Thursday, June 14, 2012

Christian Recovery Radio Interviews from Kihei, Maui by AA Historian Dick B.

Another Terrific Radio Interview of a Vibrant Christian Recovery Leader
Doug Nunes of Los Gatos California Calvary Church
Dick B.
Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved
We urge other Christian Recovery leaders, participants in International Christian Recovery Coalition, and those who want God’s Help in recovery from alcoholism and addiction to begin listening to Dick B.’s archived radio interview shows on www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com.

You may hear "Dick B. interviews Christian Recovery leader Doug Nunes" on the June 14, 2012, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" show here:
http://goo.gl/CoHFG
or
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2012/06/14/dick-b-interviews-christian-recovery-leader-doug-nunes
"The Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" radio show episodes are archived at www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Challenge Your A.A. Speakers, Sponsors, Servants with Facts

A.A. and AA.’s Own Talent
Let’s Get Our Speakers, Sponsors, Historians, and Archivists Producing
By Dick B.
Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Put A.A. and 12 Step Speakers, Sponsors, and Historians to Work! Now.
Look at the Talent Before You Right Now!
Right now, take a look at the speakers, sponsors, historians, archivists, and secretaries you know or have known in your Alcoholics Anonymous (“A.A.”) or other 12-Step Fellowship. I’ve been involved with hundreds of them, and you may have been too. Many are talented, experienced, and articulate speakers and, in fact, good instructors. They are also caring, loving, giving people. But what are you hearing from them today?
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of women and men in the recovery movement who have never studied A.A.’s basic text or learned how to take people through the Twelve Steps in accordance with the instructions in Alcoholics Anonymous (also known as “the Big Book”). There are far more who haven’t a clue about A.A.’s history and roots, and haven’t any idea where the recovery program got its ideas. And many of these have never opened an A.A. history book, been to an A.A. history conference, or even cared to learn our history.
Why?
Generally speaking, it’s because many have previously had no resources to work with or with which they cared to work. Sometimes because they just don’t care. Or because they think their hearers won’t laugh, cry, applaud, or want to listen if they use those resources to help others. Or often because most resources will not serve the required purpose.
What are their resources? The Big Book contains virtually no history. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions contains virtually no history. A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlets by the dozen tell you nothing significant about history. And the two or three significant A.A. history books either omit the details, omit entire segments of history, or focus on what the writers think or thought AAs should hear, rather than on what actually occurred. And are treatment programs, conferences, and workshops any different?
Ask yourself how much you heard about history in a treatment program or rehab. Are sponsors any different? Ask yourself how much your sponsor talked to you about A.A. history. Are certification courses and facilities teaching even the rudiments of history or the techniques by which the early pioneers sought God and were healed? Ask someone who is certified. Ask them about history, and watch them go blank.
Then there are the “history” books currently proliferating outside the fellowships. Do they talk about God? Do they talk about the Bible? Do they mention Jesus Christ? Do they talk about the literature early AAs read? Do they detail the contributions of such major A.A. influences as Anne Ripley Smith and her journal, the books and teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, the life-changing program of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as “the Oxford Group”) which underlies the Steps, the devotionals which were a major part of Quiet Time, and even the Bible itself? For it was quite clear that the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and 1 Corinthians 13 were considered absolutely essential to the early program. But how often have you ever heard them read, discussed, or studied in your program or by your conferences or by your sponsor or by any counselor you’ve encountered?
Would talented speakers, sponsors, and counselors revolt if challenged?
Dr. Bob never let a pigeon loose from the hospital without asking him if he believed in God. Then he insisted they get out of bed and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In the little-known interview of Dr. Bob on pages 84-88 of the September 1939 issue of Your Faith magazine titled “I Saw Religion Remake A Drunkard” by D.J. Defoe, Dr. Bob told how he read the Bible with each hospitalized newcomer. Have you ever put that historical set of facts to, and asked about them to, a potential speaker, sponsor, or treatment facilitator?
According to page 144 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), when asked a question about the program, Dr. Bob usually replied: “What does it say in the Good Book?” Have you ever called that fact to the attention of those we mention?
Page 53 of the current (fourth) edition of the Big Book (2001) states clearly that “God either is, or He isn’t.” Have you ever asked a speaker or instructor if he agrees?
According to the “‘Get Honest with Yourself, Pray,’ Alcoholics Anonymous Advise” article found on page 17 of the Friday, March 26, 1948, issue of The Tidings, Bill W. and Dr. Bob spoke at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles before thousands of AAs and their families. Bill commented on the “religious element” of A.A. and the need for “Divine Aid.” Have you ever inquired about these?
Page 29 of the fourth edition of the Big Book states: “Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God.” Have you ever asked a speaker or instructor to do likewise?
According to the March 26, 1948, article in The Tidings cited above, when it was A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob’s turn to speak at the Shrine Auditorium, the entire audience rose in tribute to him. And he succinctly suggested that all “cultivate the habit of prayer” and “study the Bible.” Have you ever asked your teachers about that one? Or if they have ever even heard or talked about the fact?
We now know that A.A.’s many roots included the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, the great Evangelists like Moody and Sankey, the Salvation Army, the Rescue Missions, “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (the Oxford Group), and the Young Men’s Christian Association. Have you ever asked that these be explained to you? The 12 Step roots included Dr. Carl Jung’s views on “conversion,” and Professor William James’s views on the variety of conversion experiences he’d studied. Do your instructors talk about these? Dr. William D. Silkworth told A.A. cofounder Bill W. on his third visit to Towns Hospital in September 1934—as well as his other patients—that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, could cure them of their alcoholism? Have you ever heard that? Have you ever had the Four Absolutes, the Five C’s, Quiet Time, and Conversion explained to you in terms of their A.A. significance? They represent the heart of what Bill codified in the Big Book and Steps from the Oxford Group.
What a Speaker Can Be and Do
The so-called Conference and “circuit” speakers that are entertaining and dynamic attract crowds. How many people have rushed to hear Clancy I., Gene Duffy, June G., Eve, Poor Richard, Geraldine D., Frank Mauser, Earl Husband, Joe McQ., Charlie P., Father Martin, and dozens of others—because these men and women are entertaining and dynamic. I’ve heard them all, and I’ve been entertained. They’ve made me laugh, and laughter is either “the best medicine” or a great help. They’ve made me cry, and emotion is part of needed enthusiasm. They’ve made me admire what they’ve done and what they’ve become. But how many times have you or I heard them talk about the early A.A. fellowship and what worked?
Can they? Could they? Will they? Would you have the courage to ask them?
We’re big in A.A. on “love and service.” We claim our “code” is “love and tolerance.” We even insist that our “leaders” are but trusted servants. And in fact, all speakers, sponsors, and counselors are “but trusted servants.” And what do trusted servants do? I’d like to think they do what they are told! But nobody tells these speakers or the “staff” at World Services or the editors of the AA Grapevine what to say—at least not you or me. Why?
The “servants” are beyond the reach of the masters, and their instructors are long dead and gone. They are peopled or persuaded by professionals, universalists, revisionists, and timid unbelievers. The servants clearly dote on pleasing everyone. If they write a piece of literature like a Daily Reflections, they’d rather get 365 different views from 365 alcoholics, one for each day, than to select from the hundreds of pieces of biblical, prayer, meditation, Quiet Time, and Christian literature which were part and parcel of early A.A.
How Long Will You Wait?
We’ve reached the point in Twelve Step history where there are few, if any, who have ever met, talked to, or learned directly from Bill W., Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Silkworth, or even A.A. Number Three—Bill D. Speakers cannot speak from experience about these people. But they can learn! And why not tell them you are concerned!
Speakers could, if they cared to, spend the same amount of time looking into A.A. history resources that Joe McQ. and Charlie P. spent in studying the Big Book so that they could explain it and teach it to our members all over the world. And now even these servants are gone or are playing “the last quarter of the game,” as Charlie P. put it to me before he died.
Instead of bemoaning the absence of “old timers” or “elder statesmen” or “people who knew or were sponsored by Dr. Bob or Clarence S.” or those archivists who have studied and know the archives, why not bring up a new crop? Would you rather listen to Eli Whitney tell you how he invented the cotton gin, or would you find it more instructive if a football star told you how he and his team won the Super Bowl?
Look at the Early Teachers
Our founders were humble. Our founders were students. Our founders were ever on a quest to learn more. Our founders believed in God. Our founders read the Bible. Our founders read all kinds of religious literature. Our founders put their learning to use in directly working to help others with what they had found. Dr. Bob read the Bible three times to refresh his memory before helping others with Bible materials. He circulated the Christian literature he read. Anne Smith was in the trenches, reading her Bible, suggesting literature, and teaching from her personal journal. So was Henrietta Seiberling. So were Mr. and Mrs. T. Henry Williams. And so was Bill until he got hung up with depressions shortly after he published the Big Book. Bill’s spiritual mentor, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, never stopped writing, preaching, and teaching. And these, plus Dr. Silkworth, were the people who handed us the most information.
And What about You!
Are you willing to look for speakers, sponsors, and programs that will provide you and others who need help with a full platter of information? Are you willing to read whatever you need to read to learn what you’ve been missing? Are you willing to organize meetings, fellowships, seminars, and conferences that will tell others our history? Are you willing to pass along what you learn? Are you willing to stand up and be counted when someone asks if you believe in God, if you believe in the importance of the Bible to AAs, if Jesus Christ has any place in your heart, and if you attend a church or Bible fellowship or Christian study group?
Are you willing to be a student, a researcher, a learner, a speaker, a teacher, an organizer, and a supporter of the quest to learn the truth and carry it to others in order to help them recover, get well, and be cured?
Wouldn’t you rather promote and pass on information about the program Frank Amos described when he told of the seven-point program in Akron that had produced such astonishing results? It’s all right there for you to see in A.A.’s own DR. BOB and the Oldtimers on page 131. You don’t even have to go to the bookstore or library. Surprise! You can study the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 by buying a used Bible and reading it as you can see the early AAs did in A.A.’s own pamphlet, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. You don’t even have to go to church or to your rabbi, minister, or priest. Although it could be very helpful!
If you don’t want to be one who does or leads, are you willing to support those who do? Do you realize that in the World Services offices of A.A. itself there are scrap books that contain hundreds of newspaper clippings and articles that tell of the cures early AAs claimed they had received at the hands of their Creator? Have you thought of ordering, reading, or donating one where it will actually help someone? Are you circulating The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet where Bill W. and Dr. Bob told bits of our history in their last major talks?
And, if you found great joy in learning what the Big Book was all about and how to take the Twelve Steps properly, are you willing to start or join a group that does this and studies history as well?
The Bottom Line
Have you helped a drunk today? Do you belong to a group that really carries out its primary purpose of helping the alcoholic who still suffers? Do you vote with your feet when you hear a speaker, a sponsor, or a counselor who talks about “higher powers,” about that strange “spirituality,” about the meetings he attends, about how much he drank, about how much trouble he had, and yet who never mentions whether or not he established a relationship with God and has had something more than a dry drunk or a passive sedentary position in his life?
Think about it. Think how much you can help others if you are able to tell them what God has done for you, what God did for the pioneers, and how they learned about Him from the Good Book!
Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; DickB@DickB.com; www.DickB.com; http://drbob.info; (808) 874-4876

