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Alcoholics Anonymous is
celebrating its 66th year. As it does so, many of us who have been
delivered and have recovered look back to its earliest principles and practices.
I remember, with great thankfulness to Almighty God for His deliverance,
healing, forgiveness, and abundant kindness. I also recall my experiences in the
A.A. Fellowship with much gratitude for its warmth, friendship, succor,
challenge to change, and its emphasis on love of, and service to God and others.
At age 76, I can see I have a new life because I chose many years back to give
up drinking and seek a new way of life, beginning with membership in A.A.
But A.A. has changed. The AA
of today is not the AA of yesteryear. It is not just a matter of the passage of
time, change of social conditions, and diversity of members. From my experience
in sponsoring many men in recovery, the alcoholic/addict of today is just as
screwed up as I was. He probably became so a great deal sooner and in a much
more dangerous way. But alcoholism is still a terrible, destructive, malady. And
the early AAs, particularly the forty pioneers focused primarily around the work
of Dr. Bob and the A.A. members in Akron. And they found a way to rely on the
Creator and achieve astonishing successes. So why not look to what they really
did in those days, long long before A.A. itself found its growth at a
standstill, its success rate plummeting, and its own status that of a confused
puzzle. For there are many new questions.
Was or is A.A. religious or
spiritual? Did or does A.A. rely upon God Almighty or upon some other god or
gods, often called “higher power,” “lightbulb,” “tree,” “something,” “it,” or a
“radiator?” Did or does A.A. encourage a return to religion or has religion
become a whipping boy? Did or do A.A.’s still study the Bible, Bible
devotionals, and religious literature and observe a Quiet Time? Or has the focus
shifted to some undefined meditation and study of A.A.’s own “Conference
Approved” literature? Did or does A.A. stress God, the Bible, the
accomplishments or Jesus Christ, or do these subjects evoke criticism in today’s
A.A. literature and meetings? There are many more identity questions. And they
have divided A.A. today into what one astute scholar has called “authentic A.A.”
A.A. and the others “pseudo A.A.” Even more significantly, the questions have
resulted in shoving A.A. into public controversy, into the courts, and into
spawning outside groups of atheists, Christians, Christ-centered fellowships,
and just plain church!
Let’s look at A.A.’s roots.
Roots that have been ignored, unknown, compromised, and criticized. Surely a
program that originally was to grip a nation and its medical and religious
community should be known in detailed form for what it said and did and
practiced.
Very simply, A.A. was based
on the Bible. Its co-founder Dr. Bob said A.A. took its basic ideas from study
of what he and others called “the Good Book.” Both Bill W. and Dr. Bob, as
co-founders, frequently said that the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5 to 7)
contained the underlying philosophy of A.A. Dr. Bob pointed to Jesus’ sermon, 1
Corinthians 13, and the Book of James as being absolutely essential to the
solution of their problems. The Oxford Group, of which A.A. was an integral part
in its developing years, espoused principles which it said were the principles
of the Bible. Its founder Dr. Frank Buchman was said to be “soaked in the
Bible.” Its principal American writer and spokesman on the East Coast, Dr.
Samuel Shoemaker, Jr., was called a “Bible Christian.” And both these men, and
their ideas, impacted directly on the A.A. Fellowship, on its Big Book, on the
Twelve Steps, and on the very language AAs use to this day.
Let’s look further at A.A.’s
Good Book roots. First, A.A.’s basic text is filled with words and phrases from
the Bible. There are references to faith without works (e.g., James 2:17, 20,
26); Thy Will be done (e.g., Matthew 6:10), Love thy neighbor as thyself
(throughout Old and New Testament books); and to God, Creator, Maker, Father,
Spirit, and Father of Light. There are more. Each Step was based upon or taken
specifically from a biblical idea (sometimes several different ideas). Step One
involved Romans 7:24-25. Step Two involved John 7:17. Step Three involved
Matthew 6:20. Step Four involved Matthew 7:1-5; Step Five involved James 5:16.
Step Six, though complex, involved a number of Bible ideas dealing with
“conviction.” Step Seven, James 4:10. Step Eight, Matthew 5:25. Step Nine,
Matthew 5:23-24. Step Ten, Matthew 26:41; Step Eleven, Psalm 5:3, James 1:5,
Proverbs 3:5-6; 2 Timothy 2:25, Matthew 6:25-33; and Step Twelve, Acts 1:8, Acts
26:22-32, and all of the verses involved in the Oxford Group “four
absolutes”–honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. Even, A.A.’s well-known
slogans came mostly from the Bible. The details and documentation can be found
in my title, The Good Book and The Big Book.
