Dick B. discusses A.A.'s higher-powered gods on the July 10,
2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show
On
Dick B.
© 2013
Anonymous. All rights reserved
And
You May Hear This Right Now
You
may hear Dick B. discuss "A.A.'s higher-powered gods" on the July 10,
2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show
here:
or here:
Episodes of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:
Introduction
When I came into A.A. in April 1986 to get sober for
the first and last time, I was sufficiently sick and confused that I don't
think I gave God much of a thought. I saw "God as we understood Him"
in the Steps on the wall of the room. I felt I had an understanding of God, and
that was that.
Before long, my newly-sober sponsor and his sponsor
were talking repeatedly about "higher power" this and "higher
power" that; and I think I concluded that I had two higher powers: one was
our Creator; the other was the A.A. group. And nobody set me straight on
any of this. Unfortunately, it was a long time before I went to a Joe and
Charlie Big Book Seminar in Sacramento and learned how much God was embedded in
A.A.'s General Service Conference-approved literature.
Furthermore, I learned from DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers that A.A.'s basic ideas came from the Bible--which many
AAs--including Dr. Bob--called the Good Book. And there was plenty
in A.A.'s Big Book and its Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers that
called God the Creator, Maker, Father, Heavenly Father--all biblical
descriptions.
But then came the nonsense gods that were flooding
meeting sharing. I heard that your higher power--whatever that was--could
be a light bulb, a door knob, a radiator, the Big Dipper, a Coke bottle, and
Ralph. And I heard it often.
As my A.A. years rolled on, I realized that A.A.
newcomers were being short-changed in their knowledge of their history, the
Bible, God, and prayer. And that much of the trouble--coupled with frequent
relapses--could be identified with those who looked at A.A. as a place to get
sober, but learned little about God's role.
Today and in future shows, I'll introduce you
to what I believe is not typical of early A.A. and not typical in A.A.'s
literature today--the so-called higher power craze.
Synopsis
of Dick B.’s Radio Presentation
The
Nonsense "gods" of Recovery
Let’s
Begin with Some Definitions
For
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the
saints (1 Corinthians 14:33).
The
Creator
The
Pioneer AA’s in Akron Number One were looking for a way to end their drinking
problem and the woes that seemed the inevitable result thereof. Their founders
(Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob) turned to God for the answer -- for the "way
out." But what God? The answer, of course, was the Creator -- the Almighty
God of whom they spoke, to whom they prayed, and about whom they studied daily
in the Bible. Bill Wilson called Him “the God of the Scriptures.” Dr. Bob called
God his “Heavenly Father.” Dr. Bob often described the Bible as the “Good
Book.” See www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml.
That
should have been the end of it. And apparently it was at first. But confusion
-- neither of, nor from, God or the Bible -- has seemed to reign supreme in the
recovery "theology" from 1940 on. Long prior to his attaining
sobriety in the Oxford Group and AA. Bill Wilson had had a thorough Christian
upbringing in Vermont. He received it primarily from his grand-parents, parents,
East Dorset Congregational Church, its
Sunday school, its confession and creed, its sermons and hymns and prayer
meetings and Scripture readings. But Bill turned his back on the Creator just
before he was to have graduated from Burr and Burton Seminary in nearby Manchester,
Vermont. This happened only after Bill had attended daily chapel at Burr and
Burton (with sermons, hymns, Scripture reading, and prayer meetings. It
happened only as Bill was completing his four-year Bible study course. It
happened after Bill had attended Christian church services at Manchester,
Vermont. And it happened after Bill had been serving as President of the Burr
and Burton Young Men’s Christian Association, and Bertha Bamford—the lady love
of his life—had been serving as President of the Burr and Burton Young Women’s
Christian Association.
But
that rich Christian training was tabled when Bertha died unexpectedly just
before graduation time. Bill was heart-broken. He went into a deep depression.
He left the Seminary. And he turned his back on God—a limbo situation that
seemed to have been continuous during his drinking years thereafter.