Gloria Deo

 


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Many Films Showing Bill W. on a Pedestal. Facts needed


Dick B.’s Documented Account of the Story of Bill Wilson, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Influences on Wilson [In reply to a question about Oxford Group influences, if any, on Bill Wilson]



Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights resereved



“Thank you for asking about the possible influence of the Oxford Group on Bill Wilson.



Actually, there were many influences on his A.A. ideas, as there were in the case of Dr. Bob: They definitely include, and I have documented, the following:



1. The Bible.

2. The Christian organizations and people that preceded and influenced AA: a) Evangelists like Dwight Moody and F. B. Meyer; b) Gospel Rescue Missions; c) Lay brethren of Young Men's Christian Association; d) Salvation Army; e) Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor; f) Oxford Group; g)Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.

3. The Christian  upbringing of Wilson in the East Dorset Congregational Church, the Bible studies he did with grandfather Griffith and friend Mark Whalon, the conversion and cure of his grandfather Willie Wilson, the sermons and revivals and conversions and temperance meetings he attended, his 4 years at Burr and Burton Academy where he took a four year Bible study course, went to daily chapel at this Congregationalist school, and was president of and active in the school's Young Men's Christian Association.

5. The advice of his physician Dr. Silkworth on his third visit to Towns Hospital; that he would die or go insane if he didn't stop drinking; and that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure him.

6. The visits from his friend Ebby Thacher, telling him: a) that he (Ebby) had been to the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, been born again, got religion; b) that he (Ebby) had learned several things from the Oxford Group friends (Rowland Hazard, Shep Cornell, and Cebra Graves) about Christian subjects he had studied as a youngster, and also about the power of prayer, about the Oxford Group[ program, about Dr. Carl Jung's advice to Rowland that he (Rowland) could be helped if he had a "vital religious experience"--a conversion experience;] c) Bill's trip to Calvary Church to hear and check up on Ebby Thacher's testimony; d) Bill's thought that perhaps Calvary Mission could do for him what it had done for Ebby; e) Bill's trip to the altar at Calvary Mission where he made his decision for Jesus Christ, wrote twice "For sure I had been born again," and wrote that he had "found religion." f) Bill's subsequent drinking, deep despair and depression, and thoughts that he should call on the Great Physician for help; g) Bill's last trip to Towns Hospital where he cried out to God for help, had his memorable "indescribably white flash" blazing in his room, sensed the presence of God, exclaimed "So this is the God of the Scriptures," stopped doubting the power of God, and never drank again.

