Dick B.
© Anonymous. 2015. All rights reserved
Christian Recovery
before A.A.
Congregationalism
and Vermont
·
The First Congregational Church of
Bennington, Vermont is located on Monument Avenue in Bennington, Vermont. It
was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is also known
as the Old First Church. It was “gathered” on December 3, 1762, the first
Protestant congregation in the New Hampshire Grants. The current meeting house
was built in 1805.[1]
[Bicentennial Discourse and Sermon, on August 13, 2006]
·
The families of both Bill W. and
Dr. Bob were much involved with
Congregational Churches. So were Bill and Bob themselves. Dr. Bob and his
family attended the North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. They
frequently attended five times a week.
·
St. Johnsbury Academy, where Dr. Bob
matriculated, was dominated by Congregationalists; and the influence spilled
over into the school requirement that a Congregational Church be attended once
a week; so too with a Bible study; and daily chapel was required—with sermons,
hymns, reading of Scripture, and prayers.
·
Bill Wilson’s families (the Wilsons
and the Griffiths) had homes immediately adjacent to East Dorset Congregational
Church in East Dorset where Bill was born and raised. Both families regularly
attended that church. Bill attended the Sunday school as well as revivals,
sermons, and conversion meetings.
·
When he was enrolled in the
Congregationalist dominated Burr and Burton Seminary, Bill took a four year
Bible study course there; attended daily chapel with sermons, hymns, prayers,
and reading of Scripture. And students frequently marched from the Seminary to
attend various services at Manchester Congregational Church
·
The prominent St. Johnsbury leader
Henry Fairbanks presented a paper before the annual Congregational state
convention in 1895, titled “The Influence of Congregationalism upon Vermont.”
And Fairbanks wrote:
“The Congregational way was
primitive Christianity revived after centuries of departure from the
congregational principles of St. Stephen and the Jerusalem elders.”
·
George Williams, a draper, founded
the Young Men’s Christian Association in London on June 6, 1844. The first YMCA
in the United States was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 29,
1851.[2]
·
Beginning in 1871, YMCA lay
brethren—with the YMCA’s non-denominational approach—conducted canvasses to
bring the Gospel to non-Christians and “awakening” to Christians in the New
England area.[3]
·
Young Men’s Christian Association
laymen were largely responsible for organizing what became “The Great Awakening” of 1875 in St.
Johnsbury. It was a widely-reported event which completely transformed the
community of St. Johnsbury, resulted in construction of many churches, and
produced conversion of a large portion of the population to God through His Son
Jesus Christ.[4]
·
Well-known evangelists who held
campaigns in Vermont around the time Bill W. and Dr. Bob were growing up there
brought people to God through His Son Jesus Christ and often focused on healing
even drunkards.[5]
·
Henry Moorhouse and Ira Sankey
conducted a week-long campaign in St. Johnsbury at the end of October, 1877,
just before Dr. Bob was born on August 8, 1879. Many of the other well-known
evangelists were not only linked together in friendship, but also in a chain of
evangelism and revival.
·
Roger Bruns pointed out in his book,
Preacher:
From the earliest days of American
Protestantism, revivalists held fast to the belief that the universe was neatly
divided between God and Satan, the elect and the damned, the pure and the
despoiled.
From Jonathan Edwards to Charles
Finney to Lyman Beecher to Dwight Moody, Bible-clutching evangelists preached
the complete authority of the Scriptures, the necessity of personal conversion,
and a life free of vice.
Personal and evangelical
Protestantism taught a close relationship between men and women and their God,
challenging the sinner to renounce the ways of the devil and to repent.
·
Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter wrote
in The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever:
The Layman’s Prayer revival which
began in 1857 deeply influenced America. . . . Across the ocean, the 1859
awakening in Britain raised a host of evangelists, missionaries, and social
reformers. . . .
