Authors seem recently to have pounced on12 Step and A.A. history. Our
Fellowship members pour into our web sites asking for information or sending us
comments. And the search engines have really done the subject a great service as
well..
But what good can this interest in history do? Some charge we have become
obsessed with early A.A. (1935 to 1938 and the 40 pioneers). Perhaps
that’s true. Some are troubled that this rebirth of history interest speaks of
an A.A. of yesteryear, not today. That is true! Still others seem dismayed that
it will slow the onrush of A.A. and other 12 Step groups toward universalization,
toward idolatry, toward treatment language, and toward meeting emphasis rather
than upon the original spiritual program of recovery. Maybe; and, if so, good!
Therefore, if you put these and other thoughts together, you may find why the
rapidly disappearing spiritual roots of A.A. are important. The reflections in
this article, however, are just designed to remind us all of some principal
historical roots of the 12 Steps. And to show how they can help you, as they did
me, to see what the Twelve Steps are really about–or at least were, when Bill
Wilson first penned them.
Principal Sources
For sure, the Twelve Steps did not come from Akron or the early A.A. program
there as it was reported to Rockefeller by Frank Amos in 1938. Amos said there
were seven basic points, and they bear no resemblance to the Steps Bill Wilson
wrote (See Dick B., God and Alcoholism). Nor did the Twelve Steps arise
from any earlier steps of any kind at all. There were no Steps in Akron Number
One’s program. There were no Steps in the Oxford Group in 1935. There were no
six steps either in the Oxford Group or in early A.A. as some have thought.
And there never have been any steps in the Oxford Group at all, though there are
twenty-eight Oxford Group principles that impacted on the Steps as Bill finally
wrote them in a brief period of meditation in late 1938 (See Dick B., The
Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous).
Let’s reiterate the Akron picture: Dr. Bob said he didn’t write the Twelve
Steps or have anything to do with the writing of them. He said the basic ideas
came from the pioneers’ study of the Bible. He specifically pointed to three
Bible segments he said old timers considered absolutely essential (See DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers; and Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book;
Why Early A.A. Succeeded: The Good Book in A.A. Yesterday and Today). The
three Bible segments were Jesus’s sermon on the mount (Matthew, Chapters Five to
Seven), the entire Book of James, and 1 Corinthians 13.
Where, then, did the Twelve Steps really come from?
Bill Wilson said many times in many ways that nobody invented A.A. He often
added that everything in the program was borrowed–from medicine, religion, and
experience. Many years later, Bill Pittman put his finger on the button when he
wrote AA The Way It Began. Pittman concluded (and he was correct) that
the Twelve Step program came from Rev. Sam Shoemaker and from the Oxford Group
writings. Over the years, Wilson himself began conceding this point but not
detailing it. Remember, however, that there were no Steps in Calvary Church, in
the Oxford Group, or in pioneer A.A. But the major ideas were present in 1934.
If you will read my title Turning Point, you will see that Ebby Thacher
(Bill’s sponsor) passed along to Bill in much detail the basic ideas of the
Twelve Steps. They came from Ebby’s Oxford Group experience. Most don’t know
that, but you can see the traces in pages 12 to 15 of the Big Book.
Then there’s the matter of Reverend Sam Shoemaker, rector of Calvary
Episcopal Church in New York, chief lieutenant of Oxford Group founder Dr. Frank
Buchman, and prolific Oxford Group writer. You’ll find Shoemaker ideas and
language sprinkled throughout the Big Book and the Steps. You’ll find the
corresponding words, language, and ideas in Shoemaker’s writings. And you’ll
find them in Bill’s acknowledgments in letters and talks about Shoemaker’s
importance. Twelve years of reading Shoemaker’s books, examining the Stepping
Stones archives, seeing Shoemaker’s personal journals and his papers at the
Episcopal Church Archives in Texas have made those points quite clear to me.
Strikingly also, I learned that Bill had actually asked Shoemaker to write the
Twelve Steps, and Shoemaker declined. It’s all in my title, Dick B., New
Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed.
Now the last principal source is the one I keep harping on. I do so because
no one has been told much about it in A.A. or in Twelve Step groups. I stress
this source because it either covered or actually taught most of A.A.’s Oxford
Group, Shoemaker, and Bible ideas in detail in the 1930's, long before the Big
Book was published. And I do so because it had a direct daily impact on Bill
Wilson, Dr. Bob, and the A.A. pioneers. That source is found in the 64 page
journal I was able to obtain from A.A. General Services in New York, with the
help of Dr. Bob’s daughter Sue Smith Windows and Bill Wilson’s secretary Nell
Wing. It is laid out in some detail in my book, Anne Smith’s Journal,
1933-1939. And if you want to see A.A. history in the making, see it as it
was shared with AAs and their families in the earliest days, and see it as a
bona fide explanation of A.A.’s Twelve Step ideas before the Steps were written,
you should get a copy of Anne Ripley Smith’s journal. You sure won’t find it in
A.A. itself!
Some Helpful Roots
You ought to learn and know some of the following basic ideas that fed
directly into the Twelve Steps from their three major sources (Shoemaker, Oxford
Group, Anne Smith, Dr. Bob’s wife):
Powerlessness seems to have little to do with our beginnings. It was just
an expression that fit in with Wilson’s later talk about lack of power, and
the need to find a power (which Wilson said and which was most assuredly that
of the Creator Yahweh). In the beginning, the First Step idea was just: We
admitted we were licked. And that still does it for me. Then the pioneers often
said this prayer: O God, manage me because I can’t manage myself. It’s from
Anne Smith’s Journal, Shoemaker’s books, and the Oxford Group’s stories about
Victor.