7. Bills subsequent discussion with Dr. Silkworth where Bill was told he had had a "conversion experience." Bill's extensive study that day of the William James book on religious experiences that cured alcoholics, and Bill's conclusion that his experience in the hospital was a valid conversion experience.

8. Bill's adventure on discharge from the hospital out on the streets with a Bible under his arm and telling drunks in hospitals, missions, flea bag hotels, Oxford Group meetings that he had found a cure for alcoholism and that they should give their lives to God (See Big Book, page 191).

9. Bill's utter failure to convert or sober up anyone at all. Not before he met with Dr. Bob in Akron.

10. Bill's visit with Dr. Bob at Henrietta Seiberling's Gate Lodge for six hours where Bill convinced Bob that the idea of service to others was an essential element in the Oxford Group that was part of the mix, and Dr. Bob's assent.

11. The three months that Bill spent with the Smiths at their home in Akron where: a) Anne read them the Bible each day. b) Anne may have shared from the journal she had kept since 1933. c) there were daily prayers and  quiet time. d) there was an agreement that hospitalization was an essential ingredient. e) Attendance at the weekly "clandestine lodge" meeting of the Oxford Group at the T. Henry Williams home. f) Where extensive Oxford Group and Shoemaker literature were available at the meeting for the taking.

12. The success--when there was no Big Book, were no Steps, were no Traditions, were no drunkalogs, and were no meetings like those today--with A.A. Number Three-Bill Dotson. Bill and Bob visited Dotson in the hospital, told him to give his life to God and, when healed, go out and help others. Dotson turned to God for help, was immediately healed, and went out from the hospital a new man--which marked the founding of Akron Group Number One July 4, 1935.

13. Bill and Bob learning in November of 1937 by "counting noses" that forty members had achieved and maintained some sobriety--with an assured 50% success rate; and that God had shown them how the cure could be passed on by working with newcomers, hospitalization, belief in God, acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, old fashioned prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, Quiet Time, reading Christian literature, and helping others without charge.

14. When Akron, by a barely passing vote in Akron, authorized Wilson to write a book, Bill claimed there were six word-of-mouth ideas being used with success. He phrased the six ideas in at least 4 different ways--when it came to God's help. He claimed they were derived from the Oxford Group, but that there was no general agreement, particularly in the mid-west , on what they were. He also said they were applied according to the "whim" of the group involved. But Bill's  "six" word-of-mouth ideas were very different from the 7 point Akron Christian Fellowship program that Frank Amos summarized in his report to the Rockefeller people in 1937. See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131.

15. Bill soon sat down with Rev. Sam Shoemaker at the book-lined study at Calvary House--with closed doors--and worked out the program of the Big Book, derived largely from Oxford Group ideas (and the Oxford Group itself declared that the principles of the Oxford Group were the principles of the Bible--as Rev. Sherwood Day twice wrote in The Principles of the Oxford Group).

16. When it came time to write Chapter 5 of his new book, Bill asked Sam Shoemaker to write the 12 Steps, but Shoemaker declined saying that they should be written by an alcoholic, namely Bill. Bill then sat down, looked at his alleged "six ideas", and  quickly wrote out Twelve Steps in a book where the word "God" had consistently been used without qualification.

17. Just before the book went to press, four people (Ruth Hock-secretary, Hank Parkhurst--Bill's partner, Bill Wilson--the author, and John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo--who wanted the book to be Christian to the core) changed the language of the steps, deleting God from Step Two, and adding "as we understood Him" to Steps 3 and 11. Bill attributed this change to a "broad highway" to the contributions of the atheists and agnostics.



Most of this material can be found in various of my books listed in http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.



And the material is placed in updated, comprehensive, documented, teachable form in "The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide," 3rd ed., 2010. http://www.dickb.com.



Most of the recent, documented research is set forth in my two preceding books "Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous" http://www.dickb.com/drbobofaa,shtml, and "The Conversion of Bill W." http://www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml.

dickb@dickb.com

Friday, May 25, 2012

Stick with the Winners Book and 27 Video Classes





Dick B. and Ken B.’s Newest Title:



Stick with the Winners!

How to Conduct

More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings

Using Conference-Approved Literature:

A Dick B. Guide

for Christian Leaders and Workers in the Recovery Arena

(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012)



Contents

Introduction: “Old-School” Christian Recovery

Ch. 1:   Resources for “Old-School” 12 Step Recovery Meetings

Ch. 2:   Conference-Approved Literature Foundations

Ch. 3:   The Real Akron A.A. Program

Ch. 4:   16 Key Practices of the Real Akron A.A. Program

Ch. 5:   “Old-School” A.A. and First Century Christianity

Ch. 6:   “Old-School” Elements That Can Be Used Today

Ch. 7:   How to Conduct “Old-School” Recovery Meetings

            Conclusion



Available on www.DickB.com for only $9.95 NOW!

(Just scroll down the center column of the www.DickB.com front page.)







Announcing!

Dick B. and Ken B.’s New 27-Video Class:

Stick with the Winners!

Video                    Title



00                           Introductory Video for the “Stick with the Winners!” Class

01                           Where to Begin with a Newcomer

02                           Show the Newcomer That the Cure of Alcoholism Was Not Something New from A.A.

03                           The Vermont Youth of Dr. Bob and Bill W. Set the Stage for Early A.A.’s Emphasis on

God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, Prayer, Conversion, and Witness

04                           How Bill W. Got Sober by Turning to God

05                           How Dr. Bob Got Sober by Turning to God

06                           How A.A. Number Three, Bill D., Got Sober by Turning to God

07                           A Summary of How the Original “Old-School” A.A. Program Was Developed

08                           Frank Amos’ Seven-Point Summary of the Original Akron A.A. Program

09                           Part One: Practices One through Eight of the 16 Practices of “Old-School” A.A. in Akron

10                           Part Two: Practices Nine through 16 of the 16 Practices of “Old-School” A.A. in Akron



12                           Part One: Groups One through Seven of the Resources about the “Old-School” A.A.

Program Available Today

13                           Part Two: Groups Eight through 14 of the Resources about the “Old-School” A.A.

Program Available Today

14                           The Starting Point: Mastering and Relying on Key Sections of Conference-Approved

Literature

15                           Supportive Statements in Alcoholics Anonymous (“the Big Book”)

16                           Supportive Statements in The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (# P-53)

17                           Supportive Statements in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers

18                           Organizing and Conducting a “Conference-Approved Literature” Group

19                           Resources for Your Group and Its Meetings

20                           Topics for Your Group and Its Meetings

21                           A Sample Meeting Format

22                           Using the Sample Meeting Format with Other Topics

23                           Putting It All Together: Some Suggested Basic Approaches

24                           The Helpful Personal Stories of Four Early AAs . . .

25                           Conclusion: Here’s What Makes the International Christian Recovery Coalition and

These Suggested Meetings Different



(Available on www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com for only $29.95 NOW!)

