Monday, June 30, 2014

The Rest of the A.A. History Story in Small Bites You Can Chew


The Rest of the A.A. History Story in Small Bites You Can Chew

Short Subjects from Our New Huge Website www.aahistoryChristianrecovery.com

Dick B.

© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

A Bite of A.A.’s Resemblance to First Century Christianity

Many observers of early A.A. said, “Why, this is first-century Christianity!” See Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, page 148. To study, learn, and chew that reference to Apostolic Christianity, read Acts 2:38-47; 4:29-35. Dr. Bob’s wife Anne wrote: “Of course the Bible ought to be the main Source Book of all. Begin reading the Bible with the Book of Acts.” Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939, 3rded., page 82. http://www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml

A Bite of A.A.’s Christian Progenitors Who Successfully Helped Down and Out Drunks

Young Men’s Christian Association; Gospel Rescue Missions; Evangelists like Moody, Meyer, and Drummond; Salvation Army; Congregationalism; United Christian Endeavor Society. See Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont. http://www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml

A Bite of the Christian Upbringing of Bill W. and Dr. Bob That Influenced Their Program Development

Congregational churches in East Dorset, Manchester, Northfield, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont; Sunday school in East Dorset and St. Johnsbury; Attendance at Congregational Academies like Burr and Burton, Norwich University, and St. Johnsbury  Academy;  Required daily chapel (sermons, Scripture, hymns, prayers), required church; required Bible study; YMCA leadership and participation. See Dick B. and Ken B., Bill W. and Dr. Bob: The Green Mountain Men of Vermont: The Roots of Early A.A.’s Original Program, EAN/UCC-13: 978-1-885803-53-5, pp.6-16, 41-103.

A Bite of the Biblical Healing Sought by the First Three AAs

Bill W. and Dr. Silkworth’s advice  about help from the Great Physician; Ebby Thacher’s visit with Bill telling Bill he had “got religion,” that “God has done for me what I could not do for myself;” and that he had been reborn at Calvary Mission; Bill’s handing his life over to Jesus Christ at Calvary Mission, saying that he too had found religion and “for sure been born again;” Bill’s hospital room blazing with an indescribably white light and Bill’s sensing “This is the God of the Scriptures; and Bill’s being cured forever. See Dick B. The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in Early A.A. http://www.dickb.com/theconversionofbillw.shtml

 

Dr. Bob’s joining the little group of A First Century Christian Fellowship; admitting he was a “secret drinker” and couldn’t stop; praying with the group for his deliverance; the miracles of Bill W.’s phone call to Henrietta out of the blue, Henrietta’s arranging the six hour visit between Bill and Bob; and Bob’s finally telling Bill he was going through with the program and had placed his surgery and his life in God’s hands; and never drank again. See Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous; http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml; and DR. Bob and the Good Oldtimers.

 

A.A. Number Three Bill W.—a Sunday school teacher, deacon of his church, and seemingly hopeless alcoholic; who prayed with his wife and whose wife prayed with the pastor of a church that someone her husband could understand would visit him in City Hospital. The prayers were followed by his visit from Bill W.  and Dr. Bob at Akron City Hospital; his kneeling at his bed and turning his life over to the care of God; and Bill D.’s being healed forever. See Bill D. – A.A.’s Number 3, http://silkworth.net/aahistorybdotson.html; and Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three, http://silkworth.net/bbstories/2nd/182-192.html.

 

A Bite of the First and Real Christian Fellowship Program and Success of Akron Group Number One

 

The program was investigated and summarized by Rockefeller agent Frank Amos and republished on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. The sixteen Christian practices that implemented the summarized program are described on pages 27-37  of Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the Winners! http://mcaf.ee/bmxa5

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Overcoming Drug and Alcohol Sickness in 1986


Overcoming Drug and Alcohol Sickness in 1986

What Would You Have Found?

By Dick B.

© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Let’s suppose that you, like I did, entered the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous in April, 1986. Hopelessly wedded to the bottle. Unknowingly addicted to pain pills and sedatives. Shaking like a lear. And in more trouble than you had ever experienced in your life—in the Army, in the cross-hairs of the police and district attorney, threatened with loss of your law license, beset with tax problems, financial problems, domestic problems, and physical and mental wreckage from doing it all too long.

