Alcoholism Could Be Cured By God - So Concluded A.A.'s Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson Came to Believe Alcoholism Could Be Cured by Conversion

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved.

For many years during his childhood, Bill Wilson repeatedly heard that his paternal grandfather William C. (“Willie”) Wilson had been cured of alcoholism in a conversion experience atop Mt. Aeolus in Bill’s home village of East Dorset, Vermont.

Throughout his youth, Bill was exposed to the account of his grandfather’s conversion and cure of alcoholism. And his exposure to the Bible, to Christian upbringing, and to spiritual growth was far more substantial than has previously been known or reported. 

For example, Bill and his paternal and maternal families attended the East Dorset Congregational Church. They listened to sermons, reading of Scripture, prayers, hymns, and recited the confession and creed. There were tent meetings and revivals, and Bill witnessed conversions.  Moreover, Bill and his maternal grandfather, Fayette Griffith, read the Bible individually and together. Grandfather Fayette enrolled Bill in the East Dorset Congregational Church Sunday school. We are still investigating what transpired of a religious nature, if anything, during Bill’s residence in Rutland, Vermont.

However, during his matriculation at Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont, Bill regularly attended the daily chapel, and heard Scripture reading and hymns. He participated in prayer meetings. He attended the required weekly church service at the Manchester Congregational Church. He took a required, four-year Bible study course at the Seminary. And Bill was president of the Seminary Young men’s Christian Association, while his girlfriend, Bertha Bamford, was president of the Burr and Burton YMCA. Both attended chapel and “Y” activities together at the Seminary.

However, Bertha Bamford came to an untimely end—dying in surgery. Bill was devastated. He plunged into one of his many depressions. He blamed God for the death, and he turned his back on God for a good many years.

Quite some time later, Bill reached his bottom in alcoholism. He was hospitalized three times. Bill’s psychiatrist, Dr. William D. Silkworth, explained to Bill that Bill could be cured by the “Great Physician,” Jesus Christ. This explanation occurred during Bill’s third hospitalization at Towns Hospital in New York, where Silkworth told Bill that there was a need in recovery for a relationship with Jesus Christ, Silkworth using the term “the Great Physician.” [Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2002), 50].

Then Bill’s old friend, Ebby Thacher, made a visit to Bill. Ebby related to Bill that the celebrated psychiatrist, Dr. Carl Jung, had made a statement—“the one which saved Rowland Hazard’s life and set Alcoholics Anonymous in motion. . . . ‘Occasionally, Rowland, alcoholics have recovered through spiritual experiences, better known as religious conversions.’” [Bill W.: My First Forty Years (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000), 125]. Ebby also told Bill that he had been lodged at Calvary Rescue Mission on the East Side in New York. [Bill W., 131]. Ebby was sober; and he told Bill, “I’ve got religion.” [Bill W., 133]. Ebby told Bill how Rowland and two others had tried to help him with his drinking  by telling him about prayer and God. [Bill W., 133-34].  Ebby said he had learned these as a child and believed them. And then, as Bill stated in his own words, “My friend sat before me, and he made the point-blank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 11.

I [Dick B.] found a manuscript at Stepping Stones which, at lines 935-942, told of Bill’s further statement: “Nevertheless here I was sitting opposite a man who talked about a personal God, who told me how he had found him, who described to me how I might do the same thing and who convinced me utterly that something had come into his life which had accomplished a miracle. The man was transformed; there was no denying he had been reborn.” [See Dick B., Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes (San Rafael, CA: Paradise Research Publications, 1997, 99-100.] Bill also pointed to a further statement by Ebby, saying, “But my friend sat before me, and he made the point-blank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. . . . That floored me. It began to look as though religious people were right after all.” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 11.

Skeptical to a degree, Bill attended an event at Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker’s Calvary Church. He heard Ebby give the same testimony from the pulpit. And Bill thought that if the Great Physician had helped Ebby, perhaps he could help Bill be cured—just as Dr. Silkworth had predicted.

