AA Christian/Biblical Roots

[vja4Him]

I've been reading up on the early beginnings of AA. Bill Wilson had been an atheist. After Bill Wilson's conversion at Shoemaker's Rescue Mission, he assimilated the Oxford Group principles: Five C's, Four Absolutes, Surrender, Restitution, Guidance, and Witnessing. Then he took this message to Dr. Bob in Akron, Ohio. Dr. Bob has attended church, and also studied the Bible in church and Christian Endeavor.

source: http://www.aabibliography.com/dickbhtml/article01.html

I remember my great-great- aunt Ruth telling me about Christian Endeavor. I need to give her a call and ask her for more details ....

-- vja4Him (living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace -- James 1:2,3; Isaiah 26:3)
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[themessagecarrier]

However, I need 50 posts here to put my website. Yes, the roots of A.A. are Biblical. I cannot give you the website but if you google Recovered Through Christ you should find it.

 

[themessagecarrier]

Better yet, do a yahoo search with the name. It gives you the url.

 

[vja4Him]

PM me and I will give you my e-mail, then you can send me the links. I can post the links, because I have 100 posts now!!

Better yet, do a yahoo search with the name. It gives you the url.

 

[ww2pigeon]

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, Pass it on, A.A. come of Age:
These books draw a wonder picture of how A.A. was formed into what it is today. A lot of A.A.' s don't read their history and truly understand what spiritual fellowship that they are in. So they don't see how the steps feed into the tradition and how it all came about. Or maybe I am a nostalgic old nut, LOL.

 

[Richard B.]

Delighted to see the content of this forum, and here are some facts that may clarify historical misconceptions about A.A. and its success rates in its early years.

Is Alcoholics Anonymous Effective?​

A.A. Success Rates to Consider​

By Dick B.​

Copyright 2008 Anonymous. All rights reserved​

Is Alcoholics Anonymous Effective? There is no simple answer to that question relative to today’s A.A. In fact, several problems immediately pop up. The first concerns the question whether conventional and present-day surveys of the Alcoholics Anonymous Society can or do establish whether the A.A. Program of recovery itself effectively offers permanent sobriety to those alcoholics who still suffer and enter the A.A. rooms. The second concerns the critical issue as to whether, like A.A. cofounder Robert H. Smith, M.D. (“Dr. Bob”), the present-day survey has asked the afflicted person, “Do you believe in God, young fella?” The third asks the further question of the surveyor as to just which program, which belief system, and which A.A. era is involved in the path that has been followed by the new person being surveyed.

The Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous​

Let’s look first at the early A.A. program founded in Akron in 1935,
and the evidence of its successes

After 19 years of research and writing, and also by building on the recent and splendid research and writing of Richard K., I believe the following facts can be sustained and documented:

1. Who were the first 40 A.A. pioneers? The statement (albeit infrequent) that all, or most of, the 40 early A.A. pioneers got drunk or died drunk is without any foundation whatever. The reason is that this statement deals primarily or exclusively only with those whose personal stories were included either in the multilith manuscript or the First Edition of the Big Book. People mentioned in those personal stories may well have gotten drunk or even died drunk. But the people named in the personal stories were not listed because they had been members of the first 40 real pioneers. Careful research in recent years has disclosed exactly who the first 40 real AAs were and what their successes were or weren’t. Plainly stated, people whose personal stories were selected for publication in the First Edition of the A.A. Big Book in 1939 were not those people whose data was surveyed by A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob in 1937. The two groups are not identical.

2. How can we know the names of the first 40 and the names of the Cleveland A.A. pioneers who followed them? In early Akron A.A., and then in early Cleveland A.A., names, addresses, phone numbers, and data about sobriety, relapses, and ultimate outcomes were commonplace. I have copies of the address book of Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne Smith. It contains data on many of the pioneers. On the walls at Dr. Bob's Home at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron, there are pictures of a number of these pioneers. I have in my possession several written rosters of each and every early AA pioneer with the names, dates of sobriety, dates of death, and ultimate sobriety outcome. There is a written list of the early Cleveland AAs, and the several Cleveland A.A. groups kept rosters naming these members. I have a four-page roster titled, “First 220 members of A.A.” That roster includes the names, street addresses, cities, and phone numbers of pioneers well-known to most historians of A.A. I either have copies of all of these or have sent them on to the Griffith Library at Bill Wilson's birthplace—“the Wilson House”--in East Dorset, Vermont.

3. The evidence from the A.A. cofounders themselves as to the successes of the pioneers. There is lots of eyewitness evidence about the first 40 A.A. pioneers who had achieved the astonishing 75% success rate as calculated by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob in the late fall of 1937, Bill’s writings record the day he sat in the living room of Dr. Bob’s home with “Doc” and his wife, Anne Smith, counting recoveries. Bill said:

A hardcore of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years. All told, we figured that upwards of 40 alcoholics were staying bone dry.
In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Bill wrote:

There had been failures galore, but now we can see some startling successes too. A hardcore of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years, an un-heard-of development. There were 20 or more such people. In the memorial issue of the A.A. Grapevine, “RHS,” published on Dr. Bob’s death, Bill W. described the evidence further:

At this juncture I spent a week visiting Dr. Bob. We commenced to count noses. Out of hundreds of alcoholics, how many had stuck? How many were sober? And for how long? In that fall of 1937 Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time—maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them! Our eyes glistened. Enough time had elapsed on enough cases to spell out something quite new, perhaps something great indeed. . . . God had shown alcoholics how it might be passed hand to hand.