Came to believe was originally phrased: believe that God can restore you
to sanity. The came to believe part originated with Shoemaker’s emphasis on
John 7:17–If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
it be or God, or whether I [Jesus] speak of myself.Shoemaker’s thesis:
Do God’s will, and then you’ll know what God can do, said he. Good examples can
be found in Shoemaker’s Religion That Works and Twice Born Ministers.
The Third Step called for a decision to entrust your life to God’s care. It
was primarily based on Thy will be done from the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:10).
And you can see these points in the Anne Smith, Shoemaker, and Oxford Group
writings. The addition of God As we understood Him simply came from many of
Shoemaker’s writings about surrendering as much of yourself as you understand to
as much of God as you understand. Good examples can be found in Children of
the Second Birth by Shoemaker.
The Fourth Step originated with on the Oxford Group’s Four Absolutes–honesty,
purity, unselfishness, and love. Also with Matthew 7:1-5 of Jesus’s sermon on
the mount. You wrote the four absolutes down. You also wrote down where your
life was astray. And you looked for your part in the wrongdoing. These ideas can
clearly be seen in Anne’s, Shoemaker’s, and the Oxford Group’s writings.
Our Fifth Step language can be found in the same three sources. But all state
that the basic idea came from James 5:16. The pity is that, by ignoring the
Bible, our historians have missed the point that you not only confess your
faults one to another, but you call in the elders to pray for the sick person,
and the Lord shall raise him up and his sins shall be forgiven (James 5:15).
It continues that you will be healed because the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. That’s something Wilson and A.A. Number Three
(Bill Dotson) specifically claimed for themselves in the early years before
1939. See Big Book, page 191.
The Sixth and Seventh Step language leaves many bewildered today. Two
paragraphs in the Big Book say very little and omit very much. They mix up
various theological ideas, and they weren’t part of Akron thinking except for
acceptance Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour (something totally removed from
today’s A.A.). The best understanding of these two Steps and two paragraphs
would really come to you upon learning and knowing the 5 C’s that were
mentioned by Anne, by Sam, and by the Oxford Group. These two Step ideas really
come from the Five C’s. They rest primarily on Conviction (Step 6) and
Conversion (Step 7). You can see these explained in detail in the early Oxford
Group book Soul Surgery by Walter. But the roots got lost in Bill’s
shuffle from his six word-of-mouth steps to the twelve he wrote in late
1938 and were supposed to leave no wiggle room as he and Lois put it. The
problem is that they left little understanding either. Many somehow think they
lose all faults in those two Steps and then wonder why the remainder are
necessary.
The Eighth and Ninth Step ideas of restitution have their roots in four
segments of the Bible (See Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics
Anonymous; The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous; By the Power of
God; and The Good Book and The Big Book). This concept of life-change
that involves restoring, making restitution, taking corrective action can be
seen most vividly in the Oxford Group book For Sinners Only by A. J.
Russell.
The Tenth Step derives from the Continuance principle of the Oxford Group’s
Five C’s. You continue the surrender, the life change, the
self-examination, confession, conviction, and conversion–as well as the
restitution–you learned in and undertook in the first nine Steps. To know the
roots and the purpose is to understand better why there was a Step Ten.
And Shoemaker wrote eloquently about continued surrender as did Anne Smith.
The Eleventh Step is a big deal. And the best references I can give are to
the exhaustive treatment of Quiet Time, Guidance, Bible study, Prayer,
Listening, Checking, Journaling, and use of devotionals and other literature
that I have covered in my books Good Morning!:Quiet Time, Morning Watch ,
Meditation, and Early A.A.; The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous,
New Light on Alcoholism; The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous;
The Good Book and The Big Book; and By the Power of God. In fact,
the richness of the Eleventh Step roots can best be understood by having, as a
reference set, my fifteen titles which are sold as a group at a substantial
discount. That way, you have the history when you want to study it, when you
want to refer to it, and when you want to look at the tremendous amount of
bibliography that is available in those books.
Now the Twelfth Step. The language spiritual awakening is from the Oxford
Group (See Buchman, Remaking the World). And Shoemaker wrote a whole
chapter in one of his books, explaining what a spiritual awakening was. He
further elaborated at an A.A. Convention when he said it had four elements:
(prayer, conversion, fellowship, and witness); but you sure won’t find them in
A.A. literature today. The topic spiritual experience is likewise from the
Oxford Group. The problem is that neither Professor William James, nor Dr. Carl
Jung, nor even Bill Wilson were originally talking about either a spiritual
awakening or a spiritual experience as the Oxford Group defined them. They were
talking about religious experiences and conversion. But the distaste for
such ideas in the Oxford Group, the Roman Catholic Church, the universalists,
the revisionists, and the non-Christians has slowly but surely buried the
conversion which was a sine qua non of early A.A. What was the message
that 12 Steppers were to carry? You won’t find Bill describing it. But the real
message was carried by Ebby to Bill and found its way into the Big Book in terms
of God has done for me what I could not do for myself. To that was added the
Oxford Group/Shoemaker idea of passing it on and giving it away to keep
it–both of which derived from Biblical witnessing. And what were the principles
12 Steppers were to practice? That was left undiscussed by Wilson. Once he and
A.A. leadership buried the Four Absolutes, they also quickly buried the
simplest, earliest, clearest statements of the principles. Those
principles–honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love–were the yardsticks, as
Dr. Bob called them. They were the standards as many Oxford Group people
called them. And, since they were based on the teachings of Jesus, they can also
be said to incorporate all the principles of the Ten Commandments, the two
Great Commandments of Jesus, other commandments in the Bible, the Sermon on
the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. And you will find that many pieces of
literature in early A.A. central offices so stated.
END