The
First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous
History Conference
Phoenix,
Arizona, February 21 - 23, 2003
Conference
Theme:God, Alcoholism, & A.A.
The
Comments of Dick B.
Writer, Historian, Retired Attorney,
Bible Student
“Whenever
a civilization or society perishes,
there is always one condition present.
They forgot where they came from.”
-Carl Sandburg
Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., P.O.
Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
URL:
http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml,
Email: dickb@dickb.com
Copyright 2003 by Anonymous. All rights
reserved
Printed in the United States of America
This Paradise Research Publications
Edition is published by arrangement
with Good Book Publishing Company,
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
The publication of this volume does
not imply affiliation nor approval
nor endorsement from Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc.
ISBN: 1-885803-37-0
Contents
• Each
person attending, and each person
speaking, might see a different theme,
a different purpose, and a different
agenda for this conference.
But we can start with what it is:
The
First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous
History Conference
We’ve
had lots of conventions, conferences,
roundups, bashes, forums, flings,
assemblies, archivist panels, and
plenty of meetings, meetings, meetings.
Of course, at St. Louis, many years
back, we had a convention - historical
in nature - and fashioned by Bill
Wilson to show that A.A. had come
of age. But for the most part, we
have been focused on sharing experience,
strength, and hope; telling stories;
and adopting resolutions. As a result,
until about 1990, most of us knew
little if anything about the spiritual
roots, history, and principles of
this society.
• First,
therefore, this is a history conference
- an event that will highlight our
real roots.
• Also,
this history conference has a theme
and title. It is: God, Alcoholism,
and Alcoholics Anonymous
We
will be exploring each in relation
to the other - from the standpoint
of our own great history.
• The backdrop
might be the following statement of
M. Scott Peck in his best-selling
Further Along the Road Less Traveled,
in which that famous physician said
this:
I
believe the greatest positive event
of the twentieth century occurred
in Akron, Ohio. . . when Bill W. and
Dr. Bob convened the first Alcoholics
Anonymous meeting. It was not only
the beginning of the self-help movement
and the beginning of the integration
of science and spirituality at a grass-roots
level, but also the beginning of the
community movement. . . . which is
going to be the salvation not only
of alcoholics and addicts but of us
all.
• The real question
here, however, is whether - almost
seventy years after the founding of
our society - we can say that we have
developed a program of complete recovery
(Let’s get bold and say, as Bill W.,
Dr. Bob, and Bill D. said it, a “cure”)
for those afflicted with alcoholism.
The
answer will depend on several factors:
What is alcoholism? What is the meaning
of “recovery” and “cure?” What were
the ingredients of our original program?
Was it dependent upon God? What God
are we talking about? What answers
were given by our founders and pioneers?
What was the real success rate? How
important is that history? Can we
apply the answers to the cure of alcoholism
in today’s A.A.
• It sums up this
way: have we really got something
to share with others today? If so,
what is it that we can share? And
let’s start with what our own literature
told us several decades ago:
When
Bill left Akron in late August 1935,
there were four members–possibly five
counting Phil, who might have been
in the process of drying out. From
that fall to spring, Bill helped Hank
P. and Fitz M., among others, get
sober in New York. He made a short
visit to Akron in April, 1936, writing
Lois that he had spent the weekend
and was “so happy about everything
there. Bob and Anne and Henrietta
Seiberling have been working so hard
with those men and with really wonderful
success. There were very joyous get-togethers
at Bob’s, Henrietta’s, and the Williams’s
by turns.” In September 1936, there
was another visit, with Bill’s arrival
“a signal for a house party, which
was very touching,” he wrote. “Anne
and Bob and Henrietta have done a
great job. There were several new
faces since spring.” In February 1937,
another count was taken, and there
were seven additional members in Akron,
for a total of 12. Half of these had
or would have some sort of slip, and
at least one would never be really
successful in the A.A. program thereafter.
For most, however, the slip was a
convincer. There were dozens of others
who were exposed to the program up
to February 1937. Some were successful
for a time, then drifted away. Some
came back. Others died. Some, like
“Lil,” may have found another way
[DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.
NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services,
Inc., 1980, pp. 108-09]. Word of Akron’s
“not-drinking-liquor club” had already
spread to nearby towns, such as Kent
and Canton, and it was probably early
1937 when a few prospects started
drifting down from Cleveland. In the
beginning, it was in twos and threes
(By 1939, there were two carloads)
[DR. BOB, supra, p.
122]
In
November of that year [1937], Bill
Wilson went on a business trip that
enabled him to make a stopover in
Akron. . . . Bill’s writings record
the day he sat in the living room
with Doc, counting the noses of our
recoveries. “A hard core of very grim,
last-gasp cases had by then been sober
a couple of years, an unheard of development,”
he said. “There were twenty or more
such people. All told, we figured
that upwards of 40 alcoholics were
staying bone dry.” As we carefully
rechecked this score, Bill said, it
suddenly burst upon us that a new
light was shining into the dark world
of the alcoholic. . . a “chain reaction”
had started, and “Conceivably it could
one day circle the whole world. .
. . We actually wept for joy,” Bill
said, “and Bob and Anne and I bowed
our heads in silent thanks” [DR.
BOB, supra, p 123].
“A
beacon had been lighted. God had shown
alcoholics how it might be passed
from hand to hand. Never shall I forget
that great and humbling hour of realization,
shared with Dr. Bob,” said Bill [RHS,
p. 8].