Other biblical sources
played their part. These are: (1) Quiet Time and the daily devotionals such as
The Upper Room. (2) The teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Jr. (3) The
life-changing principles and practices of the Oxford Group. (4) The contents of
the spiritual journal [1933-1939] that Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Smith shared almost
daily with pioneers and their families. (5) The religious literature they read
so often such as Drummond’s The Greatest Thing in the World, Allen’s
As a Man Thinketh, Fox’s The Sermon on the Mount, Holm’s The
Runner’s Bible, and many Glenn Clark and E. Stanley Jones books. These are
discussed and documented in my title, Turning Point.
So what’s the
point? What’s the profit of review early A.A. history? First and foremost, the
early AAs believed in and relied upon God. They came to understand God by
studying His Word, which they called the Good Book. Early AAs stressed doing the
will of God. They found most of God’s will laid out in the Bible in such places
as the Ten Commandments, Jesus’ two Great commandments (Matthew 22:36-40), and
so many of the other expressions of God’s will for man (e.g., 1 Timothy 2:4).
They needed to know how to pray; and they took their most widely used prayer
from Jesus’ sermon (Matthew 6:9-13, sometimes called the “Lord’s Prayer). They
needed to know how to pray for and help others, and they took their cue from
James 5:13-16. They needed to know about asking for God’s guidance; and they
looked to many verses including James 1:5-8. They needed to know about God’s
principles for living, which the Oxford Group had distilled from the teachings
of Jesus. And they needed to check their conduct against these principles. In
fact, Jesus taught that God’s Word is truth. So they looked to the Bible for
truth about the foregoing and about how to be delivered, healed, forgiven, and
have the abundant life that Jesus promised (John 10:10).
And of what did their basic
program consist? They had the Bible, and they had the Oxford Group principles.
These they studied and incorporated into their very simple spiritual program of
recovery. They usually hospitalized the newcomer, shared their victories with
him, left him with only a Bible for reading, and had him surrender to God before
he was discharged, after only a few days of hospitalization. They usually handed
him a copy of The Upper Room. They introduced him to others. He was
counseled by Dr. Bob and by Anne. Each morning, he attended Quiet Times with
Bible study, prayer, and requests for God’s guidance in morning meetings at the
Smith Home. These were led by Anne Smith (who shared ideas from her spiritual
journal). They had other meetings each day. And they had a regular Oxford Group
meeting each week. They were encouraged to attend church and have religious
affiliations. Quiet Time was a “must.” The Bible was stressed for reading. They
opened their meetings with prayer, then read Scripture, then had discussions on
how to live according to biblical principles, then surrendered if they had not
already done so, were informed about newcomers needing help, then closed with
the Lord’s Prayer, and fellowshipped with each other. They observed some basic
Oxford Group life-changing practices, known as the Five C’s, usually with Dr.
Bob. And they often stayed in the homes of Dr. Bob and Anne (and several others
in the Akron area) until they were well enough to sally forth.
Many of the pioneers stayed
sober for years and until their deaths. We know their sobriety dates and names.
The photos of many hang on the wall of Dr. Bob’s home in Akron. And there are
rosters of members in Akron and in Cleveland, where a 93% success rate was
recorded and where the fellowship grew in one year from one group to thirty.
Names and addresses are listed.
Are these facts relevant
today? Clarence Snyder mentioned all of them in his years and years of sobriety
in A.A. and at the retreats he conducted. For those of us puzzled by the
confusing terms such as “spiritual” and “higher power” and “acceptance,” they
are. For those of us who want to rely upon the power of God and get the same
results early AAs did, these facts are quite relevant. For those of us who want
better to understand the words and phrases in the basic A.A. text, they are. For
those of us who don’t want to be intimidated in meetings when we mention God,
the Bible, Jesus Christ, and church, they are. For those of us who just want to
know the whole story, the full score, the unedited and uncompromised ideas of
the A.A. pioneers, they are. For those of us who do not want to go elsewhere,
they are. And the 66th year is as good as any to start reviewing the
facts.
[Author Dick B. is an
active, recovered A.A., a retired attorney, and a Bible student. He has spent
eleven years researching, interviewing, studying, collecting, and traveling to
put together the history of early A.A.’s spiritual roots and successes. He has
fifteen published works on the subject and can be reached at Box 837, Kihei, HI
96753;
dickb@dickb.com; or through his website, http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml]
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