Existing mission, Bible, Sunday
school, and tract societies in both Britain and America flourished, with new
workers revived or converted during the awakening.
New societies were formed to promote
home missions, establishing Sunday schools and churches throughout both
nations. The YMCA, the Salvation Army, the China Inland Mission, the Christian
Brethren, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance were just a few of the many
ministries and denominations born early in this awakening.[7]
·
William T. Ellis’s book on Billy
Sunday stated:
Professor William James, the
philosopher, contended that there was scientific value to the stories of
Christian conversions; that these properly belonged among the data of religion,
to be weighed by the man of science. This point is one of the most critical in
the whole realm of the discussion of revivals.[8]
·
And then there is the dramatic
account of the Healing Movement:
[A. J.] Gordon began including
healing in his ministry after he observed an opium addict delivered and a
missionary’s cancerous jaw healed instantaneously through the prayers of
concerned believers during Dwight L. Moody’s revival meetings in Boston in
1877.
These meetings revitalized the life
of Clarendon Church, which Gordon pastored, and brought reformed drunkards and
all kinds of commoners into the ranks of this affluent church.[9]
·
Though the numbers of such
evangelists are many, the following deserve special attention with reference to
the First Century Christian origins of the Christian Recovery Movement and the
influence on A.A.’s founders:
·
Some of the evangelists mentioned
above actually held campaigns in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where Dr. Bob was born
and raised.
The
“Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont
·
This event caught the attention of
pastors, churches, denominations, organizations, newspapers, and writers. The
transformation of communities—particularly St. Johnsbury—involved the
conversion of one-third of the population, the erection of new churches, and a
change in the attitude of citizens.
·
The accounts are so lengthy and
numerous that we leave the important description of them to the pages of Dick
B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics
Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont.
·
Jerry McAuley founded the first
rescue mission in the United States in 1872.
o
It was originally known as “Helping
Hand for Men,” and later became known as known as “The (Old McAuley) Water
Street Mission.”
o
McAuley--and his successor
superintendent at the mission, Samuel Hopkins Hadley (also known as “S. H.
Hadley”)—focused (in colloquial language) on “soup, soap, and salvation.”
·
S. H. Hadley’s son, Henry Harrison
Hadley II (also known as “Harry Hadley”)--named after S. H. Hadley’s brother,
Colonel Henry Harrison Hadley--collaborated with Rev. Sam Shoemaker in opening
the Calvary Mission on 23rd Street in Manhattan in 1926 and became its first
superintendent.
·
Taylor
(“Tex”) Francisco—who took over as superintendent of Calvary Mission in
1933—was the superintendent of the Calvary Mission when Bill W.’s “sponsor,”
Ebby Thacher, accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior there on November 1,
1934;
·
Tex
was still the superintendent when Bill W. accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and
Savior there about December 7, 1934, just before Bill entered Towns Hospital
for his fourth and final stay for alcoholism treatment on December 11, 1934.[19]
·
Records in such descriptive books as
J. Wilbur Chapman, S.H. Hadley of Water
Street
tell
of the tens of thousands of down-and-outers that went through Water Street
Mission and were helped, if not healed.
·
Records of Calvary Mission, where
both Ebby Thacher and Bill Wilson accepted Christ, also report on the thousands
helped in that facility which was owned by Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker’s Calvary
Episcopal Church in New York.
·
“General” William Booth founded an
organization in July 1865 in England— an early name for which was “The
Christian Mission”—that became known as “The Salvation Army” in 1878. Booth
sent an official group to the United States in 1880 to pioneer work for the
organization.[20]
·
The Salvation Army’s work with
drunkards, derelicts, and criminals in the slums became popularized in Harold
Begbie’s Twice-Born Men—a book owned,
circulated, and widely-read by Oxford Group people and by the Akron AAs.[21]
·
The effectiveness and techniques of
the Salvation Army are well discussed by Dr. Howard Clinebell of the Claremont
School of Theology.[22] Also in one of the lectures given at the Yale Alcohol
Studies in 1945—an event in which Bill Wilson was one of the participating
lecturers.[23]
·
The Rev. Dr. Francis E. Clark
founded this society at the Williston Church in Portland, Maine, on February 2,
1881.