• The successes
were confirmed by the careful investigation
of Frank Amos and reported to
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938.
It was that glowing report of Dr.
Bob and Akron’s Group Number One that
had caught Mr. Rockefeller’s interest
and had further encouraged the formation
of the Alcoholic Foundation. And Frank
Amos has left us with a detailed description
of the program as it stood before
the writing of the Big Book began.
Bill began writing the Big Book in
1938. According to his secretary,
Nell Wing, there were slightly more
than 70 alcoholics that had achieved
sobriety. There never were the “100
men and women” that Bill mentioned
when the Big Book was published in
the Spring of 1939. Of those who were
sober, fifty percent had maintained
continuous sobriety; twenty-five percent
had achieved sobriety after relapse;
and the remainder “showed improvement.”
By the early 1940's, records in Cleveland
showed that 93 percent of those who
came to A.A. never had a drink again
[DR. BOB, supra, p.
261].
• With
that beginning, we’ll respectfully
turn you loose on the questions we
have posed and hope you enjoy such
answers as we are able to provide.
• On
the archive, tape, and literature
tables are materials you may want
to purchase. I will gladly inscribe
my own books that are on sale. They
are offered at half price for this
conference. And you may simply leave
cash or a check in the receptacle
or see me for a form to use if you
want to use your credit card or order
other books.
contents^
Part
2
Alcoholics
Anonymous, the Founders, and Belief
in Almighty God
Without
Apparent Exception, A.A.’s Founders
Believed the Creator Cured Them
There
is no need here to go to the documentation
in my titles God and Alcoholism:
Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st
Century and Cured: Proven Help
for Alcoholics and Addicts. Suffice
it to say that Bill Wilson said the
Lord had cured him of his “terrible
disease.” Dr. Bob spoke of Wilson’s
being cured and then told his colleagues
that he and another [Wilson] had discovered
a cure for alcoholism. A.A. Number
Three, Bill Dotson, declared that
Wilson’s statement that the Lord had
cured him had become for him [Dotson]
the golden text of A.A. Pioneer Clarence
Snyder spoke many times of the cures
early AAs had received. The person
who drafted one of the proposed covers
for the First Edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous (published in 1939)
put on the cover that it offered a
cure for alcoholism. Extensive remarks
of this kind were made by Larry Jewell
(who was sponsored by Dr. Bob and
Clarence Snyder). Jewell made them
in a series of articles he wrote for
The Houston Press in 1940.
And the words of these old times were
echoed by others contemporaneously.
The Reverend Dr. Dilworth Lupton,
pastor of the First Unitarian Church
in Cleveland, wrote of the new cure
in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
in 1939. Morris Markey spoke of the
“miraculous” “cure” for habitual drunkards
in his Liberty Magazine article
in 1939. Theodore English wrote in
Scribner’s Commentator in January
of 1941 that Wilson had developed
a cure that had enlisted half the
alcoholics encountered by the Houston
AA group and cured two-thirds of them.
Dr. William Duncan Silkworth (who
wrote the “Doctor’s Opinion” for
Alcoholics Anonymous) told one
of his alcoholic patients (Charles
K.) that the only hope for his cure
was through the “Great Physician,”
Jesus Christ. See Norman Vincent Peale,
The Positive Power of Jesus Christ
(NY: Guideposts, 1980), pp. 59-63.
Finally, the AA Grapevine published
an article by the famous medical writer
Paul de Kruif stating the “A.A.’s
medicine is God and God alone. This
is their discovery. . . [and] that
the patients it cures have to nearly
die before they can bring themselves
to take it.”
Yet
by 1980–forty-five years after A.A.’s
founding–an AA “Conference Approved”
publication stated quite bluntly that,
in effect, these sources were mistaken,
misleading, and wrong [DR. BOB,
supra, p. 136].. Despite this
about-face by official A.A. employees,
the only bases for such a claim that
the founders had misrepresented to,
and mislead the facts to the world
were two ideas Bill Wilson had inserted
in his Big Book four years after
A.A.’s founding. And these ideas have
persisted through all four editions
of A.A.’s basic text. These new ideas
were: (1) “We have seen the truth
demonstrated again and again: ‘Once
an alcoholic always an alcoholic’.”
(Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., p. 33). (2) “We are not
cured of alcoholism” (Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed.,
p. 85). The first statement, according
to Wilson’s own explicit admission,
came from a contemporary therapist
named Richard R. Peabody, who died
drunk, and therefore “proved,” said
Wilson, that alcoholism was “uncurable.”
The second statement flew in the face
of all the evidence we cited above,
which demonstrates that alcoholics
had been cured, that they had
been cured by God, and that the cures
were miraculous, astonishing, and
the basis for the whole “spiritual
program of recovery” that AAs developed
between 1935 and 1938. Details and
documentation for each of these points
can be found in Dick B., Cured:
Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts
(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 2003); Richard
R. Peabody, The Common Sense of
Drinking (Atlantic Monthly Press
Book, 1933); and Katherine McCarthy,
The Emanuel Movement and Richard
Peabody (Journal of Studies on
Alcohol, Vol. 45, No. 1, 1984).
A
Large Dose of Pre-AA miraculous healings
by the power of God:
Many
have minimized or outright dismissed
the miraculous. They have done so
in various ways, depending upon the
era involved.