Bill’s biographer Robert Thomsen added this as to the counting by Bill and Bob:

They were both conscious of their failures as they settled down in Bob’s living room and began comparing notes. But as the afternoon wore on and they continued going over lists, counting noses, they found themselves facing a staggering fact. In all, in Ohio and in New York, they knew forty alcoholics who were sober and were staying sober, and of this number at least twenty had been completely dry for more than a year. Moreover, every single one of them had been diagnosed as a hopeless case.

“Pass It On” adds as to the care of the count:

As we carefully rechecked this score, it suddenly burst upon us that a new light was shining into the dark world of the alcoholic. . . . We actually wept for joy, and Bob and Anne and I bowed our heads in silent thanks.

There have been a number of writings about the original 40 pioneers. The most careful review was done by Richard K. of Massachusetts whose books are cited below. Some of the other discussions of this topic have contained serious inaccuracies. In summary, it is not very difficult at this late point to verify with certainty not only the fact of 40 pioneer cases but also virtually to verify the name of each person constituting one of the 75% referred to by Bill W. and by the Big Book statement in Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 2001, page xx.

Concerning the relative successes of Bill Wilson as compared to those of Dr. Bob in Akron, A.A.’s “Pass It On” states:

There are also some indications that Dr. Bob was the more effective sponsor. There is certainly no denying that in the first few years, A.A. grew more rapidly in Akron than it did in New York, and there were those who attributed this success to Dr. Bob’s strong leadership.

Bill and Lois had permitted some of the men to live with them for as long as a year; they apparently stopped the practice when they realized it did very little to help the men actually stay sober. During this time, Bill was overoptimistic about the effectiveness of the work he was doing.

In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Bill Wilson wrote:

The first Cleveland meeting started in June, 1939, at the home of Abby G. and his wife Grace. . . . But Abby’s presently ran out of space. . . . These multiplying and bulging meetings continued to run short of home space, and they fanned out into small halls and church basements. . . . We old-timers in New York and Akron had regarded this fantastic phenomenon with deep misgivings. . . . Yet there in Cleveland we saw about twenty members, not very experienced themselves, suddenly confronted by hundreds of newcomers. . . . How could they possibly manage? We did not know. But a year later we did know; for by then Cleveland had about thirty groups and several hundred members. . . . Yes, Cleveland’s results were of the best. Their results were in fact so good, and A.A.’s membership elsewhere so small, that many a Clevelander really thought A.A. had started there in the first place. . . . Many of the essentials of A.A. as we now understand them were to be found already in the pioneering groups in Akron, New York, and Cleveland as early as 1939.

Documenting the extraordinary Cleveland results (a 93% success rate), A.A.’s DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers quoted Cleveland founder Clarence H. Snyder as follows:

They take it so casually today. I think a little discipline is necessary. I think A.A. was more effective in those days. Records in Cleveland show that 93 percent of those who came to us never had a drink again. When I discovered that people had slips in A.A., it really shook me up. Today, it’s all watered down so much. Anyone can wander in now.

In counting those who were, and those who were not, successful among the early AAs, the surveyor must necessarily eliminate a number of potential candidates. For example, there definitely were those who floated in and out and never really tried the rigorous program that Dr. Bob conducted in Akron and that Frank Amos, the agent of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., reported. Recently, a new argument has appeared denigrating the successes of the original 40. It rests on the thesis that these 40 were pre-screened. It is enough of an answer to suggest that they certainly were pre-screened in order to become effective members of the Christian Fellowship. Most were hospitalized. All were required to profess belief in God. All accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As the reporter of the early Akron “Program” stated:

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. He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope. . . . [and] he must remove from his life other sins such as hatred, adultery, and others which frequently accompany alcoholism.

These elements and others were “musts.” To try out for the “team,” and to be accepted and qualified to remain “in the game,” the successful early AAs certainly had to prove that they were willing to believe, that they were serious about quitting permanently, and that they unhesitatingly were putting themselves in God’s hands.

[The forum rules required that I shorten my article and remove the footnotes. For the full article, please search the Internet for my name.]

God Bless, Dick B.

 

[Richard B.]

Because of forum word limitations, this material may come in several parts seriatim. The first is

​

A.A. from 1925 to 1955: Its Several Distinct Roots & Offshoots​

​

Dick B. © 2008​

​

​

________________________________________________________________________

​

Abstract​

A.A. had two separate and distinct roots and several distinctly different offshoots – facts often ignored or forgotten.

The ensuing historical amnesia may have been the results of A.A.’s having two very different co-founders with very different backgrounds and viewpoints: (1) Dr. Bob’s modest unwillingness to discuss his own youth, religious background, Christian convictions, and highly successful recovery work. (2) Bill Wilson’s efforts to fashion a program for his “Big Book” that would quietly, yet primarily, incorporate and codify the ideas of the Oxford Group, the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and a group of ideas calculated to bring atheists, agnostics, and unbelievers into the A.A. fold and, at the same time, to require no religious commitment from them.

