Dick B. discusses A.A.'s founding and
reliance on the Creator, and the role of Jesus Christ on the June 1, 2013,
episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B."
© 2013
Anonymous. All rights reserved
The Second in a Series of Radio Presentations Preparing People for The
First International Alcoholics Anonymous History Conference, Portland, Maine,
September 6-7. 2013
You May Hear This Radio Talk Now
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Hear
Dick B. discuss A.A.'s founding and reliance on the Creator, and the role of
Jesus Christ, on the June 1, 2013, 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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A.A.’s Founding and Reliance on the Creator and the Role of Jesus
Christ
The first three AAs
were all Christians and founded a Christian fellowship on July 4, 1935. This
was only a few days after Bill W. and Dr. Bob had founded A.A. in June, 1935
and then carried their message to Akron attorney Bill D., A.A. Number Three,
whose cure date was stated by Bill W. to be the founding of the first A.A.
Group—Akron Number One.
Bill W. was raised
by Christian parents and grandparents. All attended the East Dorset
Congregational Church in East Dorset, Vermont. Bill went to Sunday school there
and witnessed temperance meetings, revivals and conversion meetings. He studied
the Bible with his grandfather Griffith. He attended Congregational Burr and
Burton Seminary for 4 years in Manchester, Vermont. Bill W. there took a 4-year
Bible course; went to daily chapel; went to prayer meetings; and was president
of the YMCA. His girl-friend Bertha Bamford was president of the seminary’s
YWCA
Bill remembered his
grandfather Wilson's conversion and healing of alcoholism. He also well
remembered and repeated often his recollection of his father and mother's
singing about the "Great Father."
Years later, when
Bill Wilson was at the bottom of the heap with his drinking and sedative abuse
problems, Dr. William D. Silkworth told Bill the Great Physician Jesus Christ
could cure Bill of alcoholism. Bill's friend Ebby Thacher had just been in
Calvary Mission, was born again there, and was healed of alcoholism. Bill followed
suit. He went to the mission altar; accepted Jesus as his Lord at Calvary
Mission; wrote he had been born again; called on the Great Physician, and was
cured of alcoholism at Towns Hospital when he cried out to God for help. (In
his personal testimony in the Big Book, A.A. Number Three, Bill D. of Akron,
quotes Bill W. as follows: “. . . [T]he Lord has been so wonderful to me,
curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it
and telling people.” Alcoholics Anonymous,
4th ed., 191.)
St. Johnsbury,
Vermont, where Bob grew up, was filled with Congregational fervor. Bob's dad
was a deacon in North Congregational Church, and Bob's mom was active in the
church's educational efforts. The church supported Christian Endeavor (in which
Bob was active), prayer meetings, and YMCA affairs (where Dr. Bob’s father was
YMCA president). On Sunday, there were sermons, reading of Scripture, hymns,
and prayers. Bob went to St. Johnsbury Academy with daily Christian training
similar to that given to Bill. Dr. Bob often spoke of his "Heavenly
Father" and of Jesus Christ as the Master.
Both Bill and Bob
spoke about the importance of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, 1
Corinthians 13, the Bible, and morning devotionals. The Big Book 4th
edition carried reliance on God still further. On page 25, it spelled out “The
Solution” and said that “the central fact of our lives today is the absolute
certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which
is indeed miraculous.” On page 28, he wrote of the vital religious experience
of the minister’s son who was said to have become one of the children of the
living Creator. On page 29, Bill asserted as to the personal stories in the Big
Book: “Each individual in the personal stories describes in his own language
and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God”—pioneer
stories in the First Edition of the Big Book that were written largely by the
Akron A.A. Group pioneers and spelled out their study of the Bible, of
devotionals, and reliance on God. Speaking of the lot of these pioneers, Bill
wrote on page 57: “What is this but a “miracle of healing. . . He humbly
offered himself to his Maker—then he knew. Even so has God restored us all to
our right minds.”
Note that the
nonsense gods, the absurd names for “a” god, the “half-baked prayers,” and the “self-made
religion” which Bill’s mentor Rev. Sam Shoemaker deplored are not once
mentioned—not even as “higher powers.” And certainly not prayer to
higher-powered light bulbs, door knobs, Somebody, Something, the Big Dipper, or
a chair.
There is much more
in the full radio presentation by Dick B. There is ample documentation in four
of his books—Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W.; Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob
of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster
in Vermont; Dick B. and Ken B., Stick
with the Winners!; Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous.
dickb@dickb.com; 808 874 4876
Gloria Deo
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