For
example, Old Testament signs and wonders
are often relegated to the myth bin
by calling them interpretative, artistic,
imaginative, embellished, “touched
up,”filled with discrepancies, or
the products of tradition rather than
experience. See Bernard W. Anderson,
Understanding The Old Testament
(NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1957), pp.
43-44, 180-82, 227, 385, 407-09. Other
authorities, however, plainly state
that signs, wonders, and miracles
of Old Testament accounts had as their
object the indication of the severity
of an illness and the gravity of the
prognosis against which to contrast
the greatness of the cure and the
divine power that effected it. These
authorities–and they are numerous
generally attribute the healings and
miracles to the intervention of God.
See New Bible Dictionary, Second
Edition (England: Inter-Varsity
Press, 1982), pp. 457-65.
The
healing accounts of the Gospels have
also been denied for a variety of
reasons. Philip Schaff wrote: “The
credibility of the Gospels would never
have been denied if it were not for
the philosophical and dogmatic skepticism
which desires to get rid of the supernatural
and miraculous at any price.” See
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian
Church, Volume I, 3rd
Revision (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B.
Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1890),
p. 589. Decades later, writers popular
in the early A.A. days, were still
disputing the miraculous. See Emmet
Fox, The Sermon on the Mount
(New York: Harper & Row, 1934)
and Dilworth Lupton, Religion Says
You Can (Boston: The Beacon Press,
1938). Long before these johnnie-come-latelies
of the 1930's, however, scholars were
citing emphatically: “great writers
who were by no means biased in favor
of orthodoxy [including] Dr. W.E.
Channing, leader of American Unitarianism,
who said: ‘I know of no histories
to be compared with the Gospels in
marks of truth, in pregnancy of meaning,
in quickening power. . . As to his
[Christ’s] biographers, they speak
for themselves. Never were more simple
and honest ones.” Schaff, History
of the Christian Church, supra,
p. 589.
So,
also, despite volumes of testimony
to the contrary, writers and various
“historians” have disputed the miracles
and healings by the Apostles as recorded
in the Book of Acts. They have alleged
that the “age of miracles” in the
First Century passed out of the picture,
sometimes allegedly because they were
merely a stage which God no longer
needed, or that they were myth
and error. See Adolf Harnack, The
Expansion of Christianity in the First
Three Centuries, Vol I (Eugene,
OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998),
pp. 121, 143, 180, 256-57, 268. The
disputers have also placed in their
disputed box, categorized, minimized,
ridiculed, and often rejected endless
numbers of Christian healers and healings
from Mary Baker Eddy to Lourdes to
Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts. But,
for the founders of A.A., the proof
was in the pudding; and Dr. Bob read
extensively about healing by the power
of God. In fact, even a brief glance
at the Christian healing literature
of the 1930's–in A.A.’s founding years–will
disclose a myriad of scholarly studies
of God’s healing power and healings
in the physical, psychological, mental,
devil spirit, and other realms. We
have included many of these in our
bibliography.
• What
the Bible has to say about:
Miraculous
healings long before Christ: Morton
T. Kelsey comments: “As we have already
seen, in the Old Testament there was
no question, in theory, that Yahweh
could heal. In several places remarkable
instances were recorded. See Morton
T. Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
& Christian Healing. Rev.
and exp. ed. (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, Publishers, 1966), p. 33.
Specific examples include children
given to women who were barren (Genesis
18:10, 14; Judges 13:5, 24; 1 Samuel
1:19-20; 2 Kings 4:16-17); the healing
of Miriam’s leprosy (Numbers 12:1-15)
and Naaman’s leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-14);
healing of Jeroboam’s paralyzed hand
(1 Kings 13:1-6); raising from the
dead by Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24)
and by Elisha (2 Kings 4:1-37); salvation
of the Israelites from the later plagues
in Egypt (Numbers 21:6-9); and the
miracles wrought by Moses (Exodus
7-17). See New Bible Dictionary,
supra, pp. 462, 782-83; Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine & Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 33-36;
In Healing: Pagan And Christian
(London: Society For Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1935), George Gordon Dawson
opines: “The standpoint of the Old
Testament, generally, is that good
health results from holy living. It
is a divine gift and the reward of
loving service. Any cure of disease
was regarded as a gift from Yahweh,
and resulted from forgiveness. The
sick person made his peace with Him
by repentance, intercession and sacrifice.
The right spiritual relationship was
restored. The soul was at rest, and
the inner life being calm the bodily
symptoms disappeared” (p. 90). Alan
Richardson writes: . . . in the Old
Testament the historically decisive
event, which became for the Hebrew
mind, the symbol and type of all God’s
comings in history is the Miracle
of the Red Sea. See Alan Richardson,
The Miracle Stories of the Gospels
(London: SCM Press Ltd, 1941), pp.
3-4.
Miracles
in the Gospels: “they brought
unto Him all that were sick and them
that were possessed with demons, and
He healed many that were sick with
diverse diseases, and cast out many
demons. . . He had healed many in
so much that as many as had plagues
pressed upon Him that they might touch
Him.” See Elwood Worcester, Samuel
McComb, Isador H. Coriat, Religion
and Medicine (NY: Moffat, Yard
& Company, 1908), p. 345; Elwood
Worcester and Samuel McComb, The
Christian Religion As A Healing Power
(NY: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1909),
pp. 84-97; G. R. H. Shafto, The
Wonders of The Kingdom:
A Study of the Miracles of Jesus
(NY: George H. Doran Company, 1924),
pp. 8-9. Shafto calculated that there
are some forty-two of the foregoing
indirect references to miraculous
action on the part of Jesus in the
four Gospels. Kelsey concluded: “.