Unquestionably, the Oxford Group spawned the fellowship that A.A.’s two founders developed. But the results of the birthing produced a far different outcome

Regrettably, the original spiritual program of recovery--developed primarily from Dr. Bob’s Biblical ideas and church experiences as a youngster--has faded away. It has yielded to a long-honored time-line of events that feature Bill Wilson’s experiences as an atheist and one who attempted to help alcoholics “find God” with ideas that wound up in his Big Book program and Twelve Steps.

Therefore, if you or anyone else, hopes to understand and accurately interpret A.A. history, its early A.A. successes and cures, and its easily recognized religious elements of in the 1930’s, you and that person need to examine both of A.A.’s separate and distinct roots and as well the progression of events that took place with respect to A.A. and its component roots and offshoots between 1925 to 1955.

Prior to 1925, two separate and distinct societies were emerging in what we shall call the “life-changing” arena even though both could better be placed in a religious category.

Christian Endeavor: A.A.’s earliest and virtually unknown, unrecognized, and unmentioned major root is the United Christian Endeavor Society. The Christian Endeavor Movement began in 1888 in Williston, Maine’s Congregational Church. It was founded to recapture the enthusiasm of Williston’s young people for their own, local, Protestant Church. The movement quickly spread to Vermont’s North Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury; to which Dr. Bob belonged, as a youngster. And it ultimately grew in world-wide scope and influence to a membership of over 3,500,000 – a number far greater than the membership of the prior Washingtonians and the subsequent Oxford Group, and A.A. combined. It still exists today.

The Oxford Group: A.A.’s second, often discussed, and much later root was the Oxford Group—first called “A First Century Christian Fellowship.” This society was organized some three decades later than Christian Endeavor’s first society. It had no church affiliation and could properly be called the invention in 1919 of one man. Lutheran Minister Frank N. D. Buchman was its founder. His society began with a small group of followers who focused on evangelistic personal work that would help individuals eliminate sin from their lives, gain or regain a relationship with God, and live by moral principles taken from the Bible. The Oxford Group as such does not exist today in America where it began.

A.A.’s earlier root in the United Christian Endeavor Society—with its confession of Christ, conversion and conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible studies, Quiet Hour, reading of Christian literature, and emphasis on love and service—can be seen in the simple A.A. practices of the developing Akron A.A. Fellowship of the 1930’s. The Akron fellowship, led by Dr. Bob, called itself a Christian Fellowship and brought members to Christ. Bible study, prayer meetings, and Quiet Time were stressed. Members read all kinds of Christian literature. They had no basic text like the Big Book. They had no Twelve Steps. They had no Twelve Traditions. Their meetings occurred once a week. And they certainly had no world, life-changing mission such as the Oxford Group teams that went all over the world. In fact, the Akron pioneer fellowship really had no significant contact with the Oxford Group, its leadership in America, or its British activists. Its emphasis was love and service. So was that of Christian Endeavor.

By contrast, the Buchman followers (first known as A First Century Christian Fellowship) later came to be known as the Oxford Group. Their talk was of a personal God who had a plan, to whom man must surrender, and removal of the sin which they said had kept man from God. They used the Five C’s—Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Continuance that would eliminate the sin separating man from God. They espoused the Four Absolutes which were to replace sinful conduct and become standards for moral conduct. They embraced Quiet Time and Morning Watch practices that had become popular in the 1880’s and involved Bible study, prayer, guidance, journaling thoughts, and checking. The Group’s aim was its moral and “spiritual awakenings” and “spiritual experiences.” Its activists carried its message through “sharing for witness,” teamwork, loyalty, and fellowship. They were devoted to changing individual lives and thereby the world with the techniques mentioned above. The Group was never church-centered; it really was Frank Buchman-centered.

This article will trace the impact of these two diverse, spiritual, and distinctly unrelated time-line streams to A.A. as it had developed by 1955—a time when Bill Wilson believed A.A. had finally “come of age.” And that A.A.—the A.A. of 1955, the A.A. that followed Dr. Bob’s death, and the A.A. that had begun to accept all manner of religious members of every hue—was most assuredly far different from the A.A. that Bill had Bob had organized and developed in Akron in 1935.

The subject here is not which of the two A.A. roots was “right” or “better,” but why an understanding of both can be useful in A.A. today and perhaps end an increasingly hostile attitude in A.A. today between the so-called “religious” members and the so-called “spiritual members.”
________________________________________________________________________
God Bless, Dick B.

 

[Richard B.]

Spiritual Origin Number One:

Ø North Congregational Church, United Christian Endeavor, and Dr. Bob

Features: Confession of Christ, Conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, topics for discussion, use of religious literature, Quiet Hour, support for one’s own church of choice, emphasis on love and service. The time line goes as follows:

1879: Dr. Bob Smith was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

-----: Membership in the North Congregational Church. The period when Dr. Bob, his parents, sister, and his family were all active members of this St. Johnsbury Church, where his father taught Sunday School for forty years, where his mother was a church-going lady busy with social and religious activities, and the whole family attended church at least four times each week and Dr. Bob was active in the church’s Christian Endeavor group.

1888: United Christian Endeavor. Founded in Williston, Maine at its Congregational Church, pastored by founder Rev. Francis Clark, with the movement quickly spreading to Vermont and Massachusetts.