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Name of the Creator, and Alcoholics Anonymous


The Name of the Creator

By Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

The subject of the name of the Creator of the heavens and the earth is one of the most important and exciting topics in the Bible. Your investment of time in studying this section carefully will be well worth every moment.

And this article has its focus on the significance of the special mention of God as “Creator” in the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous.

"God," with a capital "G," is specifically called "God" 277 times in the Third Edition of A.A.’s Big Book. That Big Book also contains 107 specific pronouns—he, him, his, and himself—which are similarly capitalized and hence unquestionably refer to "God." Counting the additional places where A.A.’s Big Book contains references to our Creator—calling Him "Creator," "Maker," "Father," "Father of Light," and "Spirit"—the Creator is thus specifically mentioned in the Big Book more than 400 times. (See Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, pp. 49-50.) Not surprisingly, but certainly unfortunately, the Big Book nowhere calls the Creator by His proper name. Nonetheless, the Big Book distinguishes the Creator from any other "god" or kind of "god."

Bill Wilson, initial author of almost every word in the Big Book’s basic text, can quickly be seen as articulate and careful in his grammatical usages. Especially when dealing with, and capitalizing, certain words! In the "Handbook of Style" section of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, the following is stated about capitalized words:

Capitals are used with almost all proper nouns–that is, nouns that name particular persons, places, or things (including abstract entities), distinguishing them from others of the same class. . . . The essential distinction in the use of capitals and lowercase letters at the beginnings of words lies in this individualizing significance of capitals as against the generalizing significance of lowercase. . . . (pp. 1541-42)

In the sub-subsection titled "Religious Terms," the following is also stated in the "Handbook of Style" section of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition:

28. Words designating the Deity are capitalized.

29. Personal pronouns referring to the Deity are usually capitalized, even when they closely follow their antecedent (p. 1544).

Note first:

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33)

As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him (1 Cor. 8:4-6)

There can therefore be little, if any doubt (considering the many references by Bill and Bob to the Bible and biblical language) that Bill was, in the Big Book and his other early writings, specifically talking about the "Deity" of the Bible. His capitalized references to God, the Creator, Maker, and Father, were not referring and did not refer to a "group," a "doorknob," a "lightbulb," "the Big Dipper," or some other vague "higher power" of Bill’s own making. Bill’s intent to designate our Creator as such is further evident from the frequent mention by Bill (and Bob) of his "Heavenly Father," just as Jesus did in the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew chapters 5 to 7).

In other specific, biblical references to the Creator, Bill spoke of Him as the "living God," as "God Almighty," and as "God our Father"– all terms in and from the Bible. A Bible which refers to false gods, but never to the Creator as one of these false gods, or as a group, as a lightbulb, or as a "higher power."

Again, not surprisingly, but certainly regrettably, the Big Book did not refer to the Creator by his personal name. We will see in a moment that the Creator Himself made it possible to identify Him with exactness and clarity. That identification comes with the use of His proper, personal name.

There are many reasons for getting Bill’s biblical references to "God" and our "Creator" straight. They start with the need for identifying our Creator’s actual name. First, as will be discussed below, in the Bible, God specifically declares what His name is—many times. He indicates the importance of that very name to Himself. He states clearly that His name is "my holy name." Second, there is endless confusion today in the A.A. meeting-room talk about strange new gods, higher powers, and inanimate objects such as chairs and bulldozers.

Our Creator long ago explicitly distinguished the difference between Himself and the kind of self-made idols that are proliferating today in the recovery community. Psalm 115 says:

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?

But our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them.

O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. (Ps. 115:1-9)

Psalm 115 makes obvious the absurdity of trusting in some light bulb, as a few AAs and members of the recovery community declare today that you can do. And a word to the wise is sufficient.

Reverend Sam Shoemaker spoke to AAs at their international convention and decried the use of "absurd names for God." Such absurdities, of course, could have been eliminated in the twinkling of an eye by referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth by His proper name which He Himself sets forth in the Bible. And He makes clear in the Ten Commandments that there are to be no other "gods" before Him–no gods, graven images, or substitutes.

There follow therefore specific references in the Bible to the Creator’s holy name and explanations of what the Creator has said about His name in the Good Book.

When you want to get to know someone, one of the first things you usually want to know is his or her name. And peoples’ names tend to be very important to them. The Bible indicates in many ways that the name of the Creator of the heavens and the earth is very important to Him also.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exod. 20:7, emphasis added)

And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD (Lev. 19:12, emphasis added)

Because he hath set his love upon me [i.e., the LORD], therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. (Ps. 91:14, emphasis added)

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD (Ps. 105:3, emphasis added).

He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name (Ps. 111:9, emphasis added).

And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes (Ezek. 36:23, emphasis added)

So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One of Israel (Ezek. 39:7, emphasis).

Somewhere between the fifth and the second centuries bce a tragic accident befell God: he lost his name. More exactly, Jews gave up using God's personal name Yahweh, and began to refer to Yahweh by various periphrases: God, the Lord, the Name, the Holy One, the Presence, even the Place. Even where Yahweh was written in the biblical text, readers pronounced the name as Adonai. With the final fall of the temple, even the rare liturgical occasions when the name was used ceased, and even the knowledge of the pronunciation of the name was forgotten [David J. A. Clines, "Yahweh and the God of Christian Theology," Theology 83 (1980), pp. 323_30].

In the Bible, the Creator of the heavens and the earth specifically tells us His name many times. That name in the Hebrew Old Testament is represented by four Hebrew letters—Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh (or YHWH)—and these four letters are sometimes called the tetragrammaton ("four-letter writing"). YHWH, Strong’s number 3068, occurs 6,519 times in the Hebrew Old Testament underlying the KJV [according to the Blue Letter Bible (BLB) on the Internet (www.blueletterbible.org/)], and 6,828 times in the Hebrew Old Testament from which the NIV was translated [The Hebrew-English Concordance to the Old Testament (HECOT, p. 630)]. In fact, YHWH is one of the 35 most frequently occurring terms in the Hebrew Old Testament!

As to the pronunciation of the four Hebrew letters YHWH, Kenneth L. Barker states:

There is almost universal consensus among scholars today that the sacred Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is to be vocalized and pronounced Yahweh. [Barker, "YHWH Sabaoth: ‘The Lord Almighty,’" The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary Translation http://www.gospelcom.net/ibs/niv/mct/9.php, emphasis added]

And the Encyclopaedia Britannica adds:

Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. Early Christian writers, such as Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, had used a form like Yahweh, and this pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was never really lost. Other Greek transcriptions also indicated that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh [Encyclopædia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=79806&tocid=0), "Yahweh," emphasis added]

As to the meaning of the Creator’s name YHWH, "Yahweh," Exodus chapter three provides important information:

[11] And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

[12] And he said, Certainly I will be [ehyeh] with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

[13] And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

[14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM [ehyeh asher ehyeh]: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM [ehyeh] hath sent me unto you.

