Dick B First AA History Conference 2003 Part 7

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The First Nationwide A.A. History Conference

Dick B.’s Comments

Part 7

What the Creator Did and Can Do for our Fellowship

Who is God, as He was spoken of by early AAs

“And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God.” Big Book, 4^th ed., p. 45.

The “God” of early A.A. was unquestionably “God” as named, defined, described in the

Descriptions of God: Creator, Maker, Almighty, Spirit, Father of lights, Heavenly Father

God is a title, not a name. God Himself gave us His name Yahweh for all time. Ex 3:15

And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.’ New Jerusalem Bible

There are endless descriptions of Him in the Good Book. These are also used in the Big Book. And they were used frequently by Bill Wilson: “God of our fathers” and

Substitutionary language that Wilson inserted in his Big Book manuscripts in 1939 - While still, quite clearly, referring to Yahweh, the Creator named in the Bible.

“God as we understood Him” - directly from frequent teachings of Sam Shoemaker and the Oxford Group - two examples in Shoemaker’s Children of the Second Birth.

Similarly, they spoke of “God as you know Him” - not as you manufactured Him

“Power greater than ourselves” - directly from language of Shoemaker and Oxford Group

See Dick B., The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, supra; New Light on Alcoholism, supra.

Even “higher power” as originally used in Big Book on page 43 and 100. The other words on pages 45 and 100 make it very clear that the Creator was the subject of reference.

And even the “new thought” perpetrators such as Ralph Waldo Trine, Emanuel leaders, and William James, as well as Glenn Clark, Mary Baker Eddy and Charles Fillmore were–with the exception of James–writing about the Bible and the Creator. See Dick B., God and Alcoholism, supra.

In the days before Wilson’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was written, Lois Wilson wrote in her diaries about God and what He had done for Bill Wilson.

The Goofy gods - I call them the “nonsense” gods - of recovery that are absurd, useless, and meaningless to a sound mind and to a real desire for recovery

Lightbulb, Santa Claus, Big Dipper, “Good Orderly Direction,” AA Group, chair, table,

doorknob, Someone, Something, “It,” not-god, nothing at all, all are “certified” “higher powers” in today’s recovery writing. See Dick B., The Golden Text of A.A.: God, the Pioneers, and Real Spirituality (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999).

What is the “alcoholism” of which the Big Book speaks in the “abc’s”

We alcoholics know what it is: We drink too much. We get in trouble. We repeat the self-destructive behavior to the point of insanity, imprisonment, and death (Big Book, p. 44). And we frequently rationalize the disasters by denying them, or by blaming them on someone or something else, or by flippant statements such as “I don’t care” or “I’ll never do that again.”

Science, medicine, and religion becloud our understanding as drunks: Words and phrases such as allergy and obsession; genetic; behavior disorder; nutritional imbalance; neurological problem; sin do not communicate well to someone lying in a puddle of his own urine on the sidewalk.

“Alcoholism” is “allegedly” incurable. “Once an alcoholic always an alcoholic.” Translated, it could as well be, “Once a leper always a leper.” And Bill Wilson very probably coined the phrase from the language of therapist Richard R. Peabody, who apparently died drunk and–according to Wilson–proved that alcoholism was “uncurable.” Absurd And particularly lacking in integrity since neither was a religious leader nor a physician nor in possession of any credentials. One analyst said: The fact that several of the Peabody method’s major practitioners - apparently including the founder - were not able to maintain their sobriety, however, does not bode well for other patients (source, p. 32).

Bill Wilson owned a copy of Peabody’s book, which contains this inscription: “Dr. Peabody was as far as is known the first authority to state, “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic,” and he proved it by returning to drinking and by dying of alcoholism - proving to us that the condition is uncurable” (source, p. 4).

AAs and physicians had long acknowledged–before the founding of A.A.–that alcoholism was “medically” incurable. And the idea that “real” alcoholics were 100% hopeless without divine help was the core idea that sent them to God. (Read the talk by Bill and Bob in Los Angeles in March, 1943).

Peabody’s The Common Sense of Drinking was written in 1931; copies were read and owned by both founders; and its language is so similar to much in the Big Book that it very possibly produced much of the A.A. fellowship’s “incurable alcoholism” legend; the fallacious ideas about “recovery,” “powerlessness,” willpower, and certainly the notion that a mere undefined “surrender” itself constitutes a “cure.”These were doctrines Wilson inserted or modified in his Big Book. Note that Peabody declared:

“This man, after thirty-six years of living and approximately sixteen of drinking, has definitely proved to his own conviction that he cannot use alcohol without abusing it, and that by his own efforts he is equally powerless to stop his indulgence” (p. 37).

“reconstruct his mental processes so that it due time he will no longer want to drink. This is what I mean by the necessary “surrender” (p. 80)

“He must have as his goal. . . the complete renunciation of the use of alcohol as a beverage in any quantity, however small, for all time” (p. 81)

“Suffice it to say, once a drunkard always a drunkard–or a teetotaler A fairly exhaustive inquiry has elicited no exceptions to this rule” (p. 82)

“He can never again drink anything containing alcohol without the ultimate results being disasterous” (p. 96)

“An alcoholic should always realize that he himself does the actual work which produces the cure. . . . We give them the desire to be cured, but it is they themselves who work the cure” (p. 99)

The stuff lacks credibility; and it lacks the religious element that highlighted the A.A. approach. Surrender became self-will. Cure became mere surrender. Faith in God became fear. Adjustment of thinking was substituted for God’s power. And so on. And many years later, DR. BOB and The Good Oldtimers officially chimed in with Wilson, embraced the tune, and denied cure:

It might also be noted that many terms now considered by A.A.’s to be misleading were then used, not only by non-A.A.’s discussing the movement, but sometimes by members themselves: “cure,” “ex-alcoholic,” “reformed alcoholic.” (p. 136).