Bill
once called himself a "conservative atheist." (See Dick B., New Light
on Alcoholism; God, Sam Shoemaker, and AA. 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1999]. p. 91.) His had soon married Lois Burnham, who—with
her family--belonged to a sect known as Swedenborgians. Lois characterized herself as a "non-Christian." (See
Lois Remembers [NY: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, 1979], pp. 2, 26.) This
certainly meant that neither Bill nor Lois was steeped in biblical Christian
thinking after the marriage.
Furthermore,
before he had met Dr. Bob in Akron, Bill had come under the heavy influence of
the Oxford Group, of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and of the thinking of long-dead
Professor William James. This meant that these influences had offered to the
newly “non-religious” Bill Wilson a nebulous "Power" to add to his
mix. And he did!
This
new "Power" which the doubting Wilson was later to embrace and
"empower" did not gain ascendency in his life during his Bible study
in the home of Dr. Bob and Anne Smith in the summer of 1935. In fact, as Dr.
Bob’s son "Smitty" was to write in the Foreword to one of my titles,
"Before there was a Big Book -- in the period of ‘flying blind,’ God’s Big
Book was the reference used in our home. The summer of 1935, when Bill lived
with us, Dr. Bob had read the Bible completely three times. And the references
that seemed consistent with the program goals were the Sermon on the Mount, 1
Corinthians 13, and the Book of James. At Anne’s ‘Quiet Time’ -- a daily period
held with the alcoholics in our home, the Bible was used." (Dick B., The
Good Book and The Big Book: A.A’s Roots in the Bible, 2d ed. [Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, 1997], p. ix.).
Bill’s
so-called "Power" was not even of great importance when Bill penned
the manuscript that, as frequently revised, became the First Edition of his Big
Book in the Spring of 1939. "God" was mentioned dozens of times in
that First Edition. The "Power" was listed as a "higher
power" twice; and even Bill still called that "power" God:
"Its [the Big Book’s] main object is to enable you to find a Power greater
than yourself which will solve your problem. . . . And it means, of course,
that we are going to talk about God. . . . even though it was impossible for
any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God"
(Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., pp. 45-46).
Strange
New "gods"
At
today’s point in recovery program history, Bill’s "power" has
acquired confused, distorted, conflicting, incredible meanings. It has even
become a new "god" or "deity." No less a knowledgeable AA.
old-timer and, at times an official AA. historian, than Mel B. has made the
statement: "AA members have always issued disclaimers when discussing God:
Typical is, ‘Our program is spiritual, not religious.’ If pressed for what the
program’s actual definition of spiritual is, however, it is doubtful that many
AA. members could explain" (Mel B., New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of the
Twelve Step Miracle [MN: Hazelden, 1991], pp. 4-5). While Mel B.’s statement
completely ignores the Bible emphasis in early AA.’s "program" (as it
was reported by Frank Amos to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938), it does
illustrate Mel’s awareness of the confusion that was set in motion almost as
soon as Wilson returned to his New York home from Akron in the summer of 1935.
Bill promptly fell back into the arms of his Oxford Group friends in New York,
the counsel of Rev. Sam Shoemaker at Calvary Church, and the bizarre "higher
powers" mentioned in the writings of Professor William James. (See the
discussion below of the James ideas.)
The
difficulty is that the AA. and the recovery world of the 1940’s and thereafter
were soon at work devising dozens of strange and absurd names for this new god;
and they later developed new godless theologies to support the nonsense. While
some of her assumptions, descriptions, context, and sources leave much to be
desired, I think it helpful to quote the following from Dr. Cathy Burns’s
title:
Again,
it should be unmistakable that AA’s "Higher Power is definitely not the
God of the Bible, but AA literature makes it even plainer that other gods are
acceptable. One particular alcoholic couldn’t accept the idea of a "Higher
Power." This is his account of how his AA sponsor explained it to him:
THEN HE ASKS ME IF I BELIEVE IN A POWER GREATER THAN MYSELF, WHETHER I CALL
THAT POWER GOD, ALLAH, CONFUCIUS, PRIME CAUSE, DIVINE MIND, OR ANY OTHER NAME.
I TOLD HIM THAT I believe in electricity and other forces of nature, but as for
a God, if there is one, He has never done anything for me. . . ."Then all
of your troubles are over," says the man and leaves the room (Cathy Burns,
Alcoholics Anonymous Unmasked, p. 39; emphasis added).
