They Threw Out 400 Pages About Higher Power From the Big Book and Wondered Why the Miracles Stopped – Dick B.

Due to a fly-fishing injury, I'm going to stay down here on the floor and invite our speakers up. When I had 20 years, two and a half years ago or so, I went on this quest to find out about AA history. Our buddy Mike M. from Cherokee, I was at Cherokee House at the time, he gave me a copy of Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers. And then I stumbled across a copy of AA Comes of Age, which was the 20th anniversary. And I started getting really almost obsessed with finding AA history. And I started searching online and going all around and trying to find more that I could find about history. And I stumbled on a website one night, DickB.com. And I went, wow, this guy's got some cool stuff. And then out of everything that happened, my sponsor got to meet him first down at a conference in Palm Springs. So I went down on a business trip and I got to stop by and visit some other ministries. I was down visiting the leader of the Rockies. I was in the Rock Church ministry. And I mentioned Dick. And his attitude was, well, have you met him? And I go, met him? You've got to be kidding. How could I meet him? And he picks up his phone and he calls him up. They're in the airport in Maui on their way to Los Angeles. And their appointment the next night canceled. And he wanted to meet with Valerie and I. And I said, well, it must not have been my idea. It must be God. And we've been communicating ever since. We're offering his classes. We're going to take those up one week from next Monday. We're going to offer. We're going to run through them again. We just went through. We threw them one set. It's called the Indirectory Foundations of Christian Recovery. And with that, I'd like to ask Dick and Ken to come up and share their testimony and a little bit about what they've been doing for us. It's a special night. We've really been looking forward to having them join us. Let's give them a big hand. This is a happy, happening night in this great city. Early AA was a family program. And there's a little toddler down here still trying to find the light. And there was a dude up here named Charlie. And I'm going to nominate him either for American Idol or for your next recovery leader. Early AAs really did work together to achieve recovery by the power of God. And so the typical early AA meeting was daily. It was in the homes. It was breaking bread together, studying the Bible together, praying together, and what else? Great things. Great things together. Jesus taught in the temple daily. In the book of Acts, the apostles did those things daily. And what we're seeing on this trip, this is the 15th talk, is people doing things daily and doing things as a family and bringing the kids. Dr. Bob's kids went to the early meetings. So did Congressman Seiberling and his two sisters when their mother was leading the meetings. So with that, I want to thank you for a really great meeting, for the food, the music, and the enthusiasm. Thank you. I was asking Dale. Well, now, this is my last night speaking at Auburn, so we won't give that. I was asking him what he wanted as a topic, and I suggested some great titles, and they were all rejected. And he came up with this one, which is just appropriate. Participating in AA as a Bible-believing Christian. And that's why we're here. There are several other reasons. I want to tell you from AA conference-approved literature about three winning programs. The first is the original Akron Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935. How Dr. Bob described it is set forth in his last major speech, in 1948, in this AA conference-approved pamphlet, P53, which you can hardly find at meetings any longer. And we're going to urge you to change that. And the title of it is, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Biographical Sketches, Their Last Major Talks. Now, here's how Dr. Bob described the program. In the article, he wrote, In the article, he wrote, In the article, he wrote, In the article, he wrote, In the article, he wrote, In the article, he wrote, In the early days, we became quite convinced that the spiritual program was fine if we could help the Lord out a little with some supplementary diet. Bill D., having a stomach trouble, had stumbled across the fact that he began feeling much better on sauerkraut and cold tomatoes. Now, I had three grand mal seizures when I came into AA, and what they offered me was orange juice and honey. And a kindly nurse that was sitting next to me in the meeting where I had my first, And a kindly nurse that was sitting next to me in the meeting where I had my first, And a kindly nurse that was sitting next to me in the meeting where I had my first, said, he doesn't need a meeting, he doesn't need orange juice and honey, he needs an ambulance. And I bit my tongue just about in half. The only time in my life I didn't talk too much for a long time. So, Dr. Bob said, we thought Bill should share that experience. Of course, we discovered later that dietary restrictions had very little to do with maintaining sobriety. At that point, our stories didn't amount to anything to speak of. There were no drunkologues. When we started it on Bill D, I'd say number three, we had no 12 steps. There were no 12 steps, either. We had no traditions. There were no 12 