When
I came to A.A. almost nineteen years
ago, I had no idea that it was based
on the Bible. Nor that it had been
a Christian Fellowship in 1935. Nor
that people had read the Bible in
meetings; prayed in meetings; sought
God's guidance in meetings; and accepted
Jesus Christ as their Saviour as part
of becoming members.
It
probably would then have made little
difference even if I had known these
things. Little difference at the beginning,
that is. I was an alcoholic. I was very
sick. I was in lots of trouble. I was
lonely, depressed, frightened, guilty,
bewildered, and seemingly devoid of
any further purpose in life. I had lost
it all, I thought. I wasn't seeking
a new religion. I already had one. Some
call it Christianity. I wasn't seeking
a church. I had already been president
of a Community Church. I wasn't seeking
a Bible fellowship. I already belonged
to one. But everything had gone wrong.
Everything! And it was very important
for me to learn the part that alcohol
and sleeping pills had played. Nobody
subjected me to a litmus test on my
religious beliefs when I entered A.A.'s
doors. They just helped me. At the beginning,
that is.
After
about a month and a half of sobriety,
however, I mentioned the Bible in a
morning A.A. meeting. Whammo! Some lady
said she resented hearing about the
Bible in an A.A. meeting. I shut up.
Two months later, I returned to that
same meeting. And, by golly, there she
was again. She pointed at me and said
she still resented hearing about the
Bible in meetings (even though I hadn't
said a word). For a long time thereafter,
I never mentioned the Bible in A.A.
meetings at all.
Then
one night, a young newcomer was sitting
in a Beginners' Meeting I happened to
attend. He said he believed that Jesus
Christ was the way, the truth, and the
life. Whammo! A guy was all over him.
This guy shouted: You never talk
about Jesus Christ in an A.A. meeting
because A.A. is not religious. It's
a spiritual program. Then someone read
the Traditions out loud, and the disturber
quieted down. But I didn't forget the
tongue-lashing that young Christian
received.
Finally,
after a couple of years of sobriety,
after substantial study of the Big Book,
and after taking a number of newcomers
through their Steps, I began talking
a good deal about GodBparticularly in
the Friday Nite Beginners' Meeting where
I had cut my teeth. My own treatment
center had been bussing people to that
very meeting. Whammo! Suddenly, no more
newcomers from the treatment center.
The director phoned me to tell me that
I had been talking too much about God
in my volunteer Step Studies at the
treatment center and in the
A.A. meeting. He said, AHere's what
you have to do.@ I don't know what else
he said because I hung up and stopped
volunteering for, and doing Twelve Step
Studies with, the patients at his
treatment center.
Next
episode: A number of my sponsees had
begun attending our Bible fellowship.
Whammo! My grandsponsor started an anonymous
whispering campaign. He had my sponsor
call me and say that a Acertain person@
had told him I was endangering newcomers
by taking them to Bible study. My sponsor
passed along the message that people
who read the Bible get drunk. And
I got a new sponsor.
Finally,
our A.A. Steps To The Solution Group
put on a huge history meeting for our
whole county's A.A. people. There were
between 600 and 800 AAs present. Dr.
Bob's son was there as a speaker. Mel
B., an old timer with over 40 years
of sobriety, had come there from Toledo
to tell about A.A.'s being based on
the Bible. An Oxford Group man was there
to tell about A.A.'s Oxford Group root.
And I spoke on my research and findings
on A.A.'s Bible roots. Whammo! Another
one of those Acertain person@ calls.
This time I was told that a Acertain
person@ had concluded our A.A. group
didn't have enough sobriety to put on
a program (that was filled to overflowing
with 800 AAs). Mention of the Bible
was again our alleged malfeasance! Not
surprisingly, my former grand sponsor
(a grey-beard with about 12 years of
sobriety) was the instigator. He saw
to it that there were no more A.A. history
meetings in his county. And there's
lots more.
I
get hundreds of e-mails, phone messages,
and letters from people in A.A. who
have run up against the same anti-God,
anti-Bible, anti-Christian cross-talk
in their meetings. And it intimidates
most of them. It produces silence on
their part. Hardly a tribute to our
primary purpose of message-carrying.
Off
to Hawaii I went. By that time, I was
traveling widely to learn, and writing
extensively on, A.A.'s major spiritual
rootsBthe Bible, Quiet Time, Anne Smith,
Rev. Sam Shoemaker, the Oxford Group,
and Christian literature. One of our
Maui A.A. groups had arranged
for a history meeting in HawaiiBsimilar
to the one that had been such a success
in California. Whammo! An anonymous
few Apowers that be@ in Maui cancelled
it. The Amanager@ of a nearby A.A. office
wrote on official A.A. stationary that
I had a Alot of nerve@ trying to Christianize
AAs on Maui while he was teaching them
about a power greater than themselves
on his Island. He wrote that
I should leave history to the historians.