Bill’s next move was to go to Calvary Rescue Mission. He stated, “Remembering the mission where Ebby stayed, I figured I’d go and see what did they do, anyway down there. I’d find out. . . . There were hymns and prayers. Tex, the leader, exhorted us. Only Jesus could save, he said. . . . Then came the call. Penitents started marching toward the rail. . . . Soon I knelt among the sweating, stinking penitents. Maybe then and there, for the first time, I was penitent too. Something touched me, I guess it was more than that. I was hit.” Bill W.: My First Forty Years, 136-37.

Several witnesses confirmed what Bill did at the altar: (a) Mrs. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., talked with me on the telephone and told me she was present when Bill made his decision for Christ. Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 61. (b) Bill’s wife, Lois Wilson, confirmed Bill’s decision for Christ. Speaking of Bill’s trip to the altar at the Mission, Lois Wilson said: “And he went up, and really, in very great sincerity, did hand over his life to Christ.” [“Lois Remembers: Searcy, Ebby, Bill & Early Days.” Recorded in Dallas, Texas, June 29, 1973, Moore, OK: Sooner Cassette, Side 1]. (c) Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s assistant minister, W. Irving Harris, wrote this: “It was at a meeting at Calvary Mission that Bill himself was moved to declare that he had decided to launch out as a follower of Jesus Christ.” Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999), 533-35.. (d) Bill twice made a further statement of great interest. It is not clear whether Bill was referring to his decision for Christ at the Calvary Mission altar or to his vital religious experience after calling on the “Great Physician” at Towns Hospital not long thereafter. But, at the hospital, Bill cried out to God for help. His room blazed with an indescribably white light. He sensed a presence. He felt he was on top of a mountain he had not climbed. And he thought: “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.”

 Bill Wilson twice wrote, “For sure I’d been born again.” Bill W., My First Forty Years, 147; Dick B., Turning Point, 94-98; and Dick B., A New Way In (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 61-62. (e) At Stepping Stones.

 I (Dick B.) personally found a letter at Stepping Stones that Bill had written to his brother-in-law stating that he [like Ebby] had “found religion.” Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W., 62.

After his acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at the Calvary Rescue Mission altar, Bill wandered drunk for a time and then staggered into Towns Hospital for his last visit there. Bill said, “I remember saying to myself, ‘I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.’ Then, with neither faith nor hope I cried out, ‘If there be a God, let him show himself.’ The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. . . . I became acutely conscious of a presence which seemed like a veritable sea of living spirit. I lay on the shores of a new world. ‘This,’ I thought, ‘must be the great reality. The God of the preachers.’ [In his article published in The Language of the Heart, Bill phrased it this way: “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures”] . . . I thanked my God who had given me a glimpse of his absolute Self. . . . Save a brief hour of doubt next to come, these feelings and convictions, no matter the vicissitude, have never deserted me since.” Bill W.: My First Forty Years, 145-46. As Lois Wilson’s biographer related the situation, Bill said, “I thanked my God, who had given me a glimpse of his absolute Self. . . . It was December 11, 1934. Bill had just turned thirty-nine. He would never again doubt the reality of God.” William G. Borchert, The Lois Wilson Story: When Love Is Not Enough (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2005), 166.

When Bill consulted Dr. Silkworth after the experience, Dr. Silkworth said to Bill, “You have had some kind of conversion experience.” Bill W.: My First Forty Years, 148. And the recent biography of Bill Wilson’s wife, written by William G. Borchert, tells the details of Bill’s immediate, enthusiastic witnessing as follows:

The doctor [Dr. Silkworth] always allowed Bill to share his God-experience with some patients, hoping somehow it might help. And Bill began learning about the mental and spiritual part of his alcoholic malady from Dr. Shoemaker, who had now befriended the former Wall Street analyst. Dr. Shoemaker encouraged Bill to spread the message of change and spiritual recovery to others like himself.

Bill took the preacher at his word. With Lois’s full support, he was soon walking through the gutters of the Bowery, into the nut ward at Bellevue Hospital, down the slimy corridors of fleabag hotels, and into the detox unit at Towns with a Bible under his arm. He was promising sobriety to every drunk he could corner if they, like he, would only turn their lives over to God. Borchert, The Lois Wilson Story, 170.

 

And what was the simple message, as Bill explained it to the wife of A.A. number three and set forth in his “Basic Text” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.) at page 191:

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.’

