Making Known the Biblical History and
Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous An Eleven-Year Research, Writing, Publishing,
and Fact Dissemination Project
www.dickb.com/makingknown.shtml
Monday, March 26, 2012
Dick B. Conference Friday, March 30, Brentwood, CA
Announcing!
The
International Christian Recovery Coalition Presents
Dick
B. of Kihei, Hawaii
Speaking
at “Stick With The Winners” Workshops and Conference
Hosted
by
Golden
Hills Community Church – Brentwood Campus
2401
Shady Willow Lane, Brentwood, CA 94513
Location
Golden Hills Community Church Multi Purpose Room 151
The
Pre-Conference Workshop Meetings
Friday,
March 30, 2012, 3:00 to 5:00 PM
Meetings
in Room 151 or smaller room with individuals and/or groups to discuss:
(1)
Their particular fellowships or groups or meetings,
(2)
How Old School A.A. can be used there to enhance their programs with
Conference-approved literature, films, resource libraries, and Guides,
(3)
How their programs can become connected with other recovery programs, events,
speakers, resources, fellowships, and church sponsored recovery work in their
communities,
(4)
Their suggestions for collaboration, networking, community events, and
individual groups.]
Break for Dinner (5:00 PM to
6:15 PM)
Main Conference
(6:30 PM to 8:00 PM)
Dick B. and Ken B. Speakers
Topics
To Be Covered:
·
Old-School Pioneer Recovery and Parallels to 1st
Century Christianity (Book of Acts)
·
The Special Present-day Role Christian recovery leaders, groups,
and fellowships have in making more effective the power, love, and healing by
God in all recovery aspects today.
·
Variety of ways individual recovery efforts can use and present
enhanced Christian healing and cure.
- The
call for integrating various Christian recovery programs, fellowships, and
church-sponsored spiritual growth today in company with other community
resources.
For more information, you may also contact:
Dick
B.
or
Ken B.
Gloria
Deo
Dick B. Presentations Brentwood Calif Friday, Mar 30
Announcing!
The
International Christian Recovery Coalition Presents
Dick
B. of Kihei, Hawaii
Speaking
at “Stick With The Winners” Workshops and Conference
Hosted
by
Golden
Hills Community Church – Brentwood Campus
2401
Shady Willow Lane, Brentwood, CA 94513
Location
Golden Hills Community Church Multi Purpose Room 151
The
Pre-Conference Workshop Meetings
Friday,
March 30, 2012, 3:00 to 5:00 PM
Meetings
in Room 151 or smaller room with individuals and/or groups to discuss:
(1)
Their particular fellowships or groups or meetings,
(2)
How Old School A.A. can be used there to enhance their programs with
Conference-approved literature, films, resource libraries, and Guides,
(3)
How their programs can become connected with other recovery programs, events,
speakers, resources, fellowships, and church sponsored recovery work in their
communities,
(4)
Their suggestions for collaboration, networking, community events, and
individual groups.]
Break for Dinner (5:00 PM to
6:15 PM)
Main Conference
(6:30 PM to 8:00 PM)
Dick B. and Ken B. Speakers
Topics
To Be Covered:
·
Old-School Pioneer Recovery and Parallels to 1st
Century Christianity (Book of Acts)
·
The Special Present-day Role Christian recovery leaders, groups,
and fellowships have in making more effective the power, love, and healing by
God in all recovery aspects today.
·
Variety of ways individual recovery efforts can use and present
enhanced Christian healing and cure.
- The
call for integrating various Christian recovery programs, fellowships, and
church-sponsored spiritual growth today in company with other community
resources.
For more information, you may also contact:
Dick
B.
or
Ken B.
Gloria
Deo
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Importance of Benefactors
The
Importance of Benefactors
By
Ken B.
© 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
Over the years, benefactors have played
a significant role in making possible travel, research, writing, and book
distribution by my dad, Dick B. And, it turns out, a benefactor played a key
role in a series of meetings that very likely had a profound impact on the
family of A.A. cofounder Robert Holbrook Smith (“Dr. Bob”), his boyhood church,
his town, and his Christian upbringing. These meetings became known as “the
Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.[1]
During our first research trip to St.
