The Story of Dick B.’s
Travels and Writings About A.A. to Help the A.A. Newcomer, and Alcoholics
Anonymous Itself
Dick B.’s “personal
story” (his drunkalog) has been delivered in hundreds of 12-Step and recovery
meetings and reported in thousands of published books and articles. Also, at
some length on his own Alcoholics Anonymous History website—www.dickb.com.
But this is
a different story.
It is about Dick
B., the real alcoholic and prescription pill addict who entered the rooms of A.A.
twenty-eight years ago a very very sick person. A sixty-year old newcomer who
knew little of addiction, little about alcoholism, little of Alcoholics
Anonymous itself, and very little about the link between his malady and his
seemingly mountainous pile of self-created troubles. Disasters that almost inevitably plague the wet drunk or
drug addict. He found he had entered a strange and unfamiliar fellowship with
no real leaders, no common approach among its old-timers, and virtually no
guidance in selecting a mysterious “sponsor” whose qualifications are neither
fixed nor evaluated.
This is z
brief story of how Dick traveled all over the United States, interviewed
hundreds of those with an explicit knowledge of various aspects of A.A. and its
roots and beginnings, gathered books and manuscripts that filled in blanks, and
realized there was an A.A. that many know little about: An early fellowship in
which many determined drunks had recovered in A.A.’s pioneer days. And a
program that has enabled many Christians—including the many newcomers Dick
sponsored—pursue progress in recovery within the rooms of A.A. itself.
The details
Dick unearthed over many years in A.A. were not easily found. Yet the elements
were such that suffering affected and afflicted entrants can utilize today
without wandering in the muddle of treatment options and criticisms abounding
about A.A.
Blessed with
God’s help, Dick was delivered from the power of darkness while he was an A.A.
newcomer It happened when Dick was soon hospitalized in the Veterans
Administration psych ward at Fort Miley in San Francisco. And what a nightmare
of physical and mental stress and ill-health, confusion, fear, anxiety, terror,
and genuine life-sized financial, legal, criminal, domestic, and other problems
common among battered newcomers today! Searchers for a way out that does not
have a well-lighted path.
But at six
months of sobriety, Dick was—while an expectant member of the A.A. fellowship--able
to turn wholly to God for help, return from two-months of hospitalization to
Alcoholics Anonymous for fellowship, and embark on the greatest pleasure of his
life—giving the great majority of his time to finding, helping, guiding, and
leading newcomers to God through Christ. Aiding new found lives among a virtual
army of newcomers. Lives where newcomers could be and were released through the
process of faith in God, through changed life-patterns mapped out in the Twelve
Steps, through study of both the Bible and A.A. literature in the rooms, and through concurrent liberation
as Christians from guilt, shame, loneliness, isolation, fear, and a sense of
friendlessness.
Here’s how
the story began.
Maybe it’s
best to show you the “path” and then to go briefly into what Dick found along
the way.
After about
three years in A.A. since gaining and maintaining continuous sobriety and
enjoying the fellowship and the A.A. program, Dick heard about an A.A. he had
never seen, never experienced, and never been able to pass along to others.
What he had heard had to do with the early A.A. successes and godly features.
And this
brings us to the story of John. John was an alcoholic.
It also
brings us to the surprising statement John made to me at a Twelve Step study
meeting in San Rafael, California. Interestingly, the meeting itself had the
name “Steps to Freedom.”
John knew I
had been attending a Bible fellowship, had been helped to grow in understanding
and knowledge of God’s revelation, promises, healings, and commandments. He
also knew I had been puzzled by the
absence in A.A. of this deliverance and growth factor which had been tested and
utilized by thousands of former alcoholics and addicts in the Bible fellowship
itself. Christians who had been healed and had continuously been clean and
sober without A.A. Yet whose members had little knowledge of A.A., the Twelve
Steps, or the background of A.A. itself.
The
incongruity did not drive me away from A.A. It had simply left me unable easily
to link what were commonplace practices among the early Christians in the Book
of Acts and the activities of those in his Bible fellowship to many of the
seemingly Bible-related words and ideas that existed in A.A.’s basic text.
John’s
conversation with me at the Step meeting went like this: “Dick, did you know
that A.A. came from the Bible?” “John, I have been much involved in A.A. for
three years, have probably attended over one thousand meetings, but I have
never, ever heard of any connection of A.A. with the Bible.”
