The
First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous
History Conference
Phoenix,
Arizona, February 21 - 23, 2003
Conference
Theme:God, Alcoholism, & A.A.
The
Comments of Dick B.
Writer, Historian, Retired Attorney,
Bible Student
“Whenever
a civilization or society perishes,
there is always one condition present.
They forgot where they came from.”
-Carl Sandburg
Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., P.O.
Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
URL:
http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml,
Email: dickb@dickb.com
Copyright 2003 by Anonymous. All rights
reserved
Printed in the United States of America
This Paradise Research Publications
Edition is published by arrangement
with Good Book Publishing Company,
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
The publication of this volume does
not imply affiliation nor approval
nor endorsement from Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc.
ISBN: 1-885803-37-0
Contents
• Each
person attending, and each person
speaking, might see a different theme,
a different purpose, and a different
agenda for this conference.
But we can start with what it is:
The
First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous
History Conference
We’ve
had lots of conventions, conferences,
roundups, bashes, forums, flings,
assemblies, archivist panels, and
plenty of meetings, meetings, meetings.
Of course, at St. Louis, many years
back, we had a convention - historical
in nature - and fashioned by Bill
Wilson to show that A.A. had come
of age. But for the most part, we
have been focused on sharing experience,
strength, and hope; telling stories;
and adopting resolutions. As a result,
until about 1990, most of us knew
little if anything about the spiritual
roots, history, and principles of
this society.
• First,
therefore, this is a history conference
- an event that will highlight our
real roots.
• Also,
this history conference has a theme
and title. It is: God, Alcoholism,
and Alcoholics Anonymous
We
will be exploring each in relation
to the other - from the standpoint
of our own great history.
• The backdrop
might be the following statement of
M. Scott Peck in his best-selling
Further Along the Road Less Traveled,
in which that famous physician said
this:
I
believe the greatest positive event
of the twentieth century occurred
in Akron, Ohio. . . when Bill W. and
Dr. Bob convened the first Alcoholics
Anonymous meeting. It was not only
the beginning of the self-help movement
and the beginning of the integration
of science and spirituality at a grass-roots
level, but also the beginning of the
community movement. . . . which is
going to be the salvation not only
of alcoholics and addicts but of us
all.
• The real question
here, however, is whether - almost
seventy years after the founding of
our society - we can say that we have
developed a program of complete recovery
(Let’s get bold and say, as Bill W.,
Dr. Bob, and Bill D. said it, a “cure”)
for those afflicted with alcoholism.
The
answer will depend on several factors:
What is alcoholism? What is the meaning
of “recovery” and “cure?” What were
the ingredients of our original program?
Was it dependent upon God? What God
are we talking about? What answers
were given by our founders and pioneers?
What was the real success rate? How
important is that history? Can we
apply the answers to the cure of alcoholism
in today’s A.A.
• It sums up this
way: have we really got something
to share with others today? If so,
what is it that we can share? And
let’s start with what our own literature
told us several decades ago:
When
Bill left Akron in late August 1935,
there were four members–possibly five
counting Phil, who might have been
in the process of drying out. From
that fall to spring, Bill helped Hank
P. and Fitz M., among others, get
sober in New York. He made a short
visit to Akron in April, 1936, writing
Lois that he had spent the weekend
and was “so happy about everything
there. Bob and Anne and Henrietta
Seiberling have been working so hard
with those men and with really wonderful
success. There were very joyous get-togethers
at Bob’s, Henrietta’s, and the Williams’s
by turns.” In September 1936, there
was another visit, with Bill’s arrival
“a signal for a house party, which
was very touching,” he wrote. “Anne
and Bob and Henrietta have done a
great job. There were several new
faces since spring.” In February 1937,
another count was taken, and there
were seven additional members in Akron,
for a total of 12. Half of these had
or would have some sort of slip, and
at least one would never be really
successful in the A.A. program thereafter.
For most, however, the slip was a
convincer. There were dozens of others
who were exposed to the program up
to February 1937. Some were successful
for a time, then drifted away. Some
came back. Others died. Some, like
“Lil,” may have found another way
[DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.
NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services,
Inc., 1980, pp. 108-09]. Word of Akron’s
“not-drinking-liquor club” had already
spread to nearby towns, such as Kent
and Canton, and it was probably early
1937 when a few prospects started
drifting down from Cleveland. In the
beginning, it was in twos and threes
(By 1939, there were two carloads)
[DR. BOB, supra, p.
122]
In
November of that year [1937], Bill
Wilson went on a business trip that
enabled him to make a stopover in
Akron. . . . Bill’s writings record
the day he sat in the living room
with Doc, counting the noses of our
recoveries. “A hard core of very grim,
last-gasp cases had by then been sober
a couple of years, an unheard of development,”
he said. “There were twenty or more
such people. All told, we figured
that upwards of 40 alcoholics were
staying bone dry.” As we carefully
rechecked this score, Bill said, it
suddenly burst upon us that a new
light was shining into the dark world
of the alcoholic. . . a “chain reaction”
had started, and “Conceivably it could
one day circle the whole world. .
. . We actually wept for joy,” Bill
said, “and Bob and Anne and I bowed
our heads in silent thanks” [DR.
BOB, supra, p 123].
“A
beacon had been lighted. God had shown
alcoholics how it might be passed
from hand to hand. Never shall I forget
that great and humbling hour of realization,
shared with Dr. Bob,” said Bill [RHS,
p. 8].
• The successes
were confirmed by the careful investigation
of Frank Amos and reported to
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938.
It was that glowing report of Dr.
Bob and Akron’s Group Number One that
had caught Mr. Rockefeller’s interest
and had further encouraged the formation
of the Alcoholic Foundation. And Frank
Amos has left us with a detailed description
of the program as it stood before
the writing of the Big Book began.
Bill began writing the Big Book in
1938. According to his secretary,
Nell Wing, there were slightly more
than 70 alcoholics that had achieved
sobriety. There never were the “100
men and women” that Bill mentioned
when the Big Book was published in
the Spring of 1939. Of those who were
sober, fifty percent had maintained
continuous sobriety; twenty-five percent
had achieved sobriety after relapse;
and the remainder “showed improvement.”
By the early 1940's, records in Cleveland
showed that 93 percent of those who
came to A.A. never had a drink again
[DR. BOB, supra, p.
261].
• With
that beginning, we’ll respectfully
turn you loose on the questions we
have posed and hope you enjoy such
answers as we are able to provide.
• On
the archive, tape, and literature
tables are materials you may want
to purchase. I will gladly inscribe
my own books that are on sale. They
are offered at half price for this
conference. And you may simply leave
cash or a check in the receptacle
or see me for a form to use if you
want to use your credit card or order
other books.
contents^
Part
2
Alcoholics
Anonymous, the Founders, and Belief
in Almighty God
Without
Apparent Exception, A.A.’s Founders
Believed the Creator Cured Them
There
is no need here to go to the documentation
in my titles God and Alcoholism:
Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st
Century and Cured: Proven Help
for Alcoholics and Addicts. Suffice
it to say that Bill Wilson said the
Lord had cured him of his “terrible
disease.” Dr. Bob spoke of Wilson’s
being cured and then told his colleagues
that he and another [Wilson] had discovered
a cure for alcoholism. A.A. Number
Three, Bill Dotson, declared that
Wilson’s statement that the Lord had
cured him had become for him [Dotson]
the golden text of A.A. Pioneer Clarence
Snyder spoke many times of the cures
early AAs had received. The person
who drafted one of the proposed covers
for the First Edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous (published in 1939)
put on the cover that it offered a
cure for alcoholism. Extensive remarks
of this kind were made by Larry Jewell
(who was sponsored by Dr. Bob and
Clarence Snyder). Jewell made them
in a series of articles he wrote for
The Houston Press in 1940.
And the words of these old times were
echoed by others contemporaneously.
The Reverend Dr. Dilworth Lupton,
pastor of the First Unitarian Church
in Cleveland, wrote of the new cure
in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
in 1939. Morris Markey spoke of the
“miraculous” “cure” for habitual drunkards
in his Liberty Magazine article
in 1939. Theodore English wrote in
Scribner’s Commentator in January
of 1941 that Wilson had developed
a cure that had enlisted half the
alcoholics encountered by the Houston
AA group and cured two-thirds of them.
Dr. William Duncan Silkworth (who
wrote the “Doctor’s Opinion” for
Alcoholics Anonymous) told one
of his alcoholic patients (Charles
K.) that the only hope for his cure
was through the “Great Physician,”
Jesus Christ. See Norman Vincent Peale,
The Positive Power of Jesus Christ
(NY: Guideposts, 1980), pp. 59-63.
Finally, the AA Grapevine published
an article by the famous medical writer
Paul de Kruif stating the “A.A.’s
medicine is God and God alone. This
is their discovery. . . [and] that
the patients it cures have to nearly
die before they can bring themselves
to take it.”
Yet
by 1980–forty-five years after A.A.’s
founding–an AA “Conference Approved”
publication stated quite bluntly that,
in effect, these sources were mistaken,
misleading, and wrong [DR. BOB,
supra, p. 136].. Despite this
about-face by official A.A. employees,
the only bases for such a claim that
the founders had misrepresented to,
and mislead the facts to the world
were two ideas Bill Wilson had inserted
in his Big Book four years after
A.A.’s founding. And these ideas have
persisted through all four editions
of A.A.’s basic text. These new ideas
were: (1) “We have seen the truth
demonstrated again and again: ‘Once
an alcoholic always an alcoholic’.”
(Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., p. 33). (2) “We are not
cured of alcoholism” (Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed.,
p. 85). The first statement, according
to Wilson’s own explicit admission,
came from a contemporary therapist
named Richard R. Peabody, who died
drunk, and therefore “proved,” said
Wilson, that alcoholism was “uncurable.”
The second statement flew in the face
of all the evidence we cited above,
which demonstrates that alcoholics
had been cured, that they had
been cured by God, and that the cures
were miraculous, astonishing, and
the basis for the whole “spiritual
program of recovery” that AAs developed
between 1935 and 1938. Details and
documentation for each of these points
can be found in Dick B., Cured:
Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts
(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 2003); Richard
R. Peabody, The Common Sense of
Drinking (Atlantic Monthly Press
Book, 1933); and Katherine McCarthy,
The Emanuel Movement and Richard
Peabody (Journal of Studies on
Alcohol, Vol. 45, No. 1, 1984).
A
Large Dose of Pre-AA miraculous healings
by the power of God:
Many
have minimized or outright dismissed
the miraculous. They have done so
in various ways, depending upon the
era involved.
For
example, Old Testament signs and wonders
are often relegated to the myth bin
by calling them interpretative, artistic,
imaginative, embellished, “touched
up,”filled with discrepancies, or
the products of tradition rather than
experience. See Bernard W. Anderson,
Understanding The Old Testament
(NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957), pp.
43-44, 180-82, 227, 385, 407-09. Other
authorities, however, plainly state
that signs, wonders, and miracles
of Old Testament accounts had as their
object the indication of the severity
of an illness and the gravity of the
prognosis against which to contrast
the greatness of the cure and the
divine power that effected it. These
authorities–and they are numerous
generally attribute the healings and
miracles to the intervention of God.
See New Bible Dictionary, Second
Edition (England: Inter-Varsity
Press, 1982), pp. 457-65.
The
healing accounts of the Gospels have
also been denied for a variety of
reasons. Philip Schaff wrote: “The
credibility of the Gospels would never
have been denied if it were not for
the philosophical and dogmatic skepticism
which desires to get rid of the supernatural
and miraculous at any price.” See
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian
Church, Volume I, 3rd
Revision (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B.
Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1890),
p. 589. Decades later, writers popular
in the early A.A. days, were still
disputing the miraculous. See Emmet
Fox, The Sermon on the Mount
(New York: Harper & Row, 1934)
and Dilworth Lupton, Religion Says
You Can (Boston: The Beacon Press,
1938). Long before these johnnie-come-latelies
of the 1930's, however, scholars were
citing emphatically: “great writers
who were by no means biased in favor
of orthodoxy [including] Dr. W.E.
Channing, leader of American Unitarianism,
who said: ‘I know of no histories
to be compared with the Gospels in
marks of truth, in pregnancy of meaning,
in quickening power. . . As to his
[Christ’s] biographers, they speak
for themselves. Never were more simple
and honest ones.” Schaff, History
of the Christian Church, supra,
p. 589.
So,
also, despite volumes of testimony
to the contrary, writers and various
“historians” have disputed the miracles
and healings by the Apostles as recorded
in the Book of Acts. They have alleged
that the “age of miracles” in the
First Century passed out of the picture,
sometimes allegedly because they were
merely a stage which God no longer
needed, or that they were myth
and error. See Adolf Harnack, The
Expansion of Christianity in the First
Three Centuries, Vol I (Eugene,
OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998),
pp. 121, 143, 180, 256-57, 268. The
disputers have also placed in their
disputed box, categorized, minimized,
ridiculed, and often rejected endless
numbers of Christian healers and healings
from Mary Baker Eddy to Lourdes to
Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts. But,
for the founders of A.A., the proof
was in the pudding; and Dr. Bob read
extensively about healing by the power
of God. In fact, even a brief glance
at the Christian healing literature
of the 1930's–in A.A.’s founding years–will
disclose a myriad of scholarly studies
of God’s healing power and healings
in the physical, psychological, mental,
devil spirit, and other realms. We
have included many of these in our
bibliography.
• What
the Bible has to say about:
Miraculous
healings long before Christ: Morton
T. Kelsey comments: “As we have already
seen, in the Old Testament there was
no question, in theory, that Yahweh
could heal. In several places remarkable
instances were recorded. See Morton
T. Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
& Christian Healing. Rev.
and exp. ed. (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, Publishers, 1966), p. 33.
Specific examples include children
given to women who were barren (Genesis
18:10, 14; Judges 13:5, 24; 1 Samuel
1:19-20; 2 Kings 4:16-17); the healing
of Miriam’s leprosy (Numbers 12:1-15)
and Naaman’s leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-14);
healing of Jeroboam’s paralyzed hand
(1 Kings 13:1-6); raising from the
dead by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24)
and by Elisha (2 Kings 4:1-37); salvation
of the Israelites from the later plagues
in Egypt (Numbers 21:6-9); and the
miracles wrought by Moses (Exodus
7-17). See New Bible Dictionary,
supra, pp. 462, 782-83; Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine & Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 33-36;
In Healing: Pagan And Christian
(London: Society For Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1935), George Gordon Dawson
opines: “The standpoint of the Old
Testament, generally, is that good
health results from holy living. It
is a divine gift and the reward of
loving service. Any cure of disease
was regarded as a gift from Yahweh,
and resulted from forgiveness. The
sick person made his peace with Him
by repentance, intercession and sacrifice.
The right spiritual relationship was
restored. The soul was at rest, and
the inner life being calm the bodily
symptoms disappeared” (p. 90). Alan
Richardson writes: . . . in the Old
Testament the historically decisive
event, which became for the Hebrew
mind, the symbol and type of all God’s
comings in history is the Miracle
of the Red Sea. See Alan Richardson,
The Miracle Stories of the Gospels
(London: SCM Press Ltd, 1941), pp.
3-4.
Miracles
in the Gospels: “they brought
unto Him all that were sick and them
that were possessed with demons, and
He healed many that were sick with
diverse diseases, and cast out many
demons. . . He had healed many in
so much that as many as had plagues
pressed upon Him that they might touch
Him.” See Elwood Worcester, Samuel
McComb, Isador H. Coriat, Religion
and Medicine (NY: Moffat, Yard
& Company, 1908), p. 345; Elwood
Worcester and Samuel McComb, The
Christian Religion As A Healing Power
(NY: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1909),
pp. 84-97; G. R. H. Shafto, The
Wonders of The Kingdom:
A Study of the Miracles of Jesus
(NY: George H. Doran Company, 1924),
pp. 8-9. Shafto calculated that there
are some forty-two of the foregoing
indirect references to miraculous
action on the part of Jesus in the
four Gospels. Kelsey concluded: “.
. . we find that everywhere Jesus
went he functioned as a religious
healer. Forty-one distinct instances
of physical and mental healing are
recorded in the four gospels (there
are seventy-two accounts in all, including
duplications), but this by no means
represents the total. Many of these
references summarize the healings
of large numbers of people.” See Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine & Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 42-47.
Alan Richardson points out the high
proportion of the Gospel tradition
that is devoted to the subject of
miracle (209 verses out of 666 in
the Gospel of Mark). See Richardson,
The Miracle Stories, supra,
p. 36. There are over 20 specific
accounts - some healed at a distance,
some with a word, and some with physical
contact and means: blindness, deafness;
dumbness, leprosy, epilepsy, dropsy,
uterine hemorrhage, Peter’s mother-in-law
and her fever–possibly malaria,
Malcus’ severed ear; the man with
withered hand, the woman bent double
with a “spirit of infirmity,” three
separate people resurrected from the
dead; the man paralyzed for 38 years,
demoniacal possession, and so on.
Percy Dearmer reports there are forty-one
instances of Christ’s works of healing
in the Gospels (Body and Soul,
below, p. 142-46). Also the miracles
of water converted to wine, stilling
of a storm, supernatural catch of
fish, multiplying food, walking on
water, money from a fish, a fig tree
dried up. See New Bible Dictionary,
supra, pp. 462-63; Leslie D. Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion and Healing
(NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951),
pp. 29-69; Worcester, McComb, Coriat,
Religion and Medicine, supra,
pp. 338-68; Josh McDowell, Evidence
That Demands a Verdict: historical
evidences for the Christian faith
(Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc.,
1973), pp. 128-31. Luke 7:21-22 state:
“And in that same hour he cured many
of their infirmities and plagues,
and of evil spirits; and unto many
that were blind he gave sight. Then
Jesus answering said unto them, Go
your way, and tell John what things
ye have seen and heard; how that the
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, to the poor the gospel
is preached.” For a survey of the
evidence, see E. R. Micklem, Miracles
& The New Psychology: A Study
in the Healing Miracles of the New
Testament. London: Oxford University
Press, 1922.
Miracles
in the Book of Acts in Apostolic times:
“many wonders and signs were done
by the apostles. . .by the hands of
the apostles were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people. .
. . Stephen, full of grace and power,
wrought great wonders and signs. .
. [as to Philip in Samaria] many with
unclean spirits and many that were
palsied and lame. . . [as to Paul
and Barnabus] speaking of the signs
and wonders God had wrought among
the gentiles by them. . . [as to healing
activities of Paul on the island of
Malta] The rest also who had diseases
in the island came and were cured”
See Weatherhead, Psychology, Religion
and Healing, supra, pp.
70-72; Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
And Christian Healing, supra,
pp. 83-102.. More specifically, the
lame man at the Gate Beautiful, patients
cured by the shadow of Peter and handkerchiefs
which had touched them; restoration
of the sight of Saul by Ananias; Peter’s
healing Aenes of palsy; the paralytic
healed by Paul at Lystra; the healing
of Publius’s father of fever and dysentery
by Paul; Dorcas and Eutychus
were raised from the dead;
multiple healings; and two occasions
where demons were cast out. See
New Bible Dictionary, supra,
pp. 462-64. Harnack summed up with
this quotation from Hebrews 2:3-4:
“How shall we escape, if we neglect
so great salvation: which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord, and
was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him; God also bearing them witness,
both with signs and wonders, and with
divers miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”
See Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity
in the First Three Centuries,
Vol. I, supra, pp. 250-73.
There is a list of the specific miracles
in the Acts of the Apostles. See Pearcy
Dearmer, Body and Soul: An Enquiry
into the Effects of Religion upon
Health, with a Description of Christian
Works of Healing From the New Testament
to the Present Day. London: Sir
Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1909,
pp. 183-91.
• What
Early Christians accomplished:
Miracles
after apostolic times and in early
centuries: There is evidence of
Christian healing from these sources:
Quadratus of Athens (AD 126 or 127);
St. Justin Martyr (the philosopher
martyred circa 163, AD 100-163); St.
Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyons, A.D. 120-202);
Origen of Alexandria (AD 185-253),
Tertullian (AD 193-211), St. Hilarion
(monk, AD 291-371); St. Parthenius
(Bishop of Lampsacus, AD circa 335-355);
St. Macarius of Alexandria and four
other Monks (AD 375-390); St. Martin
(Bishop of Tours, AD circa 395- 397);
St. Ambrose of Milan (AD 340-397),
St. Chrysostom (AD 347-407), St. Augustine
(AD 354-430), St. Jerome (AD
340-420); St. Symeon Stylites (layman,
AD 391-460); St. Eugendus, Abbot of
a monastery near Geneva, AD 455-517);
St. Caesarius (Bishop of Arles, 502-542);
St. German (Bishop of Paris, circa
AD 555-576); St. Laumer priest near
Chartres, AD 548-651); St. Eustace
(Abbot of Luxeuil, circa 614-625);
St. Riemirus (abbot of a monastery
in the diocese of Le Mans, circa 660-699);
Sophronius (Patriarch of Jerusalem,
AD 640); St. Cuthbert (Bishop of Lindisfarne,
AD 635-687), and St. John of Beverley
(by Bede AD 721). See Leslie D. Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion, and Healing,
supra, pp. 76-84; Worcester,
McComb and Coriat, Religion and
Medicine, supra. p. 367;
Worcester and McComb, The Christian
Religion as a Healing Power, supra,
p.95. In a monumental treatise based
largely on the Book of James as it
relates to healing and anointing,
F. W. Puller says: “I think I have
shown that from the time of the Apostles
onwards, during the first seven centuries
of our era, the custom of praying
over sick people and anointing them
with holy oil continued without any
break. And there seems to me to be
good reasons for believing that in
many cases the petitions that were
offered were granted and that the
holy oil was used by God as a channel
for conveying health to the sick persons.”
See F. W. Puller, The Anointing
of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition,
with some Considerations on the Numbering
of the Sacraments (London: Society
For Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1904), p. 188; Pearcy Dearmer, Body
and Soul, supra. Kelsey
points to the important study by Evelyn
Frost. which covers the earliest records
of the church after the New Testament,
from about the years 100 to 250 [Evelyn
Frost, Christian Healing: A Consideration
of the Place of Spiritual Healing
in the Church of To-day in the Light
of the Doctrine and Practice of the
Ante-Nicene Church (1940)]; and
Kelsey says of the Frost study: “It
shows clearly that the practices of
healing described in the New Testament
continued without interruption for
the next two centuries.” Kelsey, Psychology,
Medicine And Christian Healing,
supra, pp. 103-156.
Healing
ministry by individuals from 1091
forward to the late 1800's: There
is testimony of individual healers,
who, with no psychological technique,
but through their communion with Christ
by His power, healed the sick: St.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153);
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226);
St. Thomas of Hereford (1282-1303);
St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380),
Martin Luther (1483-1546), St. Francis
Xavier (1506-1552), St. Philip Neri
(1515-1595); George Fox (1624-1691);
John Wesley (1703-1791); Prince Alexander
of Hohenlohe (1794-1849); Father Theobald
Matthew (of Ireland, 1790-1856), Dorothea
Trudel (from Zurich, 1813-1862); Pastor
John Christopher Blumhardt (Lutheran
pastor from Stuttgart,1805-1880);
and Father John of Cronstadt (of the
Orthodox Church of the East, 1829-1908).
See Weatherhead, supra, p.
86; Worcester and McComb, Religion
and Medicine, supra, p.
367; Dearmer, Body and Soul,
supra, p. 278, 338-82. Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine And Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 157-188.
The
Hypothesis that the First Century
ended miracles even though there is
no Biblical authority for this proposition–a
contention contrary to the promises
of the Creator: There has come
into the healing picture the widely
believed, but undocumented, claim
that the “age of miracles” ended because
God no longer had use for them. First
of all, the Creator’s abilities did
not cease; nor did the power that
He made available through the accomplishments
of Jesus Christ end. That power and
the gifts of healing may actually
have been little used or undeclared
because of church wrangling, but the
Bible assurances did not change. Despite
an increasing separation between medical
healing and religious healing during
the first years of the nineteenth
century, “Pentecostal Christianity”
and the work of many individuals brought
Biblical assurances to the practical
fore. The individuals included Glenn
Clark, Mary Baker Eddy, A. J. Gordon,
Pearcy Dearmer, Agnes Sanford, Starr
Daily, John and Ethel Banks, Oral
Roberts, Ruth Carter Stapleton, and
a number in the Roman Catholic Community.
See Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
and Christian Religion, supra,
pp. 186-284.
Yahweh’s
promises in His Word have not changed:
See Exodus 15:26: “I am the Lord that
healeth thee;” Psalm 103:3-4: Yahweh
our God forgives all our iniquities,
heals all our diseases, and redeems
our lives from destruction;” Matthew
10:8: “Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:
freely ye have received, freely give;”
Mark 16:19-30: “And these signs shall
follow them that believe: In my name
shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues. . . they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover;” John 14:12: “Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my
Father.” These and many other Bible
assurances were the daily diet of
many early AAs and particularly Dr.
Bob as he frequently used The Runner’s
Bible devotional. See the verses
and comments in Nora Smith Holm, The
Runner’s Bible: Spiritual Guidance
for People On The Run (Lakewood,
CO: I-Level Acropolis Books, Publisher,
1998), pp. 171-96. Also, J. R. Pridie,
The Church’s Ministry of Healing
(London: Society For Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1926); C. S. Lewis, Miracles:
How God Intervenes in Nature and Human
Affairs (NY: Collier Books, 1947);
Friedrich Heiler, Prayer: A Study
in the History of Psychology and Religion
(Oxford: Oneworld, 1932); Jim
Wilson, Healing Through The Power
of Christ (Cambridge, England:
James Clarke & Co., Ltd., 1946);
Dawson, Healing: Pagan and Christian,
1935, supra; Philip Inman,
Christ in the Modern Hospital
(London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited,
1937); G. R. H. Shafto, The Wonders
of the Kingdom, 1924, supra.
• The
Successes of the Christian Missions
and Evangelism:
A.
Rescue Missions: Religious “conversion”
was the catch-word for such endeavors,
but this kind of language masked the
importance of the Creator, the place
of Jesus Christ, and the use of the
Bible, prayer, and healing. It is
quite fair to say that the latter–the
Creator, Jesus Christ, Bible, prayer,
and healing rather than “conversion”–marked
the mission and program of the missions.
See the excellent survey in: Howard
Clinebell, Understanding and Counseling
Persons with Alcohol, Drug, and Behavioral
Addictions. Rev. and Enl. Ed.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1968, pp.
167-194. The following were the three
major mission landmarks:
(1)
Jerry McCauley’s Water Street Mission
was founded in October, 1872 -
the outcropping of his own deliverance
from alcoholism; and it helped thousands.
Meetings were simple. There were no
sermons. They opened with singing,
a Bible reading, and a message from
Jerry. This was followed by testimonies
where drunkards spoke of their fall
and rebirth. Often, Jerry laid hands
on the penitent and encouraged him
to pray out loud for himself.
(2)
Next came the Gospel Missions - still
in existence today with a new name,
but better remembered as the International
Union of Gospel Missions. In April,
1882, Samuel Hadley overcame his alcoholism
with a religious experience and passed
the Gospel mission torch to his son,
and these events marked the beginning
of that approach.
(3)
Hadley’s son later was in charge of
Calvary Rescue Mission with
Shoemaker being an underlying recovery
force when Sam became rector of
Calvary Episcopal Church in New York
in 1925. It was at the Calvary Rescue
Mission that Ebby Thacher, Bill Wilson,
and thousands of others overcame their
alcoholism. The meetings involved
hymns, Bible reading, prayers, testimonies,
and decisions for Christ. The cry
was “I’ve got religion.” (William
L. White. Slaying the Dragon:
The History of Addiction Treatment
and Recovery in America. Bloomington,
IL: Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse
Institute, 1998, pp. 71-74). Reverend
Shoemaker uttered a simple description
of Calvary’s Mission on November 25,
1932. He said it was “where God reclaims
men who choose to be reborn.” See
Dick B. Turning Point: A History
of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and
Successes. Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1997,
p. 96.
B.
The Salvation Army: It was founded
in 1865 out of the pastoral work of
a Methodist Minister William Booth.
It was first called the Christian
Revival Association and rechristened
the Salvation Army in 1878. Its vision
was that Christian salvation and moral
education in a wholesome environment
would save the body and soul of the
alcoholic. There were so many cures
that the Salvation Army served alcoholics
for more than a century and was called
“the largest and most successful rehabilitation
program for transient alcoholic men
in the United States.” Its most striking
testimonials were those in Harold
Begbie’s Twice Born Men - about
rescue in the slums of London. This
was a book widely read by A.A. pioneers
and recommended by Dr. Bob’s wife
Anne. Unfortunately, the Army gave
way to professionalization, but its
people continued to wrangle over the
disease concept. Finally they adopted
these two statements about 1940:
“The
Salvation Army believes that every
individual who is addicted to alcohol
may find deliverance from its bondage
through submission of the total personality
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The
Salvation Army also recognizes the
value of medical, social and psychiatric
treatment for alcoholics and makes
extensive use of these services at
its centers.” (White, Slaying the
Dragon, supra, p. 78).
C.
The Keswick Colony of Mercy in Whiting,
New Jersey. Founded in 1897 by
William Raws who overcame alcoholism
through religious salvation. Up to
39 men at a time reside there, undergoing
Bible study, prayer, and counseling.
They make a “pastoral covenant” to
continued religious education and
are expected to seek continued support
through religious recovery groups
such as Alcoholics Victorious. More
than 17,000 alcoholic men have sought
help there since its founding in 1897.
(White, Slaying the Dragon,
supra, pp. 75-76).
• The
Revival of Christian Healing through
the person and power of Jesus Christ
See
Heal the Sick by James Moore
Hickson (London: Methuen &
Co., 1924).
Hickson’s
book and extensive healing work were
detailed in this as one of the many
healing books studied by Dr. Bob.
It reports thousands of healings world-wide..
See
Healing in Jesus Name by Ethel
R. Willitts (Crawfordsville, Indiana:
Ethel R. Willitts, Publisher, 1931).
This review of Biblical healings and
the personal healings by the author
was studied by Dr. Bob.
See
Psychology and Life by Leslie
D. Weatherhead (New York:
AbingdonPress,1935).
Also,
Leslie D. Weatherhead, Religion,
Psychology and Healing, supra.
Though Weatherhead’s materials are
heavy with writing on psychological,
spiritualism, and psychic methods,
Dr. Weatherhead was Minister of the
City Temple in London and wrote exhaustively
on the place of healing in the modern
church. Highlighting the merits of
Christian Science, he nonetheless
rejects it, as he does the importance
of healings at Lourdes. He then mentions
the work of The Guild of Health, started
in 1905 to arouse the Church of England
and others to a fresh recognition
of the place of health of mind and
body in the Christian message. Next
comes his discussion of The Guild
of St. Raphael, formed in 1915, to
push the Anglican Church and unite
within the Catholic Church those who
hold the faith that “Our Lord wills
to work in and through His Church
for the health of her members in spirit,
mind, and body. Holy Unction, The
Laying on of Hands, and intercessory
prayer are utilized. Next, the Emmanuel
Movement in America and the role of
Worcester, Mc Comb, and Coriat. Next,
Milton Abbey, opened in 1937 with
Rev. John Maillard, an Anglican Clergyman
as first warden–Maillard’s book, Healing
in the Name of Jesus, having just
been published. Weatherhead next discusses
The Divine Healing Mission, closely
linked with the work of James Moore
Hickson. He mentions The Friend’s
Spiritual Healing Fellowship (Quaker),
The Methodist Society for Medical
and Pastoral Practice, founded in
1946, The Churches’ Council of Healing
started in 1944 under the impetus
of Archbishop Temple. Independently
of the foregoing discussion of missions
and individuals, Weatherhead analyzes
the practice of intercession and The
Laying on of Hands. And see the discussion
of Weatherhead’s materials in Dick
B. Dr. Bob and His Library 3rd
ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1998), pp 78-79.
There are many studies of the importance
of the charismata, liturgies,
anointing, sacraments, “unction,”
“incubation,” shrines, demonology,
exorcism, and the laying on of hands
as part of Christian healing and Christian
history. See Reverend F. W. Puller,
Anointing of the Sick: In Scripture
and Tradition, With Some Considerations
on the Numbering of the Sacraments,
supra; Dearmer, Body and Soul,
supra, pp. 287 et. seq.;
Evelyn Frost, Christian Healing:
A Consideration of the Place of Spiritual
Healing in the Church of To-day in
the Light of The Doctrine and Practice
of the Ante-Nicene Church, London:
A. R. Mobray & Co. Limited, 1940;
William Temple, Christus Veritas
An Essay (London: Macmillan &
Co Ltd, 1954); Dawson, Healing:
Pagan and Christian, supra;
Pridie, The Church’s Ministry of
Healing, supra
And
see the many other titles on healing
and prayer that were studied and circulated
by Dr. Bob among A.A. Pioneers and
their families. See Dick B. Dr.
Bob and His Library, supra,
pp. 35-40, 83-85. In the early A.A.
of Akron, there was circulation and
study of a large number of prayer
and healing books including those
by Glenn Clark, Starr Daily, Lewis
L. Dunnington, Mary Baker Eddy, Charles
and Cora Filmore, Harry Emerson Fosdick,
Emmet Fox, Gerald Heard, E. Stanley
Jones, Frank Laubach, Charles Laymon,
Rufus Mosely, William Parker, F. L.
Rawson, Samuel M. Shoemaker, B. H.
Streeter, L. W. Grensted, Howard Rose,
Cecil Rose, St. Augustine, Brother
Lawrence, Mary Tileston, Oswald Chambers,
T. R. Glover, E. Herman, Donald Carruthers,
and Nora Smith Holm with her Runner’s
Bible. See Dick B., The Books
Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth,
7th ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1998).
As our bibliography at the close of
this books shows, and also as the
foregoing citations as to healings
make clear, the period of Dr. Bob’s
study of prayer and healing was one
of widespread scholarly discourse
on this very same subject. It does
not seem surprising, therefore, that
Dr. Bob observed prayer time at least
three times a day; that he studied
and quoted Scripture with great frequency;
and that he was asked to and did in
fact pray for others. As he himself
expressed as to his beliefs: “Your
Heavenly Father will never let you
down!”
• Successes
of Oxford Group people in overcoming
alcoholism prior to A.A.
In
their zeal to cut down the Oxford
Group, many have ignored the well-documented
victories over alcoholism through
the power of God by well-known Oxford
Group writers and leaders–most contemporaries
of friends of Bill Wilson’s. These
include Rowland Hazard, F. Shepard
Cornell, Victor C. Kitchen, Ebby Thacher,
James Houck, Charles Clapp, Jr., William
Griffith Wilson, and even Russell
Firestone for a time. Both Dr.
Frank N. D. Buchman (founder of the
Oxford Group) and Rev. Samuel Shoemaker
(its most prolific writer) helped
sober up many drunks through the power
of God. Their classic phrase was:
Sin is the problem. Jesus Christ is
the cure. The result is a miracle.
See Dick B. Cured!, supra,
pp. 18, 30-31.
The
Present Tendency of Writers to Ignore
our Real Spiritual Healing Roots and
to Bloat up the Supposed Importance
of a Few, Unimportant, Unsuccessful,
Little-known Predecessors at the turn
of the Last Century
The
Washingtonians.
You can find more hoopla and writing
among professionals, historians, and
even AAs about the “Washingtonians”
than you can about Dr. Bob, Anne Smith,
Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry Williams,
and Rev. Sam Shoemaker–A.A.’s real
founders. You can find more hoopla
and writing by these same people about
this same subject than you can about
the Bible, Quiet Time, the Pioneers’
devotionals, Sam Shoemaker’s writings,
other Christian literature, and Anne
Smith’s Journal–the major contributors
to A.A. ideas. In a word or two, you
need to recognize that the Washingtonians
are a flash in the plan when it comes
to their relevance to A.A. They were
formed in 1840. They were deader than
a door nail in 1847. They did not
offer the Bible, Quiet Time, the Creator,
Jesus Christ, Christian literature,
salvation, or religious principles
that were the heart of A.A.’s spiritual
program. So we will ignore them in
this paper!
The
Emmanuel Clinic and the Lay Therapy
Movement. This was founded by
two ministers and a physician in 1906.
Its greatest problem is that it was
a “psychological” approach to recovery.
Worcester and Mc Comb said: “We do
not plead for a return to the mere
accidents of the early Christian age.
. . . Great as is the power of the
subconscious,, greater still, we believe,
are the powers of reason, emotion,
and will. Hence, one of the principal
remedies for the nervous maladies
of which we are speaking is psychic,
moral, and religious re-education.
. . . [we] say, ‘God does it in and
through the forces of nature.’ The
therapeutic procedures of the Emmanuel
Movement are those which are used
among all scientific workers, such
as suggestion, psychic analysis, re-education,
work, and rest” See Worcester and
Mc Comb, The Christian Religion
as a Healing Power, supra,
pp. 96, 103, 118. Such talk probably
burdened today’s recovery community
with many godless ideas about
group therapy, individual counseling,
self-help support, spirituality, hypnosis,
relaxation, and “inspirational” reading.
Its popular later book was The
Common Sense of Drinking by Richard
R. Peabody. And Peabody himself reportedly
died intoxicated. It may well have
fostered the “no cure” doctrine -
once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
And it can hardly said to be based
on the power of God. So we will ignore
this too.
What
Dr. Carl Jung seems to have introduced
into Bill Wilson’s recovery thinking
Rowland
Hazard’s spiritual experience, better
known as a religious conversion:
According to Bill Wilson’s early writings
I found in Stepping Stones, at Bedford
Hills, New York, A.A. really began
when Rowland Hazard, once again drunk
and despairing, returned to
Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland asking
what he could do to whip his alcoholism.
Jung replied: “Occasionally, Rowland,
alcoholics have recovered through
spiritual experiences, better known
as religious conversions. . . . I’m
talking about the kind of religious
experience that reaches into the depths
of a man, that changes his whole motivation
and outlook and so transforms his
life that the impossible becomes possible”
(W.
G. Wilson, Reflections, p. 111).
Jung told Wilson many years later:
“His [Rowland’s] craving for alcohol
was the equivalent on a low level
of the spiritual thirst of our being
for wholeness, expressed in medieval
language: the union with God. . .
. The only right and legitimate way
to such an experience is, that it
happens to you in reality and it can
only happen when you walk on a path
which leads to higher understanding”
(Dick B., Turning Point, supra,
p. 84).
The
unconvincing and unsupported claim
that Rowland Hazard never visited
with, or was told by Dr. Carl Jung
that such a conversion was required
for cure. Two writers have recently
implied that the whole Rowland Hazard
story and solution is a hoax (See
White, Slaying the Dragon,
supra, p. 128). Their so-called
“investigations” were scanty and lacking
in comprehension and depth as they
supposedly looked through Rowland’s
papers at the Rhode Island Historical
Society and Jung’s records and found
no account of the doctor-patient event.
To make this allegation stick, however,
they would further have to prove that
Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher, Bill
Wilson, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Dr.
Carl Jung were each and all outspoken
liars. And, having “investigated”
many of Rowland’s records myself,
and having been a trial attorney for
many years with lots of experience
in digging up evidence, and finding
no reason to impeach the testimony
of the foregoing accounts by Hazard,
Thacher, Wilson, Shoemaker, and Jung,
I believe the assertions of White
and Wally P., the writers, who appear
responsible for them, are totally
wrong.