1885: From 1885 to 1894, Bob attended elementary school in St. Johnsbury; entered the St. Johnsbury Academy—an independent secondary school “for the intellectual, moral, and religious training of boys and girls”—and there matriculated from 1894 until graduation in 1898, when he went to Dartmouth, then to University of Michigan as a premed student, then to Rush University medical school near Chicago, and then received his medical degree in 1910. Though Dr. Bob met Anne Robinson Ripley—his wife to be—at a dance in the St. Johnsbuy Academy gym, the two were not married for 17 years and then on January 25, 1915. Anne was a student at Wellesley when the pair first met. And Anne taught school during the long courtship—a period when Dr. Bob was intensely involved both educational pursuits and the pursuit of liquor.

-----: As a youngster, Bob attended some four prayer and other meetings at his church each week and was, in addition, actively involved in its Christian Endeavor Society. He indicated emphatically that he had become thoroughly familiar with the Bible during those years—as did every active Christian Endeavorer; and he said he had received “excellent training” in the Bible in those days—which probably spanned a period from 1889 and continued through his Academy years until 1898. All the while, Christian Endeavor was growing like wildfire across the United States and abroad and pumping out literature from such famous Christian leaders as Dwight L. Moody, F. B. Meyer, Amos Wells, and Charles Sheldon.

Ø The Akron Events from 1931 to 1935 and what they contributed

Features: The conversion of Akron’s Russell Firestone in 1931 and his miraculous recovery from alcoholism stood as proof that help for the alcoholic was available through turning to God, changing one’s life, and devoting one’s efforts to God’s will and purposes. In 1933, this solution became widely publicized when the Firestone family invited Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman and his entourage to come to Akron and witness. Henrietta Seiberling and Anne Smith immediately saw hope for Dr. Bob Smith. They formed a tiny “clandestine lodge” consisting of several Oxford Group people willing to help drunks. This small group held meetings; and they persuaded Dr. Bob to return to his religious roots through study of the Bible, prayer, seeking God’s help, and church membership. Though still drinking, Dr. Bob responded. He also began an intense three year study of the Bible, immense reading of Christian and Oxford Group literature, and church attendance. Henrietta Seiberling persisted in her efforts to help her friend Dr. Bob. When little was known of alcoholism, Henrietta received Divine revelation that Bob’s problem would only be solved if he did not take one drop of liquor. She convened a special meeting of the group. After all shared shortcomings and Dr. Bob shared his drinking problem, Henrietta asked Bob if he wanted to pray. He said yes, and all prayed with Dr. Bob that his problem be removed—though Bob thereafter continued to drink. Ere long, however, in what Henrietta described as “manna from heaven,” there came a phone call to her from Bill Wilson of New York, asking her in finding him a drunk to help. Henrietta immediately arranged a meeting between Bill and Dr. Bob at the Seiberling Gate Lodge in Akron. The two (Bill and Bob) met the next day. Bill soon moved in with the Smiths for three months; and the earliest A.A. was considered founded on June 10, 1935 (perhaps even a few days later) when Dr. Bob took his last drink. In a matter of a few days after that, A.A.’s first group, Akron Number One, was considered founded after Bill and Dr. Bob had witnessed in Akron’s City Hospital to a very sick alcoholic attorney Henry Dotson. For Dotson had heard their message, turned to God, and walked from a lingering alcoholism problem to complete freedom. At that point, the three first AAs (Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and Bill Dotson) all clearly stated that the “Lord” had cured them of their curse of alcoholism.

Meanwhile, a totally different chain of events had been in progress in New York.

God Bless, Dick B.

 

[Richard B.]

Spiritual Origin Number Two

Features: While most AAs today like to begin their time-line story with the visit of New England businessman Rowland Hazard to Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland about 1931 in Switzerland, the fact is that the wheels of Bill Wilson’s Big Book program had been put in motion several years before. And the undeniable hub was “A First Century Christian Fellowship” founded by Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman. Buchman’s ideas had been gathered and simmering from a number of diverse Christian sources. But the first printed formulation of them was in the book Soul Surgery, written by H.A. Walter in 1919 in collaboration with Buchman and Buchman’s mentor Professor Henry B. Wright of Yale. That soul-surgery book described in detail a method of personal evangelism involving what Buchman had named the “Five C’s”—Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation (the latter subsequently being called “Continuance”). Buchman’s thesis was that man’s basic problem was sin. To him, sin was estrangement from God. That sin was to be “cut out” by what Buchman called God’s art of “soul surgery.” The “Five C” process was soon accompanied by the other facets of Buchman’s program and was intended to produce a moral or spiritual awakening which many Oxford Group people simply called “change”—not “conversion.” Buchman and his followers made no particular point of helping alcoholics, though some had achieved sobriety by following Buchman’s plans. The talk was really about what Oxford Group activist T. Willard Hunter has called “World Changing Through Life-Changing.” The life-changing was sought through gaining the confidence of an inquirer, having that person inventory his “immoral” behavior, and inducing him to confess it to another and become “convicted” of his sins. He was to surrender his life to God; attempt to live by four moral standards of Christ; sally forth to make restitution for wrongs done; continue his quest for an understanding of, and relationship with, God through Bible study, prayer, seeking God’s guidance, and right living; and then carry the message to another so that the evangelism process could again begin. The new person was then considered “converted” or “changed” or brought to a “spiritual experience and moral awakening.” Furthermore, whatever revisionist historians may reluctantly concede or reject today, the heart of the program Bill Wilson codified into the Big Book is the foregoing process. And Bill Wilson himself ultimately said so. But the story of how that happened involves some other features. And here we might describe the timeline of the A.A.’s second spiritual origin as follows:

Ø Rev. Frank N. D. Buchman and the Oxford Group

In the early 1920’s, Buchman gathered several friends around him, utilized the principles described above, and began traveling the world over to change
lives and bring about a spiritual and moral awakening among those to whom he and his people witnessed.