Bill’s conviction about his permanent cure was so strong that he arranged a meeting in December 1937 at the boardroom on the 56th floor at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The meeting lasted five hours. Four Rockefeller associates—Albert Scott, Leroy Chipman, W. S. Richardson, and Frank Amos—were present. So, too, were Dr. Silkworth and Bill’s brother-in-law, Dr. Strong. In addition, there was an array of what Frank Amos called “the following ex-alcoholics, William G. Wilson, Henry G. Parkhurst, William J. Ruddell, Ned Pointer and Bill Taylor, all of New York and vicinity; Mr. J. H. F. Mayo of near Baltimore, Maryland; Dr. Robert H. Smith and J. Paul Stanley of Akron, Ohio.”

Frank Amos stated that Bill Wilson had briefly told Mr. Richardson, “the story of how, after many vain attempts to discontinue the use of alcohol, he had achieved what he believed was a permanent cure, through what he termed a religious or spiritual process.” Dr. Silkworth stated “without reservation that while he could not tell just what it was that these men had which had effected their ‘cure’ yet he was convinced they were cured and that whatever it was, it had his complete endorsement.” [The foregoing is contained in the “History of the Alcoholic movement up to the formation of The Alcoholic Foundation on Aug. 11, 1938.” I personally obtained, with permission, my copy of this second report by Frank Amos at the Stepping Stones archives in Bedford Hills, New York.]

For further details, please see Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: (http://dickb.com/conversion.shtml)

Gloria Deo

 

Alcoholic Rehab: God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible in A.A. Today

Is AA's program today related to the Bible? Is AA's program today related to Christianity? Is belief in God a requirement for AA participation today?

 

You can answer the questions, or you can look at the facts and decide for yourself. First, read A.A.'s "The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks." Second, look at DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers for Dr. Bob's position: (a) Belief in God was a necessity, page  144. (b) Early Akron A.A. was called a Christian Fellowship. Third, ask yourself how many thousands of Christians are participating in A.A. today. Then see if you can reconcile the many Bible quotes in A.A.'s basic text--Alcoholics Anonymous; reconcile the number of times the word God is used in the Big Book; and reconcile the fact that all early Akron AAs were required to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And reconcile the Big Book's  words Creator, Maker, God, Father, and Heavenly Father with a "higher power" that Bill Wilson wrote could be your AA Group. Lastly, is there still plenty of room for Christians in today's A.A.? Can they share their experience? Can they mention God, Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and the Bible? Both Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith did with frequency. Can you!

Dr. Silkworth's Views and Advice on Cure of Alcoholism by power of Jesus Christ

The Real Details of Dr. William D. Silkworth’s Views and Advice on the Cure of Alcoholism by the Power of Jesus Christ

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Major Chunks of Reliable Documents: on “The Great  Physician Jesus Christ Can Cure You”

Alcoholism can be cured. Permanently.

And that is what William D. Silkworth, M.D. told Bill and Lois Wilson at Towns Hospital in New York. This is the real “Doctor’s Opinion.” It is “the rest of the story.” Furthermore, the real details of what could bring about the cure are available in writing in four written resources now readily available to you!

How cured?

Silkworth—a devout Christian—told his patients that their “medical incurability” and “seemingly hopeless condition” could be permanently cured by the “Great Physician” Jesus Christ. See the following four titles:

Bill W.: My First 40 Years (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000), 6, 133-35, 137-40 145-50, 158; Bill’s remarks in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 61-64; the details in Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Positive Power of Jesus Christ (Carmel, NY: Guideposts, 1980), 59-66; and Dr. Silkworth’s reported remarks (remarks now located in the Rockefeller Archives in New York) to a large group of AAs in New York. The group included four Rockefeller people, Bill Wilson, John Henry  Fitzhugh  M., Henry P., Bill’s brother-in-law Dr. Leonard Strong, Dr. Bob, Clarence S., and other New York and Midwest AAs.

Here’s where you can find the real facts: (1) Bill Wilson: My First Forty Years; (2) Dale Mitchel, William D. Silkworth, MD, The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks  (Center City, MN, Hazelden, 2002), 43-52, 225, 33-35, 106, 160, 193; (3) Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ ; (4) Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age;  (5) Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006); The Rockefeller Archives in New York City.