Far
too many AA. critics just mix up their history, their dates, their sources, and
their quotes. It is therefore unfair to judge early AA. by their statements.
The main reason, of course, is that there is a major difference between the
Christian recovery program founded and developed in Akron in 1935, and the “new
version” of the program (as Bill called it) that was published in 1939 at the
hands of Bill and his partner Henry Parkhurst. It is, however, quite fair to
note that critics and researchers alike have an abundance of absurd names and
quotes from today’s recovery writings to support their statements that the new
"deity" includes just about any god or "not-god" or sacred
something one might choose to select and babble about in A.A.’s rooms and
elsewhere..
Strange
New "Theologies"
What
is far more surprising, however, is the new theology that
"researchers" are now attributing to AA. itself. Please note the
following from Research on Alcoholics Anonymous: Opportunities and
Alternatives, edited by Barbara S. McCrady and William R. Miller (NJ:
Publications Division of Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1993):
Flores
(1988) argues that there are a number of common misconceptions regarding A.A
Among the most common of these misconceptions are the beliefs that: . . AA. is
a religious organization. The term "God" is either used or referred
to in five of the 12 steps. However, God is defined as a "higher
power" and ostensibly, can be extracted from a religious context and taken
to be natural forces other than deity. Flores (1988) points out that it is up
to AA members to come to their own personal understanding of the meaning and
significance of this higher power (pp. 359-60). [This observation is false! God
is not defined as a ‘higher power.’ The term is used only twice in the Big Book
and both times in the context making clear that Bill was writing about
God—Almighty God]
Spirituality
as a term is, however, used in a considerably broader sense than that discussed
so far. Spirituality in this sense appears to be referring to people who are
concerned with metaphysical issues as well as their own day-to-day lives. It
need have no belief in God. . . . But what is this spirituality if it is
entirely outside of a traditional religious focus, and does this spirituality
relate to Alcoholics Anonymous’ "Higher Power"? Casual conversation
suggests that spirituality might mean being thoughtful or engaging in
meditation or just a general concern for metaphysical issues. . . .
Spirituality can have a clearer definition than those noted above. Berenson
(1990) suggests that ‘spirituality, as opposed to religion, connotes a direct,
personal experience of the sacred unmediated by particular belief systems
prescribed by dogma or by hierarchical structures of priests, ministers,
rabbis, or gurus’ (p. 304).
[Once
again—a false observation. The word “spirituality” is defined in A.A.’s basic
text—the First Edition of the Big Book—as follows: “We never apologize to
anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think
spirituality the way of weakness. Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. 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. Instead we let Him
demonstrate, through us, what He can do.” Alcohoics Anonymous “The Big Book”:
The Original 1939 Edition With A New Introduction by Dick B. (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2011
AA.
Pioneers seem to have studied, repeated, and believed the following verse from
the Bible that appeared in almost every piece of religious literature they read
or mentioned:
Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me (John 14:6).
See
these few, out of many, examples of such literature they read: Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Confident Faith (NY: Fleming H. Revell,1932), p. 46; Philip Marshall
Brown, The Venture of Belief (NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1935), p. 49; Stephen
Foot, Life Began Yesterday (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1935), p. 87; Olive M.
Jones, Inspired Children (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1933), p. 50; Norma Smith
Holm, The Runner ‘s Bible, p. 21; James Moore Hickson, Heal the Sick (London:
Methuen & Co., 1925), p. 266; Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the
Mount (Great Britain: Oswald Chambers Publications, 1995), p.1 02; many issues
of The Upper Room; and the many highly studied titles of Glenn Clark, E.
Stanley Jones, and Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Our
exploration here, therefore, concerns the question: How did
"recovery" move from the "Way;" [Jesus Christ], to the
irreligious "spirituality" of modern A.A. writers found, for example,
in Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern
Wisdom From Classic Stories, pp. 1-5; and then from there to the absurd deities
like light bulbs and door knob, and others listed and named on pages. 77-83,
91-105, 107-116, 119-128, 137-140., in Dick B., God and Alcoholism: Our Growing
Opportunity in the 21st Century,
And certainly the best answers as to how the
corruption occurred will come from a look at the compromise names that became a
part of AA.’s history.
