Bill Wilson's 1947 Article Published in Guideposts

Is A.A. for Alcoholics Only?

One of the men behind Alcoholics Anonymous looks at how that group's principles apply to all.
 By Bill, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous
In this article:Inspirational Stories
 Courage
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Praying
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As appeared in
In most A.A. clubs and meeting rooms, there is the sign at one end of the hall: "There But for the Grace of God"

"There, But for the Grace of God, goes John Bradford." Said by the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, on seeing a criminal led to execution.

Our most enthusiastic friends think Alcoholics Anonymous is a modern miracle. So they ask, "Why can't A.A. principles be applied to any personal problem?

"The world of today is a problem world because it is full of problem people. We are now on the greatest emotional bender of all time, practically no one of us is free from the tightening coils of insecurity, fear, resentment and avarice.

If A.A. can revive an alcoholic by removing these paralyzing liabilities from him, it must be strong medicine. Perhaps the rest of us could use the same prescription."

Not being reformers, nor representing any particular sectarian or medical point of view, we A.A.'s can only tell the story of what has happened to us and suggest the simple (but not easy) principles upon which, as ex-drinkers, our very lives now depend.

Fifty thousand alcoholics — the men and women members of A.A.—have found release from their fatal compulsion to drink.

Each month two thousand more set foot on the A.A. highroad to freedom from obsession; an obsession so subtly powerful that once engulfed, few alcoholics down the centuries have ever survived.

We alcoholics have always been the despair of society and, as our lives became totally unmanageable, we despair of ourselves. Obsession is the word for it.

But now, largely through A.A., this impossible soul sickness is being banished. Each recovered alcoholic carries his tale to the next.

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In a brief dozen years the A.A. message has spread, chain letter fashion, over the United States, Canada and a dozen foreign lands. Obsession is being exercised wholesale.

What then, is this message whose power can restore the alcoholic his sanity and thenceforth enable him to live soberly, happily, and usefully in a very confused world? The A.A. Recovery Program relates it as follows:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Simple, these principles, yet a large order indeed. When one tries to apply them he is bound to collide with a most heavy obstacle. That obstacle is one's own pride.

Who, for example, cares to admit complete defeat? Who wishes to admit to himself and others his serious defects of character? Who relishes forgiving his enemies and making amends to people he has harmed?

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Your Comments


Submitted by Dick B. (not verified) on June 9, 2012 - 23:52.

The Bill Wilson Article for Guideposts: This June, 2012, my son Ken B. and I interviewed Edward Grinnan, Editor in Chief of Guideposts Publications, along with Ronald Glosser, Vice Chairman of the Guideposts Foundation. We did this on ChristianRecoveryRadio.com; and it is available for listening on that site's interviews page. The interview was also covered in an Akron BeaconJournal article for Founders Day news.

Edward Grinnan pointed out that this was the very first article Bill published, and he chose Guideposts because of his close friendship with Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.

In the interview, we noted that Norman Vincent Peale's association with Alcoholics Anonymous was very substantial and involved these aspects: (1) Dr. Peale knew Bill Wilson quite well; and it was Dr. Peale who confirmed that Bill's physician Dr. William D. Silkworth informed alcoholics that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure them. See www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml. (2) Peale knew Dr. Silkworth as a friend, and Silkworth attended services at Peale's New York church. (3) Peale also knew Bill's spiritual mentor for the Steps and the Big Book--Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr. And Dr. Peale endorsed my extensive biographical material on Shoemaker, Wilson, and A.A. See www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml. (4) In Dr. Bob's collection of books that he read and circulated among early AAs, I found Peale's "The Art of Living." See www.dickb.com/drbob.shtml. (5) From time to time, Guideposts republishes this landmark article by Bill Wilson and did so once again in connection with A.A. Founders Day Celebrations this year.

Peale's remarks about Dr. Silkworth and Silkworth's telling patients including Wilson that the Great Physician Jesus Christ could cure them of alcoholism can be found in Peale's book, The Postive Power of Jesus Christ; Dale Mitchel's biography of Dr. Silkworth--published by Hazelden; and discussed in my title The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator's Role in Early A.A.

Respectfully, Dick B., Executive Director, International Christian Recovery Coalition. www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com.