[15] And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD [YHWH, Yahweh] God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

[16] Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD [YHWH, Yahweh] God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt (Exod. 3:11-16, KJV, emphasis added).

The best known modern Bibles [such as the NIV, NASV, and the Revised Standard Version

(RSV)] all differ from the KJV and agree with each other in their translation of the Hebrew words underlying "I AM THAT I AM" in Exodus 3:14:

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.f This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’" (NIV)

God said to Moses, "cI AM WHO cI AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, "cI AM has sent me to you." (NASV)

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."e And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’" (RSV)

The NIV and RSV also offer alternative translations in their footnotes relating to verse 14:

Or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE (NIV, footnote "f")

Or I AM WHAT I AM or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE (RSV, footnote "e")

And the NIV and NASV provide information concerning the relationship between the term "I AM" which occurs three times in verse 14 and the term "the LORD" [YHWH] in verse 15:

The Hebrew for LORD [in verse 15] sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for I AM in verse 14 (NIV, footnote "g")

["I AM" in verse 14 is] Related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be (NASV, footnote "c").

In the chapter titled "YHWH Sabaoth" quoted earlier, Barker points out the importance of Exodus chapter 3 relative to the meaning of "Yahweh":

[T]his verse [i.e., Exod. 3:14] is a divine commentary on—or exposition of—the meaning of the name Yahweh (v.15).

Scott Grant, in his article "Being Involved" which is posted on the Internet [http://www.pbc.org/dp/grant/exodus/exo003.html], states:

God seems to indicate that his name is "I AM" (or "I WILL BE"), for he tells Moses to tell the people that "I AM" has sent him [verse 14]. This is the first person singular form of the verb "to be." God has used it elsewhere already in this passage in conveying his nature. In Exodus 3:12, he says, "I will be with you." Although in the New American Standard translation, the name "I AM" and the verb "I will be" appear to be different tenses, they appear in the same Hebrew tense, and they are one and the same word. . . .

. . . God twice identifies his name with a word translated "the Lord" (3:15, 16) [i.e., YHWH, Yahweh]. This word is likely the third person singular form of the verb "to be" and means . . . "HE IS" or "HE WILL BE." The transliteration from Hebrew into English, near as we can tell, is "Yahweh" (emphasis added).

And the New English Translation’s discussion of Exod. 3:14 in note 47 states:

The verb form used here [for "I am" in verse 14] is . . . ('ehyeh), the Qal imperfect, 1csg, of the verb "to be," hyh (haya). It forms an excellent paronomasia with the name [Yahweh]. So when God used the verb to express his name, he used this form saying, "I AM." When his people refer to him as Yahweh, which is the 3msg form of the same verb, it actually means "he is." Some commentators argue for a future tense translation, "I will be who I will be," because the verb has an active quality about it, and the Israelites lived in the light of the promises for the future. The Greek translation [of the Hebrew Old Testament known as the Septuagint or "LXX" (for the supposed 70 translators)] used a participle to capture the idea [i.e., ego eimi ho on, "I am he who is"]; . . . The simplest meaning is the English present tense, which embraces the future promises. The point is that Yahweh is sovereignly independent of all creation and that his presence guarantees the fulfillment of the covenant. Others argue for a causative Hiphil translation of "I will cause to be," but nowhere in the Bible does this verb appear in Hiphil or Piel (http://www.bible.org/).

The meaning of God’s holy name Yahweh has been frequently discussed in scholarly literature through the years. If the reader would like to pursue this matter further, here are several additional sources for consideration: (1) "Yahweh," Encyclopædia Britannica Article (http://www.britannica.com); (2) "Jehovah (Yahweh)," Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/).

Here are some key verses in which the Creator’s name Yahweh occurs:

Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and there he invoked Yahweh, the everlasting God. [Gen. 21:33 Jerusalem Bible (JB)]

The KJV translates "there he invoked" as "called there on the name of" in verse 33 because the Hebrew Old Testament contains the word shem, "name."

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 (Exod. 3:15 JB)

(Note Bill Wilson’s usage of the phrase "God of our fathers" in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, AAWS, 1987, p. 29.)

God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am Yahweh. To Abraham and Isaac and Jacob I appeared as El Shaddai; I did not make myself known to them by my name Yahweh." (Exod. 6:2, 3 JB)

And let them know this: you alone bear the name Yahweh, Most High over the whole world (Ps. 83:18 JB).

My name is Yahweh, I will not yield my glory to another, nor my honour to idols. (Isa. 42:8 JB)

Now listen, I am going to make them acknowledge, this time I am going to make them acknowledge my hand and my might; and then they will know that Yahweh is my name.
(Jer. 16:21 JB)


[The research and editing for this material was conducted and completed by my son Ken B. and is more fully set forth in our title, Why Early A.A. Succeeded. See www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.]



Gloria Deo




Sunday, April 15, 2012

AA Conference-approved Literature and A.A. HIstory Studiies Today



A.A. Conference Approved Myths and the Importance of Dispelling Them as “Stick with the Winners” Incorporates “Conference-approved” Literature as a Suggested Foundation for Applying Old School A.A. Today

By Dick B., Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

A.A. Conference Approved Myths

A Good Start on and Old Subject

We begin with the following much-needed article from “Pete’s Stuff.” It incorporates the long-ignored Box 459 article as to which GSO has told at least one seeker that it couldn't find the material.

I receive questions about this all the time; and people at conferences, Central Offices, and meetings are confronted with the "conference approved" nonsense with great frequency. Any AA can read anything any time anywhere for any purpose inside or outside of A.A. And that includes comic books and computer manuals. There is no Tradition that says otherwise. There is no Tradition that can or should or will censor or "censure" what is presented at a meeting, whether in discussion or by reading or by literature on a table. And if someone thinks he’s found the mythical tradition, tell him the fact and then tell him the Traditions are not laws, are not binding on anyone, and were never intended to prohibit free speech or freedom of religion by AAs or others. That includes what we read, what we hear, what we say, what we study, and what we pass along to others.

Those who suggest otherwise just don't know A.A. Nor do they seem to know that early Alcoholics Anonymous was a Christian Fellowship, studied the King James Version of the Bible, read all kinds of literature--Protestant, Roman Catholic, New Thought, medical, and otherwise, and put out reams and reams of pamphlets and guides as the years went by. The pamphlets included those from many Central Offices and Intergroups--including the long-running Cleveland Central Bulletin, the four AA of Akron pamphlets, and the Four Absolutes booklet available even today. You’ll find that many of these materials, including a host of recovery materials from Hazelden and elsewhere are sold by A.A. offices.

