Dick B. gives another preview of our
forthcoming historical video series on the January 29, 2014, episode of the
"Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show
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You
may hear Dick B. give another preview of our forthcoming historical video
series on the January 29, 2014, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio
with Dick B." show here:
or
here:
Episodes
of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:
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Introduction
Tonight,
we will delve into the proposed content of our upcoming video series,
"Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the
Story." Right now, we are developing an outline for the A.A. history
presentations and the format for an appealing Introduction showing what has
been missed and what we will supply.
Yesterday,
we proposed that there were five epochs in A.A. history from A.A.'s founding in
1935 to Bill W.'s publishing of "the new version of the program" in
the Big Book in 1939. The first epoch deals with how the first three AAs got
sober before there were any 12 Steps, 12 Traditions, Big Books, war stories, or
meetings like those today. We also acquainted you with the missing facts about
how A.A. Number One, Bill W., got sober and how that information can be used to
help others.
This
evening, we will deal with the missing facts about how A.A. Number Two, Dr.
Bob, got sober and how that information can be helpful in the same way. The
following show will have to do with how A.A. Number Three, Akron attorney Bill
D., got sober and what his statements contribute to the healing process.
If
time permits, we will introduce you to all five A.A. History Epochs that will
be covered in these shows and in our videos. In brief, they are: (1) How the
first three got sober. (2) The original Akron A.A. "Christian
fellowship" program. (3) The so-called six "word-of-mouth ideas"
Bill claimed were in use before he wrote the 12 Steps. (4) Bill's "new
version of the program," the 12 Steps, published in the Big Book. (5) The
very significant compromise in language referring to God made in Steps 2, 3,
and 11 just before the Big Book was published--a change made by a mere four
people, yet attributed to atheists and agnostics.
And
now, here come the documentation, footnotes, and facts.
Synopsis
The Five Alcoholics
Anonymous History Epochs – 1935 to 1939
The Programs of
Recovery that AAs Used – And When!
Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The First Epoch
– The First Three AAs to Get Sober. And How!
[The First Epoch
from 1934-1935. The Period When the First Three AAs Achieved Permanent
Sobriety, and Then Immediately Followed by the Founding of Akron’s First
Group—Akron Number One]
Part
Two of the First Epoch: “The First Three
AAs”: A Summary of how and when Dr. Robert H. Smith (known as Dr. Bob, A.A. Cofounder and A.A. Number Two) was cured
of his alcoholism after admitting his seeming hopelessness and, in beginning
the march back to healing, seeking God’s help through prayer with Akron Oxford Group friends in 1935 and again
just before his last drink
September
1931:
Russell
Firestone of the Firestone rubber dynasty gets saved and healed of alcoholism
with the help of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker on the train back to Akron from the 50th
triennial General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church—a General
Convention of the Episcopal Church—held in Denver, Colorado, September 16-30,
1931.
October
1931 through January 1933
Russell
and his friend James D. Newton travel widely for the Oxford Group in the
ensuing months, giving their testimony in the United States and elsewhere.
January
1933
At
the request of Russell Firestone’s father, Harvey Firestone, Sr., Dr. Frank N.
D. Buchman—founder of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as
“the Oxford Group”)—and other Oxford Group members, hold a series of
testimonial meetings in Akron from January 19-23, 1933. Dr. Walter F. Tunks,
rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, is actively involved in hosting
the meetings. Russell Firestone attends and speaks at several of the many Akron
meetings, which are heavily covered by the Akron newspapers. He and others give
testimony as to their Oxford Group life-changes through Jesus Christ.
January
1933
Henrietta
Seiberling (of the well-known rubber dynasty family), Dr. Bob’s wife Anne, and
two other ladies attended the large, January 1933 Akron Oxford Group events.
They soon start attending the small, weekly, Thursday night West Hill Oxford
Group meeting, persuading Dr. Bob to join the group. And Dr. Bob attends Oxford
Group meetings regularly until Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935, when he met Bill W. Dr.
Bob had also followed his friends’ suggestions by joining a church, reading an
immense amount of Oxford Group literature, refreshing his memory of the Bible,
in which he had had excellent training as a youngster in Vermont, and enjoying
fellowship with the Oxford Group people.
But
Bob didn’t want to quit drinking.
He
didn’t, and his alcoholism progressed still further.
January
1933 through May 1935
During
this period, and while still drinking, Bob feels it necessary to “renew” his
familiarity with the Bible in which he said he “had had excellent training” as
a youngster in Vermont. He reads the Bible three times from cover to cover. He
joins a Presbyterian Church in Akron, the church of which Rev. J.C. Wright was
pastor. He reads all kinds of Christian literature (which is still available
for view at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron as to one part, and at Brown University as
to the other part). In addition, Bob said he read all the Oxford Group literature
he could get his hands on.