·
Around the time its National
Convention was convened July 9 and 10, 1885, at Ocean Park, Maine, the “United
Society of Christian Endeavor” was founded and incorporated under the laws of
Maine. At that convention, Mr. Van Patten of Burlington, Vermont, was chosen
President.
·
This Christian society, aimed at
young people in the church, spread throughout the world and reached a peak
membership of around 4.5 million members.
·
A Christian Endeavor Society started
in North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, in 1887 (when Dr. Bob was about
eight years old); and Dr. Bob said he was actively involved in it “from
childhood through high school.”[24]
·
Christian Endeavor’s ideas and
regimen of:
- Confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
- Conversion meetings,
- Bible study meetings,
- Prayer meetings,
- Quiet Hour,
- Topical discussions, and
- Reading of Christian literature closely paralleled the
original Akron A.A. program founded by Bill W. and Dr. Bob in 1935.[25]
·
Let us also look at the Oxford
Group—which originally called itself “A First Century Christian Fellowship”[26]—and aspects of its influence on early A.A.
·
In the Group’s earliest days, Oxford
Group leader Sherwood Sunderland Day wrote a little pamphlet succinctly
summarizing the principles of the Oxford Group.[27] Day wrote at the beginning of his pamphlet that the principles
of the Oxford Group were the principles of the Bible.
·
And if you read my [Dick B.’s]
comprehensive book, The Oxford Group and
Alcoholics Anonymous,[28] you will see two major points:
o
The Oxford Group’s 28 principles
that impacted on A.A. each rested on biblical principles Bill W. incorporated
into the Big Book.
o
Oxford Group writer after Oxford
Group writer—many of whose books were read by early AAs--quoted the Bible in
support of those 28 principles that later impacted on Bill’s language and
approach to the Big Book.
·
It was Bill Wilson himself who said:
“I am always glad to say privately that some of the Oxford Group presentation
and emphasis upon the Christian message saved my life.”[29]
·
Bill W.’s wife, Lois, was even
clearer on what the Oxford Group and its First Century Christianity had done
for A.A. and for her Bill. Lois wrote:
·
The next few months were a happy
time for Bill. He had the companionship of his alcoholic friends, the spiritual
inspiration of the Oxford Group and the satisfaction of being useful to those
he worked with.[31]
·
The Oxford Group precepts [as Lois
characterized them] were in substance:
- Surrender your life to God;
- Take a moral inventory;
- Confess your sins to God and another human being;
- Make restitution;
- Give of yourself to others with no demand for return;
- Pray to God for help to carry out these principles.
- There were also four “Absolutes”: absolute honesty,
absolute purity, absolute unselfishness and absolute love, moral
standards by which every thought and action should be tested.[32]
·
Bill’s wife Lois stated further concerning
Buchman’s efforts:
God, through the Oxford Group, had
accomplished in a twinkling what I had failed to do in seventeen years.[33]
The Facts That
Accompanied
the
“Dis-Association” of A.A.’s Cofounders from the Oxford Group
·
Reverend
Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., played an important role in the developing of A.A.’s
Twelve Steps. Rev. Garrett Stearly, a
key Shoemaker colleague, was an eye witness to a conversation between Bill
Wilson and Sam Shoemaker relating to the Twelve Steps. In that discussion, Bill
actually asked Sam to write the Twelve Steps, but Sam declined.[34]
·
Another
Shoemaker colleague, Rev. W. Irving Harris, was Shoemaker’s assistant minister
and actually worked with Shoemaker and Bill W. on the book project. James
Newton provided me with a newspaper photo of Bill W., Irving Harris, and his
wife Julia Harris, crediting Irving and Julia Harris with a prominent role in
the development of A.A.
