Alcoholics Anonymous History

Alcoholics Anonymous History and the Christian Recovery Movement

• Dick B. is a pen name. Dick B. is an A.A. writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible student, CDAAC, and active recovered AA member, He has published 46 titles and over 1250 articles on Alcoholics Anonymous History and on the Christian Recovery Movement. See http: //www.dickb.com/titles.thml.
• Dick B. and his son Ken B. have devoted over 23 years of research, travel, interviews, study, meetings, library, archives, and meeting visits. The purpose has been, piece by piece, to unearth and publish accurate, comprehensive, complete information and history on the real origins, history, founding, original Christian Fellowship program of A.A. founded in 1935, and the astonishing successes it attained.
• The principal Christian recovery roots are these: (1) Bible. (2) Christian organizations and personalities who held revivals, meetings, Bible studies, and conversions that specically helped alcoholics, addicts and derelicts. This began about 1850 and included (a) Great evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, F.B. Meyer, and Allen Folger. (b) Young Men's Christian Association brethren. (c) Gospel Rescue Missions. (d) The Great Awakening of 1875 in St. Johnsbury Vermont, (e) Salvation Army. (f) Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. (g) Conversions. (3) The Christian upbringing in Vermont on A.A. cofounders Dr. Bob and Bill W. who absorbed much of this information through their respective Congregational churches, Sunday schools, Bible studies, semons, hymns, prayer meetings, family training, and Congregational Academies where daily chapel, reading of Scripture, Bible study, sermons, hymns, prayer meetings, and YMCA activities were daily fare. (4) Later elements which contributed greater or lesser ideas to the Alcoholics Anonymous Society were: (a) The way in which the first three AAs got sober. (b) The fact that all three believed in God, had been Bible students, and were born again Christians. (c) Dr. William D. Silkworth, psychiatrist at Towns Hospital in New York had steeped his patient Bill W. in two basic sets of facts: (aa) The nature of the malady of alcoholism. (bb) The fact that a seemingly hopeless alcoholic could be cured by the Great Physician Jesus Christ. (5) Later, Bill Wilson went to Calvary Mission and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior; scrapped his previous doubts about God; sought the help of the Great Physician; cried out in Towns Hospital to God for help; had an indescribably white light blazing in his hospital room, sensed the presence of God, and decided "This is the God of the Scriptures. Bill, you are a free man." With that, Bill never drank again; and he read Professor William James's Varieties of Religious Experiences which described and helped Bill conclude that such vital religious experiences where alcoholics were cured were genuine and occurred. (6) The last and major root of A.A.--one that departed from the program of the Akron Christian Fellowship--came primarily from the teachings of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, and laid out a life-changing program (ten of the 12 Steps) based on the program of the Oxford Group and which, Shoemaker believed, would meet man's need to "find" God, to have a vital religious experience, and to do it through accepting Jesus Christ.
• The later years of the work of Dick B. and Ken B. have been devoted to the many people who made the beginnings of the A.A. program result in an effective cure for alcoholism. These included, Bill W., Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry and Clarace Williams, and Sister Ignatia--all of Akron. They also included Dr. Frank Buchman, founder of the Oxford Group, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, a leader of the Oxford Group in America, Dr. William D. Silkworth of Towns Hospital, and also the ideas of Dr. Carl G. Jung on conversion as a cure for alcoholism that had seemed hopeless for many of his patients.
• The work of Dick and Ken continues today in a myriad of books, articles, radio shows, films, articles, conferences, and meetings showing Christian recovery leaders and workers, alcoholics and addicts, codpendents and others how to use the early A.A. Christian techniques in today's increasingly secular 12 Step and treatment arenas. History and success, they believe, are the keys that need once again to be brought to light.
• Key places to start your search for the facts are: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com; www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com; http://drbob.info; www.dickb.com; http://MauiHistorian.Blogspot.com. Dick and Ken may be reached in Maui through the email, mail, and phone information on these websites.