Late
April, 1935(?)
Henrietta
Seiberling feels guided to convene a special meeting for Dr. Bob and asks
Oxford Grouper members T. Henry and Clarace Williams if their home could be
used for the meeting. Henrietta then gathers some Oxford Group members to
attend. She wants them to share things that were very costly in order to make
Dr. Bob lose his pride. She warns Anne Smith about the meeting and tells her:
“Come prepared to mean business. There is going to be no pussyfooting around.”
But she doesn’t tell Mrs. Smith that the meeting was for Dr. Bob. At this meeting, all shared deeply of their
shortcomings and the victories achieved in overcoming them. Then they waited
for Dr. Bob to share.
Dr.
Bob shares: “I am going to tell you something which may cost my profession. I
am a secret drinker, and I can’t stop.” Those present asked: “Do you want us to
pray for you?” And someone said, “Should we get on our knees?” Dr. Bob answered,
“Yes” to both questions. So those present, including Dr. Bob, dropped to their
knees on the rug in the home of Oxford Group leader T. Henry Williams. And they
all prayed for Dr. Bob’s deliverance
The
next morning, Henrietta says a prayer for Bob. She prayed, “God, I don’t know
anything about drinking, but I told Bob that I was sure that if he lived this
way of life, he could quit drinking. Now I need Your help, God.” She then
reflected: “Something said to me—I call it ‘guidance’; it was like a voice in
my head—‘Bob must not touch one drop of alcohol.’” Henrietta calls Bob and
tells him she had guidance for him. He comes over at ten in the morning. She he
tells him that her guidance was that he mustn’t touch one drop of alcohol. [See
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, pages 53ff. for these details.]
Bob
continues to drink excessively. And he didn’t find an answer until he met Bill
Wilson. He would say to Henrietta Seiberling: “‘. . . I think I’m just one of
those want-to-want-to guys.’ And she’d say, ‘No, Bob, I think you want to. You
just haven’t found a way to work it yet.’” [DR.
BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 59]
May
1935
Two
weeks later, Bill Wilson arrives in Akron. He was a person unknown to Henrietta
Seiberling, to Dr. Bob, and to Anne Smith—a complete stranger.
May
1935
Bill
Wilson had failed in a business venture and was tempted to drink. Instead, he
calls Dr. Walter Tunks from the Mayflower Hotel in Akron. Tunks gives Bill a referral that leads to
Henrietta Seiberling. For Henrietta received a telephone call from this
absolute stranger. And it was Bill Wilson.
Bill
tells her: “I’m from the Oxford Group, and I’m a rum hound from New York. And I
need to talk to a drunk.” Said Bill: “I got the guidance to look at the
minister’s directory. I just looked there. And I put my finger on one name—Dr.
Walter Tunks. So Bill called Dr. Tunks and was, in turn, referred to Henrietta
Seiberling. Bill recalled: “Something kept saying to me, ‘You’d better call
her’.”
May
1935
Henrietta
thought and concluded, ”This is really like manna from heaven. I (who was
desperate to help Bob in something I didn’t know much about) was ready.” “You
come right out here,” she said. And she planned to put these two men together.
Bill came out to her Gate Lodge home and stayed for dinner. She told Bill to
come to church with her the next morning and that she would get Bob, which she
did.
She
arranges to have Dr. Bob come to her home at the Seiberling Gate Lodge to meet
with Bill W. Dr. Bob was virtually roused
from his prior day’s drunken stupor. Yet the next day he went to
Henrietta’s home. Dr. Bob vowed he intended to stay there for 15 minutes
“tops.” But the two men talked for six hours.
May
12, 1935
Bill
W. and Dr. Bob meet on Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935. After talking with Bill W.,
Dr. Bob concludes that, despite his and Bill’s association with the Oxford
Groups, only Bill had grasped their idea of “service”—helping others get well.
Something Dr. Bob said he had never thought of, considered, or done.
Bob
noted that Bill “was a man. . . who had been cured by the very means I had been
trying to employ that is to say, the spiritual approach. . . he was the first
living human with whom I had ever talked who knew what he was talking about in
regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my
language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them
up in his reading.
Bill
recalled: “We were under awful compulsion. And we found that we had to do
something for somebody or actually perish ourselves.