Ø Rev Samuel M. Shoemaker, Calvary Church, and the Oxford Group

Having met Frank Buchman in China, having inventoried his own life at Buchman’s suggestion, and having made his decision in January, 1919 to entrust his life to God, Sam Shoemaker was one of the small group that joined Buchman in his personal work. In 1925, Shoemaker was called to be Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York. Shoemaker had already begun writing books about the Buchman ideas in 1921; and he soon became the most prolific Oxford Group writer as well as a close friend of Buchman’s. Shoemaker, as rector, was in charge of the Calvary Rescue Mission which had its role in A.A.’s founding; and he also provided Buchman and many other Oxford Group activists with housing and offices in Calvary’s Church’s Calvary House—a tall building adjacent to the church—where Shoemaker lived and which hosted many Oxford Group meetings in its Great Hall. And by
1930, Buchman’s followers had assumed new First Century name. The groups were going great guns. There were several Shoemaker books in print; and other Oxford Group followers had contributed books and pamphlets laying out the various life-changing principles and practices. Shoemaker’s Calvary Rescue Mission was housing and feeding thousands (mostly alcoholics); conducting religious meetings with Bible reading, prayers; and altar calls and bringing the drunks to repentance and decisions for Christ. There is scarcely one person in Bill Wilson’s early New York sobriety experiences who was not an active participant in Calvary Church, in the Oxford Group, and in the Rescue Mission work. There were clergymen there from many Protestant denominations—Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, Anglican, Congregational—all active and very much sold on Buchman’s ideas. These same people were, in large part, members of an Oxford Group businessmen’s team centered in New York—a team in which Bill Wilson was later active, particularly in late 1935 and 1936. At the 1930 juncture, it could be said that an Oxford Group life-changing program was very much in effect and widely espoused by its adherents and teams.

Ø The Rowland Hazard-Carl Jung Episodes and their impact.

Rowland Hazard was an American businessman from a long line of prominent Rhode Island ancestors. But Rowland had a serious alcoholism problem. He finally sought help from the famed psychiatrist Carl Jung in Switzerland. After extended treatment, Rowland was still drinking and was advised by Jung that he had the mind of a chronic alcoholic and that Jung could not help him. Jung recommended that Rowland associate himself with a religious organization which would enable him to have a conversion and thereby be healed. Sometime in the early 1930’s Rowland associated himself with the Oxford Group, became thoroughly conversant with its principles and practices, and achieved a victory over his drinking problem. And part of Rowland’s Oxford Group indoctrination most assuredly involved seeking out others to whom he could witness and help them also to change their lives.

Ø The Rowland Hazard-Ebby Thacher Episodes and their impact.

Rowland Hazard’s Oxford Group witnessing work led him, with two other
Oxford Group alcoholics (Shepard Cornell and Cebra Graves), to the rescue
of a very sick and practicing alcoholic—Edwin Throckmorton Thacher.
Thacher was from Albany, New York and had previously been well-
acquainted with fellow-alcoholic Bill Wilson. Hazard and his Oxford Group
companions persuaded a judge to release to their care the about-to-be-
incarcerated Ebby Thacher. In addition to inculcating Ebby with Oxford
Group ideas, they persuaded Ebby to reside at Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s
Calvary Rescue Mission. It was at the Rescue Mission that several startling
events occurred. Ebby responded to an altar call, made a decision for
Christ, and later proclaimed in conventional Oxford Group terms: “I got religion.” He also got sober. And then he set out to witness to another— who happened to be Ebby’s old drinking companion Bill Wilson who (as Ebby had been) was deep in his cups and despondent.

Ø The Ebby Thacher-Bill Wilson Episodes and their impact.

Perhaps no other person than Ebby could have helped Bill to turn his life around. Ebby visited a drunken Bill Wilson. He acquainted Bill with the Calvary Mission events, spoke to him of the Oxford Group program, and boldly said to Bill that he had “got religion.” The discussion did not, at first, find willing ears in Wilson’s home. But Ebby persisted, let Bill rant on about his religious prejudices, and finally said to Bill that: “God has done for me what I could not do for myself.” And that message, in Bill’s words, hit Bill hard. After Ebby left, Bill reflected on the event, and he was soon winding a drunken path to Calvary Mission where he said he wanted what Ebby had received. Ebby had there been converted.