The
peculiar and unique meaning of Jung’s
“conversion,” “religious,” and “spiritual”
experience language. I have personally
have little doubt that Dr. Jung told
Rowland Hazard that he (Jung) had
been unsuccessful in treating, and
could not cure Rowland. But what the
Bible, theologians, and Christian
evangelists mean by the prescribed
“religious conversion” is probably
not at all a conversion of the type
to which Jung referred. First of all,
Jung was a physician, not a cleric
or theologian. Second, the Bible idea
of conversion has to do with rebirth,
of being born again of the spirit
with the incorruptible seed of Christ,
of confessing Jesus as Lord and believing
that God raised Jesus from the dead
(See John 3:1-17, 14:6; Acts 2:32-40,
4:10-12; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians
1:12-14; Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter
1:18-23). Third, Dr. Leslie Weatherhead
analyzed Jung’s ideas as follows:
“Jung seeks to lift the patient to
a higher plane of living. What he
calls “individualization” is an experience
close to spiritual conversion. A true
conception of both cannot regard either
as final. Spiritual conversion is
an experience which marks the end
of man’s search for the right road,
but not the end of his spiritual journey.
Individuation, in Jung’s sense, is
the wise setting of the house of one’s
personality in order, but it is a
task at which one is wise to work
for the rest of one’s life” (Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion and Healing,
supra, p. 287). Jung himself
said: “Religious experience is absolute.
It is indisputable. You can only say
that you never had such an experience,
and your opponent will say : “Sorry,
I have.” And there your discussion
will come to an end. No matter what
the world thinks about religious experience,
the one who has it possesses the great
treasure of a thing that has provided
him with a source of life, meaning
and beauty and that has given a new
splendor to the world and to mankind.
He has pistis [believing or faith]
and peace. Where is the criterium
by which you could say that such a
life is not legitimate, that such
experience is not valid and that such
pistis is a mere illusion? . . . But
what is the difference between a real
illusion and a healing religious experience?
It is merely a difference in words
(Jung, Psychology and Religion,
pp. 113-114).
Jung’s
prescription for, and definition of
“religious” or “conversion” experience
did not square with the Good Book.
In three sentences, we can say: Jung’s
definitions may be accurate from a
psychologist’s view point. In fact,
they represent the often quoted definitions
of Professor William James. But they
are not speaking of being born from
above with the incorruptible seed
of Christ. At Calvary Rescue
Mission where Bill Wilson said he
had been born again; and in Akron,
where the A.A. pioneers accepted Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Saviour,
the folks were not quoting either
Carl Jung or William James. They were
quoting the Good Book. So was Rev.
Sam Shoemaker. And so was Dr. Frank
Buchman. Hence, by turning back to
William James and Carl Jung, Bill
Wilson was led down the merry by-way
to “spiritual” experience and “spiritual
awakening”–both terms of Oxford Group
manufacture–and later to just “personality
change” sufficient to overcome alcoholism.
None of these has anything to do with
what Jesus said was necessary in John
3:1-8 or with the conversation the
Apostle Paul had with Jesus Christ
on the Road to Damascus.
The
Cures AA Pioneers Received Were Not
Psychotherapeutic“Personality Changes.”
They Were Miracles. They were miracles
produced by reliance on Yahweh, the
Creator. And Both Bill Wilson and
Dr. Bob Smith Were Very Clear in Attributing
the Early A.A. Miracles to Their Heavenly
Father, the Creator
Again,
for the documentation, see Dick B.
Cured! Proven Help for Alcoholics
and Addicts (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 2003).
Now
to the job of putting together the
actual historical pieces of our pioneer
A.A. program which relied for deliverance
on the power of the Yahweh, the Creator–their
God and mine.
contents^
Part
3
The
Spiritual Beginnings of A.A.
The
Historical Need
Bill
Wilson often said: A.A. was not invented.
He added: Each of A.A.’s spiritual
principles was borrowed from ancient
sources. Regrettably, Bill provided
very very few specifics as to the
actual sources of the spiritual principles,
or just how they reached the A.A.
fellowship.
Today,
we can supply specific details. They
have been gathered over a period of
thirteen years from archives, interviews,
historians, and the study of much
literature. Those who did the A.A.
borrowing and fashioning were A.A.’s
founders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob. But
one historical fact has been commonly
lacking in discussions of the contributions
of these two men. The Bill W. sources,
spiritual infusions, and beliefs were
totally different from those that
came from Dr. Bob. Bill was a self-proclaimed
"conservative atheist,"
had never belonged to a church, and
had never studied the Bible until
after he met Dr. Bob in Akron. Dr.
Bob, on the other hand, had been a
long-time Christian believer, church
member, and Bible student since his
youth. Regrettably, almost every A.A.
historical account fails to take account
of, earmark, and incorporate these
differences and their A.A. impact.
I sincerely hope you will leave this
discussion with the impression that
there were not two A.A. founding
factions fighting with each other;
nor were there two founders
disagreeing with each other. There
were simply two distinctly different
program origins.
Two
Distinctly Different Spiritual Roots
One
A.A. root might properly be called
the "Carl Jung/Sam Shoemaker
Source." It led to the "New
York Genesis of A.A." Its
ingredients are well-known and legendary,
though inaccurately reported. Unfortunately,
the incorrect aspects of the legend
have become doctrinal. A.A.’s
other root could properly be called
the "Bible/Dr. Bob Source."
It led to the "Akron Genesis
of A.A.." Unfortunately,
the facts about this root have been
virtually buried. until our work began
thirteen years ago.
The
New York Genesis and its Dr. Carl
Jung/Rev. Sam Shoemaker Source
We
will dwell little on A.A.’s New York
beginnings because they have so often
been recorded, albeit mis-reported
and distorted. To repeat: Bill Wilson,
a Brooklyn resident, was a self-proclaimed
"conservative atheist."
He was never a church member, and
had never "looked in the Bible
at all" until he came to Akron
in 1935.
The
actual Bill Wilson picture as to A.A.’s
“New York Genesis” and spiritual beginnings
is as follows.
An
East Coast businessman named Rowland
Hazard sought help for his alcoholism
from Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland.
After his Jung treatment which was
followed by relapse, Rowland was told
by Jung that he had the mind of a
chronic alcoholic and would need a
conversion experience to overcome
his compulsion. Jung defined such
conversions as "union with God."
He suggested Rowland seek a religious
association.
Rowland
therefore joined "A First Century
Christian Fellowship" also known
as the Oxford Group. Rowland followed
its precepts; recovered from alcoholism;
helped rescue a New Yorker named Ebby
Thacher from alcoholism; taught Ebby
the Oxford Group ideas; and later
also spent substantial time with Bill
Wilson inculcating Wilson with Oxford
Group precepts. Ebby Thacher visited
and convinced his suffering friend
Bill Wilson that he (Ebby) had "got
religion," that "God had
done for him what he could not do
for himself," and that he had
been to Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary
Rescue Mission in New York.
A
drunken Bill Wilson then went to Shoemaker’s
Rescue Mission, made a decision for
Christ, believed he had really found
something, and checked into Towns
Hospital in New York. There Bill heard
some key Oxford Group principles during
Ebby’s visits to Bill at the hospital.
Bill also then had what he often called
his "hot flash" conversion
experience. On release from Towns
Hospital, Bill was totally unsuccessful:
(1) In “converting” anyone to his
Oxford Group ideas. (2) In getting
one single drunk sober that Bill brought
to the Wilson home for help. (3) For
quite some time, in getting anyone
sober in the New York area.
But
Bill certainly assimilated some major
Oxford Group life-changing principles–seemingly
from the beginning of his sobriety
in late 1934. These included the Five
C’s, the Four Absolutes, Surrender,
Restitution, Guidance, Loyalty, Fellowship,
and Witnessing. In all, these principles
amounted to some twenty-eight
Oxford Group ideas that were used
to change lives and that impacted
on Bill’s idea that a “spiritual”
or “conversion” experience could result
from their practice. See Dick B.
The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous:
A Design for Living That Works, 2d
ed (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, 1998). He endeavored
to carry to drunks his version of
that recovery message. Not one
recovered. Not during Bill’s first
six months of sobriety, nor for several
years as to those he and Lois took
into their home. In May, 1935, Bill
carried his version to Dr. Bob in
Akron, Ohio, where an entirely different
chain of events had been in progress.
See Dick B., The Akron Genesis
of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed
(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications,
1998).
The
Akron Genesis and its Bible/Dr. Bob
Source
A.A.’s
Akron Genesis began with Dr. Bob,
his church activities as a youngster,
and his excellent Bible and religious
training in the North Congregational
Church at St. Johnsbury, Vermont,
where he and his parents worshipped.
Also in Bob’s participation in the
Christian Endeavor work in those days.
See Dick B., Dr. Bob and His Library,
3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1998).
Dr.
Bob was born and raised in St. Johnsbury,
Vermont. His parents were pillars
of the North Congregational Church
in St. Johnsbury. From childhood through
high school, Bob each week attended
that Congregational church, its Sunday
School, evening service, Monday night
Christian Endeavor meetings, and sometimes
its Wednesday evening prayer meeting.
These actions were likely at the insistence
of his mother. Yet, Bob continued
membership in Christian churches most
of his life: St. Johnsbury Congregational
in his youth. Possibly St. Luke’s
Protestant Episcopal Church. Probably
the Church of Our Saviour in Akron,
where his kids attended Sunday School.
Then Akron’s Westminster Presbyterian
Church where Dr. Bob and his wife
Anne Smith were charter members from
June 3, 1936 to April 3, 1942. Finally,
a year before his death, Dr. Bob became
a communicant at St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church in Akron. This Episcopal Church
was the so-called “Firestone” church
of which Dr. Walter Tunks was rector
and had so much to do with A.A.’s
Akron beginnings.
Dr.
Bob specifically told AAs he had nothing
to do with writing the Twelve Steps.
Nor did he have much to do with the
writing of A.A.’s basic text, the
"Big Book," other than to
review manuscripts as Bill Wilson
passed them to Bob for approval
prior to publication in the Spring
of 1939. But Dr. Bob did make some
very clear statements about the Bible
and A.A. And it was from and in Akron
where A.A.’s basic biblical ideas
were discussed, honed, tried, and
then later put into terse and tangible
form at Bill Wilson’s hands in A.A.’s
“Big Book” and Twelve Steps.
Dr.
Bob said A.A.’s basic ideas came from
the Bible. Both Dr. Bob and Bill often
stated that Jesus’s sermon on the
mount contained the underlying spiritual
philosophy of A.A. Bob often read
Bible passages in the sermon (which
is found in Matthew Chapters Five,
Six, and Seven). Bob specifically
pointed out that the A.A. slogans
"First Things First" and
"Easy Does It" were taken
respectively from Matthew 6:33 and
6:34. Furthermore, when someone asked
Dr. Bob a question about the A.A.
program, his usual response was: "What
does it say in the Good Book?"
He declared that A.A. pioneers were
"convinced that the answer to
their problems was in the Good Book."
He added: "To some of us older
ones, the parts we found absolutely
essential were the Sermon on the Mount,
the 13th chapter of First Corinthians,
and the Book of James." In fact,
James was so popular with the pioneers
that, according to Bill Wilson, many
favored calling the A.A. fellowship
"The James Club."
The
Biblical emphasis in A.A.’s “Akron
Group No. One” involved much much
more. The pioneer meetings opened
with Christian prayer. As mentioned,
they were "old fashioned prayer
meetings." Bible devotionals
such as The Upper Room, My
Utmost for His Highest, and The
Runner’s Bible were regular fare.
Also in individual Quiet Times, and
Quiet Times with Anne Smith each morning
at the Smith home. Quiet Time itself
had distinct Biblical roots. See Dick
B., Good Morning!: Quiet Time,
Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early
A.A., 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1998).
Scripture was regularly read at all
meetings. Scripture, both from devotionals
and from actual reading of the Good
Book, was often the fountainhead for
topics discussed at pioneer meetings.
Bible study itself was stressed. Dr.
Bob called every meeting of early
A.A. a "Christian Fellowship;"
and early A.A. was in fact an integral
part of "A First Century Christian
Fellowship." Also, as will be
detailed later, every single Twelve
Step idea can be traced to specific
Bible verses and segments. Furthermore,
"Surrenders" were required
in early Akron A.A. These meant accepting
on one’s knees Jesus Christ as Lord
and Saviour. Older members then prayed
with newcomers in the manner specified
in James 5:16. See Dick B., The
Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s
Roots in the Bible, 2d ed. (Kihei,
HI: Paradise Research Publications,
Inc., 1997); The Akron Genesis
of Alcoholics Anonymous, supra;
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers,
supra; That Amazing Grace:
The Role of Clarence and Grace S.
in Alcoholics Anonymous (Kihei,
HI: Paradise Research Publications,
Inc., 1986).
And
how did all these Christian and Bible-oriented
principles and practices wind up in
A.A.? Certainly not from, nor properly
described as through, Bill Wilson.
They were the daily grist of the Akron
experimental work to deliver drunks.
Program ideas with which Dr. Bob had
been familiar since his Vermont days.
That
introduces a final point. One that
really marks the beginning of the
Akron Genesis. Its details were only
recently unearthed in the author’s
research. It has to do with Christian
Endeavor, the Christian church movement
for youth to which Dr. Bob belonged
as a youngster. And that movement,
its practices, and principles can
be seen as having great impact on
many of the basic and unique aspects
of Akron A.A.. These aspects differed
from the Oxford Group approaches and
principles with which Bill Wilson
had been indoctrinated on the East
Coast. They did not involve the Four
Absolutes, nor the 5 C’s, nor Restitution,
nor Guidance as such, nor the Surrenders,
nor the house-parties, nor the teams,
and other distinctly Oxford Group
ideas with which Bob and Bill were
both familiar from their respective
Oxford Group connections.
Akron
A.A.’s prayer meetings, Bible study,
devotional literature, religious discussions,
confession of Christ, emphasis on
church affiliation, and Christian
outreach were a distinct characteristic
of the Akron program. They were not
emphasized in New York. They showed
the influence that Christian Endeavor
on Dr. Bob. See Dick B., The Books
Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth,
7th ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, 1998, pp. 13-17);
Cured!: Proven Help for Alcoholics
and Addicts (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 2003);
Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd
ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1998); Amos R.
Wells, Expert Endeavor: A Text-bok
of Christian Endeavor Methods and
Principles (Boston: United Society
of Christian Endeavor, 1911); Francis
E. Clark. Christian Endeavor in
All Lands. (N.p.: The United Society
of Christian Endeavor, 1906); Memoirs
of Many Men in Many Lands: An Autobiography
(Boston: United Society of Christian
Endeavor, 1922); James DeForest Murch,
Successful C.E. Prayer-Meetings
(Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing
Company, 1930)..
Christian
Endeavor was a movement formed in
Williston Congregational Church in
Portland, Maine on February 2, 1881.
It was designed to meet the need of
the church for training young Christians.
Activities included the weekly young
people’s prayer meeting. Each member
promised to attend and take some part.
A Bible verse or a sentence of prayer
answered the individual’s obligation
of "taking some part aside from
singing." In addition to prayer
meetings, there were social gatherings,
missionary committees, music and floral
committees, and committees to visit
the sick and poor and welcome strangers.
The organization endeavored to be
self-governing and self-propagating.
It spread to Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and Vermont. Then to numerous
U.S. churches, to Hawaii, China, and
many parts of the world. In a few
years, nearly 25,000 young people
journeyed across the United States
to attend a convention in San Francisco.
Rev.
Francis E. Clark, Founder of the Christian
Endeavor Movement, said the roots
of the Christian Endeavor tree were:
(1) Confession of Christ. (2) Service
for Christ. (3) Fellowship with Christ’s
people. (4) And Loyalty to Christ’s
Church. As to the Confession of Christ,
Clark said: "Confession of Christ
is absolutely necessary in the Christian
Endeavor Society. . . . Every week
comes the prayer meeting in which
every member who fulfills his vow
must take some part. . . . The true
Christian Endeavorer. . . .does take
part to show that he is a Christian,
to confess his love for the Lord.
. . . The covenant pledge. . . secures
familiarity with the Word of God by
promoting Bible-reading and study
in preparation for every meeting.
Rev.
F. B. Meyer, who later was to have
a substantial influence on the Oxford
Group and on early A.A. ideas and
was president of the British Christian
Endeavor Union, said Christian Endeavor
stood for five great principles: (1)
Personal devotion to the divine Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. (2) The
covenant obligation embodied in our
pledge. (3) Constant religious training
for all kinds of service. (4) Strenuous
loyalty to the local church and denomination
with which each society is connected.
(5) Interdenominational spiritual
fellowship.
The
C.E. founder, Rev. Francis Clark,
summarized the C.E. covenant as follows:
"Trusting in the Lord Jesus for
strength, I promise him that I will
strive to do whatever He would like
to have me do; that I will pray and
read the Bible every day; and that,
just so far as I know how, I will
endeavor to lead a Christian life.
I will be present at every meeting
of the society, unless prevented by
some reason which I can conscientiously
give to my Saviour, and will take
part in the meeting, either by prayer,
testimony, or a Bible verse. As an
active member of this society, I promise
to be faithful to my own church, and
to do all I can to uphold its works
and membership."
Amos
R. Wells, Editorial Secretary of the
United Society of Christian Endeavor,
asked: (1) What are the results we
may gain from the prayer meeting?
They are five: original thought on
religious subjects; open committal
to the cause of Christ; the helpful
expression of Christian thought and
experience; the cultivation of the
spirit of worship through public prayer
and singing; the guidance of others
along these lines of service and life.
(2) How can we get original thought
on the prayer-meeting topics? Only
by study of the Bible, followed by
meditation. First, the Endeavorer
should read the Bible passage; then
he should read some good commentary
upon it; then he should take the subject
with him into his daily life. (3)
Are we to read Bible verses and other
quotations? Yes, all we please, if
we will make them the original expression
of our own lives by thinking about
them, and adding to them something,
if only a sentence, to show that we
have made them our own.
If
you read A.A.’s DR. BOB and the
Good Oldtimers, as well as my
own titles on early A.A., you will
see unique Christian Endeavor parallels
and practices in what was called the
Akron "Program." In fact,
if you read the personal stories of
the pioneers in the First Edition
of A.A.’s Big Book, you will see the
practices in action. To be sure, the
Akron pioneers often called themselves
the alcoholic squad of the Oxford
Group (DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers,
supra, p. 117). They also called
themselves a “Christian fellowship”
(DR. BOB, supra, p.
118) as well as the “Alcoholic Group
of Akron, Ohio” (DR. BOB,
supra, p. 128). But their unique
meeting structure was not like that
of most Oxford Group meetings or "house
parties." In fact, they were
also called a “clandestine” or secret
lodge of that Group (DR. BOB,
supra, p. 121). Moreover, the
Akron practices were not familiar
to eastern Oxford Grouper Bill Wilson
when he came to Akron. This, in part,
because Akron meetings resembled Christian
Endeavor meetings in a number of ways:
As stated, the Akron A.A. meetings
were called "old fashioned prayer
meetings" and "Christian
Fellowships." Group study of
the Bible, meditation. reading of
Bible literature, and discussion of
topics from the Bible as they impacted
on the member’s life all contained
ingredients different from those at
Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary House. So
too Akron’s mandatory surrender to
Jesus Christ, self-support and self-propagation
credo, emphasis on alignment with
some church, fellowship with like-minded
believers, service, and witness.
These
Akron elements caused it to be described
as first century Christianity such
as that found in the Book of Acts
(DR. BOB, supra, pp.129-31,
135-36); and these elements were the
heart of Akron A.A.
Most
assuredly, common spillovers from
Oxford Group life-changing techniques
were present in both New York and
Akron A.A. beginnings. But the Akron
Genesis was unquestionably biblical.
Melding
the Roots was solely a Bill Wilson
Project
In
the midst of substantial controversy,
Bill Wilson obtained a split vote
in Akron that authorized him to write
a basic text describing the practices
and program pioneer AAs had taken
to achieve their astonishing successes,
which were said to be seventy-five
percent.
In
fashioning the basic text, Bill took
some simple medical facts about alcoholism
and the alcoholic that he had learned
from his own physician Dr. William
D. Silkworth. Also, he added substantial
practical treatment ideas, probably
from Richard R. Peabody’s book, The
Common Sense of Drinking (Atlantic
Monthly Press Book, 1933). He mentioned
neither the Bible nor Jesus Christ
in connection with the program, but
he adopted much from the Akron surrenders.