Johnsbury in October 2007, my dad and I learned of the “Great Awakening” of
1875 in St. Johnsbury in a book I found in the small reading room library of
North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury. This amazing series of meetings, spread
over a number of months beginning on February 6, 1875, was launched when laymen
from the Young Men’s Christian Association—led by H. M. Moore of Boston and R.
K. Remington of Fall River—began the first of a series of “Gospel meetings” in
St. Johnsbury. These meetings resulted in the conversion of somewhere between
500 and 1,500 people in that town of about 5,000 people. The town historian, Edward
T. Fairbanks, said: “. . . [T]he influence of the religious uplift here was
extended for a hundred miles around, and left its permanent mark on this
community.”[2]
In fact, what eventually led to this
“Great Awakening” began in a meeting at Detroit in 1868 between Henry Martyn
(H.M.) Moore and his friend, the evangelist K. A. Burnell, where they decided
that “by the help of God the old Bay State [of Massachusetts] should be
conquered for Christ.”[3]
Then Moore made an “extended visit” to the home of his friend Burnell, who
lived near Aurora, Illinois, in the summer of 1871. That meeting “produced the
‘regular canvass of Gospel meetings’ that started in the State of Massachusetts
(in January 1872), was expanded into the State of New Hampshire (in November
1873), and was further expanded into the State of Vermont” on the basis of
decisions made at the State YMCA Convention in Norwich, Vermont, on November
19-20, 1874. H. M. Moore and R. K. Remington of Massachusetts both attended
that Vermont YMCA Convention.[4]
K. A. Burnell was selected by the State
of Massachusetts YMCA Committee to lead the first and following “regular
canvass of Gospel meetings” in Massachusetts. And he was involved, at least to
some degree, in the canvasses in New Hampshire and Vermont that followed.
Burnell did a great deal of traveling in sharing the gospel—not only in going
from his home in Illinois to Massachusetts to lead the “canvasses,” but also in
traveling to many other parts of the United States. How he was able to pay for
the expenses involved in his evangelistic work is the subject of the following
three short articles.
What a Christian
Banker May Do[5]
Mr. K. A. Burnell,[6]
the Evangelist, has been supported by Mr. C. D. Wood,[7]
a banker in New York,[8]
who was one of his playmates in their boyhood. Zion's Herald tells how this partnership was brought about. The
banker invited the western itinerant to his house in the country, in the
vicinity of New York. After tea they had a ride, and after the ride a long
walk, and many questions were asked about his mission work. The next morning
Mr. Burnell was asked, “How would you like a salary and go forth as the
banker's representative to do the Master's work as it shall open before you?”
“Nothing could be more gratifying.” Thus the firm was organized and began
business. The older partner just enters upon his twenty-seventh year of
continuous service, for seventeen of which C. D. Wood has supplied the sinews
of war. Certainly firms like this should multiply. Boston has several of them.
There are men who could furnish the capital for such a firm and reap the
richest interest on their investment. The junior partner has many other
investments of this character. Colleges and seminaries have received many
thousands at his hand, and he has often had as many as a half dozen young men
and women in college and seminary training for future usefulness. These two
partners are still comparatively young, and look forward to many years of labor
in the Lord's vineyard.—Honolulu, (H. I.), Friend.
Personal.
Trustees.[9]
“A noble instance of long-continued and
unostentatious giving to a single cause is that of Mr. C.
D. Wood, a Wall street
banker. For seventeen years he has paid
a salary of $1,000 per annum to Mr.
K. A. Burnell, the well-known evangelist, and the
whole sum given him that time now exceeds $22,000, Mr. Burnell devoted himself
most assiduously to gospel work, helping many a soul to a better spiritual
life. Would that there were hundreds of
such copartnerships as this between Mr. Wood and Mr. Burnell.” Mr. Wood is one of the largest yearly donors to
the college.
. . . K. A.
Burnell[10]
In 1868, Mr. C. D. Wood of Brooklyn
suggested that Mr. Burnell devote his life to evangelistic work from wherever
the call should come and he would furnish the salary. For 37 years he led a
life of intense activity along many lines. In 1869 he settled in Aurora, Ills.,
and from that center he traveled at the rate of 1,000 miles per month. He was
intimately associated with that wonderful circle of workers, Mr. McGranahan,
Major Whittle, P. P. Bliss, D. L. Moody, B. F. Jacobs, and Ira D. Sankey. . . .
Mr. Sankey was singing in meetings Mr. Burnell was holding in Ohio when Mr.