“Dick, you
need to read A.A.’s DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers. It is filled with information about how the Bible was the
center-piece of early A.A., how the Bible was studied, and how the Book of
James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 were absolutely
essential to the early AA successes and program. In fact, the Book of James was
so popular that early AAs wanted to call A.A. “The James Club.””
With a mind
much clearer after three years of sobriety and having dipped into A.A.
literature, I had seen a number of Bible verses like “Faith without works is
dead,” “Thy will be done,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” quoted in the Big
Book. I had seen there biblical descriptions of God such as Creator, Maker,
Father, Heavenly Father, and Father of Lights. But within A.A., I had never
heard members link these Bible roots in A.A. literature to the Bible and A.A.
itself.
I had,
however, incessantly in A.A. heard of a “higher power,” that A.A. was
“spiritual but not religious,” and that AAs should read nothing but the Big
Book the first year of their recovery. Consequently, I was amazed at John’s
statement.
But I did read DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers—a precise account of how early A.A.
was founded in 1935. Details about how early Akron members called themselves a
“Christian Fellowship,” And about requirements for A.A. newcomers just never
heard in Marin County, California meetings.
I read that:
(1) Hospitalization was a must in early A.A.—something never even mentioned to
me as a newcomer though I was detoxing heavily and soon had three gran mal
seizures in A.A. (2) Pioneers were required to “surrender” their lives to a God
of their understanding—a practice only vaguely outlined in A.A.’s Step Number
Three. (3) Elimination of sinful conduct such as adultery was a must—conduct
that was boldly and frequently mentioned in meetings. (4) Each day, early AAs
held Quiet Times, prayed together, studied the Bible together, read Christian
literature Dr. Bob circulated among them—just never mentioned in A.A. meetings
in Marin County. (5) Helping others get straightened out the same way was
something every A.A. considered a duty—a concept that was stressed as we moved forward in A.A. (6) Newcomer fellowship
with like-minded believers was encouraged—whereas it was never a part of the
A.A. I had “joined.” (7) Attendance at a religious service once a week was
recommended—though it was common in meetings these days to hear someone say:
“My sobriety comes first. Church and family follow.”—hardly an affirmation of
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” One Irishman used to come to a beginners
meeting on Maui and say: “I go to church for my religion. I go to A.A. for my
alcoholism.”
Frankly, I
wouldn’t go anywhere for my alcoholism—only to a place like A.A. which pointed
the way out of this destructive illness.
Even today,
28 years later, an AA is often likely to doubt, reject , or ignore these facts
that are plainly stated in some of their “Conference-approved” literature.
But I did
not doubt either the facts or the history. I was tired of hearing about a
“higher power” that could be a rock, a light bulb, the Big Dipper, or “Ralph.” I
was tired of hearing folks in meetings talking about “spirituality,” and
ignoring published truth about Bible, prayer, Quiet Time, and Christian books.
Yet I was not condemning A.A. And I don’t. But rather the comments of friends
who had probably never heard in A.A. about anything but a “higher power” named
Ralph, an A.A. which was not “religious,” or even prayer to a God “of their
understanding” for healing and cure.
Yet I had also,
begun to study A.A.’s Big Book assiduously and spent hours trying to learn
about the Twelve Steps. But, after my talk with John, I was challenged to begin
a search. And here is what I did.
The Path to the Rest of
the A.A. Story
It was to my
delight that I picked up a copy of Bill Pittman’s book, AA the Way It Began, at an A.A. Conference in Sacramento,
California. At the same Conference, I again met a lady from Manteca who had
looked after me when I was at an early meeting in Stockton. I said to her that
I would like to go to the International
Convention in Seattle; and she advised that I’d better go “now” considering my
age.
And so I
did. I went with an agenda in mind—finding out what the leaders at the
International gathering knew about A.A. and the Bible. Meanwhile, I saw in AA The Way It Began the first
glimmerings of some of the major sources of A.A. ideas—the Bible, the Oxford
Group, and Reverend Sam Shoemaker.
In Seattle,
I went right to the archives meeting at the International Convention with the
specific purpose of learning about the Bible roots of A.A.