Then there were materials published by the following writers both mentioned and not mentioned – Sister Ignatia, Marty Mann, Clarence Snyder, Father Ralph Pfau [Father John Doe] widely distributed in the Midwest today, Richmond Walker and his offshoot books like the Twenty-Four Hour book, Ed Webster, the “Detroit Pamphlet,” and on-and-on. Not to forget over 500 Oxford Group and Sam Shoemaker books and pamphlets that were read and many of which were circulated by Dr. Bob himself. Nor should we forget that the most ignored and even suppressed writing of all - Anne Smith's Journal (www.dickb.com/Annesm.shtml). Yet this contained the heart of early A.A. and was discussed almost every morning at the Smith home Quiet Times of old school A.A..

Were there others? Oh yes. On tables at the T. Henry Williams home where Wednesday night meetings were held. In meetings at the Smith Home. At Oxford Group meetings in New York. And then the host of books of all varieties circulated by Dr. Bob – The Upper Room, My Utmost for His Highest, Emmet Fox, James Allen, Glenn Clark, E. Stanley Jones, The Runner’s Bible, The Greatest Thing in the World; Varieties of Religious Experience; New Thought writers, and on and on and on. Including, of course, the Bible—which they called the Good Book. See Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book, 2d ed. www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml.

Early AAs weren’t afraid of literature. They devoured it! And they achieved cures. See Dick B., Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd. ed.; Anne Smith’s Journal, 3rd ed.; The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth, 7th ed; The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed; New Light on Alcoholism, 2d ed; That Amazing Grace; Henrietta Seiberlng: Ohio’s Lady with a Cause; and The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous. www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.

And DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.

Take off the shackles, and use your mind! Better still, see what someone else has had to say about nuclear physics, aviation, automatic weapons, popular mechanics, horticulture, accounting, culinary art, computers, the internet, American history, religious history, and comparative religion. Particularly, see what the Creator had to say through what He revealed in His Word. Our basic ideas came from the latter source.

My recent title Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous specifically identifies hundreds and hundreds of writings that have contributed to the origins, history, founding, principles, and practices of A.A. in just the few years it has been in existence:www.dickb.com/makingknown.shtml.

The Griffith Library at The Wilson House is filled with these books. So is the Annex next to Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron. So is the Dr. Bob Core Library in the North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury. So is the library at Stepping Stones. So are the traveling archives that the long-time former archivist at Dr. Bob’s Home, Ray G., takes all over the United States to conferences for public viewing. Conference Approved? Not that I know of!


 And now from the great piece found at Pete’s Stuff:


What “Conference Approved” Literature Means

Any literature that pertains to the principles of AA or is approved by a Group Conscience - is perfectly acceptable to be read by any AA member or in an AA meeting.

You hear it in meetings, “…we have AA Approved Literature available for sale at cost…”

You hear it in group conscience meetings “…we should only allow readings from AA Approved Literature…”

You hear non-group members cross-talk in a meeting when someone reads from Richmond Walker’s 24 Hours a Day, Emmet Fox’s The Sermon On The Mount, or one of Ralph Pfau’s Golden Books –“You can’t read that in an AA meeting – it’s NOT AA Approved Literature…”

Factually, unlike Alanon, there is no such thing as AA Approved Literature. The early AA’s read from the Bible, the Upper Room, Oswald Chambers, Cecil Rose, Leslie Weatherhead, Sam Shoemaker, Emmet Fox, Richmond Walker, Ralph Pfau and many others – a simple visit to Dickb.com will bear this out. As Dick B. aptly points out “Whatever some may think, A.A. has no index of forbidden books.”

In the 1950’s AA World Services took over WORKS publishing’s rights to publish the Big Book and began publishing other books as well. In the course of the next 40 years AAWS began to publish more books but eventually lost the copyright on the first two editions of the Big Book. Until 1993 books which were owned and printed by AAWS were identified by the use of a Circle/Triangle Symbol bearing the three legacies.

On May 21, 1993 , an AA World Service Ad Hoc committee released an unsigned document titled: "Follow-up Statement Regarding Use of the Circle/ Triangle Symbol." In it, AAWS stated that "Alcoholics Anonymous will phase out the 'official' use of the circle and triangle symbol in and on its literature, letterheads and other material." That document was issued without a conference action or a "group conscience".

The term “Conference Approved” literature now replaces the Circle/Triangle Logo to merely “identify” (AAGV Vol. 50-7 1993) the books solely owned and published by AAWS and not as a predetermined list. The most definitive illustration of this is that the public domain first edition of the Big Book is NOT “Conference Approved”. “Conference Approved” in no way constitutes a list of any written documents of which an AA body approves or disapproves. (Please see the ad hoc committee Final Report of the 1993 General Service Conference)

A formal statement concerning the Conference, the G.S.O, and what AA members read was issued by the General Services Office of AA in 1978.

“WHAT CONFERENCED-APPROVED MEANS”
GSO Box 4-5-9 1978
(Volume 23, No 4)
AA’s General Service Office said:
It does not mean the Conference disapproves of any other publications. Many local A.A. central offices publish their own meeting lists. A.A. as a whole does not oppose these, any more than A.A. disapproves of the Bible or any other publications from any source that A.A.’s find useful.
What any A.A. member reads is no business of G.S.O., or of the Conference, naturally.”


Saturday, April 07, 2012

The Twelve Steps of A.A.--Stick with the Winners!


The Twelve Steps of AA

“Stick With the Winners”



Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved



This article is written to show how one who believes in God, and certainly one who has come to Him through Jesus Christ, can look at “old school” A.A.—the original A.A. Christian Fellowship program. Then learn the origins and intended purposes of that pioneer program. And then, apply the original old school ideas in taking and understanding the directions in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. At that point, the believer can prayerfully, effectively, and appropriately utilize the book’s directions for taking the Twelve Steps of A.A.



To that end, Dick B. and Ken B. have just published their latest title, Stick with the Winners: How to Conduct More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings Using Conference-Approved Literature (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012). This guide can really show the newcomer or the sponsor how to find and learn how a believer can pick up his or her history tools, Bible tools, and Big Book instructions and follow the path the Big Book originally intended.



But we begin this explanation by showing you some of the present-day problems encountered by those who believe in God and perhaps are Christians as well. And showing why they seem to be confronted with several daunting preliminary obstacles that arose because of the changes in A.A. since its founding in 1935.



The Problem: How Can I “Take” and “Understand” the Twelve Steps of A.A.?



Problem 1:



When I [Dick B.] walked into A.A. on April 23, 1986 (two days sober and beginning to detox), I was told to get a Big Book and a Sponsor and “take” the Twelve Steps of A.A. as quickly as possible. And I did. I thought this was the start of a great new life.



Yet, after suffering three grand mal seizures in a matter of days, I was trundled into a treatment program from the ICU. I was handed a Big Book plus a 12 x 12, and a Twenty Four Hour “meditation” book. No instructions or teachers telling me what to do with them. And—heeding the advice of my sponsor--I read the Big Book, and nothing in the 12 x 12 or Twenty Four Hour book. Where, I thought, did the other two books fit in my new found solution of relying on God and following the instructions for taking the Steps per instructions from the Big Book?

.