Moody first heard him, and soon secured his services. In 1875 Mr. Burnell made
a trip around the world, spending three of the fourteen months with his brother
Thomas, for forty years a missionary in India.
Perhaps
you may be such a benefactor!
[1] For much more information on “the
Great Awakening” of 1875 in St. Johnsbury, see Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His
Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI:
Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008). http://dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml
[2] Edward Taylor Fairbanks, The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vt; A Review of
One Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant 1912
(General-Books.net reprint of: St. Johnsbury, VT: The Cowles Press, 1914),
234-35.
[3] Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, 6.
[4] Again, please see Dick B. and Ken
B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous,
for these and many more details.
[5] “What a Christian Banker May Do,”
in The Sailors’ Magazine and Seamen’s
Friend, Vol. 56, July, 1884. No. 7. (American Seamen’s Friend Society),
227; http://goo.gl/2uggw
; accessed 3/20/12.
[6] Kingsley A. Burnell (1824-1905) was
born in Chesterfield, Massachusetts. He learned the trade of carpenter and
builder in Northampton. He married Cynthia Pomeroy, of Williamsburg,
Massachusetts, daughter of “Old Deacon Pomeroy.” In 1852, Burnell decided to
“drop the jack-plane” and entered Sunday-school work under the American
Sunday-school Union. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the service
of the Christian Commission, meeting Dwight L. Moody. See “. . . K. A.
Burnell,” in The Advance, September
21, 1905, 318-19. http://goo.gl/v7AnG ; accessed 3/20/12.
[7] Cornelius Delano Wood (1832-1906)
was born on December 12, 1832, in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was a member
of the banking firm of Vermilye & Co. during the Civil War and “exercised a
large and useful influence upon the financial arrangements of the Government at
that crisis.” He later lived at 880 St. Mark’s Avenue, Brooklyn.
He
was a Trustee, a member of the Executive Committee, and a Vice President of the
Union Trust Company for many years; and he was one of the most prominent men in
Wall Street. His listing in the book Notable
New Yorkers of 1896-1899 reads: Wood, Huestis & Co. (Special Partner),
Bankers. Here is other information about that firm: Wood, Huestis & Co.,
bankers, No. 31 Pine Street, New York. Government securities. Stocks and bonds,
bought and sold on commission: New York Stock Exchange sales, October 14, 1887.
Sales of bonds and stocks from 10:00 A.M. to 12 M. [Wood, Huestis & Co.
were the successors to Wood & Davis (C. D. Wood and S. D. Davis), bankers
and brokers.]
In
Brooklyn, he took a large share in the foundation of the Children’s Aid
Society, donated $125,000.00 to erect the Young Women’s Christian Association
building, and had a large share in building the Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church.
He was widely known in Wall Street as the representative of the affairs of the
Congregational Church. See “Cornelius D. Wood . . . The Former Banker Was Well
Known as a Philanthropist,” in The New
York Times, published June 12, 1906; http://goo.gl/K0cxZ ; accessed 3/20/12.
[8] “C. D. Wood.—Banking and
securities. Was formerly with Vermilye & Co., New-York City.” See “American
Millionaires: The Tribune’s List of Persons Reputed to be Worth a Million or
More,” in The Tribune Monthly, Vol.
IV. June, 1892. No. 6., page 36; http://audio44.archive.org/details/cu31924029948258 ; accessed 3/20/12.
[9] A note in the Lafayette College Journal, Vol. 9, No.
5, February 1884, 78; http://goo.gl/ktk8J; accessed 3/20/12. Cornelius D.
Wood was a Trustee of Lafayette College.
[10] “. . . K. A. Burnell,” in The Advance, September 21, 1905, 318-19.
http://goo.gl/v7AnG
; accessed 3/20/12
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Three Christian Recovery Projects for Right Now!
Three Christian Recovery Projects
We Would Like to Undertake Right Now,
with Your Help
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All
rights reserved
Christian Recovery
Project #1
Conducting, recording, and posting free of charge on www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com
interviews with Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena.