The Real Story We Know Today and “The Rest of the Story”

 Twelve Step people who study A.A.'s Big Book are, of course, familiar with Bill Wilson's medical mentor, William Duncan Silkworth, M.D.  Bill called Silkworth one of the founders of A.A. Bill invited Dr. Silkworth to write the Doctor’s Opinion which opens the Big Book. And, when Bill finally got around to stating the sources of the Twelve Steps, Bill named Dr. Silkworth as to the source of Step One, Professor William James as the source of Step Twelve, and Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.  as the source of all the rest of the material—that which comprises Steps Two through Eleven. And Silkworth was the alcoholism expert who, as a psychiatrist, helped thousands and thousands of drunks at Towns Hospital in New York. Bill often called Silkworth the “benign little doctor who loved drunks."

Bill was a patient at Towns Hospital four times. But his third visit was, perhaps, the most important opening  to the cure for alcoholism that AAs later sought.

Though Silkworth had explained the disease of alcoholism to Bill, Bill continued to drink until Bill hit a bottom which found him in Dr. Silkworth’s hospital office. There, Silkworth told Bill and his wife that Bill must stop drinking or he would die or go insane. Bill and Lois were devastated. They asked Silkworth if there was any help. And Silkworth told the both of them that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure Bill. And, as Dr. Norman Vincent Peale pointed out in his The Positive Power of Jesus Christ, Wilson was not the only seemingly hopeless alcoholic patient  that Silkworth advised to the patient that The Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure the man—named “Chuck.” And Dr. Peale lays out all the facts including those that showed “Chuck” was totally and permanently healed once he sought Jesus Christ as Silkworth had advised.

Shortly after Bill’s third hospital visit where Silkworth advised Bill that help could come from the Great  Physician, Bill received a visit at his home from the man Bill later called his “sponsor.”  The man was Edwin Throckmorton Thacher (known as “Ebby”). The call came on the heels of Dr. Silkworth’s advice to Bill.

Ebby contacted Bill by phone and asked to visit him. On arrival, Ebby was sober, “fresh skinned and glowing,” and ready to witness to Bill. Ebby told Bill he had recovered through the spiritual program of three Oxford Group friends (Rowland Hazard, F. Shepard Cornell, and Cebra Graves). Rowland had told Ebby (and later told Bill) how he had been hopelessly incurable but had received important advice from the famous Swiss psychiatrist, Dr Carl Gustav Jung. Jung told Rowland that he had “the mind of a chronic alcoholic,” that most such people could not be cured, but that there was a possible solution. Jung told Rowland that there might be help if Rowland sought from some religious group and had a “vital religious experience” (which Bill later characterized as a “conversion). Rowland  affiliated himself with the Oxford Group and also became born again on his return to the United States  and was cured.

Rowland told Ebby about the Christian living standards of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (the first name for the Oxford Group). He also told Ebby about Jesus Christ, the Bible, and the importance of prayer. Ebby told Bill he had heard these things and believed them from his childhood days. The other two Oxford Group men gave Ebby similar facts and related them to both Ebby and later Bill. Ebby told Bill they had placed him in Calvary Mission—a rescue mission owned and operated by Rev. Shoemaker’s Calvary Episcopal Church, but supervised by a group known as the “Brethren.”

Ebby told Bill of his cure. He told Bill about being born again at the rail in the mission. And he emphatically told Bill that “God had done for him what he could not do for himself.” Bill saw Ebbys transformation and could not get the deliverance story out  of his mind. So Bill went to Calvary Church itself to check out Ebby’s story. And there, Bill heard Ebby give the same story from the pulpit at Shoemaker’s church. Bill decided that perhaps the Great Physician could help him if he also went to Calvary Mission and surrendered.

Ebby had also gone to Calvary Rescue Mission, run by Dr. Sam Shoemaker's Calvary Episcopal Church in New York; and Ebby had there made a decision for Christ. Following Silkworth’s advice and Ebby’s path, Bill Wilson went there for the same purpose and, according to a conversation the author had with Dr. Shoemaker's widow (Helen Smith Shoemaker), Bill Wilson made a decision for Christ at the Rescue Mission.