Ø Bill Wilson’s two conversion events and their impact

Early in life, Bill had heard of his own grandfather William Wilson’s mountain top conversion experience which had led grandfather Wilson to the local church, to a proclamation of his salvation, and to a life that was thereafter free from drink. And whether this recollection had an effect on what Bill did and experienced after he had met Ebby and had gone to the Rescue Mission, Bill never said. But the account has been mentioned by several historians. In any event, Bill went to the Mission Bill did. He answered an altar call. And, according to his wife Lois Wilson and Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s wife Helen Shoemaker (who said she was present), Bill made a decision for Christ. Bill had been converted. He then wandered about drunk, checked into Towns Hospital where he had been treated before, announced that he had “found something,” later said “For sure I had been born again,” and was hospitalized by his psychiatrist Dr. William D. Silkworth. Bill was visited by Ebby. He decided that he was licked and was willing to believe God could also help him. He offered his life to God, went through a process closely resembling Oxford Group life-change techniques, cried out “If there is a God, let Him show himself now.” He had an experience quite similar to that his grandfather Wilson had described (See Francis Hartigan, Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson. NY: St Martin’s Press, 2000, pp. 10- 11). Grandson Bill Wilson’s own conversion experience at Towns came to be called Bill’s “hot flash” experience. But it caused Bill later to remark that the Great Physician had healed him and that “This was the God of the preachers.” Bill never drank again. And many think this was Bill’s conversion experience, apparently unfamiliar with the earlier events that transpired earlier at Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Mission. Of the whole situation, Bill was to write (just as Ebby had earlier declared), “I’ve got religion.” Either through Ebby Thacher or Rowland Hazard, Wilson had obtained a copy of Varieties of Religious Experience by Harvard Professor William James. Wilson felt that the James book’s description of a wide variety of “religious experiences” validated the reality of Bill’s own religious experience and also the effectiveness of a conversion as the solution to alcoholism.

God Bless, Dick B.

 

[Richard B.]

Spiritual Origin Two Continued:
Ø Bill’s Oxford Group Experiences from 1934 to 1937 and their impact.

When he got sober in December of 1934, Bill Wilson had declared he was an atheist. He had never belonged to a church. He had never studied the Bible. In fact, it is not clear that he read any Oxford Group or Sam Shoemaker literature; but dive into the Oxford Group Bill did. At once. He and Lois regularly attended Oxford Group meetings and some Oxford Group Houseparties. He was in close touch with Rev. Sam Shoemaker and attended meetings led by Sam. He was further indoctrinated in Oxford Group ideas by several Oxford Group friends (Rowland Hazard, Shepard Cornell, Hanford Twitchell, Reverend W. Irving Harris and his wife Julia, Victor Kitchen, Reverend Sam Shoemaker, Reverend John Potter Cuyler, and others). He joined in and had a leadership role in some Oxford Group team events. Most of all, he began almost immediately seeking out drunks to help. He sought them at Towns Hospital, at Calvary Rescue Mission, and in Oxford Group meetings. Within 60 days of his getting sober, he received an admiring letter from Sam Shoemaker commending Bill for his work with a chemistry professor and his alcohol problem. Bill is mentioned several times in Sam Shoemaker’s personal journals for the period of 1935 and 1936. And Bill was a zealous message carrier for Oxford Group ideas. But he seemed to lack the ability to bring about conversions as other Oxford Groupers were doing. Not one person that Bill and Lois brought to their home achieved sobriety. For the first five months of his witnessing, Bill did not succeed in helping one single person to sobriety. He was a messenger without an adequate message. And upon consulting Dr. Silkworth, he was advised to present the alcoholism problem very hard and then to carry on his Oxford Group witnessing. Some think this enhanced Bill’s ability as a message carrier; but he never had real success with early AAs during the period of his Oxford Group membership which ended in August of 1937; and he said so several times.
He was carrying a religious message about conversions with a background of atheism, lack of religious training, lack of Bible study, lack of church participation, and hostility toward Christianity.
God Bless, Dick B.

 

[Richard B.]

The Completely New Spiritual Direction and Program that emerged from the meeting of Bill W. and Dr. Bob in Akron

Features: When Bill met Bob in Akron on Mother’s Day of 1935, a completely new approach to the cure of alcoholism was the result. It neither copied the church youth-group support mission of Christian Endeavor, nor did it copy the individual and world life-changing mission of the Oxford Group. It actually belonged to neither of these groups though it drew heavily on the principles and practices of both. Dr. Bob brought to the table a deep understanding of the Bible and a wealth of reading about Christianity, other religions, and the Oxford Group. He also brought solid memories of what Christian Endeavor meetings were like. More than once, Bill Wilson showed he was in awe of Dr. Bob’s spiritual practices and studies, proclaiming himself to be simply a teacher of “kindergarten.” On the other hand, Bill Wilson brought to the table the Oxford Group witnessing zeal – a fervent desire to help others who had been suffering from alcoholism. This stress on “service” arrested Dr. Bob’s attention at once. At first, before he began working with Sam Shoemaker and other Oxford Group people in New York, Bill’s knowledge of the Oxford Group program was limited though steeped in enthusiasm. From the union of A.A.’s two founders emerged a new and very soon successful approach to a program that would focus on the power of God, build on basic spiritual ideas from the Bible, adopt some life- changing techniques of the Oxford Group, and concentrate only on curing alcoholics. That was something new. Medicine had been unable to effect a cure. Religion had been unable to focus on drunks. And it fell to the two A.A. founders to bring these three elements to bear on the real alcoholics they sought to help. Astonishing successes resulted and multiplied.

Ø The Basic Bible ideas the program stressed

Dr. Bob said the A.A. pioneers were convinced that the solution to their problems could be found in the Bible. Understandably, they insisted on a belief in God, the acceptance of Christ, study of the Bible, prayer, seeking God’s guidance, fellowship, and witness. But consistent with some Christian Endeavor ideas, there was a strong evidence on love and service as defined in the Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. Over and over, the pioneers were urged to study and apply the materials found in these particular parts of the Bible. Subsequent historians have almost uniformly failed to mention, to study, to analyze or to report on any of these basic Bible ideas that were so much emphasized.