For many years, my son Ken and I have spoken of interviewing
key people we have met in our travels, such as members of Rev. Samuel
Shoemaker’s family, Dr. Bob’s children, Seiberling family members, Oxford Group
activists and Sam Shoemaker associates and friends, archivists, historians, and
devoted AAs and Christian leaders. During our September 2011 International
Christian Recovery Coalition North American Summit Conference at The Crossing
Church in Costa Mesa, California, I mentioned this idea publicly from the
platform. And we received a very positive response. As a result, we secured the
www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com
domain name, began building a Web site, and posted some early audios and new
videos on the site.
Today, we know personally hundreds of Christians who are
long-sober alcoholics and addicts, historians, authors, archivists,
professional recovery people, treatment and sober living leaders, counselors
and interventionists, clergy, pastoral counselors, recovery pastors, or
otherwise informed and truthful people who can tell their stories, share how
they serve, and present their ideas for advancing the International Christian
Recovery Coalition’s mission. Because we know them, we can easily arrange
interviews, record them, and post them on the Web free of charge.
Christian Recovery
Project #2
Sharing with people in person, by phone, and via Skype how
and where to study A.A. history, develop Christian recovery outreach, and
conduct programs and group studies of various types that carry three important
messages: (a) Conference-approved literature supports Christians’ sharing in
their stories at 12-Step meetings and in their work with newcomers “how they
established their relationship with God”—including mention of Jesus Christ and
the Bible. (b) The seven principles and major practices of the early,
highly-successful Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” are known from current,
Conference-approved literature, and are therefore well within the Traditions.
(c) The application in early A.A.—especially in Akron and Cleveland—of practices
of First Century Christianity as found in the Book of Acts produced much-desired
healing, love, forgiveness, power, and status as children of God.
Christian Recovery
Project #3
Publishing my existing and future research on the history of
A.A. and its Christian heritage in the form of print-on-demand books, and in
Internet-friendly forms such as electronic books, audios, and videos, in order to
reduce selling prices substantially (and to make possible free distribution
frequently). Help us make known the unknown, little-known, and/or
previously-distorted facts!
Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers - Questions
Dick B. Introduction
and Questions for Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers
Copyright 2012
Anonymous. All rights reserved
1.
Dick B.’s areas of expertise: Dick B. has
published 43 books (several of which
have gone through multiple editions), written more than 900 articles, given
more than 100 recorded audio talks, produced a 4-video class (with a second one
in production right now), done 16 YouTube videos, and conducted meetings and
conferences throughout the United States and in Canada. This over the course of
22 years of active research, writing, and speaking on the following topics:
a.
The history of Alcoholics Anonymous;
specifically, relating to:
i.
Did A.A. “come from” the Bible?
ii.
What roles did God, His Son Jesus Christ, and
the Bible play in early A.A.’s astonishing successes with “medically-incurable”
alcoholics (and addicts!) who thoroughly followed the early (Akron) A.A. path.
b.
The Christian predecessors to A.A. who influenced
A.A., N.A., and C.A. and/or were effective in working with alcoholics and
addicts; e.g.:
i.
The Young Men’s Christian Association;
ii.
The Salvation Army;
iii.
Rescue Missions;
iv.
The Young People’s Society of Christian
Endeavor;
v.
Christian evangelists, such as Dwight L. Moody
and Ira D. Sankey, Henry Moorhouse, Henry M. Moore, Allen Folger, and F. B.
Meyer.
c.
Key First Century Christianity concepts,
principles, and practices—particularly as found in the Gospels and the Book of
Acts—which were successfully employed by A.A.’s Christian predecessors and by
early A.A., and which can be used to enhance Christian Recovery efforts today.
d.
Modern Christian Recovery Efforts
i.
Working within A.A.;
ii.
Christian-oriented, 12-Step efforts outside of
A.A., N.A., and/or C.A. that incorporate
attendance at these fellowships;
iii.
N.A., C.A., and other 12-Step efforts to deal
with alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, and addiction to illegal drugs;
iv.
Encouraging non-12-Step Christian Recovery
efforts—such as Teen Challenge—to incorporate the lessons learned from the
godly aspects of A.A. and its Christian predecessors as to working effectively
with alcoholics and addicts.
2.
Questions for Christian leaders and workers in
the recovery arena:
a.
What program(s) are you working on now that are
focused on alcoholics, addicts, and others with life-controlling problems,
and/or those impacted by the lives of alcoholics and/or addicts?
b.
Why did you start the program(s)? What need(s)
did you want to address?
c.
Which program(s), if any, did you start and
later abandon? Why?
d.