The facts of Wilson’s acceptance at Calvary Mission of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior were specifically verified by four important witnesses. The first was Mrs. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. She told e (Dick B.) on the telephone that she had been present the day that Bill had “made his decision for Christ.” At another time, Lois Wilson was doing a recorded talk at a meeting in Texas; and her words were that Bill had, in all sincerity, gone to the altar and handed his life over to Christ. Rev. Shoemaker’s assistant minister, Rev. W. Irving Harris, related in his book The Breeze of the Spirit and in a typewritten memorandum given to me by Harris’s wife July that Bill had in fact become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the mission which claimed: “Where Jesus Christ changes lives.” An attendant at the Mission, Billy Duvall, also wrote a memorandum verifying these same facts. I found the memo when I visited the archives at Stepping Stones in New York.

After his new birth at the Mission, Bill stayed drunk for a few days and became more and more depressed and despondent. He wrote that he thought that, if there were a Great  Physician, it was time to call on him. Bill then checked into Towns Hospital and again sought help from Dr. Silkworth. And it was during this fourth and final stay, that Bill did the following: (1) In his hospital room, he decided he must call on the Great  Physician. (2) He cried out to God for help. (3) His room was filled with a blazing, indescribably white light. (4) Bill sensed that he was on a mountain top on a mountain he had not climbed. He felt a cold wind blow through the  room and sensed that it was the spirit of God. He suddenly thought: “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.

Bill was cured of his alcoholism instantly. He had doubted the existence of God ever since his girl-friend Bertha Bamford had unexpectedly died in surgery just before she and Bill were each was to graduate from Burr and Burton Seminary. On that occasion, Bill became deeply depressed. He blamed God for Bertha’s  death. And he turned his back on God. This despite the fact that Bill had born born and raised a Christian in East Dorset Congregational Church, attended Burr and Burton Seminary—where Bill had attended daily chapel, had taken a required four year Bible study course, had attended events at Manchester Congregational Church with other students, and had been president of the Burr and Burton Young  Men’s Christian Association. His girl-friend Bertha had contemporaneously been  president of the Young Women’s Christian Association. And the two had attended “Y” functions together.

In his Towns Hospital room, Bill said he had become certain of the existence of God. He consulted Silkworth to ask if he had been crazy; and Silkworth told Bill he had had a conversion experience. Bill then read the book by Professor William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. And Bill was convinced that his vital religious experience had been valid and that he himself had been cured.

 Shortly before the death of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the author (Dick B.) spent an hour with Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, friend of A.A., the Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Bill Wilson. Dr. Peale told me in the interview of the conversations he had with Bill Wilson about Bill's conversion. However, until 1997, I had never heard the following account by Peale about Dr. William Duncan Silkworth. It can be found in Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ (New York: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980), pp. 60-61. It appears under the title "The Wonderful Story of Charles K.":

Charles, a businessman in Virginia, had become a full-fledged alcoholic; so much so that he had to have help, and fast, for his life was cracking up. He made an appointment with the late Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, one of the nation's greatest experts on alcoholism, who worked in a New York City hospital [the Charles Towns Hospital]. Receiving Charles into his clinic as a patient, the doctor gave him treatment for some days, then called him into his office. "Charles," he said, "I have done everything I can for you. At this moment you are free of your trouble. But there is an area in your brain where you may hold a reservation and that could, in all likelihood, cause you to return to your drinking. I wish that I might reach this place in your consciousness, but alas, I do not have the skill."

"But, doctor," exclaimed Charles, "you are the most skilled physician in this field. When I came to you it was to the greatest. If you cannot heal me, then who can possibly do so?" The doctor hesitated, then said thoughtfully, "There is another Doctor who can complete this healing, but He is very expensive.

"That's all right," cried Charles, "I can get the money. I can pay his fees. I cannot go home until I am healed. Who is this doctor and where is he?

"Oh, but this Physician is not at all moderate as to expense," persisted Dr. Silkworth. "He wants everything you've got. He wants you, all of you. Then He gives the healing. His price is your entire self." Then he added slowly and impressively, "His name is Jesus Christ and He keeps office in the New Testament and is available whenever you need Him."

Dr. Peale then describes the healing of the alcoholism of Charles through the power of Jesus Christ.