traditions, either. But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the good book. To some of us older ones, the parts we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and the book of James. We used to have daily meetings at a friend's house. All this happened at a time when everybody was broke, awfully broke. And then he went on later to say, it wasn't until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the 12 steps. I didn't write the 12 steps. I had nothing to do with writing them. But I think I probably... I think I probably had something to do with them indirectly. Typical of Dr. Bob's modesty and humility. And then he went on to say, we already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as a result of our study of the good book. We must have had them. Since then, we've learned from experience that they are very important in maintaining sobriety. We were maintaining sobriety. Therefore, we must have had them. He was talking about the basic ideas from the Bible. This is the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now, that program... I'm going to tell you later how the first three got sober, but that program that began at that point was so successful that John D. Rockefeller was disposed to send out an investment plan to the United States. He sent an investigator to Akron to see what the people had been doing. Because by that time, they had a 75% success rate. And Frank Amos rendered a report to John D. Rockefeller of what he found there. And the report is published in AA Conference-approved literature, Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers. And this report is set forth on Twitter. It's on page 131. And Ken is going to read you a summary of those seven points that Frank Amos found the early AA program constituted. One of the things that is very important to us to communicate to you is if you're going to participate in a recovery meeting, especially AA, why not play by the rules? If you don't want to have a lot of grief, why don't you learn the rules? In the United States, States Congress, they have something called Robert's Rules of Order. And if you know them and you use them, you're able to be much more effective than if you don't. One of our major functions is to function as reporters, not spin doctors, reporters. What does that mean? That means to share the facts with you, facts that if you go look, you'll see that they're what we say they are. And one of the ways that we do that is by showing you and quoting to you from AA General Service Conference approved literature and authoritative autobiographies and biographies and original documents as much as we can. That way, you can check it out for yourself. And if somebody wants to know, if they have eyes to see and ears to hear, they can hear the message too. The message is not for the goats. The message is for the sheep. The message is for the people who want God's help. That's who we're speaking to. So, as my dad mentioned, I'm going to read to you from page 131 of Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers. Now, if you don't recognize this, that's because AA has changed the cover since this older version. But it's still the same book, still in print, still available in New York, from New York, still AA General Service Conference. Approved literature. Good luck finding it in most AA meetings. But maybe you can change that. Page 131. I'll start at the end of 130. Frank Amos is talking and it says, well, it starts out, in meeting with a number of the men, their wives, and, quote, in some cases, their mothers, end of quote, Mr. Amos heard varying stories, quote, many of them almost miraculous. End of quote. He noted, however, that when it came to recovery, they were all remarkably alike in, quote, the technique used and the system followed. End of quote. He described the, quote, program, end of quote, as follows. Quote, number one, an alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic, incurable from a medical viewpoint, and that he must never again drink anything with alcohol in it. Number two, he must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope. Number three, not only must he want to stop drinking permanently, he must remove from his life other sins such as hatred, adultery, and others which frequently accompany alcoholism. Unless he will do this absolutely, Smith and his associates refuse to work with him. Number four, he must have devotions every morning. A, quote, quiet time, end of quote, and prayer, of prayer, and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature. Unless this is faithfully followed, there is grave danger of backsliding. Number five, he must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out. This throws up a protective barrier and strengthens his own willpower and convictions. Number six, it is important, but not vital, that he meet frequently with other Reformed alcoholics and form both a social and religious comradeship. Number seven. Important, but not vital, that he attend some religious service at least once weekly. Seven points, five required, three important, two important, but not required. Not six word-of-mouth ideas, like an Alcoholics Anonymous comes of age. Not 12 steps, seven. Seven. When that report was submitted to John D. Rockefeller, Frank Amos appended to it the statement, why this is like the Gospels of the Book of Acts. And when it was rendered to Rockefeller, he