What would you like to see happen in “carrying
the message to those who still suffer” in the short-term? How about the
long-term?
e.
What problems, if any, have you encountered
along those lines with which you would like help in resolving?
f.
How many times each week do you offer meetings
addressing these issues? Why that frequency?
g.
What other local churches or groups, if any, do
you work with in these efforts?
h.
What other Christian Recovery efforts are you
networking with in other parts of your state, other states, and/or other
countries? Do you want to do more of that?
Monday, March 19, 2012
A.A. Audio Talks by Dick B.
|
Alcoholics Anonymous
History
Dick B.'s Audio Talks 
A.A. History: Online Audio Talks by Dick
B.
© 2011 by Anonymous. All rights reserved
[A.A.’s leading
“unofficial” historian tells the A.A. History Details Online]
The Main Purpose of
These A.A. History Talk Segments
The main purpose of these Alcoholics Anonymous
(A.A.) history presentations is to provide free online A.A. and alcoholism
recovery facts for AAs, Al-Anons, other 12-Step people and 12 Step programs, and
other alcoholics, addicts, substance abusers, and recovery people. The content
is free. You are welcome to download and reproduce these materials freely and
without charge, as long as: (1) you do not alter the content; and (2) you
attribute that unaltered content to “Dick B.”
This A.A. history presentation is focused on “old
school” A.A.—the original Alcoholics Anonymous program that was founded in
Akron, Ohio, on or about June 10, 1935, by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith at
the Smith Home at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron. Among the large variety of talks
about A.A. history and the original pioneer A.A. Christian Fellowship, you will
learn some of the key points about Alcoholics Anonymous sources, roots,
beginnings, and formative ideas. Particular attention is paid to Robert H.
Smith, M.D., known in A.A. as “Dr. Bob,” the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Called by his cofounder A.A. partner Bill Wilson, “the Prince of All Twelfth
Steppers,” Dr. Bob is rightly understood as the cofounder who brought to the
table most of the elements of the simple recovery program that achieved such
astonishing success.
In 1938, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., dispatched A.A.
trustee-to-be Frank Amos to Akron to investigate the pioneer Alcoholics
Anonymous program, its elements, and its successes. Amos summarized for
Rockefeller the original (old school A.A.) program and reported the five
required Alcoholics Anonymous elements of spiritual recovery as: (1) Abstinence.
(2) Reliance on the Creator. (3) Obeying God’s will. (4) Growing in fellowship
with their Heavenly Father through Bible study, prayer, seeking His guidance,
and studying religious literature. (5) Helping other alcoholics to get
straightened out. Two other recommended, but not required, elements were: (a)
fellowship with like-minded believers, and (b) attending a church of one’s own
choice.
We believe a knowledge of these root sources,
facts, principles, and practices is much needed and definitely usable today. It
will serve the primary purpose of the Alcoholics Anonymous members, groups, and
fellowships. That purpose is to carry a message of experience, strength, and
hope to those still suffering from alcoholism and other life-controlling
problems. It is a message about love and service. And it will underline the
critical role of the Creator in healing and recovery.
There are three groups of talks. The first deals
primarily with Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous, who was born in St. Johnsbury,
Vermont, on August 8, 1879. The second deals primarily with Bill Wilson of
Alcoholics Anonymous, who was born in East Dorset, Vermont, on November 26,
1895. The third consists of miscellaneous talks by Dick B. on the history of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is a listing of
a truly remarkable series of recorded talks by Dick B. on the many subjects of
his twenty years of research, 40 published titles, and almost 500 articles on
the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and on the role played in the Christian
Recovery Movement, including A.A., by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible;
and the role that they can play today.
All these talks can
be heard by clicking in to the Dick B. audio talk listing on the navigation bar
of Dick's main website www.dickb.com.
This is a synopsis of
the huge and varied number of talks on A.A. and its Christian origins that you
can now hear from the voice of the recovered AA who researched and published on
each of the following topics:
Dick B.'s Audio Talks Series 1 - 9click here
Dick B.'s Audio Talks Groups 1 - 6click
here
Dick B.'s Audio Talks Groups 7 - 10click
here
| |
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Contact: Dick B. P.O. Box 837 Kihei, Hawaii 96753-0837 Ph/fax: (808)874-4876 dickb@dickb.com © 1999-2010 Paradise Research Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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