Let’s also suppose you had willingly sought help in A.A. Did you find any doctors or nurses on hand? Did you find any clergy or Bible teachers on hand? Were there any trained or licensed counselors to help stay the course? Did anyone tell you that if you quit without medical help you might have seizures, fear, bewilderment, and forgetfulness. As well as confusion as to what you were supposed to do in this barren arena of well-intentioned fellow-sufferers, uninformed speakers, and inexperienced sponsors?

Let’s suppose too that your new-found friends were telling you to get phone numbers, never drink, and go to meetings daily, as well as getting a Big Book and a sponsor and following directions. Some were belittling you and your questions. Some were urging you “to take what you like and leave the rest.” Some were telling you, “This too shall pass.” Some were telling you to take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth. Some were saying you had a disease. Some that your problem was sin. Some that you must take the Twelve Steps as soon as possible. Some that you would do best if positioned like a door mat and “accepting” whatever came your way. Some that you needed to have a “higher power” which could be a tree, a chair, a radiator, Santa Claus, or just about anything “greater than yourself.”

Were all these good starting points? Would any or all get you sober? Would any wipe away your depression, troubles, fear, and confusion?

In one sense, this unlikely cadre, course, and group of untrained helpers and help actually worked for me from the beginning—I not having died from three gran mal seizures, having followed the mixed suggestions, having seen the word “God” in the Steps and prayed to Him, and vigorously searching for and helping others—however inept and feeble my efforts were.

But how many others drank or used again? More than I could count! And the chronic relapsing was continuing to this very day. How could I carry a message as mixed as the one I had been given? With higher powers, acceptance, and meeting mania! What should a sponsor tell and do to aid his newcomer? How reliable was the sponsor’s help when he didn’t know his Big Book or how to “take” a newcomer through the Steps; when he didn’t really believe in God or kept referring to some nonsense higher power like a rock. When he had never learned A.A.’s roots in the Bible. Or when there was virtually no information circulated on where A.A. had come from, when there was no discussion of the many changes that taken place in the recovery ideas between 1935 and 1939. Or when people in meetings mentioned the Bible, religion, Jesus Christ, or God and were insulted and reprimanded for even making mention of such things.

There was and is a way out of the foregoing mixture. It is producing literature, speakers, panels, conferences, and members who have taken a broad view of the program and its roots, who have had the humility to look up and learn what had worked and what had not worked, and what the pioneers had done that is missing today.

Lest some conclude that I don’t know the things suggested, I would point to three authoritative sources to start with. First, to read Bill W.’s comments about the Lord on page 191 of the Fourth Edition of the Big Book. Second, to read Dr. Bob’s comments about our Heavenly Father on page 181 of that Fourth Edition. Third, to dig into my book, Cured!: Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts, 2d ed, (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006) www.dickb.com/cured.shtml. And then to obtain a copy of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlet P-53, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks, pages 13-14.

 

 

Monday, June 23, 2014

A.A. History: The Rest of the Story! With Author and Historian of A.A. Dick B. -- New Website


 

A.A. History: The Rest of the Story!

With Author and Historian of A.A. Dick B.

 

Our New Website:


 

By Dick B.

© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

28 Years Serving in A.A.; 25 Years Researching and Writing the Full A.A. Story; Presenting the Facts on Videos and in Photos

 

Featuring

 

·        Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story

 

Four video talks by Dick B. and Ken B. drawing on extensive work with newcomers; traveling, interviewing, collecting, speaking, publishing. This material is already filmed, but a number of edits and highlights still need attention before these most important new resources are made available to you.

 

·         A.A. History Sources:

 

With veteran AA and videographer Steve G., Dick takes you through and explains his 30,000 books and materials covering all of A.A.’s sources and the roots that inspired A.A.’s cofounders. This vast library is covered in four videos

 

·         Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery           

 

4 videos filmed by the prestigious New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc. in Huntington Beach, California; and now widely used in their Christian recovery program and by leaders and directors throughout the United States. With Dick B. and Ken B. presenting

 

·         A.A. History Photos

 

Filmed by several members of our teams of AAs (including particularly A.A. oldtimer, archivist and camera expert Jim H. of Washington) all of whom investigated A.A. meetings, residential recovery homes, churches, records, libraries, manuscripts, archives, news articles, historic homes, academies, and museums, on several trips through Vermont and Massachusetts to the places where A.A. cofounders received their Christian upbringing and teachings from the Bible that fed their later A.A. work with still-suffering alcoholics, addicts, and derelicts.