Gloria Deo

For an easy-to-read illustrated presentation of the Dick B. treasure house of titles on A.A. History

http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml

Hear A.A. Author and Historian Dick B. Every Tuesday on Take12Radio.com

On Tuesdays, and in its archives, Take12Radio.com is regularly featuring talks and interviews by AA author and historian Dick B. This Tuesday, Dick discusses "the rest of  the story." This means the "rest of the story" about Alcoholics Anonymous origins, the organizations that effectively helped drunks, the Christian upbringing of Bill W. and Dr. Bob in Vermont, how the first three AAs got sober and stayed cured without  any Big Books, Steps, Traditions, War Stories, or meetings like those of today. Next came the Akron A.A. Old School Christian Fellowship program which is summarized on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. It was founded in June of 1935. Not until April of 1939 did Bill W. publish his "new version" of the program--the Twelve Steps--in the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. He also included in this basic text the personal stories of the pioneers which were intended to be testimonials as to the effectiveness of his "new version." In fact, however, the personal stories were mostly written before Bills chapters and other matter in the First Edition. And they were testimony as to the effectiveness of the Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship.

Keep tuned to Take12Radio.com and the Tuesday shows for further information researched, published, and reported by A.A. author and historian Dick B. See also www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.

On radio tonight, Dick B. explains "the rest of the story" AAs need to hear

Dick B. discusses the meaning and significance of the subtitle of the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the November 11, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show

On www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

YOU MAY HEAR THIS RADIO SHOW RIGHT NOW!

Note: Dick B. and Ken B. have now presented six radio shows previewing their forthcoming five videos and accompanying study guide. The six shows are archived and may be heard by you at your convenience.

The first show provided an outline of the scripts for the five videos—particularly highlighting what the videos would contain. The next three were a presentation of the dozens and dozens of questions about A.A. that will enable the reader and viewer to decide for himself  just how much of the A.A. History story he has heard, read about, or studied. The next show enabled Dick to present the Introduction that will be part of the videos and open the Study Guide. And this evening, Monday, November 11, 2013, Dick told what the “rest of the story is.”

In substance, it is about the endless details of A.A. history that have virtually never been researched, published, or discussed by writers and historians. It outlines for the listener the various epochs of “the rest of the story.” The first has to do with the many remarks that early Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship practices much resembled the activities of First Century Christians as recorded in the Book of Acts.

The next epoch has to do with the pre-A.A. Christian organizations and people who, from the 1850’s forward, were helping drunks to be delivered by the power of God—the YMCA, Salvation Army, Rescue missions, Great evangelists like Moody and Sankey, Congregationalism in Vermont, and Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. Next, the Christian upbringing of both Bill W. and Dr. Bob in the Congregational churches at their villages—North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury, East Dorset Congregational Church, and the Manchester Congregational Church. The cofounders heard sermons, hymns, reading of Scripture, prayer meetings, training in salvation and the Word of God. They went on to matriculate at Congregational dominated academies. And the curricula and requirements of each were very much the same: Required church attendance, required Bible study, required prayer meetings, daily chapel which always consisted of a sermon, reading of Scripture, hymns, and prayer. And the YMCA was active in both academies—St. Johnsbury Academy and Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester (where Bill attended and took his four year Bible study course.

The activities in Vermont bore fruit when the first three AAs got sober. Each was a believer in God and a born again Christian. Each had studied the Bible extensively. Each was licked and determined to give up liquor for good. Each turned to God for help. Each was cured. And each was told he must help others once he got well. And this is what each did.

Next came the original Akron A.A. Christian fellowship recovery program—summarized on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. And the sixteen Christian practices that implemented the program summarized. Next, Bill obtained permission to write a book; and he began in the spring of 1938. However the book had two distinctly different parts: (1) The chapters that Bill had written based on the teachings of Dr. William Silkworth, Professor William James, and Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.  (2) The personal stories of the pioneers in which they told how they established their relationship with God and what they had done in the Akron program. Their stories told how they had practiced the Akron A.A. program—there was no format but for an alleged six “word of mouth” ideas that were conducted differently by different areas and had distinctly different approaches. (3) The Wilson portion of the book was not complete until the Akronite stories were written, and the stories were about the Akron program—not the unwritten book being produced by Bill.

