A.A. Speakers,
Writers, Sponsors
The Recovery
Resources That Need a Boost in Recovery Content
By Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The Talent before
You Right Now
Right
now, take a look at the speakers, sponsors, and counselors you know or have
known in your A.A. or other 12-Step Fellowship. I’ve been involved with
hundreds of them, and you may have been too.
Many
are talented, experienced, and articulate speakers and, in fact, good
instructors. They are also caring, loving, giving people. But what are you
learning from them today? There are hundreds and hundreds of women and men in
the recovery movement who have never studied A.A.’s basic text or learned how
to take people through the Twelve Steps in accordance with the instructions.
There
are far more who haven’t a clue about A.A.’s history and roots, and haven’t any
idea where the recovery program got its ideas. And many of these have never
opened an A.A. history book, been to an A.A. history conference, or even cared
to learn our history. Why? Generally speaking, it’s because they’ve had no
resources to work with or with which they cared to work. Sometimes because they
just don’t care.
And
you—based on what we have learned from phone calls and messages we are
receiving almost daily—can help these speakers, writers, and sponsors. You
certainly can help newcomers and meetings. And you can fulfill your desire to
have a full and faith-filled recovery for good.
What
are resources are available to those who want to correct the situation? The Big
Book contains virtually no history. The First Edition did! And the history was
in personal stories of the pioneers. But
for decades, those stories were missing and had been removed piece by
piece.
The
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions contain virtually no history. Conference Approved pamphlets by the
dozen tell you nothing significant about our history, our early program, and
the pioneer successes. And the two or
three significant A.A. history books either omit the details, omit entire
segments of history, or focus on what they think AAs should hear, rather than
on what actually occurred.
And
are treatment programs any different? Ask yourself how much you heard about
history in a treatment program or rehab. For that matter, about the Big Book,
the Twelve Steps, the Bible, the founders, and our history. Are sponsors any
different? Ask yourself how much your sponsor talked to you about A.A. history.
Are
certification courses, continuing education presentations, and religious facilities
teaching history? Ask someone who is certified. Ask them about history, and
watch them go blank.
Then
there are the “history” books currently proliferating outside the fellowships.
Do they talk about God? Do they talk about the Bible? Do they talk about the
literature early AAs read? Do they detail the contributions of such major A.A.
influences as Anne Ripley Smith (“Mother of A.A.”) and her journal; the books
and teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker (a, “cofounder of A.A.”); Dr. William
Silkworth (the “doctor’s opinion” and a founder of A.A.); the life-changing
program of the Oxford Group which underlies the Steps, the daily Bible devotionals
which were a major part of Quiet Time. And what have you heard about the basic
ideas A.A. borrowed from the Bible itself?
It
was quite clear from Dr. Bob’s last major talk (found in The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their
Last Major Talks) that the Book of James, Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount)”
(Matthew 5-7), and 1 Corinthians 13 were considered absolutely essential to the
program. And yet, have you ever heard them read, discussed, or studied in your
program or meetings, or by your conferences, or by your sponsor, or by any
counselor you’ve encountered?
Would Talented Speakers and Sponsors Revolt if
Challenged?
Dr.
Bob never let a pigeon loose from the hospital without asking him if he
believed in God. Have you ever put that question to a potential speaker,
sponsor, or treatment facilitator? When asked a question about the program, Dr.
Bob usually replied: “What does it say in the Good Book?” Have you ever put
such a question to those we mention? The Big Book states clearly that “God
either is, or He isn’t.” Have you ever asked a speaker or instructor if he
agrees?
Bill
and Bob were speaking at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles before 4,500
people. Bill commented on the “religious element” of A.A. and the need for
“Divine Aid.” Have you ever inquired about these? The Big Book says a number of
times that its stories were written to tell how, from the writer’s own
viewpoint and experience, he “established his relationship with God.” Have you
ever asked a speaker or instructor to do likewise?