. . we find that everywhere Jesus
went he functioned as a religious
healer. Forty-one distinct instances
of physical and mental healing are
recorded in the four gospels (there
are seventy-two accounts in all, including
duplications), but this by no means
represents the total. Many of these
references summarize the healings
of large numbers of people.” See Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine & Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 42-47.
Alan Richardson points out the high
proportion of the Gospel tradition
that is devoted to the subject of
miracle (209 verses out of 666 in
the Gospel of Mark). See Richardson,
The Miracle Stories, supra,
p. 36. There are over 20 specific
accounts - some healed at a distance,
some with a word, and some with physical
contact and means: blindness, deafness;
dumbness, leprosy, epilepsy, dropsy,
uterine hemorrhage, Peter’s mother-in-law
and her fever–possibly malaria,
Malcus’ severed ear; the man with
withered hand, the woman bent double
with a “spirit of infirmity,” three
separate people resurrected from the
dead; the man paralyzed for 38 years,
demoniacal possession, and so on.
Percy Dearmer reports there are forty-one
instances of Christ’s works of healing
in the Gospels (Body and Soul,
below, p. 142-46). Also the miracles
of water converted to wine, stilling
of a storm, supernatural catch of
fish, multiplying food, walking on
water, money from a fish, a fig tree
dried up. See New Bible Dictionary,
supra, pp. 462-63; Leslie D. Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion and Healing
(NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951),
pp. 29-69; Worcester, McComb, Coriat,
Religion and Medicine, supra,
pp. 338-68; Josh McDowell, Evidence
That Demands a Verdict: historical
evidences for the Christian faith
(Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc.,
1973), pp. 128-31. Luke 7:21-22 state:
“And in that same hour he cured many
of their infirmities and plagues,
and of evil spirits; and unto many
that were blind he gave sight. Then
Jesus answering said unto them, Go
your way, and tell John what things
ye have seen and heard; how that the
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, to the poor the gospel
is preached.” For a survey of the
evidence, see E. R. Micklem, Miracles
& The New Psychology: A Study
in the Healing Miracles of the New
Testament. London: Oxford University
Press, 1922.
Miracles
in the Book of Acts in Apostolic times:
“many wonders and signs were done
by the apostles. . .by the hands of
the apostles were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people. .
. . Stephen, full of grace and power,
wrought great wonders and signs. .
. [as to Philip in Samaria] many with
unclean spirits and many that were
palsied and lame. . . [as to Paul
and Barnabus] speaking of the signs
and wonders God had wrought among
the gentiles by them. . . [as to healing
activities of Paul on the island of
Malta] The rest also who had diseases
in the island came and were cured”
See Weatherhead, Psychology, Religion
and Healing, supra, pp.
70-72; Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
And Christian Healing, supra,
pp. 83-102.. More specifically, the
lame man at the Gate Beautiful, patients
cured by the shadow of Peter and handkerchiefs
which had touched them; restoration
of the sight of Saul by Ananias; Peter’s
healing Aenes of palsy; the paralytic
healed by Paul at Lystra; the healing
of Publius’s father of fever and dysentery
by Paul; Dorcas and Eutychus
were raised from the dead;
multiple healings; and two occasions
where demons were cast out. See
New Bible Dictionary, supra,
pp. 462-64. Harnack summed up with
this quotation from Hebrews 2:3-4:
“How shall we escape, if we neglect
so great salvation: which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord, and
was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him; God also bearing them witness,
both with signs and wonders, and with
divers miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”
See Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity
in the First Three Centuries,
Vol. I, supra, pp. 250-73.
There is a list of the specific miracles
in the Acts of the Apostles. See Pearcy
Dearmer, Body and Soul: An Enquiry
into the Effects of Religion upon
Health, with a Description of Christian
Works of Healing From the New Testament
to the Present Day. London: Sir
Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1909,
pp. 183-91.
• What
Early Christians accomplished:
Miracles
after apostolic times and in early
centuries: There is evidence of
Christian healing from these sources:
Quadratus of Athens (AD 126 or 127);
St. Justin Martyr (the philosopher
martyred circa 163, AD 100-163); St.
Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyons, A.D. 120-202);
Origen of Alexandria (AD 185-253),
Tertullian (AD 193-211), St. Hilarion
(monk, AD 291-371); St. Parthenius
(Bishop of Lampsacus, AD circa 335-355);
St. Macarius of Alexandria and four
other Monks (AD 375-390); St. Martin
(Bishop of Tours, AD circa 395- 397);
St. Ambrose of Milan (AD 340-397),
St. Chrysostom (AD 347-407), St. Augustine
(AD 354-430), St. Jerome (AD
340-420); St. Symeon Stylites (layman,
AD 391-460); St. Eugendus, Abbot of
a monastery near Geneva, AD 455-517);
St. Caesarius (Bishop of Arles, 502-542);
St. German (Bishop of Paris, circa
AD 555-576); St. Laumer priest near
Chartres, AD 548-651); St. Eustace
(Abbot of Luxeuil, circa 614-625);
St. Riemirus (abbot of a monastery
in the diocese of Le Mans, circa 660-699);
Sophronius (Patriarch of Jerusalem,
AD 640); St. Cuthbert (Bishop of Lindisfarne,
AD 635-687), and St. John of Beverley
(by Bede AD 721). See Leslie D. Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion, and Healing,
supra, pp. 76-84; Worcester,
McComb and Coriat, Religion and
Medicine, supra. p. 367;
Worcester and McComb, The Christian
Religion as a Healing Power, supra,
p.95. In a monumental treatise based
largely on the Book of James as it
relates to healing and anointing,
F. W. Puller says: “I think I have
shown that from the time of the Apostles
onwards, during the first seven centuries
of our era, the custom of praying
over sick people and anointing them
with holy oil continued without any
break. And there seems to me to be
good reasons for believing that in
many cases the petitions that were
offered were granted and that the
holy oil was used by God as a channel
for conveying health to the sick persons.”