said, this is comparable to first century Christianity. And the chairman of the board of the Riverside Church in New York said, why this is first century Christianity. And so it is. They started out with a very definite flavor of Christianity. And in addition to the summary of the program that Frank Amos got, we've assembled in our guidebook, which I hope some of you will acquire, and that they'll be available on the back table, and I'll be glad to sign them for anybody who wants to have them signed. We've pulled together all of the materials that we've gathered. We've looked at them over the last 20 years and tried to condense them and document them. But the actual practices of the early AAs are in this guidebook, and there were 14 of them. And Ken is just going to summarize those 14. Now, these 14 points I'm going to read to you right now, they're not listed as 1 to 14 in any AA general service conference-approved literature, like I just read you from the Frank Amos report. However, every one of them, every one of these 14 points is documented from Dr. Bob and the good old-timers that we just showed you. So there's a footnote with every single one of these 14 points showing you exactly where in AA general service conference-approved literature this is what they did when early AA claimed a 75% success rate among the hardest cases that there were. Number one, qualifying the newcomer. Number two, hospitalization was a must. I was there when my dad almost died of three grand mal seizures, not when he had them, but shortly thereafter. I was there when he was suffering from almost having bitten his tongue in half. That was not any fun. Hospitalization was a must. Number three, surrender by the newcomer during his five to seven day, stay at the hospital. Number four, upon leaving the hospital, in the case of Clarence Snyder at least, Clarence was taken to his first Oxford group meeting at T. Henry's house, given a Bible by Dr. Bob, and told by Dr. Bob to, quote, go out and fix drunks as an avocation, end of quote. Number five, most went to live in the Smith residence, or in the residences of other Akron people like Wally G. and Tom L. They stayed as long as needed in order to get them steady in their path. Number six, there were Christian fellowship meetings every day. With Dr. Bob, Ann, and Henrietta Seiberling. These included group Bible study, prayer, and quiet time observances. Number seven, in addition, each morning, alcoholics and their family members gathered at the Smith home for a quiet time conducted by Ann. With prayer, Bible reading, seeking guidance, and discussions of portions of Ann's personal journal. There was one, quote, number eight, there was one, quote, Oxford group, end of quote, meeting each Wednesday at the home of T. Henry Williams, number seven. Number eight, there was one, quote, Oxford group, end of quote, meeting each Wednesday at the home of T. Henry Williams, number seven. A meeting unlike any other Oxford group meeting. Number nine, there were extensive reading, there was extensive reading of Christian devotionals and literature provided by Dr. Bob and distributed at meetings. Number ten, there was particular stress on study of the book of James, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, that's Matthew chapters five through seven, and first Corinthians, and first Corinthians 13. Number eleven, meetings concluded with invitations to reach out to newcomers in the hospital and elsewhere, and then closed with the Lord's Prayer. Number twelve, there was frequent socializing in the homes, particularly on Saturday evenings. Number thirteen, members knew each other well. They phoned and visited each other, and they kept little address books with the names, phone numbers, and street addresses of the pioneers. Number fourteen, in addition, rosters of the names and addresses, sobriety dates, and relapses, if any, were kept and still exist today. As I said, these fourteen points can all be found in Dr. Bob and the Good Old-Timers. And other biographical materials. Right. Why would anybody want to know those things? The answer is, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. The answer is, because that's first-century Christianity in action, in recovery. And the observers all said that. They looked at it and they said, why, this is first-century Christianity. Now, before I learned, and I'm not going to tell the story tonight, but before I learned of the relationship of the Bible and the big book, we were doing these things. I had got sober in Marin County, and I was told, if I read the Bible, I would get drunk, and I would be done. And if I took people to my Bible fellowship, they'd get drunk and so forth. But we did it anyway, and we were thoroughly involved in AA all the time. I believe you should not knock AA. You should report it and support it. But the reporting should be of all of AA and not just some of it or what somebody in New York today puts in a publication and said this is AA, and it's not. Now, the importance of those practices is that they produced a 75% success rate. And I won't go into the details. It's very well covered in our guidebook, documented and so forth. And at each one of these meetings in California, we practically covered a different type of approach and subject. So in any one meeting, we can't cover it all. Well, that's the early program. It's a 75% success rate. Now, to make a