Finally came to compromise in the printer’s manuscript in which a mere four people completely changed Bill’s steps and removed God from Steps 2, 3, and 11. And the entire character of the fellowship changed in the ensuing 15 years during which Bill was deeply depressed and in which Dr. Bob and his wife died.

The last portion of the missing link was and is the procedure by which the old school program can be applied in A.A. today, using  A.A.’s own conference-approved literature. It  calls for hearing and learning the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in early A.A. and its astonishing results, as well as hearing and learning that they can play that same role today for those who want God’s help in overcoming alcoholism and addiction.

 

You may hear Dick B. discuss the meaning and significance of the subtitle of the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the November 11, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

http://mcaf.ee/jusq3

or here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/11/12/dick-b-discusses-what-he-means-by-the-rest-of-the-story

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

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

                                                            

On Radio: Author Dick B.'s Third Set of Questions on A.A. History

Dick B. says more about the Study Guide for the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the November 7, 2013, episode on

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

You May Hear This Radio Presentation Now!

 

 

You may hear Dick B. talk more about the Study Guide for the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the November 7, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

 

http://mcaf.ee/302bp

 

or here:

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/11/08/dick-b-says-more-about-the-new-video-series-study-guide

 

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

 

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

 

___________________________________________________________________

AA History: Dick B. Presents on Radio the Second Set of Questions on A.A. History

Dick B. discusses the Study Guide for the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story," Part 2, on the November 6, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." Show

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

[Dick’s second day of presenting questions on A.A. History that most just don’t know the answer to despite the vital nature of the answer in overcoming the life and death illness of alcoholism and addiction]

You May Hear This Dick B. Radio Show Right Now!

_________________________________________________________________

 

You may hear Dick B. continue discussing the Study Guide for the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story," on the November 6, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

 

http://mcaf.ee/vcdm1

 

or here:

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/11/07/dick-b-continues-discussing-the-video-series-study-guide

 

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

 

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

 

_________________________________________________________________

AA - The Term "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, 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

This article will address three topics: (1) the use of the phrase “God of our understanding” in Alcoholics Anonymous and some historical background relating to it; (2) the number of occurrences of the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical and non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001)--often called “the Big Book;” and (3) a harmful myth that has been floating around A.A. about the definition of the term “basic text” as it relates to the Big Book.

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.

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 (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 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 [in April 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, Ohio (Washingtonville, NY: A.A. Big Book Study Group, 1997), 108; bolding added].

 

Frank Amos's summary of the seven-point “old program”--which he prepared for John D. Rockefeller, 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 (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980). Interestingly, 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 Ignatia, 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 (New York, NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 14]

 

In speaking of a 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 P., 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, 1957), 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?”

 

The paragraph in which the suggestion above occurs was part of a four-paragraph, handwritten section of text that was inserted in the “printer's manuscript” of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous at the last minute as the Big Book was going to print. 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 think of . . .” [Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 165]. For a very extensive analysis of the suggestion “Why don't you choose your own conception of God?” see Appendix 1: “Why Don't You Choose Your Own Conception of God?” in Dick B. and Ken B., Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God's Role in Recovery Confirmed! (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012), available in 6" x 9" format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/c02zd), in Kindle eBook format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/3l0e7), and in other eBook formats.

The 29 personal testimonies of early A.A. pioneers contained in the "Personal Stories" section of the 1939 edition of Alcoholics Anonymous spoke 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 up to the time the second edition was published in 1955. [See “Foreword to Second Edition,” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4^th ed., xx]. If one wants 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 (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011) with a 23-page Introduction by Dick B.: http://mcaf.ee/pkj5l

 

2. Here are some facts about the number of times the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of the Big Book:

 

·         The word "God" occurs 135 times on pages 1-164. [This figure includes 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).] If one chooses to omit/disqualify "for God's sake" (p. 24) and "the God of reason" (p. 54), that would leave 133 occurrences of the word “God” which fairly clearly refer to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

 

·         Capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God) occur 81 times on pages 1-164; i.e., "He," "His," "Him," "Thou," "Thy," and "Thee."

 

·         Biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God)—other than the word "God"—occur 16 times; i.e., "Creator," "Maker," "the Father," and "the Father of Light."

 

So there are 232 occurrences of the word "God" and related words on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (or 230, see above). 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") on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous for your review.