From the Oxford Group, Wilson codified
in A.A. the Oxford Group life-changing
techniques. To this mix, he added
(using Oxford Group terms like spiritual
experience and later spiritual awakening)
his own “religious” experience, calling
them all the process of finding or
rediscovering of God. See Alcoholics
Anonymous, 1st ed.,
1939. Unfortunately, Bill left to
others, if anyone, the unearthing
of source details. The digging–certainly
mine–goes on to this day. See: Dick
B., Dr. Bob and His Library;
Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning
Watch, Meditation and Early A.A.;
The Good Book and The Big Book;
The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics
Anonymous; New Light on Alcoholism;
Turning Point; The Oxford
Group and Alcoholics Anonymous;
and Bill Pittman and Dick B.,Courage
to Change The Christian Roots of the
Twelve-Step Movement.
Dick
B.’s web site on early A.A. history
is: http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
contents^
Part
4
The
Real Program of Early A.A.
We
want to cover three features of the
actual program before we hear from
Smitty (Dr. Bob’s son) about living
with his Dad: (1) A brief overview
of exactly what the pioneers did as
they fashioned their program in Akron
between June 10, 1935 and the publication
of the Big Book in the Spring of 1939.
(2) A summary by Frank Amos of the
results of his thorough investigation
of the Akron successes, his report
to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and what
that actual program was. (3) A synopsis
of the six basic Biblical sources
of that program.
An
Overview of What They Did in Akron
Hospitalization
for about seven days: Only a Bible
in the room, medications, daily visits
and lengthy talks by Dr. Bob, visits
by recovered pioneers, belief in God,
surrender to Christ, and prayer. Then
release.
Recovery
in the homes: (1) Daily get-togethers,
(2) Bible study and reading, (3) Individual
quiet times, (4) Quiet Times in the
morning with Anne Smith, discussions
with Bob and Henrietta and Anne, (5)
the regular Wednesday meeting, with
“real” surrenders upstairs (James
5:15-16: Elders and prayer), acceptance
of Jesus Christ, asking God to take
alcohol out of their lives, and asking
Him to help them abide by the Four
Absolutes. (6) Some individual Oxford
Group elements such as Inventory,
Confession, Conviction, and Restitution.
(7) Visiting newcomers at the hospital.
(8) Church attendance by most. (9)
Social and family fellowship.
Regular
Wednesday Meetings: Prayer, Scripture,
Group Prayer and Guidance, Discussion,
Surrender, appeal for helping newcomers,
Lord’s Prayer, socializing, and exchange
of literature. No drunkalogs. No steps.
No Big Book. Just Bible and devotionals
like the Upper Room
Quiet
Time (with Anne, with Group, or
individual): Based on having accepted
Jesus Christ; Bible reading; prayer
and seeking guidance; use of devotionals;
use of Anne Smith’s Journal;
reading of Christian literature.
If
you read the statements of Bill and
Bob together at the Shrine Auditorium
in Los Angeles in 1943. There were
some 4500 present. Bill spoke about
Divine Aid, the religious element,
and prayer. Dr. Bob spoke about cultivating
the habit of prayer and reading the
Bible. Both men were warmly received.
The
Frank Amos Reports in 1938
“All
considered practically incurable by
physicians.” They had “been reformed
and so far have remained teetotalers.”
Stories were remarkably alike in “the
technique used and the system followed.”
Mr. Amos described their seven-point
“Program” as follows:
[Abstinence]
An alcoholic must realize that he
is an alcoholic, incurable from a
medical viewpoint, and that he must
never again drink anything with alcohol
in it.
[Absolute
reliance on the Creator] He must
surrender himself absolutely to God,
realizing that in himself there is
no hope.
[Removal
of sins from his life] Not only
must he want to stop drinking permanently,
he must remove from his life other
sins such as hatred, adultery, and
others which frequently accompany
alcoholism. Unless he will do this
absolutely, Smith and his associates
refuse to work with him.
[Daily
Quiet Time with Bible study and prayer]
He must have devotions every morning–a
“quiet time” of prayer and some reading
from the Bible and other religious
literature. Unless this is faithfully
followed, there is grave danger of
backsliding.
[Helping
other alcoholics] He must be willing
to help other alcoholics get straightened
out. This throws up a protective barrier
and strengthens his own willpower
and convictions.
[Fellowship]
It is important, but not vital, that
he meet frequently with other reformed
alcoholics and form both a social
and a religious comradeship.
[Religious
affiliation] Important, but not
vital, that he attend some religious
service at least once weekly.
See
Dick B. God and Alcoholism: Our
Growing Opportunity in the 21st
Century (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 2002); DR.
BOB, supra, p. 131.
The
Major Spiritual Roots of the Program
Dr.
Bob said quite plainly that A.A.’s
basic ideas came from the Bible. Bill
said the Steps came primarily from
the Oxford Group principles as taught
by Reverend Sam. Shoemaker of New
York. The Oxford Group said plainly
that its principles were the principles
of the Bible. Both Dr. Bob and Bill
said that Jesus’s sermon on the mount
(Matthew 5, 6, 7) contained the underlying
A.A. philosophy. The six major spiritual
roots of Alcoholics Anonymous are
Biblical in origin and form.
The
Bible. See Dick B., The Good Book
and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in
the Bible. Over and over the
Bible was stressed as the basic source
of our ideas: The focus of reading
was the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians
13, and the Book of James. See the
detailed review of these three segments
in Dick B., Why Early A.A. Succeeded
(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications,
Inc., 2001). In addition, plenty was
taught about the Ten Commandments,
Jesus’s Two Great Commandments, the
need for a new birth by receiving
from above God’s spirit in Christ,
prayer, healing, repentance, guidance,
forgiveness, and so on.
Quiet
Time. The born-again newcomer
was to grow in knowledge, principles,
and practices from the Bible. He was
to study the Bible. He was to cultivate
the habit of prayer. He was to seek
guidance from Yahweh, the Creator.
He was advised to read religious books
and use daily devotionals. This was
done individually, with Dr. Bob’s
wife, Anne, and at meetings. See Dick
B., Good Morning!, supra; Anne
Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, supra.
Anne
Smith’s Journal. The most-forgotten
and ignored source of A.A. ideas.
Anne says it all. She was “it” as
far as recording the real early A.A.
program ideas in detail. She wrote
them down in organized fashion in
64 pages from 1933 to 1939. And she
shared abundantly from that journal
with AAs and their families. See Dick
B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939,
supra.
The
teachings of Reverend Sam Shoemaker.
Bill attributed practically all
the Steps and ideas to Sam and called
him a co-founder of A.A. Bill even
asked Sam to write the Twelve Steps.
Sam reviewed Bill’s first Big Book
manuscripts before they were published.
And Sam’s words, language, and ideas
can be found in the Steps and in the
Big Book. See Dick B., New Light
on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker,
and A.A., 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1999).
The
life-changing program of the Oxford
Group. No matter how hard he tried
to distance himself and AA from the
Oxford Group, the simple fact is that
Bill’s whole program is Oxford Group
in character, principles, and practices.
Bill worked closely with Sam Shoemaker.
While Dr. Bob really had little to
do with Shoemaker, he and Anne, Henrietta,
and the Williams couple were thorough
readers of Oxford Group literature
and were thoroughly conversant with
its ideas. See Dick B., The Oxford
Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, supra;
By the Power of God, supra..
The
books early AAs read for spiritual
growth. The pioneers in Akron
were readers. They were spurred on
by Dr. Bob, Anne, and Henrietta. They
read the Bible. The read the devotionals
- The Runner’s Bible, The
Upper Room, My Utmost for His
Highest. They read commentaries
like As a Man Thinketh, The
Greatest Thing in the World, Fox’s
The Sermon on the Mount, and
books by the great religious leaders
and writers - Glenn Clark, E. Stanley
Jones, Oswald Chambers, Harry Emerson
Fosdick, Norman Vincent Peale, Henry
Drummond, and many many others. They
read the Shoemaker books and the Oxford
Group books, of which there were more
than 500 in all. You could see references
in the Cleveland Central Bulletin,
in the AA Grapevine, and in
the Akron AA pamphlets. See Dick B.,
The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual
Growth, 7th ed., supra;
Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd
ed., supra; and Making
Known the Biblical Roots of Early
A.A.., supra.
Other
sources, though unusual in content
and character, came from new thought
writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Phineas P. Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy,
Ralph Waldo Trine, James Allen, Emmet
Fox, Charles Fillmore, Horatio W.
Dresser, F. L. Rawson, Thomas Troward,
and William James. And almost all
of these quoted Scripture at some
length. See Dick B., Cured!, supra;
God and Alcoholism, supra, pp.
77-118; and Making Known the Biblical
Roots of A.A., supra.
contents^
Part
5A
Introduction
The
Materials from the Bible That Dr. Bob
Considered
“Absolutely
Essential”
[Jesus’s
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), the
Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13]
“Dr.
Bob, another founder of A.A., also
addressed the Shrine assembly [along
with Bill W.] As he was introduced,
the audience rose to its feet in tribute.
The fame of Dr. Bob is great in A.A.
In soft, confident and unhurried words
he too [along with Bill W.] reiterated
the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.
. . He particularly recommended reading
the Bible” (The Tidings, Friday,
March 26, 1943, p. 47).
Many
of the Bible’s Books, Parts, and Verses
Need
Specific Mention Also!
A.A.’s
Bible roots are as numerous and varied
as the A.A. sources that used them.
If you start with the Bible devotionals
in wide use by A.A.’s old-timers,
you’ll see lots of mention of all
the Bible verses, chapters, and
books we’ll discuss in the various
parts of this presentation. Key among
the devotionals were The Upper
Room, The Runner ‘s Bible, Daily Strength
for Daily Needs, and My Utmost
For His Highest. These books and
pamphlets covered many verses and
segments of the Bible other than the
Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James,
and 1 Corinthians 13. Many of these
other verses and segments were studied
by, and important to, A.A.’s pioneers.
You can find them mentioned almost
anywhere you start.
If
you start with the books Dr. Bob’s
wife Anne recommended and shared from
her journal with early AAs and their
families, you will find Anne recommending
the Book of Acts, Psalms, Proverbs,
the Gospels, and other specific sections.
She also recommended Fosdick’s book
on The Meaning of Prayer, which
is filled with Bible references pertaining
to prayer. She recommended several
books on the life of Jesus Christ
which also are filled with Bible references.
She recommended life-changing books
by Sam Shoemaker and others. These
titles spell out appropriate Bible
sources for the very spiritual ideas
Rev. Shoemaker was teaching early
AAs. So too with the Glenn Clark books
and E. Stanley Jones books.
If
you start with some of the books Dr.
Bob recommended, you’ll be looking
at The Greatest Thing in the World
by Drummond, which discusses 1
Corinthians 13. You’ll look at several
commentaries about Matthew chapters
5-7 (the sermon on the mount delivered
by Jesus). These include books by
Oswald Chambers, Glenn Clark, E. Stanley
Jones, Emmet Fox, Robert E. Speer,
Emmet Fox, and others. Most of those
authors discuss almost every single
verse in the sermon. Though there
is no commentary on the Book of James,
The Runner’s Bible (which Dr.
Bob widely recommended) discusses
many parts of James--the book Anne
frequently read to Bob and Bill at
the Smith home in the summer of 1935.
The many books by Rev. Sam Shoemaker,
Oxford Group writers, new thought
writers, and others such as Toyohiko
Kagawa and Glenn Clark all became
rich sources for the simple ideas
AAs extracted from the Good Book and
incorporated into their spiritual
program of recovery. That program,
of course, involved intensive work
with newcomers, prayer, Bible study,
and daily fellowship with like-minded
believers.
The
Special Role of the Books of
Matthew,
James, and 1 Corinthians
The
focus here will be on the three portions
of the Bible which Dr. Bob said he
and the early A.A. pioneers considered
“absolutely essential.” Pointing directly
to the roles of the three segments
are the following pioneer comments
about Matthew chapters 5-7, the Book
of James, and 1 Corinthians 13:
When
we started in on Bill D. [who was
A.A. Number Three], we had no Twelve
Steps [said Dr. Bob]. But we were
convinced that the answer to our problems
was in the Good Book. To some of us
older ones, the parts that we found
absolutely essential were the Sermon
on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter
of First Corinthians, and the Book
of James (The Co-founders of
Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical
sketches Their last major talks,1972,
1975, pp. 9-10).
[Dr.
Bob said, in Youngstown, Ohio:] Members
of Alcoholics Anonymous begin the
day with a prayer for strength and
a short period of Bible reading. They
find the basic messages they need
in the Sermon on the Mount, in Corinthians
and the Book of James (Wally P., But
for the Grace of God, p. 45).
[Dr.
Bob’s son “Smitty” recently recalled:]
Before there was a Big Book—in the
period of “flying blind,” God’s Big
Book was the reference used in our
home. The summer of 1935, when Bill
lived with us, Dr. Bob had read the
Bible completely three times. And
the references that seemed consistent
with the program goals were the Sermon
on the Mount, I Corinthians 13, and
the Book of James (Dick B., The
Good Book and The Big Book, p.
ix).
[An
early pamphlet commissioned by Dr.
Bob stated:] There is the Bible that
you haven’t opened for years. Get
acquainted with it. Read it with an
open mind. You will find things that
will amaze you. You will be convinced
that certain passages were written
with you in mind. Read the Sermon
on the Mount (Matthew V, VI, and VII).
Read St. Paul’s inspired essay on
love (I Corinthians XIII). Read the
Book of James. Read the Twenty-third
and Ninety-first Psalms. These readings
are brief but so important (A Manual
for Alcoholics Anonymous, rev
ed., AA of Akron, 1989, p. 8).
[Bill
Wilson said of his stay with Dr. Bob
and Anne for three months in 1935:]
Each morning there was devotion. After
the long silence Anne [Dr. Bob’s wife]
would read out of the Good Book. James
was our favorite (RHS. New
York: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1951,
p. 5).
The
definition of love in Corinthians
also played a great part in our discussions
(Kurtz, Not-God. Hazelden,
1991, p. 320, n. 11).
The
Sermon on the Mount [Matthew chapters
5-7] contains the underlying spiritual
philosophy of A.A. [said both Bill
Wilson and Dr. Bob] (Dick B., The
Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s
Roots in the Bible, p. 4).
The
key Bible segments, then–considered
absolutely essential in putting together
A.A.’s spiritual program of recovery–were
the Sermon, James, and 1 Corinthians
13.
And
there seems little doubt that any
purportedly accurate, comprehensive,
and fair study of A.A. history, A.A.
principles, A.A. literature, and the
A.A. fellowship requires a knowledge
of what the early AAs took from the
three key Bible sources. Those three
segments of Biblical materials clearly
influenced or found their way into
the Big Book and the Twelve Steps.
And those Bible segments are of such
historical significance that they
justify the following, separate, item-by-item
review.
contents^
Part
5B
The
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
This
discussion will not deal with a particular
book or commentary on Matthew chapters
5-7. It will focus on the Sermon on
the Mount itself; for this Sermon,
which Jesus delivered, was not the
property of some present-day commentator
or writer. The fact that Dr. Bob read
the Matthew chapters themselves,
as well as many interpretations
of them, verifies the A.A. belief
that the Sermon was one of the principles
comprising “the common property of
mankind,” which Bill Wilson said the
AAs had borrowed. And here are some
major points that appear to have found
their way from the Sermon into the
basic ideas of the Big Book. The points
were, of course, in the sermon itself.
In addition, the pioneers read many
books and articles on and about the
sermon which are thoroughly documented
in the author’s title, The Good
Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots
in the Bible. Those items further
illustrate some of the points made
in the sermon and that might have
found their way into A.A.
The
Lord’s Prayer—Matthew 6:9-13
Oxford
Group meetings closed with the Lord’s
Prayer in New York and in Akron. In
early A.A., they also closed meetings
with the Lord’s Prayer. Moreover,
the author has attended at least two
thousand A.A. meetings, and almost
every one has closed with the Lord’s
Prayer. At the 1990 International
A.A. Conference in Seattle, which
was a first for this author, some
50,000 members of Alcoholics Anonymous
joined in closing their meetings with
the Lord’s Prayer. The question here
concerns what parts, if any, of the
Lord’s Prayer found their way into
the Big Book, Twelve Steps, A.A. Slogans,
and the A.A. fellowship; and we hasten
to remind the reader that the prayer
is part of the Sermon on the Mount.
Here are the verses of the Lord’s
Prayer (King James Version)
as found in Matt. 6:9-13. Jesus instructed
the Judaeans, “After this manner therefore
pray ye”:
Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy name.
Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive
our debtors.
And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil: For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, for
ever. Amen.
Dr.
Bob studied specific commentaries
on the Sermon by Oswald Chambers,
Glenn Clark, Emmet Fox, and E. Stanley
Jones. And these writers extracted
a good many teachings, prayer guides,
and theological ideas from Lord’s
Prayer verses in the Sermon. But there
are a few concepts and phrases in
the Lord’s Prayer itself which either
epitomize A.A. thinking or can be
found in its language—whether the
A.A. traces came from the Lord’s Prayer
or from other portions of the Bible.
For example, the Big Book uses the
word “Father” when referring to the
Creator Yahweh, our God; and the context
shows that this usage and name came
from the Bible. The Oxford Group also
used the term “Father,” among other
names, when referring to God. The
concept and expression of God as “Father”
is not confined to the Sermon on the
Mount. It can be found in many other
parts of the New Testament. But AAs
have given the “Our Father” prayer
a special place in their meetings.
Thus the Lord’s Prayer seems the likely
source of their use of the word “Father.”
The
phrase “Thy will be done” is directly
quoted, or is the specific subject
of reference, in the Big Book several
times (Big Book, 4th ed.,
pp. 63, 67, 76, 85, 88). It underlies
A.A.’s contrast between “self-will”
and “God’s will.” The Oxford Group
stressed, as do A.A.’s Third and Seventh
Step prayers, that there must be a
decision to do God’s will and surrender
to His will. These ideas were
also symbolized in the A.A. prayer’s
“Thy will be done.”
Finally,
“Forgive us our debts” or “trespasses”
certainly states that God can and
will “forgive”; and these concepts
can be found in the Big Book, whether
they came from the Lord’s Prayer or
from other important Biblical sources
such as the Book of James.
The
Full “Sermon on the Mount”:
Matthew Chapters 5-7
Dr.
Bob studied, and circulated among
early AAs, an E. Stanley Jones
book, The Christ of the Mount
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1931; Festival
ed., 1985, pp. 36-37) which outlined
the Sermon’s contents in this fashion:
2.
The goal of life: To be perfect or
complete as the Father in heaven is
perfect or complete (5:48); with twenty-seven
marks of this perfect life (5:1-47).
[Jones
wrote of these verses:] The perfect
life consists in being poor in spirit,
in mourning, in being meek, in hungering
and thirsting after righteousness,
in being merciful, pure in heart,
in being a peacemaker, persecuted
for righteousness sake and yet rejoicing
and being exceeding glad, in being
the salt of the earth, the light of
the world, having a righteousness
that exceeds, in being devoid of anger
with the brother, using no contemptuous
words, allowing no one to hold anything
against one, having the spirit of
quick agreement, no inward lustful
thinking, relentless against anything
that offends against the highest,
right relations in the home life,
truth in speech and attitude, turning
the other cheek, giving the cloak
also, going the second mile, giving
to those who ask and from those who
would borrow turning not away, loving
even one’s enemies, praying for those
that persecute (pp. 50-51).
2. A diagnosis of the reason why men
do not reach or move on to that goal:
Divided personality (6:1-6; 7:1-6).
3. The Divine offer of an adequate
moral and spiritual re-enforcement
so that men can move on to that goal:
The Holy Spirit to them that ask him
(7:7-11).
4. After making the Divine offer he
gathers up and emphasizes in two sentences
our part in reaching that goal. Toward
others we are to do unto others as
we would that they should do unto
us (7:12); toward ourselves—we are
to lose ourselves by entering the
straight gate (7:13).
5.
The test of whether we are moving
on to that goal, or whether this Divine
Life is operative within us: By their
fruits (7:15-23).