Problem 2: On leaving the treatment facility, I was told by my sponsor not to read anything but the Big Book—not even the Bible. And he suggested I go to a Step Study meeting every week. I did this for several months thereafter suffering more and more from anxiety, confusion, forgetfulness, and terror. But I don’t recall ever hearing at the Twelve Step study meeting anything but drunkalogs. Nor did I hear any instructive material on taking the Twelve Steps. And I now know that neither my sponsor nor his sponsor had any adequate idea as to how to follow the steps or any idea as to how important it was for me to get into the Bible and turn to God for help as soon as possible. The anxiety, confusion, forgetfulness, and terror continued until I finally checked into the VA psych ward in San Francisco.



Problem 3: Years after that—and after I had studied the Bible; turned to God for guidance, forgiveness, and healing; and overcome the tribulations of the mental ward, imprisonment, and a host of financial and domestic problems—I believed I still had no significant idea as to how the Twelve Steps were to be taken or as to how I should be instructing my many new sponsees concerning them. And I therefore regularly went to Joe and Charlie Big Book Seminars in September each year at Sacramento, California. And I got a solid handle on the relation of the Big Book to the Twelve Steps of A.A. Joe and Charlie made clear that the Big Book provided three vital suggestions:



a)      The Foreword to the First Edition said: “To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary.” (4th ed., xiii)



b)      If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking—“What do I have to do?” It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done. (4th ed., 20)



c)      Further on, clear-cut directions are given showing how we recovered. (4th ed., 29).



I put my shoulder to the task of absorbing the “precise,” “specific,” “clear-cut directions” on taking the Twelve Steps. Yet I found the directions inadequate in the book itself, and also in certain respects in the comments at the seminars.



Meanwhile, at three years of sobriety, I had neither heard nor been shown anything of significance about the history of A.A. itself, the original A.A. program, the changes the Big Book made in that program, nor the role that God and His Son and the Bible had played in A.A.’s founding and successes. And that gap did not change until a newcomer (now dead of alcoholism) asked me at the Twelve Step study meeting if I knew A.A. came from the Bible—after which I immediately set out on the quest for facts that has kept me busy for the last 23 years.



Then came a somewhat different challenge. I saw that the Big Book said: “Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem. . . . And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God.” (4th ed. 45).



So now it seemed there were two main purposes for the book: (1) Finding and following the specific directions for taking the Twelve Steps. (2) “Finding a power greater than myself” which power the Big Book clearly stated was God.



Problem 4: The foregoing seemed to point me to the directions on pages 58-59: “Remember that we deal with alcohol—cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power—that One is God. May you find Him now!”



Find Him? I already believed in Him! The Big Book had said “God either is, or He isn’t.” That was precise and specific. Yet the Big Book began to talk about finding God—the God who was not lost. At least, not lost by the newcomer who had never lost in his belief in God. God was not lost to the Christian. And the Christian was not lost, when it came to God. Where, then, was this new course to lead? Was it to God? Or was it to some “power greater than myself” – which also seemed to include the idea and strangely unfamiliar phrase, “higher power?”



Problem 5: Page 29 of the Big Book states: “Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God.” Did this not conflict with the later comment that the individual needed to “find” God when many—particularly those in the Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship”—were often those who believed in God and had been specifically required to come to Him through Jesus Christ?



The Major Problem Yet to Be Unfurled: Just before the Big Book went to print, changes were made in the Big Book manuscripts that would certainly leave any thinking Christian in A.A. baffled! Between 1935 and 1939, when the Big Book was finally printed, that final version of the Big Book appeared to leave the reader with a number of inconsistent and conflicting options: (1) “Find” God. (2) “Find God “as we understood Him.” (3) Find something called a “higher power” (4) Find “whatever God the reader thought there was.” (5) Move forward on an existing belief in God—Creator, Maker, Heavenly Father, and Father of Light. (6) Buy into the idea that the “God of the Scriptures” had actually been removed from view and replaced with the bogus idea—contrary to the language of Hebrews 11:6—that the reader could “choose his own conception of god—a god.” (7) Worse, that he could just declare himself an atheist or agnostic and believe in nothing at all.



And that latter course—of believing in nothing at all--has surprisingly been adopted in much A.A. literature today. And the Big Book, as changed, seemed to leave the reader a new choice—choose “God” or “a” god or what one writer claims is “not-god-ness” or what the latest A.A. conference-approved literature claims—is “something” or “someone” you need not believe in at all!



At which point, one could ask, “Where is the Creator in all of this?” “Where is the “Heavenly Father” that Dr. Bob said would never let you down? (p. 181). What about the “precise, “specific,” “directions” for establishing a relationship with God? God—who was described in the Big Book itself as: Creator, Maker, Spirit, Heavenly Father, Father, and Father of Lights.



The major problem—the major change—did not really come to light until one inquiring A.A. paid almost one million dollars at an auction to get the manuscript that contained a major change of such huge proportions that it influences AAs, their literature, and how one is to “recover” by following Twelve Steps that lead to “no god?”



Preliminarily, and by contrast, we would point to Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 156-57. There Bill Wilson wrote that before the major last minute changes in the language of the Big Book, he had consistently used the unqualified word “God.” But the million dollar printer’s manuscript shows the blockade that confronted him at that last minute. It was two-fold:



(1) At the beginning of that printer’s manuscript, someone had penciled in at the beginning a totally new kind of reference to “a” god. In the hand of an unknown writer, the following was inserted and underlined: “Why dt you choose your own conc of God” See The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010), pp. 23-24. This cryptic change was fleshed out later and said in print: “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God.”



(2) On pages 58 and 59 of The Original Working Manuscript, the great new compromise language had been added. And it is Bill’s later Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age that made clear that the compromise language had been used to placate atheists and agnostics after persistent arguments and threats by Bill Wilson’s partner Henry Parkhurst. The changes were that, in Step Two, the Word “God” had been deleted. And the words, “Power greater than ourselves,” had been substituted. In Steps Three and Eleven, the phrases “as we understood him” (no capitalization of “Him”) had been added to the unqualified word “God.”



Can a Christian or Any Other Reader “Take” the Twelve Steps with These Problems?



They not only can. They do!



But what they may “find” is anything from Almighty God to nothing at all. And the question remains, “What can the tens of thousands of 12 Step Christians do in the face of the problems?”


Frequently, many AAs substitute nonsense gods, higher powers, some idolatrous door knob or light bulb, or just plain nonsense, for God. This effectively lines out the “God of the Scriptures” which Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob had originally and consistently described. The Cofounders had consistently called Him “Creator, Maker, Heavenly Father, Father, God of our fathers, Spirit, Father of Lights, God, Him, His, He, Himself.” And the coexistence of bogus gods and idolatry certainly does not block out God—at least the one described in the Bible and in which tens of thousands of 12 Step Christians believe. The contrast is well stated in Psalm 115: The idols have no power. They can do nothing. God can!



How Can a Christian or Other Reader “Understand” the 12 Step Process in the face of such nonsense language and dramatic changes?