long story short, it was so successful that Bill Wilson smelled money, and he asked permission to write a book. And approval was given after a bitter fight, but Dr. Bob supported him, and there was a two-majority vote. And so they expected that he was going to write a book about the program that you've just heard. But that isn't what happened. What happened is that he began devising an entirely different kind of program based primarily on the Oxford Group's 28 life-changing principles. However, when that book was written, it contained the material in one form or another that I'm going to read to you tonight. So the second program I'm going to talk to you about, is the big book program as it exists today in AA's literature, which they call the Basic Text of Alcoholics Anonymous. Now note this. On page 29, it says, Each individual in the personal stories describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God. And then in something that those of you who voted for, AA heard here read almost regularly from how it works, I'll read these portions. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. I hung on to that. I mean, it was great to see these people coming up for chips. The chips are designed to let them feel rewarded for their effort, but they're designed to witness to others that it's working. And so I hung on to that. Rarely have we seen a person fail. But then down at the bottom it says, Remember that we deal with alcohol. Cunning, baffling, powerful. Without help, it is too much for us. But there is one who has all power. That one is? May you find him? Exactly. And here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery. And the 12 steps are laid out. They were changed, and we may have time to tell you how and why. But we have them today. And that's, you're reading the today. This book, this fourth edition came out in 2001. But it concludes as follows. A, that we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. B, that probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. C, that God could and would if he were sought. And so that program is the one that we have today. And it's my firm belief since I'm here with more than 24 years of sobriety and having mastered, I hope, the big book and taken many people through the 12 steps that it's quite compatible with the thing that we were doing when they told us not to read the Bible. It was the early AA Christian fellowship in action. We sang at our Bible fellowships just like you did tonight. And I love coming to the meetings now that are being held where there's a lot of music and singing and joy. Now, just to conclude this present day program, I want to read you what Dr. Bob said about it. This is on page 181 of the big book. Now, we were told in Marin you should never read past page 164 because that's the basic text. Well, that's not what the cover says. The cover says this is the basic text, meaning everything in this book. And so I never read page 181 until long after when we got into the story of Dr. Bob. But here's what he wrote. If you think you're an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. And it concludes, your Heavenly Father will never let you down. That was his testimonial. And then, even further down in the Forbidden Territory, on page 191, AA number 3 talks about how Bill Wilson, AA number 1, had told AA number 3, Bill Dotson's wife, the following. Bill, that's Wilson, looked across at my wife and said to her, Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people. I thought, I think I have the answer. Bill was very, very grateful that he'd been released from this terrible thing. And he'd given God the credit for having done it. And he's so grateful about it that he wants to tell other people about it. That sentence, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep telling people about it, has been a sort of golden text for the AA program and for me. Now that's our present day program. And if you can find anything in those portions that I just read you, that keeps you from hooping and hollering and doing all the things you did tonight, and the other things you do in your Bible studies, and your, I've met with some of your leadership, and this, this is a complete, complete program here. And we'll be talking about that. And this can be done, and yet if you start, there was one place that I went where they put up posters showing the good book and the big book. And they said Dick B is in town. Well, they didn't leave the town, because everybody's looking for a job nowadays. But the point was they tore down the posters. Why? Why? Do people not want to know these things? Well, our discovery has been, we have a website, DickB.com. And since we set it up in 1995, we've had 4.5 million visitors. Now you don't get that kind of visitation if people don't like what's going on. They just don't punch the button. But if they punch the button, they either want to know about it, or they get enthused about it. And they call us and email us, and contact us all the time. Just like Dale did. That's why we're here tonight. Now that's the second program. There's a third program, which gives heart to all of you. And the big book was published in the spring of 1939. And shortly after that, because some Roman Catholics were not permitted to come down to the Akron meeting by their priest, Clarence Snyder told Dr. Bob, I'm going to form a meeting for alcoholics