6.
The survival value of this new life
and the lack of survival value of
life lived in any other way: The house
founded on rock and the house founded
on sand (7:24-27).
Matthew
Chapter 5
1.
The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes
are found in Matt. 5:3-11. The word
“beatitudes” refers to the first word
“Blessed” in each of these verses.
Merriam Webster’s says “blessed” means
“enjoying the bliss of heaven.” The
word in the Greek New Testament from
which “blessed” was translated means,
“happy,” according Biblical scholar
Ethelbert Bullinger. Vine’s Expository
Dictionary of Old and New Testament
Words explains the word “Blessed”
as follows: “In the beatitudes the
Lord indicates not only the characters
that are blessed, but the nature of
that which is the highest good.” Dr.
Bob’s wife Anne Smith described the
Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount
as “the Christ-like virtues to be
cultivated” (Dick B., Anne Smith
‘s Journal, p. 135).
The
beatitude verses can be found at the
very beginning of Jesus’s sermon and
read as follows:
And
seeing the multitudes, he went up
into a mountain: and when he was set,
his disciples came unto him:
And
he opened his mouth, and taught them,
saying,
Blessed
are the poor in spirit: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed
are they that mourn: for they shall
be comforted.
Blessed
are the meek: for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness: for they shall
be filled.
Blessed
are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy.
Blessed
are the pure in heart: for they shall
see God.
Blessed
are the peacemakers: for they shall
be called the children of God.
Blessed
are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed
are ye, when men shall revile you,
and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely,
for my sake.
Rejoice,
and be exceeding glad: for great is
your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before
you (Matt. 5:1-12)
Italicized
below are Webster’s definitions
for the key words in each “beatitude”
verse, with quotes also from the King
James Version, which was the version
Dr. Bob and early AAs most used. As
the verses appear in the King James,
they state: “Blessed” are:
·
the poor (humble) in spirit
[renouncing themselves, wrote E. Stanley
Jones]: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven (v. 3) ;
·
they that mourn (feel or express
grief or sorrow): for they shall
be comforted (v. 4);
·
the meek (enduring injury with
patience and without resentment);
for they shall inherit the earth
(v. 5);
·
they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness (acting in accord
with divine or moral law): for
they shall be filled (v. 6);
·
the merciful (compassionate): for
they shall obtain mercy (v. 7);
·
the pure (spotless, stainless)
in heart [has a passion for righteousness
and a compassion for men–seeks law
and shows love, wrote Jones]: for
they shall see God (v. 8);
·
the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God (v. 9);
·
they which are persecuted for righteousness
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven (v. 10);
·
ye when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely, for my
sake (end or purpose): for
great is your reward in heaven: for
so persecuted they the prophets which
were before you (v. 11).
Did
Dr. Bob, Anne, Bill, or Henrietta
Seiberling study and draw specifically
on these beatitude verses as they
put together A.A.’s recovery program?
The author can neither provide nor
document an answer. But there are
some ideas common to A.A.’s spiritual
principles in the beatitudes as you
see them expressed above. These are:
(1) Humility–overcoming self; (2)
Comfort for the suffering; (3) Patience
and tolerance to the end of eliminating
resentment; (4) Harmonizing one’s
actions with God’s will; (5) Compassion,
which Webster defines as “sympathetic
consciousness of others distress together
with a desire to alleviate;” (6) “Cleaning
house”–which means seeking obedience
to God and, based on the principles
of love, straightening out harms caused
by disobedience; (7) Making peace;
(8) Standing for and acting upon spiritual
principles, whatever the cost, because
they are God’s principles. The foregoing
are Twelve Step ideas that can be
found in the Beatitudes; and A.A.
founders probably saw them there as
well, and they can most certainly
be found in the Big Book–humility,
comforting others, patience and tolerance,
“Thy will be done,” compassion, amends,
peacemaking, acting on the “cardinal
principles of Jesus Christ” as virtues
to be cultivated.
2.
Letting your light shine. Matt.
5:13-16 suggest glorifying your Heavenly
Father by letting others see your
good works. That is, “Letting your
light shine” does not mean glorifying
yourself, but rather glorifying God
by letting others see your spiritual
walk in action—see the immediate
results of surrender to the Master.
These ideas may be reflected in the
Big Book’s statement: “Our real purpose
is to fit ourselves to be of maximum
service to God. . . .” (p. 77).
3.
Obeying the Ten Commandments.
In Matt. 5:17-21, Jesus reiterates
the importance of obeying the law
and the prophets, specifically referring
to Exod. 20:13 (Thou shalt not kill),
but obviously referring to the other
important commandments such as having
no other god but Yahweh (Exod. 20:2-3),
worshiping no other god (Exod. 20:4-5),
eschewing adultery (Exod. 20:14),
not stealing (Exod. 20:15), and so
on. And even though some of these
commandments may have fallen between
the cracks in today’s A.A., they very
clearly governed the moral standards
of early A.A. that Dr. Bob and the
Akron AAs embraced. The Ten Commandments
were part of early A.A. pamphlets
and literature, and (for example)
Dr. Bob and the Akron AAs would have
nothing to do with a man who was committing
adultery.
4.
The Law of Love in action.
In Matt. 5:17-47, Jesus confirms
that the Law of Love fulfills the
Old Testament Law. He rejects anger
without cause, unresolved wrongs to
a brother, quibbling with an adversary,
lust and impurity, adultery, retaliation,
and hatred of an enemy. The author’s
title The Oxford Group & Alcoholics
Anonymous covers many of these
ideas as roots of A.A. principles.
And the foregoing verses in Matthew
may very well have influenced A.A.
language about: (1) Overcoming resentments
[“. . .I say unto you, That whosoever
is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment. . .]; (2) Making restitution
[“Therefore if thou bring thy gift
before the altar, and there rememberest
that thy brother hath ought against
thee; Leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift”]; (3) Avoidance
of retaliation for wrongdoing by others
[“Ye have heard that it hath been
said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth: But I say unto you, That
ye resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also”]; and
(4) Making peace with our enemies
[“Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor,
and hate thine enemy. But I say unto
you. Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute
you”]
Matthew
Chapter 6
1.
Anonymity. Matt. 6:1-8, 16-18
(urging almsgiving “in secret,” praying
“in secret,” fasting “in secret,”
and avoiding “vain repetitions,” and
hypocrisy) very possibly played a
role in the development of A.A.’s
spiritual principle of anonymity.
Jesus said, “your Father knoweth what
things ye have need of, before ye
ask him” and “thy Father, which seeth
in secret. shall reward thee openly.”
The vain practices which Jesus condemned
were focused on one’s inflating the
ego and focus on self-centeredness--something
A.A. disdains. Early Oxford Group
and A.A. literature often spoke of
“God-sufficiency” versus “self-sufficiency,”
and “God-centeredness” versus “self-centeredness”
and “ego-centricity.” We have
located no direct tie between the
teachings of Jesus on anonymity and
A.A.’s traditions on this “spiritual”
principle. But the concepts are parallel;
and The Runner’s Bible and
other A.A. biblical sources that AAs
studied do discuss their significance
at some length.
2.
Forgiveness. Matt.
6:14-15 refer to forgiving men their
trespasses; and Emmet Fox’s forceful
writing about these verses may well
have influenced the A.A. amends process.
Fox said:
The
forgiveness of sins is the central
problem of life. . . . It is, of course,
rooted in selfishness. . . . We must
positively and definitely extend forgiveness
to everyone to whom it is possible
that we can owe forgiveness, namely,
to anyone who we think can have injured
us in any way. . . When you hold resentment
against anyone, you are bound to that
person by a cosmic link, a real, tough
metal chain. You are tied by a cosmic
tie to the thing that you hate. The
one person perhaps in the whole world
whom you most dislike is the very
one to whom you are attaching yourself
by a hook that is stronger than steel
(Fox, The Sermon on the Mount,
pp. 183-88).
There
is no assurance that Fox’s writing
on this sermon forgiveness point specifically
influenced the Big Book’s emphasis
on forgiveness. To be sure, at least
two A.A. history writers have claimed
that Fox’s writings did influence
Bill Wilson. However, other books
that were read by early AAs–books
by such authors as Henry Drummond,
Glenn Clark, E. Stanley Jones, and
Harry Emerson Fosdick–used language
similar to that used by Fox in his
discussion of forgiveness of enemies.
And Jesus’ sermon on the mount is
not the only place in the New Testament
where forgiveness is stressed. Thus,
after, and even though, Christ had
accomplished remission of past sins
of believers, Paul wrote:
Forbearing
one another, and forgiving one another,
if any man have a quarrel against
any: even as Christ forgave you, so
also do ye (Col. 3:13)
See
also the following verse, a favorite
often quoted and used by Henrietta
Seiberling–a well known early A.A.
teacher who was often thought of as
an A.A. founder:
If
a man say I love God, and hateth his
brother. he is a liar: for he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen? (1 John 4:20)
In
any event, the Big Book, Third Edition,
states at page 77:
The
question of how to approach the man
we hated will arise. It may be he
has done us more harm than we have
done him and, though we may have acquired
a better attitude toward him, we are
still not too keen about admitting
our faults. Nevertheless, with a person
we dislike, we take the bit in our
teeth. It is harder to go to an enemy
than to a friend, but we find it more
beneficial to us. We go to him in
a helpful and forgiving spirit,
confessing our former ill feeling
and expressing our regret. Under no
condition do we criticize such a person
or argue. Simply we tell him that
we will never get over drinking until
we have done our utmost to straighten
out the past (italics added).
3.
“The sunlight of the Spirit?”
Speaking of the futility and unhappiness
in a life which includes deep resentment,
the Big Book states: “when harboring
such feelings we shut ourselves off
from the sunlight of the Spirit.”
One often hears this “sunlight” expression
quoted in A.A. meetings. Yet its origins
seem unreported and undocumented.
Anne Smith referred frequently in
her journal to the verses in 1 John
which had to do with fellowship with
God and walking in the light as God
is light. So did A.A.’s Oxford Group
sources. And the following are the
most frequently quoted verses from
1 John having to do with God as “light”
and the importance of walking in the
light (rather than walking in darkness)
in order to have fellowship with Him:
That
which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you, that ye may have fellowship
with us: and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with
his Son, Jesus Christ.
And these things write we unto you,
that your joy may be full.
This then is the message which we
have heard of him, and declare unto
you, that God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship
with him, and walk in darkness, we
lie, and do not the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin (1 John 1:3-7).
Though
this particular discussion is concerned
with the Sermon on the Mount, we have
mentioned also the foregoing verses
from 1 John 1:3-7 (having to do with
walking in God’s light as against
opposed to walking in darkness). For
very possibly those ideas in 1 John,
together with the following verses
in the Sermon, may have given rise
to Bill’s references to the alcoholic’s
being blocked from the “sunlight of
the Spirit” when he or she dwells
in such dark realms as excessive anger.
Matt. 6:22-24 (in the Sermon) state:
The
light of the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole body
shall be full of light.
But
if thine eye be evil, thy whole body
shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!
No
man can serve two masters: for either
he will hate the one, and love the
other: or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon.
4.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Matt. 6:24-34 seem to have had
tremendous influence on A.A. The substance
of these verses is that man will be
taken care of when he seeks first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Verse 33 says:
But
seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these
things [food. clothing, and shelter]
shall be added unto you.
Dr.
Bob specifically explained the origin
of our A.A. slogans “Easy Does It”
and “First Things First.” (DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers,
pp 135, 144). When he was asked
the meaning of “First Things First,”
Dr. Bob replied. “Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added
unto you.” He told his sponsee Clarence
S. that “First Things First” came
from Matt. 6:33 in the sermon on the
mount. And this verse was widely quoted
in the books that Dr. Bob and the
Akron AAs read and recommended (Dick
B., The Good Book and The Big Book,
p. 125, n.119; That Amazing
Grace, pp. 30, 38).
On
page 60, the Big Book states the A.A.
solution for relief from alcoholism:
“God could and would if He were sought.”
This concept of “seeking” results
by reliance on God instead of reliance
on self is a bedrock idea in the Big
Book (see Third Edition, pp. 11, 14,
25, 28, 43, 52-53, 57, 62). In view
of Dr. Bob’s explanations as to the
origin of “First Things First,” the
Big Book’s emphasis on “seeking” very
likely came from the “seeking the
kingdom of God first” idea in Matt.
6:33.
According
to Dr. Bob, the slogans “Easy Does
It” and “One day at a time” came from
the next verse–Matthew 6:34. See Dick
B., The Good Book and The Big Book,
pp. 87-88, and other citations therein.
Matthew
Chapter 7
1.
Taking your own inventory.
Much of A.A.’s Fourth, Ninth,
Tenth, and Eleventh Step actions involve
looking for your own part, for your
own fault in troublesome matters.
This self-examination process (as
part of the house-cleaning and life-changing
process in the Steps) was expected
to result in that which, in Appendix
II of the Third Edition of the Big
Book, became described as “the personality
change sufficient to bring about recovery
from alcoholism” (Big Book, p. 569).
Matt. 7:3-5 states:
And
why beholdest thou the mote [speck]
that is in thy brother’s eye, but
considerest not the beam [log] that
is in thine own eye?
Or
how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me pull the mote [speck] out of
thine eye; and, behold, a beam [log]
is in thine own eye.
Thou
hypocrite, first cast out the beam
[log] out of thine own eye; and then
shalt thou see clearly to cast out
the mote [speck] out of thy brother’s
eye.
These
verses from Matthew were frequently
cited by A.A.’s spiritual sources
as the Biblical foundation for self-examination
and thus finding one’s own part, one’s
own erroneous conduct, in a relationship
problem.
Ask,
and it shall be given you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you;
For
every one that asketh receiveth; and
he that seeketh findeth; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened.
Or
what man is there of you, whom if
his son ask bread, will he give him
a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will
he give him a serpent?
If
ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Father which
is in heaven give good things to them
that ask him?
Our
part [in the crisis of self-surrender]
is to ask, to seek, to knock. His
[God’s] part is to answer, to come,
to open (Shoemaker, Realizing Religion,
p. 32).
The
Runner’s Bible (one of the most
important of the early A.A. Bible
devotionals) has an entire chapter
titled, “Ask and Ye shall receive.”
Another favored devotional among the
A.A. pioneers was My Utmost for
His Highest, by Oswald Chambers.
Chambers says, about the foregoing
verses beginning with Matt. 7:7:
The
illustration of prayer that Our Lord
uses here is that of a good child
asking for a good thing. . . . It
is no use praying unless we are living
as children of God. Then, Jesus says:
“Everyone that asketh receiveth.”
The
foregoing verses, and relevant comments
by A.A. sources, underline the importance
of becoming a child of God, establishing
a harmonious relationship with Him,
and then expecting good results
from the Creator, Yahweh, our God–“Providence”
from Him as our Heavenly Father. Given
the emphasis in early A.A. on the
Sermon, those verses from Matt. 7
very probably influenced the following
similar ideas expressed as follows
in the Big Book’s Third Edition and
Fourth Edition:
If
what we have learned and felt and
seen means anything at all, it means
that all of us, whatever our race,
creed, or color are the children of
a living Creator with whom we may
form a relationship upon simple and
understandable terms as soon as we
are willing and honest enough to try
(p. 28).
God
will constantly disclose more to you
and to us. Ask Him in your morning
meditation what you can do each day
for the man who is still sick. The
answers will come, if your own
house is in order. But obviously
you cannot transmit something you
haven’t got. See to it that your
relationship with Him is right, and
great events will come to pass for
you and countless others. This is
the Great Fact for us (p. 164, italics
added).
In
this same vein. Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne,
wrote, in the spiritual journal she
shared with early AAs and their families:
We
can’t give away what we haven’t got.
We must have a genuine contact with
God in our present experience.
Not an experience of the past, but
an experience in the present—actual,
genuine (Dick B., Anne Smith’s
Journal, p. 121).
3.
Do unto others. The
so-called “Golden Rule” cannot, as
such, be readily identified in A.A.’s
Big Book though it certainly is a
much-quoted portion of the sermon
on the mount which Bill and Dr. Bob
said underlies A.A.’s philosophy.
The relevant verse is Matt. 7:12:
Therefore
all things whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so
to them: for this is the law and the
prophets.
Perhaps
the following two Big Book segments
bespeak that philosophy as Bill may
have seen it:
We
have begun to learn tolerance, patience
and good will toward all men, even
our enemies, for we look on them as
sick people. We have listed the people
we have hurt by our conduct, and are
willing to straighten out the past
if we can (p. 70).
Then
you will know what it means to give
of yourself that others may survive
and rediscover life. You will learn
the full meaning of “Love thy neighbor
as thyself” (p. 153).
4.
He that doeth the will of my Father.
There are several key verses
in the sermon on the mount which could
have caused Bob and Bill to say that
Matthew Chapters Five to Seven contained
A.A.’s underlying philosophy. The
verses are in the Lords Prayer itself
(Matt. 6:9-13), the so-called Golden
Rule quoted above (Matt. 7:12), and
the phrase “Thy will be done” (Matt.
6:10). In addition to these three
roots, however, I believe that the
major spiritual principle borrowed
by the founders from the sermon on
the mount—can be found in Matt. 7:21:
Not
every one that saith unto me. Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven; but he that doeth the will
of my Father which is in heaven.
Bill
Wilson said clearly in the Big Book
and in his other writings that the
key to success in A.A. is doing the
will of the Father–the Father Who
is the subject of the Lord’s
Prayer, Almighty God Whose will was
to be done, and the Creator upon whom
early AAs relied. Note that Wilson
wrote:
I
was to sit quietly when in doubt,
asking only for direction and strength
to meet my problems as He would have
me (Bill’s Story, Big Book, 4th ed.,
p. 13).
He
humbly offered himself to his Maker—then
he knew (Big Book, 4th ed., p. 57).
.
. . praying only for knowledge of
His will for us and the power to carry
that out (Step Eleven, Big Book, 4th
ed., p. 59).
May
I do Thy will always (portion of “Third
Step Prayer,” Big Book, 4th ed., p.
63)!
Thy
will be done (Big Book, 4th ed, pp.
67, 88).
Grant
me strength, as I go out from here,
to do your bidding. Amen (portion
of “Seventh Step Prayer,” Big Book,
4th ed., p. 76).
There
is God, our Father, who very simply
says, ‘I am waiting for you to do
my will’ (Alcoholics Anonymous
Comes of Age, p. 105).
contents^
Part
5C
The
Book of James
Of
probably even greater importance (than
the Sermon) in the day-by-day thinking
of early A.A. was the Book of James.
It was much studied by A.A.’s
co-founders. Quotes and ideas from the
Apostle James can be found throughout
the Big Book and in A.A. literature.
The Book of James was considered so
important that many favored calling
the A.A. fellowship the “James Club”
(DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers,
p. 71; Pass It On, p. 147).
And even the most fundamental phrases
in A.A., such as “It Works” and Bill
Wilson’s own “Works Publishing Company”
(which published the First Edition of
the Big Book), probably have their origin
in the “Faith without works is dead”
phrases in the Book of James (See:
Nell Wing, Grateful to Have Been
There, pp. 70-71).
Let’s
therefore review the Book of James,
chapter by chapter. As we do so, we
will point to traces of that book
which we believe can be found in,
or probably influenced the text of,
the Big Book. At the outset, we would
report that as our research into the
Biblical roots of A.A. has progressed,
so has our understanding of some root
sources that previously went unnoticed.
For
example, some time back, Dr. Bob’s
son, Robert R. Smith, told the author
by phone that his father had placed
great stake in The Runner’s
Bible. We had encountered difficulty
locating a copy. And we were still
looking for some commentary on the
Book of James similar to the many
on the sermon on the mount (by Oswald
Chambers, Glenn Clark, Emmet Fox,
and E. Stanley Jones) and on 1 Corinthians
13 (by Henry Drummond, for example).