There are many approaches made in attempts to create understanding. And here are a few:



Some Christians have said “. . . we discover our personal, loving and forgiving Higher Power—Jesus Christ, the one and only true Higher Power.” Celebrate Recovery Bible: New International Version PurposeDriven (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2007), viii-ix, xx, 1347, 1627, 1631, 1634, 1639, 1664, 1668.



Other Christians have stuck primarily with biblical language concerning God—Almighty God, “Jehovah” [sic], Creator. The Life Recovery Bible: The Living Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992).



Some interchangeably refer to Jesus or God as a “Higher Power.” Recovery Devotional Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 67, 419, 905, 1154, 1157, 1181, 1354, 1404.



One Christian Bible speaks of “looking to the Judeo-Christian God as our higher Power.” Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), 30.



Two writers about A.A. history take a radically different view of God as they have attempted to define him or characterize him in Alcoholics Anonymous. They express that viewpoint in at least several different ways. And they used the following language:



(1) “Within Alcoholics Anonymous, they learn that they can reclaim “God” calling that “higher power” anything that they want. . .” Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern Wisdom from Classic Stories (NY: Bantam Books, 1992), 108.



(2) In the same book, the following appears at page 208: “The most basic understanding of the concept “Higher Power” within Alcoholics Anonymous is that it is that which keeps me sober.”



In another earlier title, one of the authors makes these assertions:



(3) “All right, then, the first steps in sobriety did not require classic belief in a traditional “God”’ but they did require that the alcoholic accept his not-god-ness by acknowledging some “Power greater” than himself. The A.A. group itself, clearly, was such a “Higher Power.” Ernest Kurtz, NOT-GOD: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1979), 206.



(4) In this same book, the following appears at page 50: “The fundamental first message of Alcoholics Anonymous, proclaimed by the very presence of a former compulsive drunk standing sober ran: “Something saves.” “Salvation” as the message remained. Yet A.A.’s total omission of ‘Jesus,’ its toning down of even ‘God’ to a ‘Higher Power’ which could be the group itself. . . were profound changes.”



[And it is more than fair to say that the four approaches framed above are neither sanctioned by A.A. writings, and certainly not by any reasoning person.]



Furthermore, the four approaches may well have spawned new nonsense. Rejecting early A.A.’s early requirement of a belief in God—not “a” god. God—and ,rejecting early A.A.’s documented requirement that every member become a born again Christian, many aberrations appeared in ensuing years. In my title Dick B., God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st Century (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, 2002), I reviewed the scores of ridiculous ways in which professionals, treatment programs, academics, clergy, and 12 Step people have used, described, explained, or criticized the expressions “higher power,” “power greater than ourselves,” and “God as we understood Him.”



Beginning in God and Alcoholism with Chapter 4, page 77, (titled, “The Nonsense “gods” of Recovery,”) these strange new “gods” are described as Allah, Confucius, Prime Cause, the A.A. group, “Good Orderly Direction,” “Group of Drunks,” tables, bulldozers, radiators, goddesses, “Something,” the Big Dipper, Santa Claus, Ralph, a stone, a rock, “any god you want,” “yourself as not-god,” light bulbs, door knobs, the “Man Upstairs,” and Gertrude. These are a few I have personally heard or seen used at a treatment program or conferences or in an A.A. meeting.



There are many other names which A.A. cofounder Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. described as “absurd names for God.” The following would fit the bill. And they also are covered in my title, God and Alcoholism, from the beginning of Chapter 4 to the end of that book .Thus writers have described from their own viewpoint and/or research, the following “gods” or “not gods,” among many: (1) “him, her, it,” (2) “Supreme Soul” (Trine), (3) “higher powers,” (James), (4) “Lightbulb” (Snyder), (5) “Infinite Spirit” (Worcester, McComb, Coriat), (6) “some Higher Power” (Kitchen), (7) “Higher Power—God” (Peale), (8) Tree (Gilliam), (9) “someone or something out there,” Coke bottle (Gorski), (10) AA (“a new found Providence”) [Chafetz and Demone], (11) “a familiar spirit,” “any deity of Hindu-ism, Buddhism, Greek mythology, or New Age channeled entities” (Bobgans), (12) “Buddha, Nature, Mighty Mouse,” “Allah, Creative Life Source, Energy” (Kavanaugh), (13) “you are not God—then you are free to think of God in any way that you please” (Ketcham), (14) “defining God in A.A.’s image” (Ragge), (15) “any power, imagined or real” (Playfair), (16) “someone or something that you can relate to that is more powerful than your addiction,” “Good Orderly Direction,” “Group of Drunks” (the Wilsons), (17) “that which keeps me sober” (Kurtz and Ketcham), (18) “the Christianity of alcoholics is not the Christianity of most other American Christians. Alcoholics have a non-Christian view of God” (Gorsuch).



[The foregoing examples of useless idolatry are not necessarily espoused by the writers; but they represent opinions, research, or opinions of the literati which conclude that the foregoing represent actual ideas held by the majority of AAs. But they aren’t!]



Bill W., Dr. Bob, and A.A. Number Three All Originally Spoke of God


Many of my titles have taken great pains to list “God” as He is named or described in the Scriptures and similarly described in A.A.’s Big Book and other A.A. literature. These clear biblical usages include God, Creator, Maker, Spirit, Father, Heavenly Father, Father of Lights, Almighty God, Him, He, His, Himself, God of the preachers, God of the Scriptures, “God is love,” and the “living God,” See Dick B., The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible, Bridge Builders ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1997), 46-92.



A.A.’s Own Literature Shows that the Early Recovery Program Began with the Bible and God



Examine, please, A.A.’s General Service Conference-approved pamphlet P-53 (titled The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks).



Dr. Bob states (as recorded in the transcript of his last major address in 1948) that, in the early days and original program: (1) They had no Twelve Steps and no Traditions. (2) They believed the answers to their problems were in the Good Book (the Holy Bible). (3) He did not write the Twelve Steps and had nothing to do with the writing of them. (4) Their basic ideas came from the time and effort and study of the Bible that began in the summer of 1935 when Bill W. was living in the Smith home in Akron.



As stated, in his Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Bill W. declared that the original Big Book manuscript—as drafted and dictated by him--consistently referred only to God—and not to the substitute words that were inserted in last minute changes just before the Big Book went to press.



And all three cofounders referred at the beginning to God—not “a” God, God!



Since the Twelve Suggested Steps of Recovery are directly pointed at “Finding” God; and, since they conclude that “God could and would” relieve alcoholics of their alcoholism “if sought,” any member of Alcoholics Anonymous today—Christian or otherwise--can “take” and “understand” the Twelve Steps and rely completely on the power of God, the Creator—Almighty God--if and when he or she learns and applies the old school beginning Christian A.A. Fellowship program founded in 1935.



The reader can find thorough documentation and suggestions in our new title Stick With the Winners.



Gloria Deo