·
Julia
Harris, wife of Rev. W. Irving Harris,
sent Dick B. a number of Shoemaker books, Harris’s book The Breeze of the Spirit, and wrote one
of the Forewords to Dick’s book about Shoemaker and A.A.—New Light on Alcoholism, 2d ed. It was A.A. archivist Nell Wing who
put Dick in touch with Julia Harris—Irving having passed on. But Julia sent to
Dick a memorandum typed personally by Irvin g Harris that contained a great
deal of information about Bill W.’s rebirth at Calvary Mission and his later
collaboration with Shoemaker on the proposed Big Book and Steps. The memorandum is produced in full on pages
533-35 in Appendix Four of Dick B., New
Light on Alcoholism, 2d ed. The Harris memo is also reproduced on pages
20-21 of the following book about Samuel M. Shoemaker: Bill Pittman and Dick
B., comp. and ed., Courage to Change: The
Christian Roots of the 12-Step Movement (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H.
Revell, 1994).
·
Reverend
Harris wrote specifically in the memo that it was at Calvary Mission where Bill
“was moved to declare that he had decided to launch out as a follower of Jesus
Christ.” Harris then pointed out how
Bill and Sam had worked on the Big Book ideas in Shoemaker’s “book-lined study”
at Calvary House (where Shoemaker lived).
·
Harris
further pointed out that Bill was familiar with the aforementioned seven basic
principles of Christian living as laid out for Shoemaker by Rev. Sherry Day.
·
Harris
also wrote that, in the course of Bill’s talking to Shoemaker, Sam would say of
the manuscript materials: “Sounds like good old fashioned Christian faith,
Bill.” And Bill would reply: “Yes it looks that way . . . almost too good to be
true.”
·
In
addition to being rector of Calvary Church, Shoemaker was the chief American
lieutenant of the Oxford Group, and his church’s Calvary House actually
provided offices for the Oxford Group.
·
And
Shoemaker, in his writings, many many times referred to the Oxford Group as “A
First Century Christian Fellowship.” He
also spoke of First Century Christianity in terms of a fellowship.[35]
·
Lois
Wilson wrote that she and Bill were kind of “kicked out” of the Oxford Group in
August of 1937.[36]
·
While
the Akron AAs met every Wednesday in what one observer called a “clandestine
lodge” of the Oxford Group,[37]
the daily Christian Fellowship meetings and the daily morning Quiet Times with
Dr. Bob’s wife did not even closely resemble Oxford Group meetings. In early
January, 1940, Dr. Bob wrote to Bill W. that Akron had “definitely shaken off
the shackles of the Oxford Group.”[38]
[1] John M. Comstock, The Congregational Churches of Vermont and
Their Ministry, 1762-1942. Historical and Statistical. (St. Johnsbury, VT:
The Cowles Press, Inc., 1942), 9: “The rapid settlement of Vermont did not
begin until the close of the French and Indian War. . . . Settlers now came in
rapidly from the longer settled parts of New England. These were nearly all of
Puritan stock, and so naturally Congregationalists. The first of the new
settlements was at Bennington, and there the first church of our order and the
first Protestant church in the state was organized in 1762, the next year after
the beginning of the town.”
[2] “The story of our founding” at
The Y/YMCA Web site: http://www.ymca.net/history/founding.html ; accessed 2/15/12.
[3] Edward T. Fairbanks, The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vt: A Review of
One Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant 1912 (St.
Johnsbury, Vt.: The Cowles Press, 1914), 316-17.
[4] Dick B., and Ken B., Dr.
Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, 67-68, 97, 119, 125-28, 171, 247-62.
[5] “The Great Awakening” in St.