See F. W. Puller, The Anointing
of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition,
with some Considerations on the Numbering
of the Sacraments (London: Society
For Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1904), p. 188; Pearcy Dearmer, Body
and Soul, supra. Kelsey
points to the important study by Evelyn
Frost. which covers the earliest records
of the church after the New Testament,
from about the years 100 to 250 [Evelyn
Frost, Christian Healing: A Consideration
of the Place of Spiritual Healing
in the Church of To-day in the Light
of the Doctrine and Practice of the
Ante-Nicene Church (1940)]; and
Kelsey says of the Frost study: “It
shows clearly that the practices of
healing described in the New Testament
continued without interruption for
the next two centuries.” Kelsey, Psychology,
Medicine And Christian Healing,
supra, pp. 103-156.
Healing
ministry by individuals from 1091
forward to the late 1800's: There
is testimony of individual healers,
who, with no psychological technique,
but through their communion with Christ
by His power, healed the sick: St.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153);
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226);
St. Thomas of Hereford (1282-1303);
St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380),
Martin Luther (1483-1546), St. Francis
Xavier (1506-1552), St. Philip Neri
(1515-1595); George Fox (1624-1691);
John Wesley (1703-1791); Prince Alexander
of Hohenlohe (1794-1849); Father Theobald
Matthew (of Ireland, 1790-1856), Dorothea
Trudel (from Zurich, 1813-1862); Pastor
John Christopher Blumhardt (Lutheran
pastor from Stuttgart,1805-1880);
and Father John of Cronstadt (of the
Orthodox Church of the East, 1829-1908).
See Weatherhead, supra, p.
86; Worcester and McComb, Religion
and Medicine, supra, p.
367; Dearmer, Body and Soul,
supra, p. 278, 338-82. Kelsey,
Psychology, Medicine And Christian
Healing, supra, pp. 157-188.
The
Hypothesis that the First Century
ended miracles even though there is
no Biblical authority for this proposition–a
contention contrary to the promises
of the Creator: There has come
into the healing picture the widely
believed, but undocumented, claim
that the “age of miracles” ended because
God no longer had use for them. First
of all, the Creator’s abilities did
not cease; nor did the power that
He made available through the accomplishments
of Jesus Christ end. That power and
the gifts of healing may actually
have been little used or undeclared
because of church wrangling, but the
Bible assurances did not change. Despite
an increasing separation between medical
healing and religious healing during
the first years of the nineteenth
century, “Pentecostal Christianity”
and the work of many individuals brought
Biblical assurances to the practical
fore. The individuals included Glenn
Clark, Mary Baker Eddy, A. J. Gordon,
Pearcy Dearmer, Agnes Sanford, Starr
Daily, John and Ethel Banks, Oral
Roberts, Ruth Carter Stapleton, and
a number in the Roman Catholic Community.
See Kelsey, Psychology, Medicine
and Christian Religion, supra,
pp. 186-284.
Yahweh’s
promises in His Word have not changed:
See Exodus 15:26: “I am the Lord that
healeth thee;” Psalm 103:3-4: Yahweh
our God forgives all our iniquities,
heals all our diseases, and redeems
our lives from destruction;” Matthew
10:8: “Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:
freely ye have received, freely give;”
Mark 16:19-30: “And these signs shall
follow them that believe: In my name
shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues. . . they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover;” John 14:12: “Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my
Father.” These and many other Bible
assurances were the daily diet of
many early AAs and particularly Dr.
Bob as he frequently used The Runner’s
Bible devotional. See the verses
and comments in Nora Smith Holm, The
Runner’s Bible: Spiritual Guidance
for People On The Run (Lakewood,
CO: I-Level Acropolis Books, Publisher,
1998), pp. 171-96. Also, J. R. Pridie,
The Church’s Ministry of Healing
(London: Society For Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1926); C. S. Lewis, Miracles:
How God Intervenes in Nature and Human
Affairs (NY: Collier Books, 1947);
Friedrich Heiler, Prayer: A Study
in the History of Psychology and Religion
(Oxford: Oneworld, 1932); Jim
Wilson, Healing Through The Power
of Christ (Cambridge, England:
James Clarke & Co., Ltd., 1946);
Dawson, Healing: Pagan and Christian,
1935, supra; Philip Inman,
Christ in the Modern Hospital
(London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited,
1937); G. R. H. Shafto, The Wonders
of the Kingdom, 1924, supra.
• The
Successes of the Christian Missions
and Evangelism:
A.
Rescue Missions: Religious “conversion”
was the catch-word for such endeavors,
but this kind of language masked the
importance of the Creator, the place
of Jesus Christ, and the use of the
Bible, prayer, and healing. It is
quite fair to say that the latter–the
Creator, Jesus Christ, Bible, prayer,
and healing rather than “conversion”–marked
the mission and program of the missions.