only. But what he did, and it was in Cleveland, and on May 11th of 1939, they held the first meeting, which they called Alcoholics Anonymous. And it was for alcoholics only. In that program, Clarence brought with him what I would like to call the best of AA. The big book had just been published. And so he embraced the big book. And he embraced the 12 steps. And he brought with him the Bible and the Oxford Group's four absolutes, which were derived from Christian sources and teachings of Jesus. Honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. And the Cleveland organization grew like crazy. It went from one group to 30, in a year. There's been no record like that in the early days, except in Cleveland. And what were they doing? They were studying the big book, the 12 steps, the Bible, and the four absolutes. And you can find that out today. If you look at the Cleveland Central Bulletin, the four absolutes were on its masthead. Honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. There were prayers, literature suggested, and Bible verses, and so on. That group grew. And by the time they kept a record, both in Akron and in Cleveland, with names, addresses, and so on, Clarence made a survey of those rosters, and I've seen them. And there was a 93% success rate. That should tell you something. There's nothing wrong with taking the big book and the 12 steps and the Bible and the four absolutes. And Bill Wilson said, Cleveland results were of the best. They were astonished. And so the guy in whose home the first Cleveland meeting was held, and this was in the third edition of the big book, and it's been taken out, like so many of the other gems. And this guy was meeting with Clarence Snyder and Bill Wilson. And he asked the question, what is it that's so wonderful that causes all these miraculous situations? And there was a picture of Jesus at Gethsemane on the wall, and Bill Wilson pointed to it, and he said, there it is. And so Cleveland was not sanitized any more than the Akron program was, or except for some changes, the big book is today. If this trip has any major purpose, and there are several of them, but it's to find what we have found, AA-friendly, Bible-friendly, history-friendly groups that want to stick with the winners. How's this being done? Well, we're learning more on this trip than we are reporting. But the first thing is something that Dale has grabbed hold of, and we hope it's going to go very widely for those who are leaders and those who really want to know so that they can pass along accurate information instead of the baloney that you hear in so many meetings. Your higher power is a rock, or a chair, or Santa Claus, or the back end of the city bus. In Marin County at the beginners' meeting every Friday, Ralph was the higher power of a guy that just had to tell us every Friday, and my higher power is Ralph, to which I never said then because I didn't have the guts to say it, but today I'd say, how's that working for you? So it's nonsense, and our class, which Dale is showing, and I can tell from the number of people that have come up already, a lot of people are seeing it, is designed to do in four hours, and each one can be viewed independently, as much as we were able to put into, that class, and train leaders, and groups, and counselors, and treatment centers, and live in situations, and it's happening, and it's slow going, because people are wary of, quote, religion, and AA, and so forth, they just don't know the origins, but we now have that class in three treatment programs, and a number of recovery programs, a recovery program, a church recovery program, or Christ-centered recovery programs, fellowships like this one, and we are presenting it to the Association of Christian and Alcohol Drug Counselors, and individuals and groups are using it. That's a resource, and we're spending so much time on television, why not spend four hours of your life and hear and see how AA began? The second thing we hope is a guide, and that's the one we have in the back of the room, which we hope you'll get, and in that is what I'm covering tonight, but it's for those who are backed up against the wall, as many are, and somebody says, as I hope I will say tonight, Bill Wilson went to the Calvary Rescue Mission, you have a rescue mission leader here among you, and I've been very anxious to meet somebody because the rescue missions were an important part of AA history, but if you said, Bill Wilson went to the altar at the Calvary Rescue Mission in New York and made a decision for Christ, and in his autobiography wrote, for sure I was born again, they'll stone you, but not if you can show exactly where that's documented. Bill Wilson's wife said that's what happened, Reverend Sam Shoemaker's wife was there when Bill made the decision, and so if you are able to document the statements, not just watch the class, but look it up, and when somebody says, well, what were those seven points? You can read Dr. Bob and the good old timers, and what were the 14 practices? You can read it in the guidebook, so we have those two tools, and then shortly we're going to get to something, I hope, that I call stick with the winners. Everybody keeps saying, Dick, you talk too much, and of course I do. Ah, come on. 39 books later, 450 articles, and on and on and on, and so the question is, well, how do you take the steps? Well, we're blessed. Clarence