Johnsbury, Vermont, began on February 6, 1875, just a few months before Dwight
L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey arrived back in America on August 14, 1875,
following their two-year tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Dr. Bob was
born on August 8, 1879, and graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1898. He
then left Vermont to attend Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Bill
W. was born on November 26, 1895. Bill turned his back on God during his senior
year at Burr and Burton Academy after the young woman he was in love with,
Bertha Bamford, died on November 18, 1912.
[6] Roger A. Bruns, Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-time American
Evangelism (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1992), 134-35.
[7] Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever: From
Pentecost to the Present (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 2000), 136.
[8] William T. Ellis, Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (Chicago:
Moody Press, 1959), 136.
[9] Richard M. Riss, A Survey of 20th-Century Revival
Movements in North America (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1988), 22. For
further understanding of Gordon’s role, see A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing: Miracles of Cure in All Ages (London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1881); and Scott M. Gibson, A. J. Gordon: American Premillennialist (Lanham, MD: University
Press of America, 2001).
[10] Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever: From
Pentecost to the Present (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 2000):
Finney was converted in 1821 (p. 100). In what became known as “The General
Awakening” period ending in 1830, Finney had taken his ministry to New York
where some 100,000 people were converted (p. 104). Finney had previously
conducted his early meetings throughout rural New England (p. 98). He was known
as the “Father of Modern Revivalism,” became known as the originator of the
altar call and the “anxious seat” for those expected to come to Jesus Christ
(p. 102). Kenneth O. Brown, Holy Ground:
The Camp Meeting Family Tree (Hazleton, PA: Holiness Archives, 1997):
Finney used a huge tent in Oberlin, Ohio in 1835. And he, along with Dwight
Moody, Billy Sunday, Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham became famed for what was
called “Tabernacle revivalism” (pp. 64-65). Roger A. Bruns, Billy Sunday and Big Time American
Evangelism (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001): His
most famous sermon was “Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts” (p. 67). He
often pointed out sinners in the audience, challenging them personally to
forsake their evil ways and to follow Christ (p. 68). He had a vision of a
mighty force of reformed Christians purifying the nation of sin and sordidness;
and he took the revivalist impulse and mass conversion efforts from rural
settings into the cities (p. 69). Many read his handbook on revivalism (p. 70).
[11] Much can be said about the
famous English evangelist, F. B. Meyer. That is probably one of the reasons is
that he touched so many of the lives that impacted on early A.A through
evangelists and revivals. Bob Holman, F.B.
Meyer: “If I Had a Hundred Lives” (Great Britain: Christian Focus
Publications, Ltd., 2007): He was one of the great influences in the
evangelical world in the latter 19th and 20th century. He
helped launch the then unknown Dwight L. Moody for his first evangelistic
mission in the UK, was himself a famous Holiness preacher on both sides of the
Atlantic, played a role in the Welsh revival of 1904, and was an outstanding
Bible teacher of his day (p. 2). He believed the Bible as God’s revelation;
that conversion depended upon belief in heart and mind; that mankind was justly
condemned for sin but God’s infinite love resulted in Jesus coming to earth and
that his death is accepted by Infinite justice as the basis for reconciliation
between man and God (p. 21). At the invitation of Dwight Moody, he went to the
U.S. to speak at the well-established Northfield Conference (p. 65). He was
asked to head Christ Church, and negotiated for the post with George Williams,
a trustee at Christ Church who had played a large part in the founding of the
Young Men’s Christian Association (p. 67). He believed the Sunday diet was not
sufficient for Christian growth; and he introduced the Monday prayer meeting,
held a service and sermon at noon on Thursdays, and conducted a Bible reading
on Friday evening. And he launched a Young Men’s Christian Association program
(pp. 76-77). He also took a close interest in the Young People’s Society of