See the excellent survey in: Howard
Clinebell, Understanding and Counseling
Persons with Alcohol, Drug, and Behavioral
Addictions. Rev. and Enl. Ed.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1968, pp.
167-194. The following were the three
major mission landmarks:
(1)
Jerry McCauley’s Water Street Mission
was founded in October, 1872 -
the outcropping of his own deliverance
from alcoholism; and it helped thousands.
Meetings were simple. There were no
sermons. They opened with singing,
a Bible reading, and a message from
Jerry. This was followed by testimonies
where drunkards spoke of their fall
and rebirth. Often, Jerry laid hands
on the penitent and encouraged him
to pray out loud for himself.
(2)
Next came the Gospel Missions - still
in existence today with a new name,
but better remembered as the International
Union of Gospel Missions. In April,
1882, Samuel Hadley overcame his alcoholism
with a religious experience and passed
the Gospel mission torch to his son,
and these events marked the beginning
of that approach.
(3)
Hadley’s son later was in charge of
Calvary Rescue Mission with
Shoemaker being an underlying recovery
force when Sam became rector of
Calvary Episcopal Church in New York
in 1925. It was at the Calvary Rescue
Mission that Ebby Thacher, Bill Wilson,
and thousands of others overcame their
alcoholism. The meetings involved
hymns, Bible reading, prayers, testimonies,
and decisions for Christ. The cry
was “I’ve got religion.” (William
L. White. Slaying the Dragon:
The History of Addiction Treatment
and Recovery in America. Bloomington,
IL: Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse
Institute, 1998, pp. 71-74). Reverend
Shoemaker uttered a simple description
of Calvary’s Mission on November 25,
1932. He said it was “where God reclaims
men who choose to be reborn.” See
Dick B. Turning Point: A History
of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and
Successes. Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1997,
p. 96.
B.
The Salvation Army: It was founded
in 1865 out of the pastoral work of
a Methodist Minister William Booth.
It was first called the Christian
Revival Association and rechristened
the Salvation Army in 1878. Its vision
was that Christian salvation and moral
education in a wholesome environment
would save the body and soul of the
alcoholic. There were so many cures
that the Salvation Army served alcoholics
for more than a century and was called
“the largest and most successful rehabilitation
program for transient alcoholic men
in the United States.” Its most striking
testimonials were those in Harold
Begbie’s Twice Born Men - about
rescue in the slums of London. This
was a book widely read by A.A. pioneers
and recommended by Dr. Bob’s wife
Anne. Unfortunately, the Army gave
way to professionalization, but its
people continued to wrangle over the
disease concept. Finally they adopted
these two statements about 1940:
“The
Salvation Army believes that every
individual who is addicted to alcohol
may find deliverance from its bondage
through submission of the total personality
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The
Salvation Army also recognizes the
value of medical, social and psychiatric
treatment for alcoholics and makes
extensive use of these services at
its centers.” (White, Slaying the
Dragon, supra, p. 78).
C.
The Keswick Colony of Mercy in Whiting,
New Jersey. Founded in 1897 by
William Raws who overcame alcoholism
through religious salvation. Up to
39 men at a time reside there, undergoing
Bible study, prayer, and counseling.
They make a “pastoral covenant” to
continued religious education and
are expected to seek continued support
through religious recovery groups
such as Alcoholics Victorious. More
than 17,000 alcoholic men have sought
help there since its founding in 1897.
(White, Slaying the Dragon,
supra, pp. 75-76).
• The
Revival of Christian Healing through
the person and power of Jesus Christ
See
Heal the Sick by James Moore
Hickson (London: Methuen &
Co., 1924).
Hickson’s
book and extensive healing work were
detailed in this as one of the many
healing books studied by Dr. Bob.
It reports thousands of healings world-wide..
See
Healing in Jesus Name by Ethel
R. Willitts (Crawfordsville, Indiana:
Ethel R. Willitts, Publisher, 1931).
This review of Biblical healings and
the personal healings by the author
was studied by Dr. Bob.
See
Psychology and Life by Leslie
D. Weatherhead (New York:
AbingdonPress,1935).
Also,
Leslie D. Weatherhead, Religion,
Psychology and Healing, supra.
Though Weatherhead’s materials are
heavy with writing on psychological,
spiritualism, and psychic methods,
Dr. Weatherhead was Minister of the
City Temple in London and wrote exhaustively
on the place of healing in the modern
church. Highlighting the merits of
Christian Science, he nonetheless
rejects it, as he does the importance
of healings at Lourdes. He then mentions
the work of The Guild of Health, started
in 1905 to arouse the Church of England
and others to a fresh recognition
of the place of health of mind and
body in the Christian message. Next
comes his discussion of The Guild
of St. Raphael, formed in 1915, to
push the Anglican Church and unite
within the Catholic Church those who
hold the faith that “Our Lord wills
to work in and through His Church
for the health of her members in spirit,
mind, and body. Holy Unction, The
Laying on of Hands, and intercessory
prayer are utilized. Next, the Emmanuel
Movement in America and the role of
Worcester, Mc Comb, and Coriat. Next,
Milton Abbey, opened in 1937 with
Rev. John Maillard, an Anglican Clergyman
as first warden–Maillard’s book, Healing
in the Name of Jesus, having just
been published. Weatherhead next discusses
The Divine Healing Mission, closely
linked with the work of James Moore
Hickson. He mentions The Friend’s
Spiritual Healing Fellowship (Quaker),
The Methodist Society for Medical
and Pastoral Practice, founded in
1946, The Churches’ Council of Healing
started in 1944 under the impetus
of Archbishop Temple. Independently
of the foregoing discussion of missions
and individuals, Weatherhead analyzes
the practice of intercession and The
Laying on of Hands. And see the discussion
of Weatherhead’s materials in Dick
B. Dr. Bob and His Library 3rd
ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research
Publications, Inc., 1998), pp 78-79.