And Dr. Bob extensively studied and
circulated most of these among the
Pioneers. We believed such above-mentioned
commentaries probably impacted upon
the thinking of Dr. Bob, Anne, Henrietta,
and the early AAs just as the actual
Bible verses in Matthew chapters 5-7
and 1 Corinthians 13 have.
But
we could find no similar commentary
that the pioneers used with the Book
of James, despite A.A.’s specific
emphasis on James. Finally, as we
studied the spiritual literature early
AAs read, we noticed in The Runner’s
Bible the frequency with which
all the books and chapters that Dr.
Bob called “absolutely essential”
(Matthew chapters 5-7, 1 Corinthians
13, and James) were there mentioned.
We particularly noticed the frequency
with which The Runner’s
Bible mentioned and discussed
verses from the Book of James. Hence
our reader will find many references
to The Runner’s Bible in
the footnotes of our title The
Good Book and The Big Book; for
we believe that the little “Runner’s”
devotional book may have provided
Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, and perhaps even
Bill Wilson, with much of the fodder
that caused them to focus on James
and conclude that James was their
“favorite” book of the Bible.
In
a phone conversation with the author
in 1995, from his home in Texas, Dr.
Bob’s son stated he felt it would
be almost impossible for him, at this
late date, to confirm that The
Runner’s Bible was the
source of either A.A.’s or its founders’
emphasis on James or other parts of
the Bible. But he pointed out that
the little Biblical devotional book
was used by those who wanted a quick
and easy source for Biblical ideas
in which they were interested. Perhaps,
then, that book became a reference
source for Dr. Bob, Anne, and even
Bill Wilson when they were studying
the pertinent Biblical ideas they
extracted from 1 Corinthians 13, the
Sermon on the Mount, and particularly
James. Now let’s look at the chapters
in James–one by one.
James
Chapter 1
1.
Patience. Chapter One is
not the only chapter in the Book of
James which mentions patience. Nor
is it the only portion of the Bible
that stresses patience. But we’ve
noted that James was a favored Biblical
source in early A.A., and James 1:3-4
do state:
Knowing
this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. But let patience
have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing.
Patience
certainly wound up as one of the most
frequently mentioned spiritual principles
in the Big Book (pp. 67, 70, 83, 111,
118, 163).
2.
Asking wisdom of God with unwavering
believing. James 1:5-8
state:
If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask
of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him.
But
let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
For he that wavereth is like a wave
of the sea driven with the wind and
tossed.
For
let not that man think that he shall
receive anything of the Lord. A double
minded man is unstable in all
his ways Asking for God’s direction
and strength and receiving “Guidance”
from Him, are major themes in both
the Old and New Testaments. They were
important Oxford Group ideas as well.
We therefore discussed them at length
in our titles on the Oxford Group
and on Anne Smith’s spiritual journal.
Certainly the Big Book, including
the Eleventh Step itself, is filled
with such Guidance concepts (3rd
ed., pp.13, 46, 49, 62-63, 69-70,
76, 79-80, 83, 84-88, 100, 117, 120,
124, 158, 164).
3.
Resisting temptation. It should
surprise no one that AAs of yesteryear
and of today are interested in resisting
temptation, and having the power to
do that—the power of God. James 1:12-16
state:
Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord
hath promised to those that love him.
Let
no man say when he is tempted, I am
tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man:
But
every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed.
Then
when lust bath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death.
Do
not err, my beloved brethren.
[My
personal view is that the foregoing
verses offer much insight for the
cure of alcoholism and other life-controlling
afflictions. Man is to resist the
devil–says
James in a later verse. Man is to
endure temptation when he is tried.
When he is tempted, he cannot blame
the temptation on God–who
cannot be tempted and does not tempt.
He can be tempted by being drawn away
of his own lust and enticed. James
3:15-16 speaks of a “wisdom
[that] descendeth not from above,
but is earthly, sensual, and devilish.”
And, says James, when the enticement
results in lustful [and excessive]
thoughts and behavior [such as getting
drunk and drunkenness], it can and
should be recognized as sin, and sin
as the producer of death. For the
real alcoholic, the devilish thoughts
must be expelled. The prescription
is not merely to abstain from drinking
and go to 12 Step meetings. The enjoined
error occurs when the man fails to
submit to God, resist the devil, humble
himself in the sight of God, and appropriately
believe to be lifted up and out by
his Creator. 2 Corinthians 10:5 calls
for casting down human reasoning and
“every
high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.”
We are the ones to control the thoughts.
1 Corinthians 10:13 points out: “There
hath no temptation taken you but such
as is common to man; but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with
the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear
it.”
To be “cured,” I believe, we need
to recognize that temptation to disobey
God is common, that thoughts about
letting the temptation make a nest
in our mind and motivate must be cast
out. They need to be resisted. They
need to be expelled. And we need to
believe what God says–we
are submit ourselves to God; resist
the devil; and be assured that the
devil will flee, that God will lift
us up, and that we can escape and
bear the temptation with the help
of our faithful Creator.]
4.
Every good and perfect gift comes
from God, the Father of lights.
James 1:17 states:
Every
good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Bill
seemed to be referring to this verse
when he wrote on page 14 of Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed.:
I
must turn in all things to the Father
of Light [sic] who presides over us
all. [Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st
ed., has “the Father of Lights,” p.
23.]
Bill
made the same reference to God, the
Father of lights, who presides over
us all, in Appendix I of Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed.:
This
to the end that our great blessings
may never spoil us; that we shall
forever live in thankful contemplation
of Him who presides over us all (p.
566).
The
“Him” who presides over us all was,
of course, James 1:17's “Father of
lights”– the Creator Yahweh, our Almighty
God.
5.
Let every man be slow to speak,
slow to wrath. James 1:19-20
state:
Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man
be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God.
The
same verse is quoted in The Runner’s
Bible and seems quite relevant
to the Big Book’s injunction,
“If we were to live, we had to be
free of anger. . . . God save me from
being angry” (Fourth Edition, pp.
66-67).
6.
Be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only. James 1:21-22
state:
Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity
of naughtiness, and receive with meekness
the engrafted word, which is able
to save your souls.
But
be ye doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving your own selves.
I
think St. James’ meaning is made much
clearer in Dr. Moffatt’s translation,
“Act on the Word, instead of merely
listening to it.” Try it out in experiment,
and prove it by its results— otherwise
you only fool yourself into believing
that you have the heart of religion
when you haven’t (Shoemaker, The
Gospel According to You, pp. 44-55).
In
the same chapter, Shoemaker also pointed
out that prayer is often more a struggle
to find God than the enjoyment of
Him and cooperation with His will.
He added that “God is and is a Rewarder
of them that seek Him.” (See The
Gospel According to You, p. 47;
and Heb. 11:6).
We
cannot find specific or similar
language to that of James 1:21-22
in the Big Book; but A.A. declares
over and over that A.A. is a program
of action, that probably no
human power can relieve a person of
his alcoholism, and “That God could
and would if He were sought” (p.
60). A.A.’s program emphasizes action
in the experiment of faith it adopted
from John 7:17—seeking God
by following the path that
leads to a relationship with God.
James 1:22 enjoins doing God’s
will as expressed in His Word—not
merely listening to it. James was
an Akron favorite. Shoemaker was a
Wilson favorite. “Faith without works”
was a Big Book favorite; and it therefore
seems quite reasonable to believe
and possible that A.A.’s emphasis
on action might well have derived
in part from James 1:21-22.
7.
Pure religion and undefiled before
God . . . to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction.
James 1:27 states:
Pure
religion and undefiled before God
and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep oneself unspotted
from the world.
At
the very least, this verse bespeaks
unselfishness and helpfulness to others
which were cardinal A.A. principles–particularly
the principles embodied in Step Twelve.
In fact, that’s the point made in one
of early A.A.’s pamphlets:
And
all we need to do in the St. James
passage is to substitute the word
“Alcoholic” for “Fatherless and Widows”
and we have Step Twelve (Spiritual
Milestones, AA of Akron, pp. 12-13).
Chapter
Two of the Book of James may have
made two direct and major contributions
to the language of the Big Book and
also to A.A.’s philosophy. Those two
contributions were “Love thy neighbor
as thyself” and “Faith without works
is dead.”
1.
Love thy neighbor as thyself.
James 2:8 states:
If
ye fulfill the royal law according
to the scripture, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.
This
commandment to “Love thy neighbor”
exists in other parts of both the
Old and New Testaments. Thus, when
the Big Book incorporated this phrase,
there is no assurance that the quote
is from James rather than from another
Bible verse to the same effect (e.g.,
Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14). But the Big
Book certainly does state:
Then
you will know what it means to give
of yourself that others may survive
and rediscover life. You will learn
the full meaning of “Love thy neighbor
as thyself” (p. 153).
The
Book of James is very probably the
specific source of this Biblical quote
since Dr. Bob, early AAs, and Bill
Wilson himself spoke with such frequency
about “love” and tolerance as the
code of A.A. and the Book of
James as their favorite book.
2.
Faith without works is dead.
Said to be the favorite verse
of Anne Smith and perhaps the origin
of many expressions in A.A. concerning
“works,” this sentence, or variations
of it, appears several times in Chapter
Two of the Book of James. For example,
James 2:20 states:
But
wilt thou know, 0 vain man, that faith
without works is dead?
“Faith
without works” as a phrase, and as
an A.A. “action” concept, is quoted
or referred to many times in the Big
Book (4th ed., pp. 14-15,
76, 88, 93, 97). A.A.’s original Oxford
Group connection also put emphasis
on these James verses, using them
in connection with the importance
of witnessing.
3.
Helping Others. It hardly
requires citation or documentation
to state that A.A.’s cardinal objective
is to help others. And this service
concept is underlined in Chapter 2
of James, beginning with verses 1
to 7. James 2:15-16 state this principle
very well:
If
a brother or sister be naked, and
destitute of daily food, And one of
you say unto them, Depart in peace,
be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding
ye give them not those things which
are needful to the body; what doth
it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath
not works, is dead, being alone.
And
every alcoholic who has helped one
of his miserable, suffering, destitute
brothers in need will instantly relate
to those verses and hence to the importance
of James to the early AAs.
For
whosoever shall keep the whole law,
and yet offend in one point, he
is guilty of all. For he that said,
Do not commit adultery, said also,
Do not kill. Now if thou commit no
adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art
become a transgressor of the law [Whatever
one may find in today’s A.A., he will
find language about and references
to the Ten Commandments with great
frequency in early A.A. The
Frank Amos report of 1938, quoted
in this talk, is a good example.]
1.
Taming the tongue. In
his Farewell Address to A.A., Dr.
Bob said:
Let
us also remember to guard that erring
member the tongue, and if we must
use it, let’s use it with kindness
and consideration and tolerance (DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers, p.
338).
A
major portion of James chapter 3 is
devoted to the trouble that can be
caused by an untamed tongue. Following
are a few verses emphasizing the point
Even
so the tongue is a little member and
boasteth great things.
Behold,
how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
And the tongue is a fire, a
world of iniquity; so is the tongue
among our members that it defileth
the whole body, and setteth on fire
the course of nature; and it is
set on fire of hell.
But
the tongue can no man tame; it is
an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Out
of the same mouth proceedeth blessing
and cursing. My brethren, these things
ought not to be (James 3:5, 6, 8,
10)
These
verses are not quoted in the Big Book.
But Anne Smith referred to them frequently
in her journal, as did other A.A. roots
sources (Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal,
pp. 28, 44, 76, 77; Holm, The
Runner’s Bible, p. 68). But, in
paraphrasing those verses, Dr. Bob seemed
to be speaking of the necessity for
tolerance, courtesy, consideration,
and kindness in our speech and actions.
James makes clear that good conversation
should be a focus—conversation,
we believe, that is laced with consideration,
kindness, and tolerance (See James 3:13).
And these latter principles are very
much in evidence in the Big Book (4th
ed., pp. 67, 69-70, 83-84, 97, 118,
125, 135).
2.
Avoidance of envy, strife, and
lying. James 3:14-16 proclaim
that a heart filled with envy, strife,
and lies has not received that kind
of “wisdom” from God, but rather from
devilish sources. The verses state:
But
if ye have bitter envying and strife
in your hearts; glory not, and lie
not against the truth.
This
wisdom descendeth not from above,
but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For
where envying and strife is, there
is confusion and every evil work.
“Envy”
is not as much decried in the Big
Book as jealousy; but a more modern
translation of these King James verses
equates “envy” with “jealousy”
(The Revised English Bible, New
Testament, p, 208). And the Big
Book most assuredly condemns jealously
(4th ed., pp. 37, 69, 82,
100, 119, 145, 161). In fact, the
Big Book states as to jealousy and
envy:
Keep
it always in sight that we are dealing
with that most terrible human emotion—jealousy
(p. 82).
The greatest enemies of us alcoholics
are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration,
and fear (p. 145).
After all, our problems were of our
own making. Bottles were only a symbol.
Besides, we have stopped fighting
anybody or anything. We have to (p.
103)!
James
3:17-18 talk much about making peace
and the fruit of righteousness being
sown in peace of them that make peace.
As
seen in the quote from James 3:14,
lying and dishonesty are also declared
to be devilish; and one should note
and compare the Big Book’s frequent
emphasis on grasping and developing
a manner of living which “demands
rigorous honesty” (p. 58). As to all
the verses in James 3:14-16, however,
there is little certainty that these
particular verses were an exclusive
or even major source for the Big Books
condemnation of envy, jealousy, strife,
and dishonesty because all these traits
are stated to be objectionable by
many other parts of the Bible.
James
Chapter 4:
1.
Asking amiss for selfish ends.
A.A.’s writings have much to say
about overcoming selfishness and self-centeredness.
But the following in James 4:3 particularly
eschews selfishness in prayer:
Ye
ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon
your lusts.
Several
Christian A.A. sources that were favorites
of Dr. Bob’s discuss this verse at
length. And the Big Book authors may
therefore have borrowed from
James 4:3, in this statement:
We
ask especially for freedom from self-will,
and are careful to make no request
for ourselves only. We may ask for
ourselves, however, if others will
be helped. We are careful never to
pray for our own selfish ends. Many
of us have wasted a lot of time doing
that and it doesn’t work (Big Book,
4th ed., p. 87).
2.
Humility. The Book of
James has no corner on the Biblical
injunction to be humble. But the importance
of James, and the remarks of Reverend
Sam Shoemaker (quoted under Item 3
immediately below) suggest that the
following verses from James may have
been a source of the Big Book’s frequent
mention of humility. James 4:7, 10
state:
Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you.
Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord,
and he shall lift you up.
The
Big Book’s Fourth Edition is filled
with exhortations to be humble, with
stress on humbling one’s self before
God, and with suggestions for humbly
asking His help. Examples include:
There
I humbly offered myself to God, as
I understood Him, to do with me as
He would (p. 13).
He
humbly offered himself to his Maker—then
he knew (p. 57).
Just
to the extent that we do as we think
He would have us, and humbly rely
on Him, does He enable us to match
calamity with serenity (p. 68).
We
constantly remind ourselves we are
no longer running the show, humbly
saying to ourselves many times each
day “Thy will be done” (pp. 87-88).
Draw
nigh to God, and he will draw nigh
to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners;
and purify your hearts, ye double
minded.
Burn
the idea into the consciousness of
every man that he can get well regardless
of anyone. The only condition is that
he trust in God and clean house.
And,
in language closely paralleling that
in James 4:8, the Big Book says further
that one can establish conscious companionship
with God by simply, honestly, and
humbly seeking and drawing near to
Him:
He
has come to all who have honestly
sought Him. When we drew near to Him
He disclosed Himself to us (page 57)!
In
Step Seven, the Big Book relates “cleaning
house” of one’s character defects
to “humbly asking” God to remove them.
The foregoing verses in James, which
speak of drawing near to God, cleansing
our hearts, humbling ourselves in
His sight, and then being “lifted”
up by God, appear to have been directly
involved in framing the Big Book’s
Seventh Step language. In fact, many
years after the Big Book was written,
Sam Shoemaker thus clarified his understanding
of the Seventh Step, in a 1964 issue
of the AA Grapevine:
Sins
get entangled deep within us, as some
roots of a tree, and do not easily
come loose. We need help, grace, the
lift of a kind of divine derrick (Shoemaker,
“Those Twelve Steps as I Understand
Them” ; Volume II, Best of the
Grapevine, p. 130).
Speak
not evil one of another, brethren.
He that speaketh evil of his brother,
and judgeth his brother, speaketh
evil of the law, and judgeth the law:
but if thou judge the law, thou art
not a doer of the law, but a judge.
There
is one lawgiver, who is able to save
and to destroy: who art thou that
judgest another?
We
discussed the Fourth Step idea of
taking your own inventory in connection
with the relevant verses in the Sermon
on the Mount–which were often quoted
by Oxford Group people and by Anne
Smith (See Matt. 7:1-5). But
the Big Book also speaks of: (1) looking
“for our own mistakes,” (2) asking
“Where were we to blame,” and (3)
realizing, “The inventory was ours,
not the other man’s.” Considering
the importance to AAs of the Book
of James and its insights, the foregoing
James verses probably also had an
impact on the A.A. idea of avoiding
judgment of another and focusing on
an examination of one’s own conduct
when it comes to wrongdoing.
James
Chapter 5
1.
Patience. We discussed
A.A.’s “patience principle” as having
probably derived from James, Chapter
One. As we said, however, important
stress on patience can be found in
James 5:7, 8, 10, 11.
Grudge
not one against another, brethren,
lest ye be condemned; behold, the
judge standeth before the door.
A
major portion of the Big Book’s Fourth
Step discussion is devoted to resentment,
about which page 64 says:
Resentment
is the “number one” offender. It destroys
more alcoholics than anything else.
From it stem all forms of spiritual
disease.
The
Big Book then suggests putting resentments
on paper—making a “grudge
list” (pp. 64-65). Oxford Group
spokesman Ebenezer Macmillan wrote
at length in his title Seeking
and Finding about eliminating
resentments, hatred, or the “grudge”
that “blocks God out effectively.”
Rev. Sam Shoemaker also specified
“grudges” as one of the “sins” to
be examined in an inventory of self
(Shoemaker, Twice-Born Ministers,
p. 182). Since the Big Book lists
resentments or
“grudges”
as one of the four major “character
defects” which block us from God,
it quite possible that the “grudge”
language in the Big Book was influenced
by James, and perhaps specifically
by James 5:9.
3.
Asking God’s forgiveness for sins.
We repeat James 5:15, which was
partially quoted above. The entire
verse says:
And
the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord shall raise him
up; and if he have committed sins,
they shall be forgiven him.
The
Big Book says this about asking God’s
forgiveness when we fall short:
If
we are sorry for what we have done,
and have the honest desire to let
God take us to better things, we believe
we will be forgiven and will have
learned our lesson (4th
ed, p. 70).
When
we retire at night, we constructively
review our day. . . . After making
our review, we ask God’s forgiveness
and inquire what corrective measures
should be taken (4th ed.,
p. 86).
The
foregoing Big Book quotes show that,
even after their initial surrender,
wrongdoers may still, in A.A.’s view,
seek and receive God’s forgiveness
for shortcomings indulged after the
initial surrender. Here again, James
has no corner on the statement that
God makes it possible, through forgiveness,
for a believer to regain fellowship
with Him. The following in 1 John
1:9 may also have been a source
of such Big Book ideas:
If
we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
See
also our discussion of forgiveness in
connection with the Sermon on the Mount.
It is fair to say, however, that the
Book of James, 1 John, or Matthew could
each, or all, have been the basis for
the Big Book forgiveness concept.
4.
Confess your sins one to another.
It has often been noted that both
the Oxford Group concept of sharing
by confession and Step Five
in the Big Book were derived from
James 5:16:
Confess
your faults one to another, and pray
for one another, that ye may be healed.
5.
Effectual, fervent prayer works.
James 5:16 states:
The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much.
Step
Eleven suggests prayer and meditation.
We shouldn’t be shy on this matter
of prayer. Better men than we are
using it constantly. It works, if
we have the proper attitude and work
at it.
James
5:16 could well have been a major
basis for the Big Book comments on
the effectiveness of prayer.