Christian Endeavor and eventually became president of the Central South London
Christian Endeavor Union (p. 93). His evangelism resulted in many conversions
(p. 98). He spent a great deal of time serving others. On Saturday afternoons,
he would talk to and spend time with young men at the YMCA in central
London. At 7 p.m., he would conduct the
worker’s prayer meeting. On Sundays he would usually preach at three services,
and also participate in one or more of the meetings for children and young
people (p. 104). He traveled to the United States at least 20 times; and in
1898 he went to Washington, D.C., opened the Senate with prayer, and had a talk
with President McKinley (p. 125). He also became President of the World’s
Sunday School Association (p. 126). He had much to do with the early life of
Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman. Buchman went to Britain the seek Meyer. In
1912, Meyer came to the Penn State College campus and told Buchman to listen
more to God than the phones and to work personally rather than organizing large
meetings. Buchman was much influenced by Meyer’s books, especially his Secret of Guidance (p.155). F. B. Meyer
was president of the National Union of Christian Endeavor and the National
Sunday School Association (p. 181). He met Moody’s partner, Ira Sankey, and it
was Moody who taught Meyer how to win people to Christ (p. 30). Meyer reckoned
that in nine cases out of ten, drink had contributed to the crimes which landed
men in prison (p. 38). He worked with homeless boys and youngsters who had been
in prison (p. 43). Meyer told a group of young men: “A man must not only
believe in Christ for final salvation, but must trust him for victory over
every sin, and for deliverance from every care” (p. 47). Meyer also spoke at a
large meeting along with General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
(p. 195).
[12] Towns and Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever: In 1859,
Dwight L. Moody was elected president of the Illinois Sunday School
Association. He established a prayer meeting, called the “Illinois Band,” which
included such prominent Americans as H. J. Heinz and John Wannamaker—their goal
being to bring Christ to the world (p. 119). Moody became an evangelist, went
to England, returned to America preaching to huge crowds, but was cut down by
the Chicago fire and many deaths that accompanied it. Moody began making
invitations for conversion which he called “Instantaneous Conversion,”
explaining how people could be saved immediately by accepting Christ” (p.131).
Moody was a leader of the Young Men’s Christian Association, the American
Sunday School movement, and also was editor of Christian Endeavor’s pamphlet, The Golden Rule. He brought to America
such famous evangelists as F. B. Meyer and Henry Drummond, and was a friend of
evangelist Allen Folger. Moody’s ideas were very much appropriated by Oxford
Group founder Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman and found their way into early A.A.
thinking. See J. Wilbur Chapman, The Life
and Work of Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), http//www.bible
believers.com/moody/index.html. See also: Riss, A Survey, 14-29; Towns and Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals, 119, 130-38; and Mark O. Guldseth, Streams (Fritz Creek, AK: Fritz Creek
Studios, 1982).
[13] As to Sankey, see: (1) J. Wilbur
Chapman, The Life and Work of Dwight L.
Moody (Boston, MA: Geo. M. Smith, 1900); and (2) Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Wonderful Career of Moody and Sankey in
Great Britain and America (NY: Henry B. Goodspeed & Co., 1876). See
also Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B.
Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 2010).
[14] As to Henry Drummond, see George
Smith, The Life of Henry Drummond
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1899); and James Young Simpson, Henry Drummond (Edinburgh: Oliphant,
Anderson & Ferrier, 1901). Dr. Bob owned, read, studied, and circulated
among AAs a large number of Drummond’s books. Dick B., Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc.,
[15] John MacPherson, Henry Moorhouse, the English Evangelist
(London: Morgan and Scott, n.d.).
[16] As to K. A. Burnell and H. M.
Moore, see Record of Christian Work, Vol.
18, April 1899, No. 4, 170-71. As to Burnell, Moody, and Sankey, see The Advance, September 21, 1905, 318-19.
[17] Allen Folger, Twenty-five Years as an Evangelist (Springfield,
MO J. H. Earle & Company, 1915). Folger was deeply involved with the Young
Men’s Christian Association evangelism with more than 700 meetings in New
England. He was involved with the Young Men’s Christian Association there (pp.