There are many studies of the importance
of the charismata, liturgies,
anointing, sacraments, “unction,”
“incubation,” shrines, demonology,
exorcism, and the laying on of hands
as part of Christian healing and Christian
history. See Reverend F. W. Puller,
Anointing of the Sick: In Scripture
and Tradition, With Some Considerations
on the Numbering of the Sacraments,
supra; Dearmer, Body and Soul,
supra, pp. 287 et. seq.;
Evelyn Frost, Christian Healing:
A Consideration of the Place of Spiritual
Healing in the Church of To-day in
the Light of The Doctrine and Practice
of the Ante-Nicene Church, London:
A. R. Mobray & Co. Limited, 1940;
William Temple, Christus Veritas
An Essay (London: Macmillan &
Co Ltd, 1954); Dawson, Healing:
Pagan and Christian, supra;
Pridie, The Church’s Ministry of
Healing, supra
And
see the many other titles on healing
and prayer that were studied and circulated
by Dr. Bob among A.A. Pioneers and
their families. See Dick B. Dr.
Bob and His Library, supra,
pp. 35-40, 83-85. In the early A.A.
of Akron, there was circulation and
study of a large number of prayer
and healing books including those
by Glenn Clark, Starr Daily, Lewis
L. Dunnington, Mary Baker Eddy, Charles
and Cora Filmore, Harry Emerson Fosdick,
Emmet Fox, Gerald Heard, E. Stanley
Jones, Frank Laubach, Charles Laymon,
Rufus Mosely, William Parker, F. L.
Rawson, Samuel M. Shoemaker, B. H.
Streeter, L. W. Grensted, Howard Rose,
Cecil Rose, St. Augustine, Brother
Lawrence, Mary Tileston, Oswald Chambers,
T. R. Glover, E. Herman, Donald Carruthers,
and Nora Smith Holm with her Runner’s
Bible. See Dick B., The Books
Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth,
7th ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 1998).
As our bibliography at the close of
this books shows, and also as the
foregoing citations as to healings
make clear, the period of Dr. Bob’s
study of prayer and healing was one
of widespread scholarly discourse
on this very same subject. It does
not seem surprising, therefore, that
Dr. Bob observed prayer time at least
three times a day; that he studied
and quoted Scripture with great frequency;
and that he was asked to and did in
fact pray for others. As he himself
expressed as to his beliefs: “Your
Heavenly Father will never let you
down!”
• Successes
of Oxford Group people in overcoming
alcoholism prior to A.A.
In
their zeal to cut down the Oxford
Group, many have ignored the well-documented
victories over alcoholism through
the power of God by well-known Oxford
Group writers and leaders–most contemporaries
of friends of Bill Wilson’s. These
include Rowland Hazard, F. Shepard
Cornell, Victor C. Kitchen, Ebby Thacher,
James Houck, Charles Clapp, Jr., William
Griffith Wilson, and even Russell
Firestone for a time. Both Dr.
Frank N. D. Buchman (founder of the
Oxford Group) and Rev. Samuel Shoemaker
(its most prolific writer) helped
sober up many drunks through the power
of God. Their classic phrase was:
Sin is the problem. Jesus Christ is
the cure. The result is a miracle.
See Dick B. Cured!, supra,
pp. 18, 30-31.
The
Present Tendency of Writers to Ignore
our Real Spiritual Healing Roots and
to Bloat up the Supposed Importance
of a Few, Unimportant, Unsuccessful,
Little-known Predecessors at the turn
of the Last Century
The
Washingtonians.
You can find more hoopla and writing
among professionals, historians, and
even AAs about the “Washingtonians”
than you can about Dr. Bob, Anne Smith,
Henrietta Seiberling, T. Henry Williams,
and Rev. Sam Shoemaker–A.A.’s real
founders. You can find more hoopla
and writing by these same people about
this same subject than you can about
the Bible, Quiet Time, the Pioneers’
devotionals, Sam Shoemaker’s writings,
other Christian literature, and Anne
Smith’s Journal–the major contributors
to A.A. ideas. In a word or two, you
need to recognize that the Washingtonians
are a flash in the plan when it comes
to their relevance to A.A. They were
formed in 1840. They were deader than
a door nail in 1847. They did not
offer the Bible, Quiet Time, the Creator,
Jesus Christ, Christian literature,
salvation, or religious principles
that were the heart of A.A.’s spiritual
program. So we will ignore them in
this paper!
The
Emmanuel Clinic and the Lay Therapy
Movement. This was founded by
two ministers and a physician in 1906.
Its greatest problem is that it was
a “psychological” approach to recovery.
Worcester and Mc Comb said: “We do
not plead for a return to the mere
accidents of the early Christian age.
