Alcoholics
Anonymous History
What
Learning "Old School” Akron A.A.’s Program, Technique, and Resources Can
Accomplish Today
Dick
B.
© 2013
Anonymous. All rights reserved
[Do
you want to know only a few things about A.A.? Or would you like to learn, study,
and apply ALL of A.A. today? If it is the latter, here’s what you can do right
now].
About
Our "Old School” Akron A.A.
What “Old
School” Akron A.A. Is Not Today. Because
It Is:
Not for "reforming,” "universalizing," or
"revising" A.A., its Steps, or its Traditions.
Not desirous of turning, or aiming to turn A.A. into a
Christian Fellowship today.
Not suggesting exclusion of atheists, agnostics,
unbelievers, nonsense god worshippers, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, or
those who have no religious beliefs or affiliations.
Not teaching or promoting special recovery classes, special Christian
conferences, alleged "basics," or reform literature.
Not ignoring A.A. and 12-Step Conference-approved
literature.
Not changing A.A. or its Conference-approved literature.
Not advocating your leaving A.A. or your Twelve-Step
Fellowship in favor of some church, unaffiliated church group, religious group,
anti-A.A. group, Christian fellowship, recovery group, therapeutic treatment
plan, or splinter group.
Not proposing a return to the life-changing program of “A
First Century Christian Fellowship” known as the Oxford Group and later as
Moral Re-Armament.
Not approving or carrying out efforts to condemn, ridicule,
insult, stifle, or prohibit some belief, religion, Bible, church, liturgy,
religious literature, and religious teaching that mentions something you don’t or
won’t like.
Not suggesting new therapies, treatment programs, rehabs, or
therapeutic communities
What
“Old School” Akron A.A. Advocates Are Trying to Enhance Your Recovery Today By
Talking About:
A program that respects and tolerates a belief or practice
within A.A. that advocates studying, learning, and applying the effective
facets of Akron A.A. and its Christian Fellowship founded in 1935; Bill W.’s “new
version” of the Twelve Steps in the Big Book, published in 1939; and the
primary purpose of both A.A. programs in helping the alcoholic who still
suffers—particularly the one or ones that want God’s help.
Learning, studying, respecting, and remembering our history
before we forget of just lose it.
Looking at real early A.A.–Pioneer A.A. of Akron–the group
Frank Amos described and summarized on page 131 of A.A. General Service
Conference-approved DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers.
Reading and absorbing the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, and particularly
the personal stories of the A.A. pioneers—most of which were removed from sight
and publication for decades.
Applying the language of “There is a Solution” which appears
to this day on page 25 of the latest edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Discovering how the first three AAs – Bill W., Dr. Bob, and
Bill D. – got sober, and how they did so before there were any Steps, Traditions,
Big Books, drunkalogs, or meetings like those today.
Hearing about the religious upbringing of Dr. Bob as a
youngster in Vermont, and how his “excellent training” in the Bible later was
applied in early A.A.—training involving belief in God, coming to Him through
Jesus Christ, Bible study, prayer meetings, hymns, sermons, Scripture reading,
church and Sunday school and Christian academy attendance, as well as Y.M.C.A. and
Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor participation.
Comparing to Dr. Bob’s religious training the very similar
religious training of Bill W. as a youngster in Vermont, and Bill’s attendance
at East Dorset Congregational Church and Sunday school, Manchester
Congregational Church, Burr and Burton Seminary, Norwich University, and the
other features of Bob’s upbringing mentioned above. Plus adding to it Bill W.’s
later decision to follow Dr. Silkworth’s advice about Jesus Christ the Great
Physician, and Bill’s trip to Calvary Rescue Mission in New York to accept
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at Calvary Mission in New York. Plus Bill’s writing
in his autobiography—“For sure I’d been born again.” Plus Bill’s decision in a
drunk and despairing condition to call on the Great Physician for help at Towns
Hospital. Plus Bill’s cry to God for help, the blazing extraordinary white
light that filled his hospital room, Bill’s sensing that he was on a mountain
top and felt the breeze of the Spirit, and concluded: “Bill, you are a free
man. This is the God of the Scriptures” Plus Bill W.’s conviction that he had
seen and heard from—the One whose presence he sensed in his hospital room.