153, 215); with Moody and Sankey (p. 70); with healings (pp. 186-87);with the
problems of addiction and drinking people (p. 318); with conversion and
salvation (pp. 322-31, 289); with Vermont (p. 245); with revivals (p. 144); and with hundreds of
meetings (p. 334).
[18] Billy was a baseball star, who
was converted to God through Jesus Christ, was trained in the Young Men’s
Christian Association, preached, converted thousands, was involved in Christian
Endeavor, and was a champion of “personal work.” His definition of conversion
was a complete surrender to Jesus Christ. He said: The plan of salvation is
presented to you in two parts. Believe in your heart and confess with your
mouth [Romans 10:9].
[19] Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd
ed., 8-11. See also: Dick B., The
Conversion of Bill W.
[20] “History of the Salvation Army”:
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/816DE20E46B88B2685257435005070FA?openDocument&charset=utf-8 ; accessed 2/15/12.
[21] See the review of elements of
Salvation Army as they relate to A.A.: http://mauihistorian.blogspot.com/2012/01/salvation-army-influence-on-and.html .
[22] Howard Clinebell, Understanding and Counseling Persons with
Alcohol, Drug, and Behavioral Addictions, rev. and enl. ed. (Nashville,
Abingdon Press, 1998).
[23] The techniques of the Salvation
Army were summarized and given high praise in: Francis W. McPeek, “The Role of
Religious Bodies in the Treatment of Inebriety in the United States,” Lecture
26 of the Yale Alcohol Studies Lectures of 1945, in Alcohol, Science and Society: Twenty-nine Lectures with Discussions as
Given at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies (New Haven: Quarterly
Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Inc., 1945). Rev.
McPeek stated: “Much work was done in city missions and particularly by the
Salvation Army. The Army, however, has focused its efforts on the conversion
experience and has made use of its own facilities and of other community
resources when these were needed in aftercare. . . . Generally speaking, the
Salvationists have capitalized on the same techniques that have made other
reform programs work: (1) Insistence on total abstinence; (2) Reliance upon
God; (3) the provision of new friendships among those who understand; (4) the
opportunity to work with those who suffer from the same difficulty; and (5)
unruffled patience and consistent faith in the ability of the individual and in
the power of God to accomplish the desired results” [pp. 414-15].
[24] Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 172.
[25] Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd
ed., 18; Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of
Alcoholics Anonymous, 143-67.
[26] Garth Lean, Frank Buchman: A Life (London: Constable, 1995), 97.
[27] Sherwood Sunderland Day, The Principles of the Oxford Group
(Great Britain: The Oxford Group, n.d.).
[28] Dick B., The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That
Works, new, rev. ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc.,
1998).
[29] “Pass It On,” p. 171.
[30] Lois Remembers, 92.
[31] Lois Remembers, 98.
[32] Lois Remembers, 92. These Oxford Group Four Absolutes derived
directly from a foundational book by Robert E. Speer, The Principles of Jesus: Applied to Some Questions of Today (NY:
Fleming H. Revell, 1902). Some writers have erroneously spoken of them as
having been derived from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
[33] Lois Remembers, 99.
[34] This information was
conveyed on a phone call to Dick B. by
Oxford Group activist James Draper Newton. Newton was a long-time friend of Sam
Shoemaker and of Rev. Garrett Stearly. He said that Stearly had twice told him
of this conversation, in order to make sure that Newton not only heard it and
heard it repeated and then remembered it. Newton phoned Dick B. on two
different occasions to tell him about Stearly, Shoemaker, Bill W. Twelve Step
proposal that Shoemaker declined.
[35] New Light on Alcoholism, 2d ed., 228, 262-263, 278, 318-322; Courage to Change, 216.
[36] Lois Remembers, 102; “PASS IT
ON,” 174.
[37] DR. BOB and the Good-Oldtimers, 121.
[38] DR. BOB, 218.
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