Christ and Alcoholics Anonymous
Most AA’s know little of the history of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Most Christians even less.
The popular notion among Christians is that Alcoholcs Anonymous
is not a Christian program. I wont argue that. Its currently not.
However, that doesn’t mean that at one time the teachings of Jesus
didn’t occupy a prominent place. They clearly did. But organizations
change over time and not always for the better. Just as Americans
become better Americans when they understand their marvelous
heritage, so do AA’s becomebetter AA’s when they understand AA’s
Christian roots. Dick B. does a pretty thorough job of filling in the
missing blanks www.dickb.com
Has Christ been deliberately taken out of AA literature?
Many modern AA's dont even know that he was. The current watered
down 4th edition of AA's Big Book makes no referecnce of him except
briefly in Bills Story..So for those who are ignorant of AA's Christian
roots a good place to start is to read the conference approved "Dr.Bob
and the Good Oldtimers".
There are many good Christian testimonies in the First Edition. Some
from people who got sober and stayed sober all their lives. They
werent"slippers". Some will say that was the reason. Certainly people
like Clarence S. whose story "Home Brewmeister"appeared in the AA
Big Book for over 60 years were not deleted because of their lack of
sobriety or committment to AA.I talked to an AA lady the other day
about this. She was a longtime 20+ years member of AA and her
response was "They found out it didnt work".
So I shot off an e-mail to AA historian Dick B. (www.dickb.com) to find
out ifit was true. His response:
“Dear Ted:
That baloney about the Bible didn't work shows how few people
have read our accurate history and have just swallowed the idea
that the Oxford Group didn't work, Dr. Bob's efforts didn't work,
the Bible didn't work, the Creator didn't work, Jesus Christ didn't
work, but radiators and lightbulbs did. The proof is in the facts,
not the prejudices. Anyone who cares to can read any of my twenty-five
published titles and find accurate documentation that puts the lie to
the lady's speculations.I cannot tell you why Bill deleted the stories of
Bible reading andChristian testimony. I can say that Lois claimed there
was an "agreement"that A.A. should be "universalized" because not all
AAs were Christians.I can tell you that Bill (AA's Co-founder) never ever
accurately told the A.A. story about the Bible, the Oxford Group, Sam
Shoemaker, Anne Smith, Quiet Time, or the Christian literature AAs
read.In fact the original program, as reported by Frank Amos, just
vanished with Bill's pen in the Big Book. Moreover, there was the famous
dispute in Ruth Hock's office where "God as we understood Him" was
introduced into the Steps, where Fitz Mayo remonstrated, and where
soon over 400 pages were tossed out and which (according to Ruth's
account to Bill Pittman) contained mostly Christian and Biblical materials.
There may be your complete answer”
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I would like to add a little something to Dick B. statement.
“We war not with flesh and blood but spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Connect the dots.