At
the Shrine Auditorium talk in Los Angeles, the entire audience rose in tribute
to Dr. Bob. And he succinctly suggested that all “cultivate the habit of
prayer” and “study the Bible.” Have you ever asked your teachers about that
one?
We
now know that early Akron A.A.’s many roots included United Christian Endeavor;
the Salvation Army; the Rescue Missions; Christian evangelists like Dwight L. Moody,
Ira Sankey, F.B. Meyer, H. M. Moore, and Allen Folger; A First Century
Christian Fellowship (also known as “the Oxford Group”); and even the Young
Men’s Christian Association. They definitely included the Bible and Bible
study.
They
included the required daily chapel, reading of Scripture, prayers, and sermons
at the academies Dr. Bob and Bill each attended. They included parental
guidance, church services, prayer meetings, and Sunday school.
Have
you ever asked that these be explained to you?
The
roots included Dr. Carl Jung’s views on “a vital religious experience”—the very
solution Rowland Hazard, Ebby T., and Bill W. sought when they were born again.
The roots included Professor William James’s views on the variety of religious
experiences he’d studied. Do your instructors talk about these?
Dr.
William D. Silkworth told Bill Wilson and several of Silkworth’s other patients
that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure them? Have you ever heard
that? Have you ever had the Four Absolutes, the Five C’s, Quiet Time, Continuance,
and Conversion explained to you in terms of their A.A. significance?
Have
you ever learned the books that early AAs read, the devotionals they used, and
the contents of Anne Smith’s Journal which was shared with AAs and their family
every day? Have you asked about them?
They
represent the heart of what Bill codified from the Oxford Group. When I went to
high school in Stockton, California, an American History Course was required of
the students. Why? So they could be better citizens, aware of their country’s
beginnings, informed about their constitutional rights and government, and
better able to cast votes for those they wanted to have govern them. Are there
equally sound reasons for AAs to learn their origins and practices and where
they came from?
What a Speaker,
a Sponsor, a Writer Can Be and Do; and Offer Our Friends
The
A.A. speakers that are entertaining and dynamic attract large crowds. I’ve been
one who has heard many now to be mentioned. How many people have rushed to hear
Clancy I., Gene Duffy, June G., Eve, Poor Richard, Geraldine D., Mel B., Joe
McQ., Charlie P., Father Martin, and dozens of others—because these men and
women are entertaining and dynamic. I’ve heard them all, and I’ve been
entertained. They’ve made me laugh, and laughter is either “the best medicine”
or a great help. They’ve made me cry, and receptive emotion is part of needed
enthusiasm. They’ve made me admire what they’ve done and what they’ve become.
But
how many times have you or I heard them talk about the early A.A. fellowship?
Can
they? Could they? Will they? Would you have the courage to ask them?
We’re
big in A.A. about “love and service.” We even insist that our “leaders” are but
trusted servants. And in fact, all speakers, sponsors, and counselors are also
“but trusted servants.” And what do trusted servants do? I’d like to think they
do the service that is suggested.
But
nobody tells these speakers what to say. Not the “staff” at World Services. Not
the editors of the AA Grapevine. At least, they don’t tell you or me— Why? The
servants are beyond the reach of the masters, and their instructors are long
dead and gone. They are frequently peopled or persuaded by professionals, universalists,
revisionists, and outspoken unbelievers.
The
servants often seem to dote on pleasing everyone and eliminate anything they
themselves think might detract from “their” message.. Thus if they write a
piece of literature like a daily reflection, they seem disposed to seek out 365
views, one for each day, than to select from the hundreds of pieces of literature
which were part and parcel of early A.A. and its successful techniques. Devotions with prayers, thoughts
for the day, verses for Bible study, and help for the seeker.
How Long Will
You Wait?
We’ve
reached the point in Twelve Step history where there are few, if any, who ever
met, talked to, or learned directly from Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob, Anne Smith,
Henrietta Seiberling, Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Silkworth, or even A.A. Number
Three—Bill Dotson. Hence speakers cannot speak from experience about these
people and what they did and what they said.
