John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Several Associates Likened Early Alcoholics Anonymous to First Century Christianity

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Several Associates

Likened Early Alcoholics Anonymous to First Century Christianity

Albert Scott, Chairman of the Trustees for Riverside Church in New York: In December 1937, a meeting was held in John D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s private board room. Bill W., Dr. Bob, and some other alcoholics from New York and Akron—together with Dr. William D. Silkworth and Dr. Leonard Strong—met with Rockefeller’s associates Willard Richardson, A. Leroy Chapman, Frank Amos, and Albert Scott. The meeting was chaired by Albert Scott, chairman of the board of trustees of New York’s Riverside Church. Each alcoholic was enjoined to tell his own personal story, after which, the chairman Albert Scott exclaimed, “Why, this is first-century Christianity!” . . .  “What can we do to help?” [Source: Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 148]

Albert Scott (again):  John D. Rockefeller, Jr., arranged a dinner on February 8, 1940, at the Union Club in New York to raise money for Alcoholics Anonymous. John D. had intended to attend; but he was too ill to do so and sent his son Nelson Rockefeller to host the dinner. According to a digest of the events at the dinner, Scott stated: “What they [Bill W. and the other early AAs] had done, it seemed to me, had gone back to the techniques of primitive Christianity, where one person told the good news to another.” [Source: “The Rockefeller Dinner”: http://www.barefootsworld.net/aarockdinner.html; accessed 8/22/2014. See also: silkworth.net/gsowatch/1940/dinner_capture.pdf’]

Rockefeller Agent Frank Amos: [In a report made in 1938 which discussed the 110 members then in the program, 70 of whom were in the Akron-Cleveland, Ohio, area, Frank Amos stated:] “. . . [I]n many respects, their meetings have taken on the form of the meetings described in the Gospels of the early Christians during the first century.” [Source: Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 135-36]

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., himself: “Willard Richardson [a close associate of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.] added his approval to the report [prepared by Rockefeller agent Frank Amos after his thorough investigation of early A.A. in Akron in February 1938] and immediately passed it on to Mr. Rockefeller. . . . Rockefeller was impressed. He saw the parallel with early Christianity and along with this he spotted a combination of medicine and religion that appealed to all his charitable inclinations.” [Robert Thomsen, Bill W. (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 275]

Nelson Rockefeller, speaking about his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: Bill Wilson’s wife Lois made the following statement in her memoirs about the dinner Nelson Rockefeller hosted on behalf of his father (who was too ill to attend) at the Union Club in New York on February 8, 1940, to raise money for Alcoholics Anonymous: “When Nelson [Rockefeller] finally got up to talk, there was a great deal of expectancy. He told how impressed his father [John D. Rockefeller, Jr.] was with this unique movement, which resembled early Christianity.” [Source: Lois Remembers (New York: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., 1987), 128-29]