Founders and Pioneers all said they’d found a cure and that they were cured.

They did not mean that A.A. Pioneers had accomplished that cure by making goals, by working to produce the cure, by relaxation, by hypnotism, by psychoanalysis, by therapy, or by any other human means–including their own. The founders and pioneers meant that the Creator had wrought a miraculous cure - not merely produced fearful teetotalers.

Who flipped the switch? Who proved there was no cure? Who made it a doctrine that God is “powerless” over alcoholism, cannot cure it, and cannot perform a miracle - a miracle that we all have observed, whether we experienced it or simply observed it.

A.A.’s Big Book flatly declared: “But there is One Who has all power–that One is God. May you find Him now” (Big Book, 4^th ed., p. 59)

In his first book, Sam Shoemaker spoke of the “turning point” where one has a vital religious experience, finds God, and needs Jesus Christ. He and Wilson both adopted William James’s concept that “self-surrender” is the turning point and can be equated with “conversion.” Whatever the reasoning, both Wilson and Shoemaker were proposing that there needed to be a “crisis of self-surrender” and that this was the path to finding God and establishing a needed “relationship with God” (e.g., Big Book, 4^th ed., p. 29).

However, the path encountered a blockade and consequent detour. There was a dispute over God. Lois Wilson purported to define it: “There was too much God.” in the Steps.

Not, said she, that there was no God; or that God was not-god; but that there was “too much” God.

Wilson invented a “powerless” to “power” theology that constituted self-made religion, generated absurd names for God, and encouraged half-baked prayers that Shoemaker himself warned against in his talks to AAs themselves.

The next step from Wilson’s “powerless” beginning was to say there was need to find “a” power; next opening the door to human definition of that “power;” then seeing atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and critics “limiting” that power because of those who failed; next relating relapses to an “allergy” instead of human failure and temptation; and then championing missions, hospitals, treatment, and therapy–anything but the power of Almighty God and access to God through Jesus Christ. Finally, came the inevitable dogma of Lois’s universalism. And what a thesis for book sales, large royalties, big and mobile memberships, and ineffective results. The theology accepts atheists and agnostics and unbelievers so the “power” and the “cure” will be available to anyone anywhere.

Yet I find a very different set of early A.A.’s real views. Views that differ markedly from universalism, powerlessness, Godlessness. I believe it is fair to say the pioneers believed: We are not powerless. We have a “power shortage.” All–total–power is available through the Creator, our God. Yes, we are licked. Licked largely through the temptation aptly described in the first chapter of James. But we do not lack will power. We just lack sane thinking, obedience to God, Godly behavior, and companions who are believers. But, thanks be to God, we are no longer drunks or real alcoholics. We haven’t achieved this on our own. We haven’t achieved it merely with the help of other people–whether religious, medical, or drunks. We don’t claim that any “human” power provided the cure. That could and did change when we established a relationship with God, asked Him to take alcohol out of our lives, and diligently tried to follow His plan and obey His Word..

Yahweh’s hallmark is healing, forgiveness, and accomplishing the “impossible.”

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. . . . For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

The A.A. Way: Medicine defining the problem; Religion defining the solution; Almighty God enabling the miracle - a healing and cure. Drunks carrying the message. Give each the credit. That, I believe, was the A.A. way. It was the way utilized in Akron’s program. It was the way, Bill Wilson attempted to describe in his Big Book. It was the end sought when Bill penned his twelve “steps” to a relationship with the Creator. And, as they all saw it, it was a way paved for them by the guidance of the Good Book. The suggestion:

Recognize the problem - excessive drinking, boozing out of control - “I can’t.”

Seek Divine Aid - “God can.” And He either is or He isn’t. Hebrews 11:6 tells us:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Trusting God for help, rather than our finite selves (Big Book, 4^th ed., pp. 68, 98)

Study Who He is and what He can do - through Bible, prayer, guidance, books

Study What He expects of us - Commandments, Thy will be done. Be ye doers of the word,
not hearers only, as the Book of James declares.

Obeying God through obeying His commands - “Clean house” (Big Book, 4^th ed., p. 98)

Go and Tell: “God has done for me what I could not do for myself” (Big Book, id., p. 11).

As to liquor, the pledges to stop drinking; the laws to prohibit drinking; the route to jail for drinking to excess.

Christian Groups - Alcoholics for Christ, Alcoholics Victorious, Overcomers Outreach, Overcomers, Celebrate Recovery

Christian Alternatives - Teen Challenge, Salvation Army, Youth With A Mission

A.A. wasn’t and isn’t sectarian or denominational - “rabbi, minister, and priest”

No exclusion of anyone - so any belief or non-belief system can be used by members

Hottentots, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics can do their own thing

Dr. Bob laid it on the line on p. 181: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down”

Today, each one of us is privileged to have a choice. You can ask God for help. He can and will provide it if sought. It’s your recovery - not one for someone else, not one to be measured by how many can obtain it, not to be squared with each and every religious and theological belief and unbelief in the world. It’s for you. It’s hard work. And it is worth everything. God Bless you all.