Ø The Basic Oxford Group principles and practices the pioneers used

Until Bill wrote his Big Book and Steps, it cannot be said that the A.A. program was an Oxford Group program – certainly not in Akron. But both Dr. Bob and Bill were associated with the Oxford Group prior to their meeting—Bob for two and a half years and Bill for about six months. Bill was still convinced that a “conversion experience” like his at Towns Hospital was the ticket to healing. That, Bill had been taught, would come from an application of the twenty-eight Oxford Group ideas that impacted on A.A. Dr. Bob did not entertain this idea and had no such experience. But he firmly believed that abstinence, reliance on God, improving understanding of God, adopting Christian moral standards of behavior, and seeking God’s guidance would answer their problems. The Oxford Group had no particular interest in helping drunks. It had no basic text. It was a charismatic movement that derived from the leadership of people like its founder Frank Buchman and the New York leader Sam Shoemaker. It had no steps. But it did offer surrender to God, Christian moral standards, life-changing techniques, quiet times with God, and rectification of misdeeds. Akron’s A.A. pioneers adopted a pick-and- choose approach to Oxford Group ideas. Surrender fitted with the Akron idea of conversion. Self-examination, confession, and conviction were Biblical ideas that also served to challenge moral mis-behavior. Restitution was Biblical and was a large factor in Oxford Group practices. Quiet time as such was not only Biblical, but it had emerged from the same evangelistic sources that fed the YMCA, Christian Endeavor, and the Oxford Group itself. Yet until Bill Wilson wrote his Twelve Steps, the Oxford Group impact was not predominant in Akron. The Bible’s was!

Ø What the pioneers in Akron did

In summary, these were their tactics: (1) Seeking out alcoholics to help. (2) Hospitalizing most of them. (3) Visiting them in the hospital with victory stories. (4) Having Dr. Bob test their belief in God and willingness to pray before they were discharged. (5) Urging them to study the Bible, pray, and help others without charge. (6) Insisting on individual and group quiet times with God. (7) Attending a weekly Oxford Group meeting. (8) Holding morning Bible study, prayer, guidance, and teachings sessions with Dr. Bob’s wife every day. (9) Reading and using devotionals like the Upper Room and other Christian books such as The Greatest Thing in the World, being circulated by Dr. Bob. (10) Engaging in a “real” surrender where they asked God to take alcohol out of their lives and to help them l live by Christian principles. They were, in the manner of James 5:16, led by about three elders who prayed with them in private. (11) Commencing almost at once to visit and seek out other alcoholics needing help. (12) In many cases, living in the homes of pioneers such as Dr. Bob and his wife, Wally Gillam and his wife, Tom Lucas and his wife, and others. (13) Attending a church of their choice. Oxford Group ideas were incorporated primarily in private meetings with Dr. Bob where the elimination of bad moral behavior was sought, living by the four absolute standards of Jesus was urged, and restitution was discussed.

Ø The original, simple, 5 point spiritual recovery program of A.A. as reported by A.A. trustee-to-be Frank Amos to Rockefeller, with mention of two additional, optional points. Their impact. And the program Bill Wilson was to place in book form

When Bill Wilson sought help from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Rockefeller dispatched Frank Amos to Akron to determine what the program was, how it was led, and the success it was having. The whole investigation is adequately reported in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers at pages 121 – 136. Amos described the program as follows: (1) [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. (2) [Surrender] He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope. (3) [Eliminating sins—including the sin of drunkenness] 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. (4) [Daily Quiet Time] He must have devotions every morning—a “quiet time” of prayer and some r eading from the Bible and oth er religious literature. Unless this is faithfully followed, there is grave danger of backsliding. (5) [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. In summary, the five point program simply required the alcoholic to quit drinking forever, to rely on God for help, to clean up his life, to maintain daily contact with and understanding of God, and fortify his resistance by helping other alcoholics. The two additional, optional points were (6) [Social and religious fellowship with cured alcoholics] It is important, but not vital that he meet frequently with other reformed alcoholics and form both a social and a religious comradeship. (7) [Religious affiliation] Important, but not vital, that he attend some religious service at least once weekly. This was the program that had produced cures by Divine help that medicine had been unable to produce. It was the essence of the program that had enabled the first forty pioneers to achieve sobriety. It was the essence of the program that AAs voted, with a split vote, to authorize Wilson to place in book form. An alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic, incurable from a medical viewpoin

 

[RichardB1980]

Now I have to change my damn login name because it is too d.a.m.n close to yours!!! THANKS!!

