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Introductory
Remarks
It is an honor and a privilege to be a contributor with this
column. And, in the ensuing months, I plan to provide accurate,
comprehensive, truthful materials on the spiritual roots and
successes of early Alcoholics Anonymous.
Pioneer A.A. in Akron had a documented 75% to 93% success
rate. Dr. Bob and his Akron crew developed a very simple recovery
program within their Christian Fellowship. And those who gave it
their best could and did claim that they had been cured of
alcoholism. Yes cured! Bill Wilson said so. Dr. Bob said so. Bill
Dotson (A.A. Number Three) said so (See Big Book, p. 191 for an
example). And so did the others for almost the first
decade.
Then came revisions, universalization, secularization, and
downward percentage of successes. Decades of false security
followed. Accompanied by events that have seen A.A. stop growing,
multitudes leave in favor of other groups, and A.A. itself become
host to no more than one to five percent successes among those
within the rooms. What a crusher for those of us who received and
hopefully gave so much within the rooms of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Nobody is going to change A.A. But AAs can certainly learn all
there is to know about their history, their original program, and
the reliance on the Creator that was the essence of its success.
I want to be one of those who tells the facts. For one thing,
early AAs favored the Book of James, to the point of wanting to
call the society The James Club. And the first chapter of James
tells us why. It spoke of patience. It spoke of asking
God’s wisdom without doubting. It spoke of resisting
temptation. It spoke of doing the Word of God, not just hearing
it. And it spoke of real help for others. It went on to espouse
the royal law of love thy neighbor as thyself and the practical
admonition that faith without works is barren and
useless.
Step 1 Step
2 Step 3 Step
4 Step 5 Step
6 Step 7 Step
8 Step 9 Step
10 Step 11
I never miss an opportunity to tell people today that they can
be believers within the ranks of 12 Step Fellowships. They
don’t need to run and hide. They don’t need to cower
in a corner. They need to hear that God, the Good Book, and the
acceptance of Jesus Christ were part and parcel of the early
successes of the real spiritual program of recovery. They need to
understand that they have the choice today to look upward to God
instead of outward on misery. Their own early days back up the
wisdom of choosing Yahweh our Creator as the power that heals,
loves, forgives, and delivers. All this while offering today both
participation and service in the great fellowship of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
If, as Bill Wilson
wrote, love and tolerance are our code; and if, as Dr. Bob so
often said, the whole thing boils down to love and service, then
the message that God can do for us what we could not do for
ourselves is as viable today as it was when old-timers were
willing to say and believe that very thing.
God Bless, Dick
B., June, 2005, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii
Dick B. © 2005
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