Reading and learning what the first three AAs all wrote
about their cure of alcoholism, their individual church backgrounds, their
Bible study, and their desire to help others—epitomized by their statements
about their deliverance. Thus both Bill W. and A.A. Number Three said: “The
Lord has cured me of this terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking
about it and telling people” (Big Book, 4th ed., 191). And Dr. Bob
wrote at the end of his personal story on page 181: “Your Heavenly Father will
never let you down!”
Mastering the truth that the early Akron A.A. Pioneers
recovered when there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Books, and no
drunkalogs—while at the same time, conducting prayer meetings, Bible studies, Quiet
Times, and ceremonies leading members to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
This occurred when A.A., had no “nonsense gods” and idols, and no ridicule or
ostracism of those with differing religious views.
Defining the real pioneer Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship
program—the one which claimed a 75% success rate in Akron and spawned the
Cleveland A.A. program which produced a ninety-three percent success rate,
documented by Cleveland rosters, by DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers, and by Cleveland A.A. founder Clarence H.
Snyder.
Passing on to others A.A.'s own General Service
Conference-approved literature statements by its founders about Pioneer A.A.
See Big Book, 4th ed., pp. 181, 191.
Putting on a "new pair of glasses" that will
enable viewers to read and learn what early Akron A.A. "Spirituality"
really was.
A stentorian shout that early Akron A.A. was a Bible-based,
Christian fellowship that relied on God. And that present-day A.A. is currently
stating in pamphlets that a newcomer need not believe in anything at all, and
that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. In
short, today’s A.A. is not and will not become a Christian Fellowship. It is
simply a recovery fellowship peopled with thousands of Christians.
What
the “Old-school” Akron A.A. proponents today research, and urge fellow-members
to learn and respect as to:
Looking first to our Creator for healing, forgiveness, and
deliverance–just as Pioneers did, and just as present-day Conference-approved
literature does today as exemplified by Big Book, 4th edition’s
statement proclaims on page 25 that “There is a Solution” and that the Creator
is at the heart of it.
Looking in the Bible as the old-school Akron AAs did for our
Creator's will, promises, and commandments.
Avoiding "listening" to God today until and unless
(as the Akron A.A. pioneers did) one
sees in A.A. Conference-approved literature that the Big Book frequently speaks
explicitly about God and, twelve different times, asserts God, the Creator, is the “God of the Scriptures” mentioned
in the first verse of the Bible, and enabling the inevitable conclusion that
one does not “listen to,” cannot and does not reasonably speak to, and would
not—in sound mental condition--advocate for some light bulb, door knob, or
group of drunks as an object of worship, praise, and thanksgiving..
Avoiding “listening” (versus praying and communicating with
God, the Creator) until you have first established a relationship with Him as
His child, you've learned why AAs "surrendered" to Him by accepting Jesus
Christ as Savior, and you know why our founders looked to the Good Book for
instruction on who God is, who His Son is, what the Bible is, what it offers,
and what it says about prayer, "meditation," and obedience.
In fact, studying the Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the
Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7), and 1 Corinthians 13 to find out why these
segments of the Bible were considered “absolutely essential’ to success in the
early Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship program. See The James Club, www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml.
Abstaining from prattling about the "nonsense gods of
recovery"–higher powers, chairs, groups, rainbows, “good orderly
direction,” the Big Dipper, Gertrude, and something that is “spiritual, but not
religious.”.
Why? Because early Akron A.A. pioneers knew about and talked
only about the one true living Creator, Yahweh, who certainly had the “power”
that early AAs thought was necessary to
a cure. See Big Book, 4th ed., pp. 181, 191.
Reflections
and Suggestions about “old school” pioneer Akron A.A. That Could Help You!