Some
"Higher Power" Homework for You: What Is This New "god"?
My
Own Early Experiences
In
grammar school, I said the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. It talked of
"one nation under God." Then I got hold of some coins and bills. And
they all said "In God we trust." I joined the Boy Scouts, and I
pledged that I would do my best to do my duty to God and my country. And, in
the Army and when I was admitted to law practice, I must have sworn to uphold,
protect, and defend the Constitution -- knowing that one of our founding
documents talked about our being "endowed by our Creator" with
certain inalienable rights. Endowed by our Creator!
I
never had any trouble knowing Who God was. And is! Actually, until I came to
A.A., I never really met anyone else who had that trouble. That’s not to say I
didn’t know what an atheist is: He or she is someone who doesn’t believe in
God. I also acquired some knowledge about what an agnostic is: He or she is
someone who just plain doesn’t know whether or not there is a God. Finally, I
was the attorney for several Humanist groups in the course of my legal work;
and I learned they didn’t think there was a God at all. One Humanist client
came bounding into my office when the Dead Sea Scrolls came to the fore; and he
said: “Now they’ve got God on the run. I also learned that, despite the
Humanists’ non-belief, the courts have specifically ruled and held the
Humanists themselves are a "religion" (just as the courts have now
frequently ruled that AA. itself is a "religion").
When I
came to Alcoholics Anonymous, I attended thousands of meetings and participated
in hundreds of Big Book studies, Step Studies, Conferences, Conventions, and
Groups. And I was sufficiently sick that I didn’t give much thought to the
frequent mention of "higher power" in meetings where I was present.
The "higher power" stuff was (for me) just a phantom ship passing a
sick drunk in the night. True, in the Big Book’s 3rd edition that I owned and
studied, "higher power" was mentioned -- but only twice -- in its
basic text (on page 43 and page 100). In both cases, the usage was clearly in
the context of "God." Bill said so on pages 45 and 46 as well as page
100.
Besides,
I was told, that when you get to the Third Step and are still talking about a
light bulb or a doorknob as your "higher power," you will be baffled
with a Third Step that says you are to turn your will and your life over to the
care of God -- a God it says you understand. In fact, that most of us very
definitely understand to one degree or another. I certainly understood that
this loving God is neither a light bulb nor a doorknob. Nor Ralph!
Then I
began to listen to the persistent talk in the fellowship about "higher
power." Then to do some reading in AA’s later publications about this
"higher power." Bill Wilson wrote in Twelve Steps and Twelve
Traditions that you could make the AA. "group" your higher power. My
treatment center facilitators told me your higher power could be "good
orderly direction." Speakers sometimes said at meetings that
"it" could be "group of drunks." Therapists said,
"Fake it till you make it" and "Act as if." Fake what, I
thought! "Act as if what," I again thought! And the more I listened,
the more absurd the higher powers became in the language of "recovery."
Honestly:
the higher powers were tables, bulldozers, radiators, goddesses,
"somethings," "any god you want," "yourself as
not-god," the Big Dipper, Santa Claus, and -- on Friday Nights, at our
Larkspur Beginner’s Meeting – "it" was regularly called
"Ralph." Honest! It was! Sadly, today you can find all of these gods,
not-gods, idols, and "somethings" in AA.’s own "Conference
Approved" literature and in many "scholarly" writings about the
recovery field. You can find the weird names and descriptions specifically
documented in many of my books, particularly The Oxford Group and Alcoholics
Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml) and The Good Book and The Big
Book (http://www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml).
But if
your life depended upon help from such a "higher power," wouldn’t you
want to know what that "higher power" was! Wouldn’t you rather believe
that God is and that He is a rewarder of
those that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Wouldn’t you rather seek,
believe, and ask for healing from God [Yahweh] who is quoted as saying: I am
the LORD [Yahweh] that healeth thee?
I
did. And He did.
So
I’ve been searching for about 20 years, not only to find out where AA. came
from, particularly in the Bible, but also how in the world someone threw Ralph
into the mix as a purported idol to whom sick alcoholics might pray. The longer
I remained sober, the more ridiculous the Ralphs and the radiators seemed.
No comments:
Post a Comment