Alcoholics Anonymous History: The 2013 Challenge to Fill in the Blank Spots Produced by "Hide and Seek" Writers

Filling in the Blank Spots Produced by the "Hide and Seek" Writings Today on A.A. History

Dick B., Copyright 2013. Anonymous. All rights reserved

Alcoholics Anonymous History writings have become a game for many recent authors and the afflicted alcoholics, addicts, and affected others..

The game could be called "Hide and Seek." But the problem is that "hiding" is rampant, and "seeking" is usually not part of the agenda.

This is not a recital of the game plans, nor is it yet a review of the obfuscation that has accompanied the efforts of many just to black out some of the least known and yet presently most important aspects of the original A.A. success story--the real History of Alcoholics Anonymous.

This is one reason why my son Ken and I, and so many participants in the International Christian Recovery Coalition are about to intensify the Alcoholics Anonymous History  focus from our standpoint as the "seeker," the diligent "finder," the motivated "digger," and the "accurate reporter of the results."

"Much more will be revealed" at our forthcoming History of Alcoholics Anonymous conferences in Portland, Maine; in Livermore, Los Gatos, San Jose, and Foster City, California; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; and at the end of the year in Roseville, California. Also in some of our forthcoming books and articles. And in our investigative trips for the balance of 2013 and thereafter..

Here are some of the mythical blockades that have given rise to what one Roman Catholic Theologian Father B. in Florida called the great "lacuna"--hole--in A.A. history:

1. That somehow A.A. never really began until the 1939 Big Book and 12 Steps were first published.

2. That the extraordinary successes from 1935-1939 in Akron A.A. and Cleveland A.A. were merely  part of what some have called the "flying blind" period.

3. That the Christianity described in the Book of Acts; practiced by the Young Men's Christian Association, the Gospel Rescue Missions, the Great Evangelists, the Congregationalists, the Salvation Army, and the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor; and the Christian Fellowship of early Akron A.A. were somehow superseded and "redacted" (blotted out)  by a sort of "neo-orthodox" Christianity that began with the helter-skelter A.A. developments from 1939 until just after Dr. Bob's death and Bill Wilson's overcoming his congruous deep depression from about 1942-1955..

4. That the pristine goodness of the first portion of the four editions of the Big Book was never changed--provably and patently a false statement.

5. That the "Traditions" and the "General Service Conference" have somehow established a censorship, index of forbidden books and discussions, and "spiritual but not religious" A.A. which muzzles the thousands of Christians in A.A. and 12 Step Movements today.

We've written and spoken about these holes and myths and challenges for about  20 years. But the present drum-beat of noise of the real anti-A.A. talk about Christians, God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible in treatment thinking and in 12 Step "wisdom of the rooms" needs to give way to truthful, accurate, and comprehensive A.A. history--history that shows the systematic removal of personal stories from subsequent editions of the Big Book has, until recently, left a complete void of understanding about the real early A.A. which began when the first three got sober, when the original Akron Group Number One Christian Fellowship founded and developed the original program, and when A.A. appeared on the map.

Today, a large group of speakers and leaders and researchers -- most now participants in the International Christian Recovery Coalition--are spreading light in all 50 states of the USA and in many foreign countries. The light is on. The searchlight is disclosing. And the results are just beginning to be widely known in the recovery arena.

dickb@dickb.com


Gloria Deo