 

[dickb]

If you would like to see two studies of A.A.'s Bible roots and how they surfaced in the Big Book and Steps, I'd suggest The Good Book and The Big Book, as well as The James Club and the Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials. There are several approaches: (1) Until recently, little has been revealed about the religious training that Bill and Bob received as youngsters in Vermont, and it certainly involved salvation, Bible study, and walking by the spirit. (2) Little has been said about A.A.'s real roots in the rescue missions, evangelists, YMCA, Christian Endeavor Society, and Salvation Army. (3) Few even know how much Dr. Bob spoke about the importance of the Bible in his last major address. He pointed out that early A.A. had no Steps, no Traditions, and no stories that amounted to anything. He said they believed the answer to their problems was in the Bible, which he called the "Good Book." (4) Bob went on to point out that oldtimers considered the Book of James, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 to be absolutely essential to the program. (5) Both Bob and Bill said that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount contained the underlying spiritual philosophy of A.A. And many of my books and articles point specifically to the Bible verses, the descriptions of the Creator, and the favoring of the Book of James to the extent that early AAs wanted to call their Society the James Club. God Bless, Dick B.

 

[dickb]

There is some great material in this forum and important, ongoing questions. I would quickly summarize the Bible and Christian questions concerning EARLY A.A. as follows: (1) Its roots were in the rescue missions, evangelists, YMCA, Salvation Army, Christian Endeavor, and (later) the Oxford Group and teachins of Rev. SAm Shoemaker of NY. (2) The religious training of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Vermont came largely from Congregational church sources. (3) The first three AAs were Christians, turned to God for help, were cured by the power of God and said so. (4) In the summer of 1935, Bill and Bob began developing the Original A.A. program that was summarized by Frank Amos for Rockefeller after the pioneers achieved a documented 75% success rate. (5) The program ideas were fashioned largely from the Young People's Christian Endeavor Society, in which Dr. Bob was active in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. To these were added the personal experience of both founders with alcoholism, hospitalization, conversion, and alcoholics. (6) The basic ideas, said Dr. Bob, came from the Bible. See Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book; The James Club and the Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials; The Conversion of Bill W.; When Early AAs Were Cured and Why; and Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

[dickb]

The Emmet Fox Myths Regularly Promulgated by A Few Against A.A​

Dick B.


Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved​

First, when someone asks about a supposed New Thought foundation for A.A. and tosses aside the very clear basic ideas A.A. took from its studies and efforts in the Bible, I often like to point out these two truths:

(1) Emmet Fox did not deliver the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus did! See Matt. 5-7.

(2) Emmet Fox rejected the idea of “born again” and salvation. Jesus made these available. Early AAs in Akron required acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Here is a relevant quote (with some new additions) from one of my articles:

Number Fifteen: New Thought. Also beginning to take wing through the impetus of Christian Science and similar movements that started to flower at almost the same period as the first two sources [of A.A.] But the New Thought focus was on a new kind of god—a higher power—that took descriptive words from the Bible but saw God, good, and evil in non-salvation terms. New Thought words and phrases like higher power, cosmic consciousness, fourth dimension, and Universal Mind filtered in to the A.A. stream. Even the “Christ in you-Christ in everybody” nonsense that still floats in recovery circles.The New Thought expositors included Mary Baker Eddy, Waldo Trine, William James, Emmanuel Movement writers, and Emmet Fox. See The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth, 7th ed; When Early AAs Were Cured and Why; Dr. Bob and His Library; Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A.; God and Alcoholism. See for further relative research, see New Wine, written by an advocate for New Thought among his A.A. friends.

[Source for the quote above: "A.A.’s Fifteen Major Well-Springs" by Dick B. Copyright 2007 Anonymous. All rights reserved:

Fox’s book, along with many others, was widely read by a few early AAs. So too were the books of Oswald Chambers, Nora Smith Holm, E. Stanley Jones, Thomas a’Kempis, Leslie D. Weatherhead, Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Harold Begbie, Brother Lawrence, Ebenezer MacMillan, Sherwood Day, Julian P. Thornton-Duesbury, B. H. Streeter, Cecil Rose, Hallen Viney, Howard J. Rose, Jack Winslow, Upper Room, Robert E. Speer, Charles Sheldon, Rev. James Stalker, T.R. Glover, Geoffrey Allen, The Fathers of the Church, Henry Drummond, Toyohiko Kagawa, Glenn Clark, Mary Baker Eddy, James Moore Hickson, Ethel R. Willitts, Star Daily, Mary W. Tileston, and the Holy Bible, were all widely circulated, read, and quoted. HH HoHoh I suggest you familiarize yourself with them. Go, if you like, to Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, to the Dr. Bob Core Library in Vermont, to the Wilson House in Vermont, to Brown University, to the Shoemaker Room at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. Viewed as a whole, you can see the foregoing books early AAs read, and many many others. But cherry picking this or that author or book and labeling it as representative of the Christian faiths, denominations, creeds, and beliefs of early AAs is just another path to the myths now being manufactured by some who are violently opposed to A.A. I also suggest you read page 13 of The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet with your sponsees:

“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.”

There is no mention there of some particular book—only of three essential parts of the Bible the pioneers studied with regularity.

The "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7) was, of course, given by Jesus, not by Emmet Fox. I suggest you encourage your sponsees to read the "real thing" to which Dr. Bob was referring rather than a watered-down version peppered with the New Thought, anti-salvation positions and declarations, and personal opinions of one man.

Also, I hope you have your group or fellowship purchase many (!--even 500) copies of The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet (Item # P-53) from A.A. and that your are giving and will continue to give a copy to every person who walks through the doors of your meeting, group, and fellowship. It is also a great tool to give to ministers, recovery pastors, sponsors and speakers. That plus The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.'s Roots in the Bible by Dick B. have been really blessing people throughout the U.S. and in other countries such as Canada.

Gloria Deo​