Bob
stated: “Bill had acquired their (the Oxford Group’s) idea of service. I had
not.” The two men started trying to help yet another drunk. And a letter from
Bill dated May 1935 showed they had started carrying the message together at
least within two weeks or so of their first meeting.
June
1935 through August, 1935
Bill
was invited to and did in fact live for the next three months with the Smiths.
He said: “I shall always believe they gave me more than I ever brought them.” He
said that each morning there was a devotion. After a long silence in which they
awaited inspiration and guidance, Anne would read from the Bible. “James was
our favorite,” Bill said. Also, Bob said the two men would stay up until the
wee hours of the morning discussing the possible solution for alcoholics and the
possible basic biblical ideas for a program.
Then
came a brief and final relapse on Bob’s part.
Bob
had decided to attend the American Medical Association Convention in Atlantic
City. Bob began drinking everything he could get as soon as he boarded the
train. Bob had a blackout during this period. They brought him home when he got
back to Akron, and Bill stayed with Bob in the corner room where there were two
beds. Upon Dr. Bob’s return, they found he was scheduled to perform surgery
three days later. To prop him up, they gave him some beer to steady his nerves.
At
four o’clock in the morning of the operation, Bob turned to Bill and said: “I
am going through with it.” Bill said: “You mean you are going through with the
operation?” Bob said: “I have placed both the operation and myself in God’s
hands. I’m going to do what it takes to get sober and stay that way.”
Much
later, Bob returned home after the operation. The bottle of beer Bill gave him
that morning was the last drink he ever had. Dr. Bob was cured, and he said so. As to the
date of this last drink, A.A. literature stated: “Although arguments have been
and will be made for other significant occasions in A.A. history, it is
generally agreed that Alcoholics Anonymous began there, in Akron, on that date:
June 10, 1935.
Henrietta
and Dr. Bob felt his cure (which is what Bob called it) was in answer to the
prayers. Dr. Bob said so.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Five Epochs of A.A. History from 1935-1939
By Dick B.
© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved
ONE:
How the First Three AAs got sober before there were any 12 Steps, 12 Traditions,
Big Books, drunkalogs, or meetings as they are seen today. They believed the
answers to their problems were in the Bible.
TWO:
The original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program consisting of seven
points as summarized and 16 practices implementing the program as summarized.
The data comes from four major sources:
1.
DR. BOB and the
Good Oldtimers;
2.
Dick
B. and Ken B., Stick with the Winners!;
3.
Dick
B. and Ken B., Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous (about the 29
personal testimonies in the “Personal Stories” section of the first edition of
Alcoholics Anonymous; and
4.
Dick
B., The Conversion of Bill W. and
Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics
Anonymous
THREE:
The various “six” “word-of-mouth” ideas as to which Bill Wilson said there was
no common agreement, but which were nonetheless used until 1939 and were, he
said, the basis for the 12 Steps.
FOUR:
The “new version of the program” which Bill had fashioned between 1938 and 1939,
and which he said involved Twelve Steps which were drawn from three men he
called “founders” of A.A.: (1) Dr. William D. Silkworth of Towns Hospital,
particularly as to Step One. (2) The book by Professor William James and called
The Varieties of Religious Experience,
particularly as to Step Twelve. (3) The other ten Steps drawn straight from the
Oxford Group, “as then led in America by the Episcopal Rector, Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Jr.”
FIVE:
The compromised program which was fashioned by four people (the secretary Ruth
Hock; Bill’s partner Henry Parkhurst; the Christian John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo;
and Bill Wilson himself). In addition to the many changes in Bill’s “new version” of the program (the Twelve
Steps) in the loan copy manuscript, there were three major ideas adopted after
a sizzling battle over portions of that manuscript. The changes were agreed to in
the A.A. offices—with only the named four individuals present. The three
changes were these: (1) There was said to be “too much God” in the manuscript;
and the language of Steps Two, Three, and Eleven was changed to delete the
unqualified word God and substitute “Power greater than ourselves” and “God as
we understood Him” in three of the
twelve steps. (2) This was done over the vigorous objections of Fitz who wanted
religious content with Bible and Christian sources, gleaned in part from what
A.A. had learned from the missions and the churches. But Fitz was overruled. Wilson
said the changes were made due to “the great contribution of the atheists and
agnostics” when they took their position as to “God” to the program. (3) A
handwritten summary, erroneously suggesting that Ebby Thacher had told Bill he
could “choose your own conception of God,” was inserted at the very front of
the typewritten loan copy manuscript though no author was named or identified
in any way. This change opened the “broad highway” that eventually became the
path to higher powers, not-god-ness, unbelief, and a host of religions other
than Christianity.
dickb@dickb.com
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