 

·         YouTube and Other Videos

 

Dick B. and Ken B. have spoken on A.A. history and Christian recovery at A.A., N.A., meetings, churches, Christian fellowships, memorial locations, conventions, prison facilities, groups, meetings, conferences, treatment centers, radio interviews, retreats, and extensive personal discussions; and a number of YouTube presentations, and other videos which are presented here.

 

 

The Voluminous Books and Articles of Dick B. and Ken B.

 

Over his 28 years of continuous sobriety since April 21, 1986, Dick B. has authored and published or had published 46 books and over 1,700 articles now available in bookstores, online, on the internet, and by newsletters and blogs which have carefully footnoted the facts and included extensive helpful bibliographies that help other writers, groups, and students locate and check the sources of A.A. ideas and its later programs.

 

All these resources are available at your finger tips—many free—Those that are not free are very reasonably priced; and many will go free to sustaining contributors. Many will go at a low discount or as wholesale lots to those who want them for group or class or teaching use. And you can obtain the facts and discuss your status or needs with Ken B. at 808 276 4945.  

Sunday, June 22, 2014

A.A. History Sources with Dick B.


A.A. History Sources with Dick B.

©2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

The Four Videos on the Enormous A.A. History Sources Site with Dick B.: Library Interview and Narration, June 22, 2014

Our new website, the videos on it, and the virtually unknown or ignored approximately 30,000 books, articles, manuscripts, letters, pamphlets, and papers covering the heart of A.A. ideas is now available online, through our website http://aahistorychristianrecovery.com

Free copies are available to our numerous sustaining supporters. Copies can be purchased online by other individuals, groups, libraries, conferences, speakers, and leaders at a very low price.

This is an announcement that the 30,000 books and other A.A. sources were gathered over a decade of years by author Dick B., historian of A.A.

They were placed in a temporary library on Maui. Videographer Steve Glagola of Florida came to Maui, viewed the extensive library, interviewed Dick B., and then made videos of Dick speaking about each book or group of books, answering questions about those resources, and—at long last—setting up a tutorial where AAs and recovery people and leaders could see and hear the resources explained and made available online.

This A.A. History Sources with Dick B. series is one of four inter-related video groups on Alcoholics Anonymous History—The Rest of the Story. One contains the introductory classes on A.A. history  that are already in use in various parts of the recovery world. The second is this series of four A.A. History Sources—presenting the 30,000 item library and collection by Dick B., almost all of which has been donated free to the Wilson House in East Dorset Vermont, the Dr. Bob Core Library at North Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury Vermont, the Shoemaker Room at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron—as well as to Ray G., for many years the archivist at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron.

The third series will shortly be posted and consists of four videos titled, “Bill W., Dr. Bob, and the Cure of Alcoholism: The Rest of the Story.

The fourth will include some  800 photos taken by an A.A. archivist on our investigative research trips to Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Cleveland, and Akron. And the final, we hope, will be a presentation of Dick B.’s one hour talk at the Oldtimers meeting in Minneapolis during the A.A. International Conversion. The topic was the six major roots of A.A.

The treasures in the first two sets are available for your viewing now. They are available on our website http://aahistorychristianrecovery.com. In the ensuing weeks and months, you will find them abundantly discussed on the Dick B. websites, the Dick B. blogs, Dick B. YouTube presentations, Christian Recovery Radio, and articles posted and circulated in Dick’s newsletters and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Linked-in, Pinterest, Hub, In the Rooms, Christian Recovery Social, A.A. History with Dick B. on Cyber Recovery Social, Stumble Upon, and others.

We will be discussing the materials briefly on these outlets for the next several months as well. And we encourage groups and individuals to obtain the videos, present them, study them, and discuss them.

For further information, contact Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; 808 874 4876; dickb@dickb.com

Again the new website is http://aahistorychristianrecovery.com

 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.


Alcoholics Anonymous History

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide

 

 

 

 The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide

 Third Edition

 (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2010)

 

 (eBook/“digital download” version)

 

 By Dick B. and Ken B.