Help you to add and utilize "Old School” Akron A.A. approaches
in today’s 12 Step programs. And teach you how and why it should be a primary
history teaching made available to those who choose God’s help today. And why
such information in no way constitutes making A.A. into a “Christian Fellowship.”
Something long abandoned after 1939 when A.A.’s Bill Wilson and three others (a
secretary, a Christian, and a man who wanted A.A. to be “irreligious”) decided
to call their deity “a power greater than ourselves” and/or “God as we
understood Him.”.
The “broad highway” of the Big Book does not lead to a
Christian Fellowship today. It is neither “inclusive” nor “exclusive” in that
realm. It enables Christians who are still suffering from alcoholism and addiction
to join others with the common objective of abstinence and new life.
Helpful
Reflections about A.A.’s Diverse Recovery Arena
There is no real substitute for one-on-one sponsorship,
witnessing to those who still suffer, and fellowshipping with those who choose
not to drink and to change their lives for the better.
Remember, literally just about anyone can form a group, hold
a conference, start a class, buy tapes, and study some materials on Pioneer Akron
A.A.'s biblical roots and program.
Then he or she can put his recovery efforts into learning
the facts of A.A.—its origins, history, cofounders, the cofounders’
backgrounds, the way the founders got sober, the original Akron A.A. Christian
Fellowship—consisting of the seven-point summary, and at least sixteen
practices. See Stick with the Winners, http://mcaf.ee/s50mq.
Then, having learned about A.A.’s Big Book and other
principal General Service Conference-approved literature, about the biblical sources
of A.A.’s basic ideas, and about whence came the ideas for (1) the original
1935 program and later (2) Bill W.’s “new version of the program—the Twelve
Steps in the Big Book—published in 1939 and then changed many times over since
that time. See Alcoholics Anonymous: The
Original 1939 Edition With a 23-Page Introduction By Dick B., published by
Dover Publication, 2011.
Pass this information on to old-timers, newcomers, speakers,
leaders, groups, meetings, and conferences and anyone else inquiring about A.A.
But
Note: Adequate A.A. Teaching Begins Only with Good Teachers, Good Texts. Good
Sponsors, and Good Speakers
Start with A.A.'s personal sponsorship idea. You learn. You
share and compare. Then serve.
There is no substitute for learning the facts first. Therefore,
start with A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature.
Master the Big Book, Twelve Steps, and the Frank Amos
Reports of 1938.
Read DR. BOB and the
Good Oldtimers for a sketch of what pioneer A.A. was really like.
Read A.A.’s Co-founders
pamphlet (Pamphlet P-53), particularly the excellent address by Dr. Bob.
Then learn the major Biblical roots of early Akron A.A.’s
Christian Fellowship: (1) The Bible, (2) Quiet Time, (3) Anne Smith’s Journal, (5)
The religious books early AAs read. (6) Group prayers. (7) the teachings of
Rev. Sam Shoemaker, (8) The details of Bill W.’s conversion to God—per the
recommendation of Dr. William Silkworth (Bill W.’s surrender and new birth at
the Calvary Mission altar, (9) Bill W.’s
vital religious experience in his hospital room where he cried out to God,
sensed the presence of God in his hospital room, said to himself, “Bill, you
are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.” (10) Bill then lost all of
his doubts about God, and he never drank a drop again. (11) the life-changing
program of A First Century Christian
Fellowship, later called the Oxford Group, and still later Moral Re-Armament.,
and (10) the religious books early AAs read.
Also learn to recognize how early A.A. thinking was touched
by the ideas of Professor William James; by "new thought" writers
such as Ralph Waldo Trine and Emmet Fox; by the "higher power"
language that later overwhelmed A.A. literature and by the ensuing babble in
the 1950's and the many years following Dr. Bob’s death. These ideas emerged in
A.A. from a small group of new thoughters who often disputed the biblical
teaching of salvation and then countered with the idea that everyone had
“Christ in him.”