But seated
on the stage were some A.A. old-timers who never mentioned the Bible. One,
however, had a stack of Oxford Group books in front of him and said he’d send
them to me after the convention. Then I had heard panelists frequently mention
“Frank.” And I asked one who this “Frank” was that all the panelists referred to.
He replied, “Frank Mauser, the A.A. General Services Archivist from New York.” I
introduced myself to Frank and asked if he had material on Sam Shoemaker, and
A.A. Frank replied, “No.” But he promised to and did in fact send me what
little he had.
The upshot
of this first research adventure was this: The Oxford Group books arrived at my
home. Frank merely sent a Xerox copy of a page from Bill Pittman’s book that
listed some Shoemaker books. And I had learned nothing about A.A. and the
Bible. However, as I began to read the Oxford Group books, I could see the
remarkable similarity between words and phrases in the Big Book and those in
the Oxford Group. I could also see that most of the Oxford Group writers talked
about their “principles” almost always citing the Bible as authority for the
ideas.
I felt I was
on the Bible trail at last. I went to the small A.A. group that my sponsees and
I had formed. I proposed that the group hold a meeting in the large parish hall
in Mill Valley, California where Frank Mauser could speak, where films and
recordings of Bill and Bob could be presented, and where I could introduce the
audience to the Oxford Group roots.
The meeting
was a smash. Frank came from New York. He brought a Bill Wilson film with him,
and spoke at some length on A.A. and on its history as he knew it. 400 members
from A.A. were in attendance. Women brought in lunch materials. The audience
partook, and not a one left the conference. We called it “A Day in Marin.” And
Frank’s talk was so inspiring that I asked if they would like to hear him tell
more in the afternoon. The answer was, “yes.” He did. And then I presented what
I had learned about the Oxford Group and A.A. thus far. Frank turned to me and
said, “Dick, it looks like you’ve got a book in you.” And I sure did.
I boned up
on as many A.A., Oxford Group, and Shoemaker books as I could find. I wrote
some lengthy material on the Oxford Group. I went to nearby seminary libraries to
find more. And then I proposed once again to our little A.A. group (“Steps to
the Solution”) that we hold a second “A Day in Marin” Program, invite some
knowledgeable speakers on the history, and broaden the subject to fit the
speakers’ areas of expertise. Frank Mauser was invited to return, but could not
come. But he did label it the “Son of Day in Marin” program.
So we
invited as speakers: (1) Mel B., who was a substantial contributor to “PASS IT ON” and who had just published
his book New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of
the Twelve Step Miracle. (2) T. Willard Hunter, who had been employed by
the Oxford Group for many years, who knew Frank Buchman and Sam Shoemaker
personally, as well as many of its surviving members, and who had written
extensively for the Oxford Group. (3) Robert R. Smith (Dr. Bob’s son and his
wife Betty) who came all the way from Nocona, Texas.
Mel B. was
the first speaker. And his opening remark was “A.A. came from the Bible.”
And this
second conference was also a smash. 800 AAs attended. They were provided with
lunch. And not a one left the scene until the conference was over. Mel told
about early A.A. Willard told about the Oxford Group. Smitty told about his
father Dr. Bob and the founding of A.A. And I read from the Book of James to
let the audience hear what the early AAs had regularly studied.
In the
interval between the first and second Marin County events, I had continued my
search for A.A. historical roots—a search broadened with much additional
information about early A.A., the Oxford Group, Dr. Bob and Akron A.A., and the
Bible segments early AAs read—the Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount,
and 1 Corinthians 13. And I went to my first Founders Day Conference in
Akron—loaded to the gunnels with questions to be asked and people to be
interviewed. And a whole new arena of facts began to open.
My first Akron
visit was with Dr. Bob’s daughter Sue Smith Windows. She answered many
questions and she wrote and signed several statements about Akron. Then I asked
her if she had ever heard her father use the phrase “born again.” Immediately
she trudged up the stairs to her attic, using an inhaler to breathe properly.
She returned with a book called “Born Again.” It was by Emmet Fox. Her father had dated it, written “Please
return,” and signed it also adding his address
855 Ardmore, Akron. I asked her if her father was “born again.” She
replied, “yes.”
Then I asked
Sue if she had other books her father owned and read. She went to the attic and
brought several more downstairs. She said the attic was full of her dad’s
books. I asked if I could go up and look at them. She replied that it was too
messy, but she would clean it up and let me look at the collection if I
returned to Founders Day the next year. I asked her if she would make a list of
the books and send it to me. And she did. She also commented that her brother
“Smitty” had an equal number of Dr. Bob’s books in his home in Nocona, Texas.