© Anonymous 2010. All rights reserved

 

 The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (157 pages, 8 ½” x 11”) is based on Dick B.’s lifetime of Bible study, legal scholarship and training, 26 years of continuous sobriety, active participation in the A.A. Fellowship, experience sponsoring more than 100 sponsees, 22 years of historical research, and 44 published titles.

 

 This edition is the product of one year of conferences, meetings, and personal talks by the authors (Dick B. and Ken B.) with Christian recovery leaders and others from the United States and Canada. It is based on their needs, their suggestions, their responses, and the compelling need for “A New Way Out” for Christians in the recovery arena who are not, and don’t want to be, alone. It can be used as a guide by 12-Step members, sponsors, counselors, facilitators, Christian recovery pastors, Christian recovery groups, clergy, study groups, and those engaged in carrying the story of early A.A.’s  Christian fellowship, simple program, and astonishing successes to fellowships, treatment facilities, prisons, homeless, veterans, military, and hospitals.

 

 (The 3rd edition of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide was substantially revised and expanded in conjunction with the production of the “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class by Dick B. and Ken B. on four DVD's in March 2010.)

 

 The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide is intended as a supplementary resource. It does not aim to change the fundamental nature of any existing Christian recovery or approach. Rather, it presents an attractive, appealing, helpful, and effective segment—primarily historical and introductory in nature—that all can use: (1) to bring to their respective audiences accurate historical information about the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the astonishing, documented successes of early A.A.; and (2) to enhance substantially the effectiveness of their Christian recovery efforts by employing the successful, relevant techniques and lessons from the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program in helping those who still suffer with alcoholism, substance abuse, and other self-destructive behavior and life-controlling problems.

 

 Suggested Additions to Christian Recovery Programs Proposed in This Guide

 

 First, a concise, accurate, historical element containing discussions of:

 


Christian treatments that were effective in dealing with alcoholism prior to A.A.'s founding;

 


The Christian training of A.A.’s founders as youngsters in Vermont;

 


The Christian beginnings of A.A. in Akron and New York, including discussions of how the first three AAs got sober;

 


The founding of early A.A., its actual practices, and the "original" Akron “Christian fellowship” program;

 


The astonishing 75% overall success rate early A.A. claimed and Cleveland's documented 93% success rate;

 


Alterations of the original Akron program that made their way into the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous ("the Big Book") published in April 1939;

 


Ways to enable a newcomer to utilize the early Christian A.A. precepts in the present-day 12 Step programs; and

 


 Means by which Coalition leaders and workers in the recovery arena can adapt and apply this (new) information to their own approaches and still underline the importance of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in Christian recovery efforts today.

 

 

 Second, a "package" of proposed approaches tailored to the needs, ideas, and programs of Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena, as well as Christians in recovery.

 

 Third, a discussion of present-day approaches that downplay reliance on the power and love of the one true God in favor of (over) emphasizing the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions alone, “higher power” language, pseudo “spirituality,” self-made religion, and actual unbelief; and often criticizing church, religion, reliance on God, and even the mention of Jesus Christ or the Bible by those in today's recovery fellowships.

 

 The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide also introduces the International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com) as a means, through common effort, of expanding your Christian efforts in the recovery arena.

 

 Table of Contents

 

 The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.,

 by Dick B. and Ken B.

 (April 2010)

 

 Introduction (by Dick B.)

 

 Miraculous Healings Are Recorded in the Bible and Are Still Occurring Today

 

 Effective Christian Work with Alcoholics Before A.A. 

 

 The Background Factors from Dr. Bob’s Youth in St. Johnsbury (1879-1898)

 

 The Background Factors from Bill Wilson’s Youth (1895 to 1913) and Later 

 

 The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous

 

 

 The New York Origins

 

 The Crucible at the Smith Home in Akron During the Summer of 1935 

 

 The Highly-Successful, Original Akron A.A. Program, as Summarized by Frank Amos and Quoted in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers 

 

 14 Specific Practices Associated with the Original Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” Program Bill W. and Dr. Bob Developed 

 

 The Verification of Early A.A.'s Astonishing Success Rates

 

 

 Documenting the Successes of the First 40 Pioneers

 

 

 Helping the Newcomer with a Full Kit of Spiritual Tools 

 

 Some Suggested Tools with Which to Arm the Nestling about to Be Flung out of the Nest 

 

 Helping a Christian to Begin Recovery Today 

 

 

 

 "A New Way Out" 

 

 An Emerging Picture of Proposals and Potential Service from the California Meetings with Dick B. and Ken B. July 12-21, 2009 

 

 Address by Dick B. at the Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors (ACADC) Conference in Palm Springs, August 29, 2009 

 

 Conclusion

 

 Obtain The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., eBook/ “digital download” edition

 

 right now!