Finally, see the difference in origins, approach, content,
and beliefs between "Akron A.A." and "New York A.A.": (1)
Akron developed ideas from the Bible in a Christian fellowship, with "old
fashioned prayer meetings," Bible study, Quiet Time, and Christian
literature. (2) New York fashioned today’s basic text primarily from ideas of
Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Dr. William D. Silkworth, Professor William James, and the life-changing
principles and practices of the Oxford Group. Or so said Bill W.
Next
comes your decision, mission, and work with others carrying a helpful message
about the foregoing
Will you continue to be a student? If so, there’s lots more
to study.
Do you want to be a teacher? If so, there’s lots more to
learn and organize.
Do you want to be a speaker? If so, prepare to tell our complete
A.A. story; your own story of how you
entered the rooms of A.A., how you established your relationship with God,
whether and how you have taken the 12
Steps, and what you have done and will do to help others.
Do you want to be the leader of a group? If so, first find members, topics, literature, a format, and a
cadre.
Find a cadre of two or three who first are willing to learn,
to study, to strive for accuracy, and to help and lead.
Help others by helping them to learn–individually, as a
cadre, and--only then--as a group
Suggested
Resources You and Your Cadre can Acquire, Study, and Use
You can begin your work with one or more of the Dick B. or
Dick B. and Ken B. titles or groups of titles. E.g.:
Use Turning Point for
a comprehensive overview of our spiritual history and roots, or
The Akron Genesis of
A.A. for an accurate picture of how Pioneer Akron A.A. took shape, or
Study of our major biblical roots: (1) The Good Book and The Big Book, (2) Good Morning!–(quiet time, etc.), (3) Anne Smith’s Journal, (4) New
Light on Alcoholism–Shoemaker, (5) The
Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A., and (6) Dr. Bob and His Library and The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual
Growth.
For background: (1) Making
Known the Biblical Roots of A.A., (2) That
Amazing Grace, and (3) The Golden
Text of A.A.
For your cadre, your teaching, or study group itself: (1) The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots
in the Bible. (2) Good Morning!:
Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A. (3) God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity
in the 21st Century. (4) By The Power
of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today.
(5) Why Early A.A. Succeeded: The Good
Book in Alcoholics Anonymous Yesterday and Today (A Bible Study Primer for AAs
and other 12-Steppers). (6) Utilizing
Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots for Recovery Today.
For our latest– (1) Cured!:
Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts. (2) The Conversion of Bill W., (3) Dr.
Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a
Youngster in Vermont. (4) Bill W. and
Dr. Bob: The Green Mountain Men of Vermont. (5) A.A. Articles on our
History: A Collection of over 1500 Articles by Dick B. (6) The acquisition of
the Dick B. 29 Volume A.A. History Reference Set, for only $249.00
My
own suggestions for planning your purchases, studies, and future service and
glorification of God, and service to our fellow men
Don’t start a group. Start learning from texts, as an
individual, with a sponsor, or with friends.
Purchase my entire 29-Volume A.A. History Reference Set at
the substantial discount of $249. Shipping and handling free in the USA
Then you can pick and choose your books for study, or
Instead, purchase one of the books that interests you; or,
preferably, if you know what you want to organize and study, select one or
several titles for you group and receive these at the substantial group
discount of 50% of retail, plus shipping and handling, or
When and if you start a group or gather as a group, you may
purchase 10 or more titles of your choosing at a 50% discount plus shipping and
handling [i.e., 10 Good Books (worth $179.95) at half price ($89.97), plus 10%
retail shipping and handling].
Please don't hesitate to contact Ken B. or me for further
details: Email: dickb@dickb.com; Ken B. (c) 808 276 4945; Mail: Dick B., PO Box
837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837. To order now, simply use our online Order Form and
adapt it, deducting discounts allowed above.
Contact:
Dick B.
P.O. Box 837
Kihei, Hawaii
96753-0837
Ph/fax: 808-874-4876
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
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