I phoned
Smitty. He and his wife Betty both got on the phone and told me they had a
large number of books, would make a list, and send it to me. And after
collecting some books from seminaries and bookstores as well as individuals who
had them for sale, I was ready to and did write and publish my first book, Dr. Bob’s Library.
The next
year I returned to Akron and Founders Day for more visits. Sue invited me to
attend a meeting of the Board at Dr. Bob’s Home. I went to her attic, examined
the books carefully, compared them to the list she had sent, and verified that
many were signed, dated, in Dr. Bob’s own handwriting, and had the “Please
return” with 855 Ardmore written in them. At the Akron University Library, and
at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, I poured over the newspaper articles and
pictures of the town-wide Oxford Group events of 1933.
Sue had
another surprise for me. On the plane to Akron, I had read in a footnote in a
Hazelden book that its author had visited GSO archives in New York and seen
some scribbled notes said to have been written by Anne Smith. I asked Sue what
these were. She told me that her mother had kept a journal from 1933 to 1939
and shared it with AAs and their families in morning quiet times at the Smith
home. She also said she had typed some of the material for her mother while she
was at business school. Lois and Bill Wilson had taken the journal at the time
of her father’s death.
She agreed
to write requesting her mother’s journal and sign a letter to the A.A. Trustees
requesting that they make that journal available to me and to her. Frank Mauser
expedited it at GSO; and I soon had almost all the pages—some with handwritten
annotations, and some simply typewritten. I could see quite plainly that over
the period from 1933 to 1939, Anne had written down most of the materials
shared with early AAs and their families—biblical, Oxford Group, and
life-changing subjects. The material contained much discussion of the Bible,
prayer, Quiet Time, recommended books, Oxford Group ideas, and practical
suggestions for AAs and their families. And Anne had written: “Of course, the
Bible ought to be the main Source. Not a day should pass without reading it.” And
I wrote and published my second book, Anne
Smith’s Workbook, It contained the contents of Anne’s journal as well as
footnotes and my annotations sourcing many of the materials Anne had covered.
On the same
visit, I made a date to see Congressman John Seiberling at the University of
Akron where he was teaching. His mother Henrietta Seiberling had introduced
Bill W. to Dr. Bob and had led many of the early meetings. She and her children
attended them.
I read Congressman
John about 12 of the 28 Oxford Group, A.A. related ideas I had found in their
books. I asked him if he had ever heard any of the material in the early
meetings he, his mother, and his sisters attended. He said: “I never heard
anything else. My mother talked about all of these ideas repeatedly; and my
mother, I am sure, read all of the Oxford Group literature of the 1930’s.”
I asked John
for the names of his two sisters. I arranged a visit with Dorothy at her huge
condo in New York, reviewed her mother’s Bible and its notes with her, and
corresponded with her about her mother’s views. I could not arrange to see her
sister Mary Seiberling Huhn in Pennsylvania. But, when I wrote Mary, I received
quite a bundle of information about her mother, the meetings, and the
Seiberlings.
By this
time, I had begun to map out 10 books I wanted to write about A.A. One had been
Dr. Bob’s Library. One had been the Anne
Smith book. One was “The Books That Early AAs Read.” One was “The Oxford Group
and Alcoholics Anonymous.” And one was “The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics
Anonymous.” I also had in mind writing about Rev. Samuel Shoemaker’s role and
also a book on the often mentioned “Quiet Time.” For sure, I knew I would soon
be writing one or more books about the Big Book and what Dr. Bob called “The Good Book.” And that book
was to dig deeply into A.A.’s roots in the Bible. I also planned write a book
about the Women Pioneers of A.A.—Anne Smith, Henrietta Seiberling, Clarace
Williams, Lois Wilson, Geraldine O. Delaney, and Mrs. Shoemaker (It never got
written because Bill Pittman had joined Hazelden, arranged for such a book, and
paid me “for hire” to write the Seiberling portion.) I supplied the material on
Mrs. Geraldine O. Delaney, founder and president of Alina Lodge.