Snyder had three sponsees, and I know them all. One has passed away, and these men were with him for a long time. They conduct his retreats around the world, and they have sponsored all kinds of people, and finally, the chief of the group, Steve Foreman, said, Dick, if you will compile and edit it, we want to write a book that tells exactly how Clarence took people through the steps with the Bible, the four absolutes, the big book, and the 12 steps, and so they did, and they worked about a year on it, and I said, well, I'll do it, but I want you to let me write about AA history also, and they said, well, that'll be in the back of the book, so it is, but this book, Steve makes this available, I think you can find it on his website, came to believe dot org, at cost, and so this is a tremendous book, so this is a tremendous guide showing how that third and extremely successful program was conducted using the very things that I think you folks are using with the possible exception of the Oxford group materials. Yeah, Ken's going to read you the title. The title of this Clarence Snyder guide is Our AA Legacy to the Faith Community, a 12-step guide for those who want to believe. We are trying, we hope, to train the trainers. If you're going to be a sponsor, don't pass Ralph along. Ralph is not here, as far as I know, and one distinguished AA historian had a higher power named Gertrude. Gertrude's not here, as far as I know, but God is, and so if you want to be a sponsor, don't pass along junk. The big book says, we can't give away what we haven't got. So you don't give away garbage. You get the right material and you pass it along. Same way with a counselor, same way with a treatment center, same way with groups. Are we going to really get down to cases and talk about God, just like they always did? Are we going to talk about Jesus Christ? Which they did until that portion of the big book was thrown out, with the exception of one derogatory sentence. So it's training the trainers that we hope to do, and we want to do it in basically four phases. We want to train people in the Christian origins of AA. What were they? Well, in a few words, the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the United Young People's Christian Endeavor Society, the Evangelists, the Rescue Missions, it's all laid out in our guidebook and in many other books. But you can see that these simple principles of going to a bum on the sidewalk and offering him salvation and the Bible, and when he got well, instantly, as he often did, they tell him to join God's army. Today we know that as the Salvation Army. And the same way with the Rescue Missions. Bums wandered in there, for what they used to call soup, soap, and salvation. And the soup and the soap are kind of commonplace. AAs will grab food whenever they can get it. But the point is the salvation is what those missions were really offering and then going beyond that. And that was the starting point for Bill's recovery. Also, the Oxford group had a later part to play. And Reverend Sam Shoemaker taught Bill the principles from the Bible and the Oxford group that were incorporated in the steps. And also, we have gone extensively into the youth of Dr. Bob and Bill. And we found that they were involved intensely in Bible study, prayer meetings, conversion meetings, the YMCA, Daily Chapel. These men had Christian upbringing. So it's not surprising when you see in the big book the word Creator with a capital C 12 times. Maker. Those aren't Gertrude. They're not Ralph. They're Creator. And Father of Light. And Heavenly Father. These men were conversant with those terms. And they used them to carry that kind of a message. The second phase that we're trying to train people in is what we just covered with you. The program, the early one, and its successes. The third phase is the big book and to some extent what happened to it. A major change was made in the, you know, the old timers will say, that big book has never been changed. Not a word. Well, that's not true. Furthermore, before it went to the printer, they completely changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They changed it. They completely changed. And we don't have the time to read it, but I think it's in our class that Dale shows. There was a big argument with only four people. One wasn't even an alcoholic. She was the secretary. And they were arguing over the material from the missions and from the churches that had been included in the program. Well, we know that they threw out 400 pages of that kind of material, and it's in Pass It On, an AA conference approved book. But the big battle occurred over the steps. The second step originally said, came to believe that God could restore us to sanity. Out it went. And they used the term which Shoemaker used, called power greater than ourselves. Harmless? We'll see. And now when it came to steps 3 and 11, it said in the case of step 3, made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Out went that. And in came as we understood Him. So today, people understand Him to be a light bulb, Gertrude, Ralph, and they're proud of it. And they'll argue with it. And I won't say I was a fan of Penn and Teller, but one in a program in which they lambasted AA, they said, how do you like praying to a rock? I wish more people had seen that and then been aware that we don't pray to a rock. Nor does the big book suggest