3. There is a myth that has been floating around A.A. for a long time that needs to be put to rest. The myth relates to the common/standard/approved answer to the following question:

 

What is the “basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous?

 

I recently asked a medical doctor that question. He was here in Maui spending time with my dad (pen name “Dick B.”—www.DickB.com) and me in order to learn more about A.A. and its history. If I heard my dad correctly, he said that this doctor had three years of sobriety but had been around “the rooms” of A.A. for more than 20 years. His answer to my question was:

 

The first 164 pages of the Big Book.

 

[Some people might also include the Preface in the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (“the Big Book”), the four Forewords, the chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion,” and/or “Appendix II: Spiritual Experience” in their answer.]

 

The problem with the claim that “the first 164 pages of the Big Book is ‘the basic text’ of Alcoholics Anonymous” is that it is NOT true. It is a myth!

 

If one looks up the meanings of the word "text" in a standard, college-level 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 hardback 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

 

In other words, according to the front cover of the Big Book’s own dust jacket, it is the whole book—from cover to cover—that is “the basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous!

 

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

 

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

 

So again, it is the whole book that is “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

The original “Big Book”--i.e., the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (which had a copyright date of April 10, 1939)--was 410 pages. It contained 10 pages of “front matter,” 396 pages of “main text,” and four pages of “back matter.” The chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion” was included in the “main text,” and its pages were numbered 1-9. “Chapter One: Bill's Story” began 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,” began on unnumbered page 181 (with Dr. Bob's personal story beginning on page 183) and ended on page 396. (The “Personal Stories” section was 215 pages long.) At the end of the book, there was a single appendix about the Alcoholic Foundation, which began on unnumbered page 397 and ended on page 400.

In today's fourth edition (published in 2001), the “front matter” of the book is 32 pages long and includes “The Doctor's Opinion.” The “main text” of the book consists of eleven chapters (including “Chapter 1: “Bill's Story”--which now begins on page one), spread over 164 pages, and the “Personal Stories” section—which now begins on unnumbered page 165 and ends on page 559. The “back matter” of the book consists of seven Appendices (pages 561-73) and a final, unnumbered page titled “A.A. Literature.” It is the whole book—i.e., all of the “front matter,” all of the “main text,” and all of the “back matter” (taken together)—which makes up “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.

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 itself says so! Second, because vitally-important testimony illustrating 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 of the Big Book--beginning after page 164 of the fourth edition. For example, 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.

 

.

Dozens and dozens of unanswered A.A. History Questions Dick B. Poses for You on Radio - Ongoing Series

Dozens and dozens of questions which challenge speakers, sponsors, newcomers, and leaders to see just how many answers they can give as to the “rest of the story”—the story AAs have just never heard. Dick will be doing a series of questions on Christian Recovery Radio each evening this week.

 

Hear Dick B. discuss the Study Guide for the forthcoming, five-video series "Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story" on the November 5, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

http://mcaf.ee/ak01r

 

or here:

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/11/06/dick-b-discusses-bill-w-dr-bob-the-cure-of-alcoholism

 

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

 

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

AA History - Dick B.'s YouTube Channel and Presentations

http://www.youtube.com/user/dickbchannel?blend=12&ob=5#p/u/0/hRXj3T4E3vo

An A.A. Historian and active AA's look at the sources and application of Twelve Steps for You

Twelve Steps for You

http://dickb.com/12StepsforYou.shtml

Knowing that even the A.A. pioneers presented a number of different renditions of the Twelve Steps and how to "take them," Dick B. put this title together so that people could examine the various sources materials and then use them better to understand the substance of the Twelve Steps.

Twelve Steps for You approaches the following renditions of Twelve Step materials

1. The Big Book - before Steps 2, 3, and 11 removed God
2. The Big Book instructions in the 4th edition as to how to take the steps today
3. The Oxford Group language and traces in the Twelve Steps
4. The Rev. Sam Shoemaker language and traces in the Twelve Steps
5. The Bible sources of the Twelve Steps
6. Anne Smith's Journal and its comments on each of the elements embodied in the Steps
7. Suggested uses of this information

Dick B., Author and A.A. Historian www.dickb.com/titles.shtml