myth that has been floating around A.A. for a long time that needs to be put to rest:

The "first 164 pages," "The Doctor's Opinion," and "Appendix II: Spiritual Experience" are the "basic text" of the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.

That statement is NOT true. If one looks up the meaning of the word "text" in the dictionary, most of the questions would be answered. But for the purpose of exploding this myth, one only needs to look at the front cover of the dust jacket of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. The front cover states:

Alcoholics Anonymous: This is the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous

If that isn't clear enough, one may go to page xi of the Preface for clarification:

[Paragraph two:] ". . .[T]his book has become the basic text for our Society . . ."

 

The original "Big Book"--i.e., the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous published April 10, 1939--was 410 pages. It contained 10 pages of "front matter" and 400 pages of "main text." (At that time, the chapter titled "The Doctor's Opinion" was included in the "main text," and its pages were numbered 1-9, with "Chapter One: Bill's Story" beginning on page 10. Chapter 11, "A Vision for You," ended on page 179. The "Personal Stories" section--containing 29 personal testimonies from early A.A. pioneers for whom A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among those "who really tried" and "thoroughly followed our path"--was 396 pages long, with Dr. Bob's personal story beginning on the renumbered page 1. Then there was an Appendix about the Alcoholic Foundation.

In today's fourth edition (2001), the "front matter" is 32 pages long and includes "The Doctor's Opinion." Chapter 1: "Bill's Story," now begins on page one, and the first eleven chapters of the book end on page 164. The "Personal Stories" section now begins on unnumbered page 165 and ends on page 559. Pages 561-73 consist of seven Appendices.

Why are these details important? First and foremost, because the whole book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is the "basic text" for the Alcoholics Anonymous Society, and the Big Book says so! Second, because vitally-important testimony to the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes are contained in the "Personal Stories" section beginning after page 164. Have you seen the last line of Dr. Bob's personal story?

Your Heavenly Father will never let you down! [p. 181]

Have you seen this statement by A.A. cofounder Bill W.:

"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." [p. 191]

Have you seen this statement by A.A. Number 3, Bill D.:

Bill [W.] 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 a golden text for the A.A. program and for me.

Enjoy!

In GOD's love,

Ken B.


PS: Please check out the International Christian Recovery Coalition. It is FREE to become a "Participant":
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com. And please check out the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show, the "Russell S. Talks," and other Christian Recovery resources available at: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.

 

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