that. But it comes out of these changes. Now what Bill said is, those changes were a compromise made to appease the atheists and agnostics. Now remember what I read you about, Dr. Bob, if you're an atheist or an agnostic or a skeptic or a critic, I feel sorry for you. And yet they made that change. Why? Well, the contention was, well, atheists and agnostics won't be able to come in. Okay. But the program that was the winner involved God. There's a fourth phase, and that is, there was a further change in AA. Shortly after the beginning of the big book was written, and after Clarence had formed the Cleveland Group, Bill went into a serious 12-year depression. So bad that he would smoke cigarettes and just burn holes in the table. He was unable to function many times. And so in this vacuum of leadership, Dr. Bob being focused in Akron on hospitalization and 12-step work development, nothing was happening in New York. The big book was written, the leader was depressed, and other programs crept in. One of them was Father Ralph Fowle. And he wrote the Golden Books and a couple of other books, had a radio program, and people were wild over the Golden Books. And also Richmond Walker wrote a book for drunks only. It had a lot of Oxford Group ideas in it. Eventually it became a 24-hour book when New York refused to accept it, and Hazelton published it. And there was the Little Red Book and so on. And also there's a relic in a program today called Back to Basics, which doesn't go back to basics at all. It goes back to what happened in 1942 in the vacuum of leadership. They developed different ideas about what should be done with the steps. The important thing is that Dr. Bob apparently had had enough of this. He was going about his business, and I want to tell you what Bill Olson said about him. And it's in this co-founder's pamphlet on page 34, and Ken will read it. And think about this question when I read this. How would you like to have had the best sponsor in the world? This is on page 34 from the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. It had been decided that Bob would attend mostly to the questions of hospitalization and the development of our 12-step work. Between 1940 and 1950, in the company of that marvelous nun, Sister Ignatia, he had treated 5,000 drunks at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. His spiritual example was a powerful influence. And he never charged a cent for his medical care. So Dr. Bob became the prince of all 12-steppers. Perhaps nobody will ever do such a job again. This was written by Bill after Dr. Bob died. But shortly, Dr. Bob contracted cancer somewhere along the line, I don't remember whether it was 1947 or 48, but he was beginning to, he was beginning to know that the end of the trail was coming. And what he did was to say, we gotta have some books that people can understand. All this other stuff was coming out, corruptions and new ideas. So he commissioned four pamphlets, which can still be purchased today from the Cleveland Central Office and the Akron Intergroup Office. And when I get to the part that I'm going to get to in the next five minutes, I'm going to urge you to get those books. Because in those, you'll see the Bible, you'll see the Ten Commandments, you'll see the Book of James and the Sermon on the Mount and First Corinthians mentioned. One book is called Guide to the Twelve Steps. And what it talks about is eliminate sin, all the various things that have been said in the original program. Dr. Bob was saying, that's part of the concept today, the whole intermediate steps. They have changed the language, but they originally talked about eliminating sin. And so those steps from the Oxford Group concept, decision, inventory, confession, conviction, conversion and continuance are still there. And they were designed to, what the Book of James called, cleanse your hands, you sinners. And then it says, purify your hearts. And then it concludes with, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. So the offspring of Bill's depression was an attempt by Dr. Bob to restore those facts. And you should read them. I couldn't believe that we still have that stuff floating around. But it's available from the Cleveland Central Office today and from the Akron Intergroup. Now there's some other thoughts I have, but I only got four more minutes, and so this is what I want to cover with you. People who are addicted to alcohol and drugs, when they leave them behind, are terribly lonely. The days they've spent in the bars and various other places with dealers and all the rest of it are gone. So what do you do with the vacuum? Well, 90 meetings in 90 days is one thing. Call your sponsor is another. Communicate with each other is another. Get commitments is another. AA is a 24-hour operation. And those things, whether they're articulated or not, are designed, in part, to replace the loneliness. Well, hey, look at your church. Look at the places we've been, and a lot of my talks are going to be posted on my website, and you'll see these people are into dynamic stuff now. They're into sober living homes. They're into Bible studies. They're into going to church. They are into prayer groups, and they are breaking bread together and doing all those things in a Christian atmosphere with like-minded believers. Also, they're sending people to AA meetings. So they're trying to make it an