By this
time, thanks to Willard Hunter, I had met and interviewed at length, Willard
himself, James D. Newton, Eleanor Forde Newton, Garth Lean, Charles Haines,
Harry Almond, Parks Shipley, Mrs. W. Irving Harris, Kenneth Belden, Michael
Hutchinson, Jim Houck, George Vondermuhll, Jr., Richard Ruffin, and Dr. Morris
Martin. All of these were Oxford Group activists and leaders for years. When
the breakup with Rev. Sam Shoemaker occurred, almost all remained attached to
Oxford Group ideas and objectives. And we could see we had by then very much
mastered the Oxford Group ideas that filtered into Bill Wilson.
This
meant turning my attention to Rev.
Samuel M. Shoemaker and his little spoken of influence on Bill Wilson and the
new version of the program the Twelve Steps. To me this meant the acquisition
and careful review of all Sam’s books. It meant visiting his Calvary Churches
in New York and Pittsburgh. It meant meeting with his two daughters, reviewing
Sam’s personal journals, and talking to the many in Pittsburgh who were
familiar with Sam’s vibrant witnessing, sermons and speeches, and Sam’s growing
belief in small groups.
Finally,
with a letter of introduction from Sam’s younger daughter enabling us to have
complete access to all Shoemaker papers (58 boxes of them), we spent a week
going through them with the help of the archivist at the Episcopal Church
Archives in Austin, Texas. Through this all, we could see that Bill Wilson,
like the Oxford Group people he had left, had fully credited Shoemaker with
almost all the Step ideas. And we wrote New
Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d edition.
After which,
Bill Pittman apprised me of the fact that Fleming Revell (publisher of many of
the earlier Christian, Oxford Group, and Shoemaker books) wanted a book about
Shoemaker’s writings and their relation to the Twelve Steps. The publisher
wanted a foundational book that would buttress their planned reprint of many of
Shoemaker’s books (all of which I had read) Pittman said he didn’t feel
qualified to write the book; and we partnered in writing the book for Baker
Books. It is titled Courage to Change:
The Christian Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle. Hazelden bought the rights
from Baker and still publishes this Pittman-Dick B. book.
We reached a
turning point. And I keep mentioning “we.” The fact is that over most of my
sobriety and in practically all of my research and publishing years, my son
Ken—a talented graduate of University of California in Rhetoric and graduate of
San Francisco State in Fundamentals of Oral Communication—assisted me, edited
my work, and made endless research contacts. Ken was also a businessman and
later an ordained Christian minister and Bible scholar. And we felt it was appropriate to write a
magnum opus work on the spiritual history of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was to
incorporate the various elements that we had discovered and published. And it
was filled with as much as we had then learned—all 771 pages of it. The title
is Turning Point: A History of Early
A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes. Paul Wood, Ph.D., President of the
National Council on Alcoholism, wrote the Foreword. Those who endorsed the book
were Bob and Betty Smith, Ozzie and Bonnie Lepper of the Wilson House, John
Seiberling, and Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Counseling,
Education, and Chemical Dependency at The Pennsylvania State University.
However, the
recovery world was changing rapidly. A.A. had stopped growing. Religious
publishers like Zondervan, Abingdon, Thomas Nelson, and Harper Collins were
pumping out “recovery Bibles” and Christian-related recovery materials that
incorporated the Steps. Treatment
programs were closing by the dozens. A.A.’s history writers had reached a
dividing point where some were emphasizing A.A. as open to all, “spiritual” in
nature, based on a “higher power” and “not-god-ness” and therefore much distanced
from religion, Christianity, and the Big Book-Bible study guides. Also from the
formation of study groups that would incorporate old school A.A., the merits of
the earlier program and practices, and the Conference-approved literature of A.A.
today.
Meanwhile,
we were receiving voluminous numbers of phone calls, emails, letters, and
visits from at least two groups of people: (1) Christians who were being
rebuffed within the walls of A.A. if they mentioned God, the Bible, Jesus
Christ, or religion; and being intimidated and stricken from “official” meeting
lists if their group did. (2) Christian relatives of prisoners and addicted
people in trouble who recognized their family members wouldn’t quit using their
drug of choice, were recidivists in the extreme, and needed Christian
help—trying to find an effective Christian recovery program.