. . . Great as is the power of the
subconscious,, greater still, we believe,
are the powers of reason, emotion,
and will. Hence, one of the principal
remedies for the nervous maladies
of which we are speaking is psychic,
moral, and religious re-education.
. . . [we] say, ‘God does it in and
through the forces of nature.’ The
therapeutic procedures of the Emmanuel
Movement are those which are used
among all scientific workers, such
as suggestion, psychic analysis, re-education,
work, and rest” See Worcester and
Mc Comb, The Christian Religion
as a Healing Power, supra,
pp. 96, 103, 118. Such talk probably
burdened today’s recovery community
with many godless ideas about
group therapy, individual counseling,
self-help support, spirituality, hypnosis,
relaxation, and “inspirational” reading.
Its popular later book was The
Common Sense of Drinking by Richard
R. Peabody. And Peabody himself reportedly
died intoxicated. It may well have
fostered the “no cure” doctrine -
once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
And it can hardly said to be based
on the power of God. So we will ignore
this too.
What
Dr. Carl Jung seems to have introduced
into Bill Wilson’s recovery thinking
Rowland
Hazard’s spiritual experience, better
known as a religious conversion:
According to Bill Wilson’s early writings
I found in Stepping Stones, at Bedford
Hills, New York, A.A. really began
when Rowland Hazard, once again drunk
and despairing, returned to
Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland asking
what he could do to whip his alcoholism.
Jung replied: “Occasionally, Rowland,
alcoholics have recovered through
spiritual experiences, better known
as religious conversions. . . . I’m
talking about the kind of religious
experience that reaches into the depths
of a man, that changes his whole motivation
and outlook and so transforms his
life that the impossible becomes possible”
(W.
G. Wilson, Reflections, p. 111).
Jung told Wilson many years later:
“His [Rowland’s] craving for alcohol
was the equivalent on a low level
of the spiritual thirst of our being
for wholeness, expressed in medieval
language: the union with God. . .
. The only right and legitimate way
to such an experience is, that it
happens to you in reality and it can
only happen when you walk on a path
which leads to higher understanding”
(Dick B., Turning Point, supra,
p. 84).
The
unconvincing and unsupported claim
that Rowland Hazard never visited
with, or was told by Dr. Carl Jung
that such a conversion was required
for cure. Two writers have recently
implied that the whole Rowland Hazard
story and solution is a hoax (See
White, Slaying the Dragon,
supra, p. 128). Their so-called
“investigations” were scanty and lacking
in comprehension and depth as they
supposedly looked through Rowland’s
papers at the Rhode Island Historical
Society and Jung’s records and found
no account of the doctor-patient event.
To make this allegation stick, however,
they would further have to prove that
Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher, Bill
Wilson, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and Dr.
Carl Jung were each and all outspoken
liars. And, having “investigated”
many of Rowland’s records myself,
and having been a trial attorney for
many years with lots of experience
in digging up evidence, and finding
no reason to impeach the testimony
of the foregoing accounts by Hazard,
Thacher, Wilson, Shoemaker, and Jung,
I believe the assertions of White
and Wally P., the writers, who appear
responsible for them, are totally
wrong.
The
peculiar and unique meaning of Jung’s
“conversion,” “religious,” and “spiritual”
experience language. I have personally
have little doubt that Dr. Jung told
Rowland Hazard that he (Jung) had
been unsuccessful in treating, and
could not cure Rowland. But what the
Bible, theologians, and Christian
evangelists mean by the prescribed
“religious conversion” is probably
not at all a conversion of the type
to which Jung referred. First of all,
Jung was a physician, not a cleric
or theologian. Second, the Bible idea
of conversion has to do with rebirth,
of being born again of the spirit
with the incorruptible seed of Christ,
of confessing Jesus as Lord and believing
that God raised Jesus from the dead
(See John 3:1-17, 14:6; Acts 2:32-40,
4:10-12; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians
1:12-14; Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter
1:18-23). Third, Dr. Leslie Weatherhead
analyzed Jung’s ideas as follows:
“Jung seeks to lift the patient to
a higher plane of living. What he
calls “individualization” is an experience
close to spiritual conversion. A true
conception of both cannot regard either
as final. Spiritual conversion is
an experience which marks the end
of man’s search for the right road,
but not the end of his spiritual journey.
Individuation, in Jung’s sense, is
the wise setting of the house of one’s
personality in order, but it is a
task at which one is wise to work
for the rest of one’s life” (Weatherhead,
Psychology, Religion and Healing,
supra, p. 287). Jung himself
said: “Religious experience is absolute.
It is indisputable. You can only say
that you never had such an experience,
and your opponent will say : “Sorry,
I have.” And there your discussion
will come to an end. No matter what
the world thinks about religious experience,
the one who has it possesses the great
treasure of a thing that has provided
him with a source of life, meaning
and beauty and that has given a new
splendor to the world and to mankind.
He has pistis [believing or faith]
and peace. Where is the criterium
by which you could say that such a
life is not legitimate, that such
experience is not valid and that such
pistis is a mere illusion? . . . But
what is the difference between a real
illusion and a healing religious experience?
It is merely a difference in words
(Jung, Psychology and Religion,
pp. 113-114).
Jung’s
prescription for, and definition of
“religious” or “conversion” experience
did not square with the Good Book.
In three sentences, we can say: Jung’s
definitions may be accurate from a
psychologist’s view point. In fact,
they represent the often quoted definitions
of Professor William James. But they
are not speaking of being born f | | | | | |