Another AABlater an A.A. delegateBsaid
I hadn't done my homework or our meeting
would not have met the opposition it
did.
Gossip
multiplies quite rapidly in A.A. Later
still, three young newcomer women in
our area told one of my sponsees that
he was making a mistake picking me as
his sponsor because I was talking to
him about the Bible. He became concerned
and frightened. He promptly got drunk.
And, as far as I can tell, so did the
three women. Not that any of this has
stopped my carrying the message of A.A.
I spoke at a history meeting at the
time of its recent International Convention
in Minneapolis. It should be noted,
however, that this widely attended and
much-acclaimed meeting had to be held
next door to the convention. Apparently
A.A. history was not acceptable at that
high level! Only next doorBwith all
kinds of old-timers sharing.
More?
Yes, still later, one of our delightful
open-air meetings produced the tall
tale that our A.A. crowd were
AJesus freaks,@ had held a birthday
party at our Bible fellowship where
booze was served, and were all drinking
again.@ Even later, an older member
out here tried to ban the Bible
at a Young People's Meeting where one
of my sponsees was Secretary. He did
not succeed. So he went to the Alano
Club out here and tried the same tactic.
He was unanimously voted down. Down,
but not out!
One
night, at the Young People's meeting,
a speaker shared that he had really
being enriched spiritually in
a Christian fellowship he had joined
on the other side of the Island. Whammo!
A trouble-maker interrupted. The guy
shouted at the speaker that he was a
Hindu, and said to the young man: AYou
offend me.@ Several of us promptly left
the meeting. A fist fight followed,
and the police were called to end the
fray. The last time I saw the young
Christian, he was drinking a glass of
wine at an Island restaurant. I have
never seen him at an A.A. meeting again..
I've
traveled to many of our States, spoken
at and attended thousands of A.A. meetings,
and met hundreds of AAsBboth new and
old. Many many times, I have been told
that incidents like the foregoing are
common, well-known, and intimidating.
Such outbreaks often do involve people
who are Adry,@angry, sick, egotistical,
and looking for something or someone
to lay into. They find Christians an
easy target if the believers open their
mouths about their convictions. It happens
all over the United States, and I have
innumerable communications that confirm
the situation.
What's
the problem? All I know is that early
AAs believed in God. They were male.
Most were Protestant. Most were, or
became, Christians. They studied the
Bible. They prayed together. Meetings
closed with the Lord's Prayer. Most
in A.A. today are still asking how and
why the Lord's Prayer is part of the
Anon-religious@ A.A. ritual. History!
Before long, A.A.'s dedicated pioneers
had ushered in thousands of Roman Catholics,
Jews, women, and, allegedly, even some
atheists. But there don't appear to
have been fist fights or verbal attacks
that drove any of these people out
of A.A. Some Christians, maybe,
but not the onrushing hordes. Instead,
the treatment centers and courts kept
pouring in to A.A. every variety of
sick alcoholic. And these people were
helpedBnot driven out by agitators.
The reason? There was still, A.A. said,
a single purpose and a common solution.
These did not include Christian-baiting!
Nonetheless,
my present series of articles points
to a new and growing problem: God seems
to have been scratched from A.A. at
every turn, and wherever possible. A
recent publicity blurb on A.A.'s new
AFourth Edition@ Big Book opines that
still another new edition will soon
be necessary because, before long, most
AAs will be from the East. Presumably
Buddhists, Moslems, Hindus, who want
to hear about their god or gods
The complexion of A.A. is changing,
the article says. And perhaps it is.
But that's not going to make A.A. any
more peaceful or harmoniousBand probably
no less hateful than angry trouble-makers
are making present-day A.A. It's almost
as if there were a license today to
attack religion rather than to propose
that you find GodBand find Him now!
Take
Almighty God out of A.A. Get
angry atheists, funded therapists, confused
insurance companies, and government
regulators promoting treatment instead
of Divine healing. Replace God with
assorted radiators, tractors, coke bottles,
chairs, tables, somethings, any gods,
not-gods, lightbulbs, idols, and Aits.@
At that point, you have no program.
In fact many perpetrators of the
evil nonsense have never even been members
of A.A. or no longer participate in
A.A. With that backdrop and the power
of the press, you can visualize a basic
text that no longer stresses emphatically
that you should find God. Now!
Instead,
it might well point its message at a
polyglot band of new, sick people who
are told they don't have to believe
in anything at all, but who are supposed
to hold hands and administer help, steps,
and studies to other equally confused
newcomers.