I had worked
with dozens and dozens of newcomers and had taught them the Big Book and taken
them through the Steps. I had introduced them to the biblical approaches that
were used and applied both before and at the time of early A.A. And it was
apparent to me that young men and women (as well as one 90 year old sponsee,
one 65 year old sponsee, one 50 year old
sponsee) were willing to emulate the actions of the early AAs.
These wanted
to quit drinking and using. They recognized their seeming helplessness and
hopelessness. And they were very very receptive to learning about God, His Son,
the Bible, prayer, healing, salvation,
and other subjects that could able them to become more than just “in recovery”
or “recovered” or even “cured.”
At the same
time they were lacking the tools, principles and practices that had dominated
early A.A.—the fruits and techniques of the pre-AA organizations like the YMCA,
rescue missions, Salvation Army, and Christian Endeavor. They had rejected many
recovery-related biblical ideas primarily because of lack of knowledge of the
Christian upbringing and Bible studies of A.A.’s founders and their earliest successes
in growing in understanding God, Christ, and the Bible. They were enjoined to
apply their own principle that “God could and would if He were sought.” Without
the background, they were ill-equipped to establish a relationship with God,
come to Him through Jesus Christ, understand the elements of prayer, define the
sinful conduct that had been blocking them from God, and then turn to God for
help in their own case and in the lives of those they wanted to help.
But there
was also a flight factor that had intervened in A.A.’s simple early program. Objections
fostered by atheists, agnostics, humanists, and unbelievers; and the utter lack
of information about the biblical roots of A.A. were driving Christians out of
A.A. and into the arms of diverse religious programs like Alcoholics
Victorious, Teen Challenge, Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Celebrate Recovery,
Alcoholics for Christ and others. Many of these new resources just couldn’t or
didn’t invest in the 24/7 love and
service that had made A.A. so much needed, popular, and welcome to those in
deep trouble and propelled toward recognizing alcohol and drugs as the enemy to
be licked.
This further
caused us to dig deep into the real history of the highly successful Christian
organizations and leaders who helped alcoholics long before A.A. was even
thought of. That meant investigating the virtually unreported Vermont Christian
upbringing and Bible training of the two cofounders and the third AA who got
sober before the A.A. and before it had a recovery program other than that
obtainable from the Bible. Their strong faith without a structured program
nonetheless produced reliance on God, help for others, and continuous sobriety
for the rest of their lives. This meant
for us instructive writing, teaching, and speaking on these topics.
Furthermore,
a new and strong Christian Recovery Movement was springing up to deal with the
factors mentioned here. A host of Christians in A.A. and Christian leaders in
treatment programs, sober-living homes, counseling, fellowships, and churches
began to unite in their desire to support the A.A. which had enabled them to
get sober and to learn and apply the old school A.A. which firmly planted the
pioneers in the God-centered recovery fellowship and groups.
That is
where we are today. That is how my son Ken and I view our task as servants of our
Heavenly Father, heralds of the Word of God, and practical utilizers and appliers of the biblical A.A. of
yesteryear.
But this
cannot be accomplished without the uniquely lonely solid information we
have unearthed and published and without
a persistent eye on the need to “seek
first the Kingdom of God” and then reap the harvest that awaits those who
decide to abandon deadly alcoholism and drug abuse, and become the individuals
described in 2 Corinthians 5:17—a
favorite in early A.A.
If the
sharing of experience, strength, and hope is truly to inform people of the
readiness of God to help, of the fruits of a God-centered life, and of the
merits of combining A.A.’s motto of love and service as a guide to helping others
is imparted to trainers, then this effort can prosper. It can certainly be far
more powerful today than the efforts of the alcoholic himself, the senses-knowledge
fashioned, self-made religion, and
self-made human efforts of others. The solution is responding with God’s love
and power to the calls of those who are still seemingly hopeless, medically
incurable, last gasp sufferers who can and do get healed and restored by
renouncing their poison, establishing a solid relationship with God, and
helping others get well.
The A.A.
story as presently told and limited in presentation today leaves out these
factors. It is therefore the “rest of
the story” that needs to be discovered, reported, documented, and disseminated
as an option to all who seek something more than their own strength, the
weaknesses in man’s efforts, and the manufacture in the rooms and by theorists of
false gods, unbelief, and “evidence based” failures when help from God was the
very thing early AAs needed and present-day AAs need the option of seeking and
receiving by whatever truthful means have been discovered and revealed as to
A.A.’s origins, roots, success factors, and programs.