6. Anointing with oil and effecting
healing through prayer by elders.
See James 5:13-16.
One
A.A. writer, who was sponsored by
Clarence Snyder, has repeatedly suggested
that in their “surrenders,” early
AAs almost literally followed the
foregoing verses from James. Others,
who also were sponsored by Clarence
Snyder, have said this contention
is in error. But several comments
should be made about this procedure.
First, there seems little confirmation
that Dr. Bob, T. Henry Williams, and
the Akron pioneers took the newcomer
“upstairs,” had him “surrender” to
Christ, anointed him with oil, and
prayed for him. Second, many of the
elements of the James verses were
followed. Third, in his later years,
Clarence Snyder founded and conducted
retreats for AAs and their families
which are still being held. At these
retreats, there is a “prayer and praise”
session where there is anointing with
oil and prayer for those in need.
The sessions follow the close of the
retreat itself. Finally, we make particular
mention of these points because so
many of the healing practices of the
Christian church throughout later
centuries did rely on the words of
St. James and did heal with the laying
on of hands and anointing with oil.
These points are amply covered by
the citation in our healing section.
They are important because the convictions
about “healing” and “cure” were so
evident and strong in early A.A.;
and the return of healing emphasis–whatever
the technique or Biblical authority–is
urgently needed in today’s Twelve
Step programs.
contents^
Part
5D
1
Corinthians 13
1
Corinthians 13 is often called the
Bible’s “love” chapter because it
focuses on the importance of love
in the Christian’s life. In the King
James Version, the word “charity”
is used in the verses which are speaking
of “love;” but the underlying Greek
word is agap_ which is more
properly translated “love.”
And
the most frequently quoted characteristics
of love are contained in the following
verses from the King James Version
of the Bible (which is the version
the A.A. pioneers used):
Charity
[love] suffereth long, and is
kind; charity envieth not; charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, Doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in
the truth (1 Cor. 13:4-6).
The
New International Version, which is
much in use today, renders 1 Cor.
13:4-6:
Love
is patient, love is kind. It does
not envy, it does not boast, it is
not proud. It is not rude, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth.
One
of the most popular books in early
A.A. was Professor Henry Drummond’s
study of 1 Corinthians 13. The title
of his book, The Greatest Thing
in the World, was taken from the
last verse of 1 Corinthians chapter
13, which reads:
And
now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three; but the greatest of these
is charity (1 Cor. 13:13).
Drummond’s
book was part of Dr. Bob’s library,
and a copy was still found in, and
owned by, Dr. Bob’s family when the
author interviewed Dr. Bob’s son and
daughter several years ago. In much
earlier years, A.A. Old-timer Bob
E. had sent a memo to Bill Wilson’s
wife, Lois, in which Bob E. listed
The Greatest Thing in the World
as one of three books Dr. Bob
regularly provided to alcoholics with
whom he worked. In fact, Dr. Bob’s
enthusiasm for Drummond’s book is
dramatized by the following remarks
by a former wife of A.A. old-timer
Clarence S. Clarence’s former wife,
Dorothy S. M., said:
Once,
when I was working on a woman in Cleveland,
I called and asked him [Dr. Bob],
“What do I do for somebody who is
going into D.T.’s?” He told me to
give her the medication, and he said,
“ When she comes out of it and she
decides she wants to be a different
woman, get her Drummond’s ‘The Greatest
Thing in the World.’ Tell her to read
it through every day for 30 days,
and she’ll be a different woman” (See
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers,
p. 310).
Henry
Drummond himself had made a similar
suggestion half a century earlier,
at the close of the lecture in which
he delivered his ‘greatest thing in
the world’ address–the address which
was later published in Drummond’s
best-seller. Drummond said:
Now
I have all but finished. How many
of you will join me in reading this
chapter [1 Corinthians 13] once a
week for the next three months? A
man did that once and it changed his
whole life. Will you do it? It is
for the greatest thing in the world.
You might begin by reading it every
day, especially the verses which describe
the perfect character. “Love suffereth
long, and is kind; loveth envieth
not; love vaunteth not itself.” Get
these ingredients into your life (See
Drummond, The Greatest Thing in
the World. p. 53).
The
important influence on A.A. that came
from 1 Corinthians 13 can be seen
in Drummond's own simplified description
of love's ingredients. Drummond
listed nine ingredients of “love”
as he saw love specifically defined
in that portion of that chapter of
the Bible (See Drummond, The
Greatest Thing in the World,
pp. 26-27). And we here set out those
nine love ingredients with references
to correlative Bible verses and correlative
A.A. language:
Drummond’s
A.A. Big Book
Explanation
Authorized KJV
NIV Version
4th ed. Examples
1.
Patience
“Charity suffereth long.”
“Love is patient”
pp. 67, 70, 83, 111, 163
2.
Kindness
“and is kind.”
“love is kind”
pp. 67, 82, 83, 86
3.
Generosity
“charity envieth not.”
“It does not envy”
pp. 145, cf. 82
4.
Humility
“charity vaunteth not itself
“it does not boast,
pp. 13, 57, 68, 87-88
“is
not puffed up.”
“it is not proud”
5.
Courtesy
“Doth not behave itself unseemly”
“It is not rude”
p. 69
6.
Unselfishness
“seeketh not her own.”
“It is not self-seeking”
pp. xxv, 93, 127
7.
Good Temper “is not easily provoked”
“it is not easily angered pp.
19, 67, 70, 83-84, 125, 118
8.
Guilelessness
“thinketh no evil”
“it keeps no record
pp. 19, 67, 70, 83-84, 118, 125
of wrongs”
9.
Sincerity
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity”
“does not delight in evil
pp. xiv, xxvii, 13, 26, 28, 32, 44,
“but
rejoiceth in the truth”
“but rejoices with
pp. 47, 55, 57-58, 63-65, 67, 70,
the truth”
73, 117, 140, 145
Dr.
Bob said that A.A.'s Twelve Steps, when
simmered down to the last, quite simply
resolved themselves into the words “love”
and “service” (See DR. BOB
and the Good Oldtimers, p. 338).
He presented God to the old-timers as
a God of love who was interested in
their individual lives. (DR. BOB,
supra, p. 110). Dr. Bob's wife,
Anne, frequently quoted love verses
in 1 John 4:8; 4:16–“God is love” (DR.
BOB supra, pp. 116-17). Furthermore
both Anne and her husband Dr. Bob studied
Toyohiko Kagawa's book, Love: The
Law of Life. In that book, the author
Kagawa devoted an entire chapter to
1 Corinthians 13, not only to the Corinthians
chapter, but also to Drummond's analysis
of that chapter in Drummond's The
Greatest Thing in the World. Hence
there was much emphasis among the A.A.
pioneers on the “spiritual” principle
of love as it is defined in the Bible.
In fact, the Big Book itself talks repeatedly
of that principle of love (Big Book,
4th ed., pp. 83-84, 86, 118, 122, 153).
Love,
then--the love of God--was a much
cherished principle in early A.A.
The AAs needed it, wanted it, studied
it, and sought to know it. Despite
“higher power” divergences in current
A.A. writings and meeting talk, the
love of God is still a vital component
of A.A. thinking and speech. Even
Bill Wilson inserted the phrase “a
loving God” in A.A.’s Traditions.
And I well remember my good friend
Seymour W., a Jew, who tried each
morning to comfort his many friends
in the fellowship. The telephone on
Seymour’s “God” line would ring for
many about 6:00 A.M. The message to
the bedraggled A.A. was “God loves
you.” And Seymour would hang up. It
was a coveted privilege to be on Seymour’s
“God-loves-you” list. What a way to
start the day in early sobriety!
Further
illustrating the great store placed
on God’s love and on the Corinthians
love principle by A.A. pioneers is
their frequent rendition of Jesus
Christ’s message in Mark 12:30-31.
These Gospel verses deal with what
Jesus called the two great commandments:
And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all
thy strength; this is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater
than these.
The
foregoing verses, from the Gospel
of Mark in the New Testament, were
cited for the standard of “Absolute
Love,” as it was discussed in AA of
Akron’s A Manual for Alcoholics
Anonymous (one of the four pamphlets
commissioned by Dr. Bob for use among
early AAs). The Old Testament also
contained the very same commandments
to which Jesus referred, underlining
the importance of love of God and
of neighbor in all the commandments
of the Bible:
Hear,
O Israel: The Lord our God is
one Lord: And thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might (Deut. 6:4-5).
Thou
shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself: I am the Lord (Lev.
19:18).
A.A.
literature contains no specifics on,
or detailing of, the impact of, 1 Corinthians
13 on A.A. But this cherished “essential,”
as Dr. Bob put it, deserves to be revived,
promulgated, and applied today. The
particulars can be seen by reading 1
Corinthians 13 itself; by noting the
frequent mention of “Love” in the Big
Book; by studying the reading and remarks
of Dr. Bob and Anne; by remembering
Bill Wilson’s specific mention of Corinthians;
and by the repeated mention of 1 Corinthians
13 in A.A.’s religious sources. The
nine love “ingredients,” as they were
summarized by Henry Drummond, permeate
A.A.’s basic text and can fairly be
proclaimed to be among those “principles
to be practiced” at the level of A.A.’s
Twelfth Step. Regrettably, Wilson just
plain ignored all the “principles” in
his Twelfth Step chapter.
The
fundamental principle is, of course,
love. The component “ingredients”
or “virtues” involved in such love
are: patience; tolerance; kindness;
humility; honesty; unselfishness;
consideration for others; and the
avoidance of anger, jealousy, envy,
pride, and wrongdoing.
As
previously covered, almost every one
of these virtues can be found as well
in Jesus’ sermon on the mount and
in the Book of James. The principles
are defined in the sermon on the mount
in specific terms that elaborate upon
what constitutes doing the will of
God in the love category. And, in
James, from the standpoint of action
and service to God and service to
others through reliance upon God.
These
were also the very the principles
of love and service of which Dr. Bob
spoke in his farewell address and
defined as the essence of A.A.’s spiritual
program of recovery.
contents^
Part
6
Rev.
Sam Shoemaker, an A.A. “Co-Founder”
and Spiritual Source
An
Introduction to Sam Shoemaker and
A.A.
Bill
Wilson often said: Reverend Samuel
Shoemaker was a wellspring of the
principles and attitudes that came
to full flower in A.A.’s Twelve Steps
for Recovery; that Sam’s early teachings
did much to inspire him and Dr. Bob;
and, that from Shoemaker, he and Dr.
Bob in the beginning absorbed most
of the Twelve Step principles. Then,
at A.A.’s 1955 International Convention,
Bill declared that early A.A. got
its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment
of character defects, restitution
for harm done, and working with others
directly from Sam Shoemaker. Later,
Bill added that early AAs learned
about moral inventory, amends for
harm done, turning their wills and
lives over to God, meditation and
prayer “and all the rest of it” straight
from the Oxford Group as it was “then
led in America” by Dr. Shoemaker.
Finally, Bill wrote to Sam himself
in 1963: “The Twelve Steps of A.A.
simply represented an attempt to state
in more detail, breadth, and depth,
what we had been taught–primarily
by you” and said:“Without this, there
could have been nothing–nothing at
all.” Bill then added Sam Shoemaker’s
name to his list of “co-founders”
of A.A.
There
is much more. Sam was the Episcopal
Rector at Calvary Church in New York,
the church which operated Calvary
Rescue Mission where both Bill Wilson
and his “sponsor” Ebby Thacher made
their decisions for Christ. Ebby’s
Oxford Group mentors Rowland Hazard
and Shep Cornell were much involved
with Sam’s Calvary Church at that
time. When Bill emerged from Towns
Hospital in late 1934, Sam immediately
asked Bill to help Professor Frederick
E. Breithut with his drinking problem.
In March, 1935, Bill, as godfather,
sponsored the baptism of Breithut
by Sam Shoemaker. Ebby himself became
a communicant at Calvary Church. And
the relationship of Bill and his early
friends with Sam, and with Oxford
Group meetings at Calvary House and
Oxford Group meetings and houseparties
led by Shoemaker was close and continuous.
In the mid to late 1930's, Bill spent
many hours closeted with Sam in Sam’s
book-lined study at Calvary House,
discussing the spiritual ideas which
were soon to characterize A.A.
Even
more important are these facts: Bill
actually asked Sam Shoemaker to write
the Twelve Steps; but Sam declined,
saying the Steps should be written
by an alcoholic, namely, Bill. Then,
when Bill had completed the Big Book
manuscript, he circulated it to Sam
for review prior to publication. Also,
Sam’s reach into early A.A. actually
extended much farther than New
York. For Dr. Bob’s pastor in Ohio
wrote to Sam advising him of the progress
with alcoholics in Akron as a result
of Bill’s stay with Dr. Bob and his
wife at their home during the summer
of 1935–the period when A.A. was founded.
But
much concerning Sam Shoemaker and
A.A. has taken back stage. A.A. and
A.A. historians have simply ignored
specifics that Sam contributed to
A.A.’s Step, Big Book, and Fellowship
ideas. Unless we learn those details,
we will be without access to, or understanding
of fundamental spiritual principles
AAs borrowed from Shoemaker. One example
is “finding God”–a challenge that
has been distorted through lack of
knowledge of its Shoemaker source.
Basic
Shoemaker Contributions
You
cannot fairly appraise Sam Shoemaker’s
legacy to A.A. without knowing the
depth and breadth of what Sam had
to offer. Sam wrote over thirty books,
at least half of which were circulating
(before A.A.’s 12 Steps and Big Book
were published in 1939) and being
circulated in New York, Akron, and
the Oxford Group.
Sam
was also a prolific writer of sermons,
pamphlets, and articles for the Calvary
Evangel, his parish newsletter. The
sermons and articles included his
1935 piece on “The Way to Find God.”
Also, his pamphlet on “A First Century
Christian Fellowship” (the name by
which the Oxford Group was known during
A.A.’s formative years, and a name
which Dr. Bob used to characterize
Akron A.A. itself. Sam also wrote
“Three Levels of Life,” and “What
if I Had but One Sermon to Preach”
(two pamphlets which were tucked into
the back of Anne Smith’s Journal).
Sam’s booklet “One Boy’s Influence”
was quoted in Anne Smith’s Journal.
Six other Shoemaker books are known
for sure to have been owned, and read
by, Dr. Bob and his wife Anne Smith.
In all, therefore, Sam’s ideas reached
A.A. through his books, his pamphlets;
his published sermons; his Evangel
articles; his personal conversations
with Bill; his influence on Bill’s
mentors Reverend Irving Harris, Julia
Harris, Rowland Hazard, Shep Cornell,
Hanford Twitchell, Victor Kitchen,
and others; and Sam’s actual conduct
of, and leadership in, the very first
alcoholic meetings on the East Coast.
Meetings which were actually Oxford
Group assemblages. Sam’s ideas were
also passed down the shoot via Calvary
Rescue Mission, where Bill first went
for help and where he later went to
find and help other drunks.
Sam
Shoemaker ideas can be found in the
very language of the Twelve Steps.
They can be found almost verbatim
in the Big Book. They are part of
A.A. fellowship jargon. And they were
later reiterated and explained when
Shoemaker addressed A.A. International
Conventions in St. Louis and subsequently
at Long Beach. Also in the articles
he wrote for A.A.’s Grapevine.
Also when he wrote about A.A., as
he frequently did, in his own books
and pamphlets. Recall too that Sam’s
colleagues described him as a “Bible
Christian.” His books, sermons, and
articles were permeated with references
to the very Bible verses and chapters
that became the foundation of A.A.’s
own basic ideas. Principles that were
studied in, and borrowed from, the
Bible itself by A.A.’s Akron pioneers.
Additional Shoemaker input came from
Sam’s frequent references to the writings
of Professor William James, whom Bill
Wilson was later to call a “founder”
of A.A. and from whose Varieties
of Religious Experiences, Bill
obtained important religious principles.
Furthermore, Sam was an outspoken
advocate of Quiet Time, Bible study,
prayer, and the use of devotionals;
and these practices became part and
parcel of early A.A. meetings, group
quiet times, and personal prayer life.
Shoemaker/Wilson
correspondence located at the Episcopal
Church Archives in Austin, Texas also
demonstrates the degree to which Wilson
confided in Sam from the beginning
of their friendship. The correspondence
dealt with Roman Catholic influences
and activities in A.A., with Oxford
Group ideas, with Bill’s ventures
into spiritualism and LSD, and with
Bill’s ideas about A.A. itself.
Specific
Shoemaker Ideas in A.A.
Every
AA who stays in our fellowship long
enough to be exposed to its Big Book,
its Twelve Steps, and its meeting
buzzwords will readily recognize thoughts
that seem to have come directly from
the books and other writings of Sam
Shoemaker.
These
include: (1) Self-surrender. (2) Self
is not God. (3) God either is, or
He isn’t. (4) “Turning point.”
(5) Conversion. (6) Prayer. (7) Fellowship.
(8) Willingness. (9) Self-examination.
(10) Confession of faults to God,
self, and another. (11) Amends. (12)
“Thy will be done.” (13) Spiritual
Experience. (14) Spiritual Awakening.
(15) The unmanageable life. (16) Power
greater than ourselves. (17) God as
you understand Him. (18) The “Four
Absolutes”-- honesty, purity, unselfishness,
and love. (19) Guidance of God. (20)
“Faith without works is dead.” (21)
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” (22)
Clear references to Almighty God (using
Bible terms) as our “Creator,” “Maker,”
“Father,” “Spirit,” “God of our fathers,”
and “Father of Lights.” (23) The Lord’s
Prayer. (24) Jesus’s “sermon on the
mount.” (25) Self-centeredness. (26)
Fear. (27) Grudges. (28) Quiet Time.
(29) Reliance on God. (30) Relationship
with God. (31) “Giving it away to
keep it.” (32) “News, not views.”
(33) God has a plan. (34) Seeking
God first. (35) Belief in God. (36)
Born again. (37) Marvel at what God
has done for you. (38) Let go! (39)
Abandon yourself to Him [God]. (40)
“Not my will but Thine be done.” And
many others.
You
can find, in my title New Light
on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker,
and A.A. a list of 149 Shoemaker
expressions that very closely parallel
A.A. language. Many more can be found
in specific quotations from Shoemaker’s
books, books which have been fully
reviewed in my New Light work on Shoemaker.
Shoemaker
and our Twelve Steps
Make
no mistake. Whatever Bill Wilson may
have said or implied from time to
time, Sam Shoemaker was not the
only source of A.A.’s spiritual ideas.
Wilson often steered his applause
in Sam’s direction in an effort to
avoid Roman Catholic and other objections
to the Oxford Group from which A.A.’s
ideas also came and of which early
A.A. was a part. Moreover, Bill
never mentioned A.A. specifics from
Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, the Bible, Quiet
Time, God’s direct guidance or Christian
literature that was daily fare in
early A.A.
Remember
also! Dr. Bob said he did not write
the Twelve Steps and had nothing to
do with writing them. Those Steps
represented Bill’s personal interpretation
of the spiritual program that had
been in progress since 1935. Dr. Bob
emphasized, on more than one occasion,
that A.A.’s basic ideas had come from
study of the Bible. Dr. Bob studied
the Bible. Daily, for three months,
Anne Smith read the Bible to Bill
and Bob. Bob read the Bible to AAs.
He quoted the Bible to AAs. He gave
them Bible literature. And he frequently
stressed Bible study, stating that
the Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13,
and Jesus’s sermon on the mount (Matthew
5 to 7) were considered absolutely
essential in the early spiritual recovery
program. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob both
said that the sermon on the mount
contained the underlying philosophy
of A.A.
Nonetheless,
Sam’s own imprint is on the Steps.
Every one of them. His imprint was
on the presentation of Oxford Group
ideas that Ebby Thacher made to Bill
Wilson in Towns Hospital. And we will
briefly take a look at just where
Shoemaker’s language parallels the
language of the Twelve Steps. In fact,
our third chapter in “New Light on
Alcoholism” provides further
details and complete documentation.