  $14.95

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Questions and Suggestions for Recovery by Christians - Dick B.


Questions and Suggestions for Recovery by Christians

 

By Dick B.

Author, Historian of A.A., Bible Student, and Retired Attorney

 

© 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

 

Helping Alcoholics and Addicts Who Know They Are Licked, Long for a Way Out, Believe God Can Help Them Out of Their Mire, Attain Complete Recovery and Prevent Chronic Relapses

 

Questions

 

·         Could you benefit from learning additional Christian recovery techniques that enhance your effectiveness?

·         Could becoming more knowledgeable of the successful efforts of Christian individuals and organizations working in the recovery arena between 1850 and 1939—including those of A.A.’s Christian pioneers—help you in your recovery work?

·         Could a more extensive knowledge of Bible-based victories improve your results?

·         Could your learning the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible have played in Christian recovery efforts over the past one-and-a-half centuries or more help you bring “Divine Aid” to those still suffering today?

 

Are you willing to consider the more than 25 years of historical research, active recovery successes, and practical work by Dick B. and his son Ken B. with alcoholics and addicts which could show you a way to apply in today’s recovery arena the success factors of A.A.’s Christian progenitors and of early A.A. pioneers?

 

Would you take some time out of your busy schedule to consider what a fast-growing group of Christian recovery pastors, recovery program directors, leaders, sponsors, counselors, and speakers are using today as historical helps and tools?

 

Suggestions

 

Here are a few of the major, documented, successful elements our work can bring to your attention, thinking, and purpose-filled leadership:

 

·         The principles and practices of First Century Christians, as seen in the Book of Acts.

·         The application of principles and practices of First Century Christianity by a number of Christian individuals and organizations from the 1850’s to the 1930’s  which brought God’s power, love, healing, and deliverance to those still suffering.

·         A major change in direction occurred from the 1850’s forward in America among a host of Christian entities and leaders who—using their own Christian programs—helped countless down-and-out derelicts be delivered from the power of darkness in their self-imposed holes. These rescuers included the Young Men’s Christian Association, Gospel rescue missions, Christian evangelists, the Salvation Army, Congregationalism (particularly as seen in Vermont), the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and (later) Dr. Frank Buchman’s “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as “the Oxford Group” beginning in September 1928)—all of whom made great strides in changing lives and helping down-and-out alcoholics, addicts, and derelicts, and restoring many to sanity.

·         The principal emphasis of most of these rescuers was not on fighting liquor and saloons, or on shaming and condemning unfortunates. It was on offering abstinence, the Bible, salvation, healing, sustenance, Christian fellowship, and God’s help to those in need—including alcoholics and addicts.

·         A.A.’s cofounders, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, were brought up in Vermont between 1879 and 1917—a time of conversions, revivals, the YMCA, Gospel rescue missions, Christian evangelism, and Christian Endeavor—organizations and movements that grew worldwide into millions of message carriers.

·         We believe that, when A.A.’s cofounders laid aside their Christian upbringing and descended into the pit of alcoholic degradation and drug-dependent horrors, they still remembered from their upbringing the conversions, revivals, Congregational churches and Sunday schools, Bible studies, prayer meetings, sermons, hymns, Scripture reading, and daily chapel disciplines of their younger days in Vermont.

 

Our Goal

 

To have our readers, viewers, and listeners conclude that they—like the forbears above—can learn and apply in today’s recovery arena the personal work, hospitalizations, Bible studies, prayers, healings, and fellowship that were so effectively carried out in years past.

 

Request

 

If you have questions, concerns, suggestions, experiences, and/or activities like those covered here, please contact Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-9837; (808) 874-4876; DickB@DickB.com.

It you would like our help, our recommendations, and/or an attentive ear, please do as thousands of others have done over the last 25 years, and make your needs known.