But
they can learn!
Speakers
can, could, and would (if asked) spend the same amount of time looking into
A.A. history resources that Joe and Charlie spent in studying the Big Book so
that they could explain it and teach it to our members all over the world. But
finally, even these servants hung up their jock straps as they played “the last
quarter of the game,” as Charlie put it to me.
Instead
of bemoaning the absence of “old timers” or “elder statesmen” or “people who
knew or were sponsored by Bob or Clarence Snyder” or even archivists who have
studied and know the archives, why not supplement their efforts with new
information, new questions, and bring up a new crop as well?
Would
you rather listen to Eli Whitney tell you how he invented the cotton gin, or
would you find it more instructive if a football star told you how he helped
win the Super Bowl?
Look at the
Early Teachers
Our
founders were humble. Our founders were students. Our founders were ever on a
quest to learn more. Our founders believed in God. Our founders read the Bible.
Our founders read all kinds of religious literature. Our founders put their
learning to use in directly working to help others with what they had found.
Dr.
Bob read the Bible three times to refresh his memory before helping others with
Bible materials. Anne Smith was in the trenches, reading her Bible, suggesting
literature, and teaching from her journal. So was Henrietta Seiberling. So were
Mr. and Mrs. T. Henry Williams. And so was Bill until he got hung up with
depressions shortly after he published the Big Book.
Rev.
Sam Shoemaker never stopped writing, preaching, and teaching. And these, plus
Dr. Silkworth, were the people who handed us the most information.
And What about You!
Are
you willing to look for speakers, sponsors, and programs which will provide a
full platter of information? Are you willing to read whatever you need to read
to learn what you’ve been missing? Are you willing to organize meetings,
seminars, and conferences that will tell others our history? Are you willing to
pass along what you learn? Are you willing to stand up and be counted when
someone asks if you believe in God, if you believe in the importance of the
Bible to AAs, if Jesus Christ has any place in your heart, and if you attend a
church or Bible fellowship or Christian study group?
Are
you willing to be a student, a researcher, a learner, a speaker, a teacher, an
organizer, and a supporter of the quest to learn the truth and carry it to
others in order to help them recover, get well, and be cured?
Would
you rather promote and pass on information about the program Frank Amos described
when he told of the seven-point program in Akron that had produced such
astonishing results? It’s all plainly there for you to see in A.A.’s own DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers on page
131.
You
don’t even have to go to the bookstore or library. Surprise! Lots of facts are
free to view online today. You can study the Book of James, the Sermon on the
Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 by buying a used Bible and reading it. You don’t
even have to go to church or to your rabbi, minister, or priest for “helpful books.”
Although it could help!
If
you don’t want to be one who does or leads, are you willing to support those
who do? Do you realize that in the World Services offices of A.A. itself there
are scrap books that contain hundreds of newspaper clippings and articles that
tell of the cures early AAs claimed they had received at the hands of their Creator?
Have
you thought of ordering, reading, or donating one where it will actually help
someone?
And,
if you found great joy, at learning what the Big Book was all about and how to
take the Twelve Steps properly, are you willing to start or join a group that
does this and studies history as well?
The Bottom Line
Have
you helped a drunk today? Do you belong to a group that really carries out its
primary purpose of helping the alcoholic who still suffers? Do you vote with
your feet when you hear a speaker, a sponsor, or a counselor who talks about
“higher powers,” about “spirituality,” about meeting-makers and what you don’t
need to know, about how much he drank, about how much trouble he had, and yet
who never mentions whether or not he established a relationship with God and
has had something more than a dry drunk in his life?
Think
about it. Think how much you can help others if you are able to tell them what
God has done for you, what God did for the pioneers, and how they learned about
Him from the Good Book!
Dick
B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; DickB@DickB.com;
1-808-874-4876; www.DickB.com.
Gloria Deo
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