Ban
our Biblical history because that conflicts
with the Aany god@ thesis and/or treatment
mania. Ban religious utterances because
A.A. should be purified and transformed
from Areligious@ to Aspiritual,@ whatever
that means. Ban Christian words and
phrases because Moslems might hear something
contrary to their experiences and beliefs.
Ban believer meetings and groups because
atheists might be upset at the mention
of God. Ban Bible-quoters because Bible
talk might offend an agnostic. And is
all this possible? I don't know.
But
the hand-writing is on the wall. A.A.
literature talks of Aany god@ or Ano
god.@ AAs who sound off against religious
language are tolerated instead of scolded.
Specifically, A.A. historical books
and materials have been banned from
Dr. Bob's Akron home because of AChristian@
content. A Ableeding deacon@ who is
the moderator of one A.A. history group
on the internet pointedly bans Christian
historical items from her site
(saying they are Apreaching@) and seeks
to ban items from another history group
on the net. You have to concede, when
you learn more about these people, that
they are often long-term AAs. They often
Ahelp@ newcomers. They are often avowedly
seeking to Aprotect and preserve@ A.A.
Traditions. They are usually self-righteous.
But nothing in A.A.'s Big Book, Twelve
Steps, or Twelve Traditions supports
such attempted censorship. A.A. has
no index of forbidden books, and it
never had one.
But
there are many believers in A.A. today
who would rather leave their beloved
fellowship, become active in a church,
join a Christian Twelve Step Program,
or form a Jews for Jesus group than
deal with any of the problems we've
outlined. They are also many unbelievers
who would rather seek an atheist or
secular solution that sit in the middle
of our religious diatribes.
The
trend today suggests that A.A.’s highest
level servants will keep running the
printing presses, modifying the original
program, presenting some Auniversal@
program, expanding into the Third World
and New Age arenas, and offering a Ahigher
power something@ for everybody. With
probable success for nobody.
In
this article about God and Alcoholics
Anonymous, we pose the question: Is
recovery, healing, spiritual growth,
and Divine Aid (as Bill Wilson called
it) in A.A. still about Afinding@ God
and establishing a relationship with
Him? A.A.'s basic text seems to say,
Yes. But other AConference Approved@
literature, the chatter at its meetings,
the pronouncements of scholars, the
observations of historians, the opinions
of professors, and the requirements
of treatment professionals all appear
to shout a loud, ANo.@ These posit quite
clearly that A.A. today is not about
God or finding God or establishing a
relationship with God. It's not about
ADivine Help.@ It's gaining a reputation
for being about self-help, believing
anything you want, not believing anything
at all, and carrying any message you
like, but making certain you go to meetings
and abstain from drinking!
GodBthe
Creator of whom our pioneers wrote and
spokeBgives us freedom of choice, freedom
to screw up, freedom to worship idols,
freedom to drink and use, and freedom
to destroy ourselves with addictions.
To paraphrase the Bible, Shoemaker,
and WilsonBallBADraw nigh to God, and
he will draw nigh to you@ (James 4:8).
He's here. He's available. He's promised
healing, forgiveness, and deliverance
to those who want Him and are willing
to obey Him. But He's not known for
chasing people. He commands. We are
to obey. AThy will be done@ (a phrase
from the Bible that Bill Wilson used
more than once in the Big Book) means
God reveals His will. Our job is to
fulfill it (Matthew 6:10, 33; 7:21).
AOld School@ A.A. frequently quoted
the Sermon on the Mount: Seek and ye
shall find, said the Old School crowd
(Matthew 7:7BAseek, and ye shall find@).
We seek. Then we find. Ask and
ye shall receive, suggested Old School
AAs (Matthew 7:7BAAsk, and it shall
be given you@). We ask. Then
we receive. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you (Matthew 7:7). We knock. God
opens. We are told in A.A. to put First
things First. In Dr. Bob's own words
from the Sermon on the Mount, that meant:
Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Then
God takes care of the needs (Matthew
6:33) The A.A. favorite, James, stresses
humbly asking and doing (according to
His Word), not asking amiss (James 1:22;
4:1-3).
God
almost seems to be calling today! And
do you have to leave Alcoholics Anonymous
to raise your voice and answer? For
me, and for many today, the answer is
NO! We just have to know where we came
from, why we came, and what we received
when we sought Almighty God in
A.A. Drunks are not always welcome in
churches, lodges, service clubs, or
even bars. They are welcome in A.A.
God
almost seems to be calling. Again! He
loved us. He gave His only begotten
son so that we could be saved (John
3:16). Early AAs sought and received
that salvation and a lot more. They
also recognized whom Christ Jesus had
been sent to help:
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