AA-friendly, Bible-friendly, history-friendly fellowship. And it's huge. This meeting is astonishingly large. And you ought to see the ones down in San Diego that Dale was investigating. And at Lifelines, we spoke there to 350 people. And that kind of activity fills that void. Now, the other thing is, temptation is the biggest enemy. The adversary is called the tempter, among other things. And temptation is everywhere. Old ideas, old places, old friends, old men, all kinds of temptations. And they are not offering martinis at this church, as far as I know. Out in Hawaii, I was always looking for a Mai Tai, and they don't offer that at AA meetings out there or at church meetings. So the two aspects are only part of the picture. But the churches are able now, in cooperating with AA, to make it a 24-hour operation in which you're learning about God and Jesus Christ and the Bible and fellowshipping with like-minded believers. Help us do these things. Either go to Dale's class or start one by taking it into a homeless shelter, taking it into a sober living place, into a rescue mission, into a Salvation Army group, into a Christian fellowship. Take the class. Also, become knowledgeable about the documentation. Get the guidebook. And then, obtain a copy of this pamphlet, P53. The co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. It probably costs 15 cents. You can get it free at an AA meeting if you can find it. And most of the time, you can. So start asking your literature person in the AA meetings, where's pamphlet P53? I want to pass them out. And they will appear. Also, this book, Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, is so good, albeit incomplete, that Clarence used to buy a copy and give it to all the people at his retreats, free. So there's Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers. And then there's this Clarence Snyder step guide, Our Legacy. And then, the AA of Akron pamphlets. Now here's what you could do for us. We really are very enthusiastic about distributing things free. So is this outfit. We've gone to a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of hotels in Oahu, Maui, New York, and all points east, west, and south. And there's always a Gideon Bible. I wonder if that's going to be forbidden like AA would forbid it. But it's not. They give these away free. And they're there to help people. If you were to help us by obtaining a class and putting it on yourself, getting a guidebook, that's cool, or going and obtaining free from Alcoholics Anonymous 150 to 200 of these pamphlets and start passing them out, people would begin to become aware that they don't know the whole story. And if you send to us, a new or an old, Dr. Bob and the good old timers, I guarantee you, it will be given away free to one of the many groups that we're talking to. Same way with the Our Legacy thing. If somebody would donate the money to Steve Foreman for about three dollars a book or something, you can get these pamphlets and you distribute them, we'll distribute them. All we would want is the price of media mail to shoot it out inexpensively. And the same thing with the AA of Akron pamphlets. It's not that expensive. And tonight I was handed a whole bunch of pamphlets. Why all of them when you can get these four Akron pamphlets that describe the program as Dr. Bob wanted it to describe? So we would like you, if you care to, to help us, whether you donate these things to us, give us the money to buy them and distribute them free, or just send the books to us. They need to be out there as far and as wide as they'll go. So again, what do we see happening? We see leaders growing up. This place is a perfect example of it. The whole staff seems receptive. So was the Church of the Nazarene down in Auburn. So was the Cornerstone Church in Livermore. So was City Team in San Jose and so forth. There's a receptivity to this with leaders rising up to train other leaders and get them introduced to the facts. Also, area contacts. Dale is getting to know the leaders in many spots. And we will be sending that thing out to anybody that is an aggressive leader who wants to make the message known of how a practicing Christian can be also a successful Bible-studying AA member. Events. AA has all kinds of events which these churches can be putting on for people in recovery. There's the Spring Fling down in Sacramento. The big book seminars in Sacramento. These are huge outfits. Churches can do that. We used to take our gang up to Yosemite Valley in AA and our church gang and to the Russian River and to the Redwoods and so forth and to conferences, the Spring Fling, all those things. Churches can begin to do those things as a part of their recovery efforts. And then outreach. Churches can take the class, the guidebook, the P53, the Dr. Bob and the good old timers into churches, into treatment centers, into residential living, into missions, into the Salvation Army, and to recovery leaders and yes, even to jail. And so with that, I'd just like to say that we've really been honored to come here and we'd be glad to talk to you after the meeting. Ken and I will be over there near the guidebook pamphlets and God bless all of you. All right, thank you Dick and Ken. Let's close the meeting in the usual way. Circle up in the Lord's Prayer and we'll need some help with the cleanup. The guys know who you are so we're good. Huh? We need three in the kitchen too.