Step One: Shoemaker spoke of the
gap between man and God which man
is powerless to bridge, man
having lost the power to deal with
sin for himself. As to the unmanageable
life, Sam referred to the prayer
in the Oxford Group so often described
in “Victor’s Story” and quoted by
Anne Smith in her journal: “God manage
me, because I can’t manage myself.”
Step Two: Sam spelled out the
need for a power greater
than ourselves. He quoted Hebrews
11:6 for the proposition that God
is. He declared: God is God, and
self is not God; and that man
must so believe. Sam urged seeking
God first, from Matthew 6:33.
He espoused the “experiment of faith”
by which man believes that
God is; seeks God first in
his actions, and then knows
God by doing God’s will, and
seeing that God provides the needed
power. For this idea, Sam frequently
cited John 7:17.
Step Three: Sam taught about the
crisis of self-surrender as the
turning point for a religious life,
quoting William James’s Varieties
of Religious Experience. Sam said
it involved being born again;
and declared that man must make a
decision to renounce sins,
accept Jesus Christ as Saviour;
and begin Christian life in
earnest. Sam illustrated a surrender
with language similar to that in A.A.:
namely, a “decision to cast my will
and my life on God.” Many times, Sam
said one need only surrender as much
of himself as he understands to as
much of God as he understands.
A clear precursor of A.A.’s “God as
we understood Him”–which has unfortunately
been misunderstood and has been attributed
to other sources.
Step Four: Sam wrote of self-examination
to find where one’s life fell short
of the Four Absolute Standards
of Jesus: honesty, purity, unselfishness,
and love. One was to write
down exactly where he had “fallen
short.” There was a “moral obligation”
to face these facts, recognize these
as blocks to God, and be “ruthlessly,
realistically honest.”
Step Five: Shoemaker taught of
honesty with self and honesty with
God, quoted James 5:16 for the importance
of confession to others, and stressed
the need for detailed sharing of secrets.
Step Six: Though the fact of Bill’s
borrowing of this “conviction”
step from the Oxford Group 5 C’s seems
to have been overlooked, Shoemaker
taught often about the need for man’s
conviction that he has been miserable,
has (by his sins) become estranged
from God, and needs to come back to
God in honest penitence. Sam urged
willingness to ask God exactly
where one is failing and then to admit
that sin.
Step Seven: Sam clarified this
as the “conversion” step of
the 5 C’s. It meant a new birth,
he said. It meant humility.
It meant, for Shoemaker, the assumption
upon ourselves of God’s will for us
and the opening of ourselves to receiving
the “grace of God which alone
converts.” It meant “drawing
near and putting ourselves in position
to be converted. . . utter
dedication to the will of God.”
Shoemaker often defined “sin” as that
which blocks us from God and from
others.” So, originally, did Big Book
language. And each of the foregoing
life-changing steps hangs on early
A.A.’s definition of sin and the “removal”
process of examining for sin, confessing
sin, becoming convicted of sin, and
becoming converted through surrendering
it. The conversion experience, according
to Shoemaker and early A.A. established
or enabled rediscovery of a “relationship
with God” and initiated the new life
that developed from the relationship
with God which conversion opened.
Since both the Sixth and Seventh Steps
were new to A.A. thinking and added
something to the original “surrenders”
to Jesus Christ, these Steps cannot
easily be understood all without seeing
them in terms of the complete surrender,
the new relationship, the new birth,
and giving the sins to God, as Shoemaker
saw the process and as Bill attempted
to write it into the recovery path.
Step Eight: Wilson added this
step to the Oxford Group’s “restitution”
idea. Bill also incorporated the Shoemaker
talk of “willingness” to ask
God’s help in removing the
blocks, being convicted of the need
for restitution, and then being sent
“to someone with restoration and
apology.”
Step Nine: Sam said the last
stand of self is pride. There
can be no talk of humility, he said,
until pride licks the dust,
and one then acts to make
full restoration and restitution for
wrongs done. As AAs in Akron did,
Sam also quoted from the sermon on
the mount those verses enjoining the
bringing of a gift to the altar without
first being reconciled to one’s brother
(Matthew 5:22-24). Restitution
was not merely a good deed to be done.
It was a command of God from the Bible
that wrongs be righted as part of
the practicing the principle of love.
If one understands Shoemaker, one
can understand the absurdity of some
present-day AAs’ guilt-ridden suggestions
about writing a letter to a dead person
or volunteering help for the down-trodden
or making a substitutionary gift to
some worthy cause. Sam taught that
the required amends were not about
works. They were about love!
Step Ten: This step concerned
daily surrender and the Oxford
Group idea of “continuance.”
Sam taught it was necessary to
continue self-examination,
confession, conviction, the seeking
of God’s help, and the prompt making
of amends. This continued action was
to follow the new relationship with
God and others that resulted from
removal of the sin problem in the
earlier steps.
Step Eleven: Sam wrote eloquently
about Quiet Time, Bible study,
prayer, and “meditation”
(listening for God’s guidance). Sam
urged daily contact with God for guidance,
forgiveness, strength, and spiritual
growth. So does A.A.’s Big Book.
Quiet Time was a “must” in early A.A.
And Shoemaker defined every aspect
of Quiet Time from the necessity for
a new birth to a new willingness to
study, pray, listen, and read rather
than to speak first and lead with
the chin.
Step Twelve: This step comprehends:
(1) A spiritual awakening,
the exact meaning of which Shoemaker
spelled out in his books and in his
talks to AAs. He said it required
conversion, prayer, fellowship, and
witness. (2) A message about
what God has accomplished for us,
a phrase which Shoemaker himself used,
saying, in several ways: “You have
to give Christianity away to keep
it.”(3) Practicing the new
way of living in harmony with
God’s will and in love toward others,
an idea easily recognized from Sam’s
teachings that a spiritual awakening
comes from conversion, that the gospel
message concerns God’s grace and power,
and that the principles to be practiced
are defined in the Bible. Accordingly,
our Twelfth Step language, without
Sam, has become ill-defined and illusory.
For A.A. Big Book students know that
none of the three 12 Step ideas is
set forth or explained in the chapter
of the Big Book dealing with the Twelfth
Step. To be frank, A.A. left
Christianity in the dust. In so doing,
AAs lost an understanding of what
Sam Shoemaker taught and Dr. Bob emphasized:
Conversion, the gospel message, and
love and service were defined in the
Book of Acts, the Four Absolutes,
1 Corinthians 13, Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount, the Book of James, and
other specific parts of the Bible.
contents^
Part
7
What
the Creator Did and Can Do for Our
Fellowship
Who
Is God, As He Was Spoken of by Early
AAs
“And it means, of course,
that we are going to talk about God.”
Big Book, 4th ed.,
p. 45.
The
“God” of early A.A. was unquestionably
“God” as named, defined, described
in the Good Book. And Wilson and Smith
used precise terms to make that clear.
The Word God with a capital “G” is
used over 200 times in the Big Book.
Descriptions of God: Creator, Maker,
Almighty, Spirit, Father of lights,
Heavenly Father.
God is a title, not a name. God Himself
gave us His name Yahweh for all time.
Ex 3:15 And God also said to Moses,
‘You are to say to the sons of Israel:
Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, has sent me
to you. This is my name for all time;
by this name I shall be invoked for
all generations to come.’ -New
Jerusalem Bible
There
are endless descriptions of Him in
the Good Book. These are also used
in the Big Book. And they were used
frequently by Bill Wilson: “God of
our fathers” and
Love, Spirit, Power, Grace, Mercy,
Light
• Substitutionary language
that Wilson inserted in his Big Book
manuscripts in 1939 - While still,
quite clearly, referring to Yahweh,
the Creator named in the Bible.
“God
as we understood Him” - directly from
frequent teachings of Sam Shoemaker
and the Oxford Group - two examples
in Shoemaker’s Children of the
Second Birth.
Similarly,
they spoke of “God as you know Him”
- not as you manufactured Him
See
Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal,
1933 - 1939, supra.
“Power
greater than ourselves” - directly
from language of Shoemaker and Oxford
Group
See
Dick B., The Oxford Group and Alcoholics
Anonymous, supra; New Light
on Alcoholism, supra.
Even
“higher power” as originally used
in Big Book on page 43 and 100. The
other words on pages 45 and 100 make
it very clear that the Creator was
the subject of reference.
And
even the “new thought” perpetrators
such as Ralph Waldo Trine, Emanuel
leaders, and William James, as well
as Glenn Clark, Mary Baker Eddy
and Charles Fillmore were–with the
exception of James–writing about the
Bible and the Creator. See Dick B.,
God and Alcoholism, supra.
In
the days before Wilson’s Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions was
written, Lois Wilson wrote in her
diaries about God and what He had
done for Bill Wilson.
Anne Smith’s Journal was replete
with references to the Bible and to
God.
• The Goofy gods - I
call them the “nonsense” gods - of
recovery that are absurd, useless,
and meaningless to a sound mind and
to a real desire for recovery
Lightbulb,
Santa Claus, Big Dipper, “Good Orderly
Direction,” AA Group, chair, table,
doorknob,
Someone, Something, “It,” not-god,
nothing at all, all are “certified”
“higher powers” in today’s recovery
writing. See Dick B., The Golden
Text of A.A.: God, the Pioneers, and
Real Spirituality (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc.,
1999).
What
is the “alcoholism” of which the Big
Book speaks in the “abc’s”
• We alcoholics know
what it is: We drink too much. We
get in trouble. We repeat the self-destructive
behavior to the point of insanity,
imprisonment, and death (Big Book,
p. 44). And we frequently rationalize
the disasters by denying them, or
by blaming them on someone or something
else, or by flippant statements such
as “I don’t care” or “I’ll never do
that again.”
• Science, medicine,
and religion becloud our understanding
as drunks: Words and phrases such
as allergy and obsession; genetic;
behavior disorder; nutritional imbalance;
neurological problem; sin do not communicate
well to someone lying in a puddle
of his own urine on the sidewalk.
• “Alcoholism” is “allegedly”
incurable. “Once an alcoholic always
an alcoholic.” Translated, it could
as well be, “Once a leper always a
leper.” And Bill Wilson very probably
coined the phrase from the language
of therapist Richard R. Peabody, who
apparently died drunk and–according
to Wilson–proved that alcoholism was
“uncurable.” Absurd! And particularly
lacking in integrity since neither
was a religious leader nor a physician
nor in possession of any credentials.
One analyst said: The fact that several
of the Peabody method’s major practitioners
- apparently including the founder
- were not able to maintain their
sobriety, however, does not bode well
for other patients (source, p. 32).
• Bill
Wilson owned a copy of Peabody’s book,
which contains this inscription: “Dr.
Peabody was as far as is known the
first authority to state, “once an
alcoholic, always an alcoholic,” and
he proved it by returning to drinking
and by dying of alcoholism - proving
to us that the condition is uncurable”
(source, p. 4).
AAs
and physicians had long acknowledged–before
the founding of A.A.–that alcoholism
was “medically” incurable. And the
idea that “real” alcoholics were 100%
hopeless without divine help was the
core idea that sent them to God. (Read
the talk by Bill and Bob in Los Angeles
in March, 1943).
Peabody’s
The Common Sense of Drinking
was written in 1931; copies were read
and owned by both founders; and its
language is so similar to much in
the Big Book that it very possibly
produced much of the A.A. fellowship’s
“incurable alcoholism” legend; the
fallacious ideas about “recovery,”
“powerlessness,” willpower, and certainly
the notion that a mere undefined “surrender”
itself constitutes a “cure.”These
were doctrines Wilson inserted or
modified in his Big Book. Note that
Peabody declared:
“This
man, after thirty-six years of living
and approximately sixteen of drinking,
has definitely proved to his own conviction
that he cannot use alcohol without
abusing it, and that by his own efforts
he is equally powerless to stop his
indulgence” (p. 37).
“Surrendering
- that is, being cured. . .” (p. 77)
“reconstruct
his mental processes so that it due
time he will no longer want to drink.
This is what I mean by the necessary
“surrender” (p. 80)
“He
must have as his goal. . . the complete
renunciation of the use of alcohol
as a beverage in any quantity, however
small, for all time” (p. 81)
“Suffice
it to say, once a drunkard always
a drunkard–or a teetotaler! A fairly
exhaustive inquiry has elicited no
exceptions to this rule” (p. 82)
“He
can never again drink anything containing
alcohol without the ultimate results
being disasterous” (p. 96)
“Halfway
measures are of no avail” (p. 99)
“An
alcoholic should always realize that
he himself does the actual work which
produces the cure. . . . We give them
the desire to be cured, but it is
they themselves who work the cure”
(p. 99)
The
stuff lacks credibility; and it lacks
the religious element that highlighted
the A.A. approach. Surrender became
self-will. Cure became mere surrender.
Faith in God became fear. Adjustment
of thinking was substituted for God’s
power. And so on. And many years later,
DR. BOB and The Good Oldtimers
officially chimed in with Wilson,
embraced the tune, and denied cure:
It
might also be noted that many terms
now considered by A.A.’s to be misleading
were then used, not only by non-A.A.’s
discussing the movement, but sometimes
by members themselves: “cure,” “ex-alcoholic,”
“reformed alcoholic.” (p. 136).
What
is the certainty of cure?
• Founders and Pioneers
all said they’d found a cure and that
they were cured.
• They called their
cure a miracle.
• The definitions of
cure and miracle mean exactly that
- cure, and miracle
• They did not mean
that A.A. Pioneers had accomplished
that cure by making goals, by working
to produce the cure, by relaxation,
by hypnotism, by psychoanalysis, by
therapy, or by any other human means–including
their own. The founders and pioneers
meant that the Creator had wrought
a miraculous cure - not merely produced
fearful teetotalers.
• Who flipped the switch?
Who proved there was no cure? Who
made it a doctrine that God is “powerless”
over alcoholism, cannot cure it, and
cannot perform a miracle - a miracle
that we all have observed, whether
we experienced it or simply observed
it.
Yahweh
our God, the Creator, has cured, can
cure, and does cure alcoholism
• A.A.’s Big Book flatly
declared: “But there is One Who has
all power–that One is God. May you
find Him now!” (Big Book, 4th
ed., p. 59)
In
his first book, Sam Shoemaker spoke
of the “turning point” where one has
a vital religious experience, finds
God, and needs Jesus Christ. He and
Wilson both adopted William James’s
concept that “self-surrender” is the
turning point and can be equated with
“conversion.” Whatever the reasoning,
both Wilson and Shoemaker were proposing
that there needed to be a “crisis
of self-surrender” and that this was
the path to finding God and establishing
a needed “relationship with God” (e.g.,
Big Book, 4th ed., p. 29).
However,
the path encountered a blockade and
consequent detour. There was a dispute
over God. Lois Wilson purported to
define it: “There was too much God.”
in the Steps.
Not,
said she, that there was no God; or
that God was not-god; but that there
was “too much” God.
I
wonder how much is too much and what
the Bible has to say about the subject.
• Wilson invented a
“powerless” to “power” theology that
constituted self-made religion, generated
absurd names for God, and encouraged
half-baked prayers that Shoemaker
himself warned against in his talks
to AAs themselves.
The
next step from Wilson’s “powerless”
beginning was to say there was need
to find “a” power; next opening the
door to human definition of that “power;”
then seeing atheists, agnostics, skeptics,
and critics “limiting” that power
because of those who failed; next
relating relapses to an “allergy”
instead of human failure and temptation;
and then championing missions, hospitals,
treatment, and therapy–anything but
the power of Almighty God and access
to God through Jesus Christ. Finally,
came the inevitable dogma of Lois’s
universalism. And what a thesis for
book sales, large royalties, big and
mobile memberships, and ineffective
results. The theology accepts atheists
and agnostics and unbelievers so the
“power” and the “cure” will be available
to anyone anywhere.
Yet
I find a very different set of early
A.A.’s real views. Views that differ
markedly from universalism, powerlessness,
Godlessness. I believe it is fair
to say the pioneers believed: We are
not powerless. We have a “power
shortage.” All–total–power
is available through the Creator,
our God. Yes, we are licked. Licked
largely through the temptation aptly
described in the first chapter of
James. But we do not lack will power.
We just lack sane thinking, obedience
to God, Godly behavior, and companions
who are believers. But, thanks be
to God, we are no longer drunks
or real alcoholics. We haven’t achieved
this on our own. We haven’t achieved
it merely with the help of other people–whether
religious, medical, or drunks. We
don’t claim that any “human” power
provided the cure. That could and
did change when we established a relationship
with God, asked Him to take alcohol
out of our lives, and diligently tried
to follow His plan and obey His Word..
• Yahweh’s hallmark
is healing, forgiveness, and accomplishing
the “impossible.”
Psalm
103:2-3:
Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all his benefits. Who forgiveth all
thine iniquities; who healeth all
thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life
from destruction; who crowneth thee
with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
Luke
1:35-38:
And
the angel answered and said unto her,
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also that
holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God.
. . . For with God nothing shall be
impossible. And Mary said, Behold
the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto
me according to thy word. And the
angel departed from her.
The
A.A. Way: Medicine defining the problem;
Religion defining the solution; Almighty
God enabling the miracle - a healing
and cure. Drunks carrying the message.
Give each the credit. That, I believe,
was the A.A. way. It was the way utilized
in Akron’s program. It was the way,
Bill Wilson attempted to describe
in his Big Book. It was the end sought
when Bill penned his twelve “steps”
to a relationship with the Creator.
And, as they all saw it, it was a
way paved for them by the guidance
of the Good Book. The suggestion:
• Recognize the problem
- excessive drinking, boozing out
of control - “I can’t.”
• Recognize the human
limitations - “They can’t.”
• Seek Divine Aid -
“God can.” And He either is or He
isn’t. Hebrews 11:6 tells us:
But
without faith it is impossible to
please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
• Establish your relationship
and fellowship with, and rely on,
the Creator
• The ingredients of
the early A.A. approach and the remnants
today:
Abstinence
and its implications (Big Book, 4th
ed., p. 43).
Trusting
God for help, rather than our finite
selves (Big Book, 4th ed.,
pp. 68, 98)
Study
Who He is and what He can do - through
Bible, prayer, guidance, books.
Study
What He expects of us - Commandments,
Thy will be done. Be ye doers of the
word, not hearers only, as the Book
of James declares.
Obeying
God through obeying His commands -
“Clean house” (Big Book, 4th
ed., p. 98)
Love,
serve, follow His plan, terminate
sin (Big Book, 4th ed.,
pp. 76-77).
Go
and Tell: “God has done for me what
I could not do for myself” (Big Book,
id., p. 11).
Other
Ways
• As to liquor, the
pledges to stop drinking; the laws
to prohibit drinking; the route to
jail for drinking to excess.
• Secular Recovery -
Rational Recovery, Jack Trimpey, Therapy
• Christian Groups -
Alcoholics for Christ, Alcoholics
Victorious, Overcomers Outreach, Overcomers,
Celebrate Recovery
• Christian Alternatives
- Teen Challenge, Salvation Army,
Youth With A Mission
• Treatment Programs,
rehabs, therapeutic communities
The
AA Position as to Reliance on Yahweh,
the Creator
• The founders and pioneers
all relied upon Him
• Our Big Book, even
with substitutionary and unusual names,
relies upon Him.
• Our Big Book has always
favored religious affiliation.
• We have no monopoly
on God
• A.A. had and thinks
it has no intention of founding a
new religion
• A.A. wasn’t and isn’t
sectarian or denominational - “rabbi,
minister, and priest”©
• No exclusion of anyone
- so any belief or non-belief system
can be used by members
• No sanctions for divergent
beliefs
• Hottentots, Buddhists,
Muslims, atheists, and agnostics can
do their own thing
• Dr. Bob laid it on
the line on p. 181: “Your Heavenly
Father will never let you down!”
Today,
each one of us is privileged to have
a choice. You can ask God for help.
He can and will provide it if sought.
It’s your recovery - not one for someone
else, not one to be measured by how
many can obtain it, not to be squared
with each and every religious and
theological belief and unbelief in
the world. It’s for you. It’s hard
work. And it is worth everything.
God Bless you all.
END
|
|
|
|
|
|
::
Copyright © Silkworth.net |