aacultwatch forum daily reflections

Extracts from our forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch under thread: “aacultwatch forum daily reflections”

Extracts of an interview with Bob S., Jr. AA Grapevine September 2001

“Bob S., Jr., son of AA co-founder Dr. Bob, stopped by the Grapevine office in New York in April 2001, and it seemed like a good time to get some historical perspective on the Twelve Steps. Born June 5, 1918, and one of the last living witnesses to the founding of AA in Akron in 1935, Bob remains sharp of memory, wit, and dress, appearing much younger than his age…. …. …

Did the spiritual experience you had with your parents in recovery help you get through the war?

Yes. Of course I wouldn't have admitted it at the time. Those Oxford Group people scared me to death. They were so zealous. You know, in your face. But at least some of it stuck. They wanted to convert everybody right now. They were very, very strong spiritual people who wanted everybody to be maximum. I used to go to those meetings, and I always thought I was minimum.

What was your impression of the split between the Oxford Group and AA?

It had to be done. The Oxford Group had four absolutes: absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, absolute purity, absolute love. I think anybody coming into Alcoholics Anonymous is not absolutely "absolute" about anything. Also, the Oxford Group catered to the upper middle class, and the early alcoholics were not upper middle class. They were low bottom alcoholics. The Oxford Group wanted publicity, and the alcoholics already had all the publicity they wanted. Anyway, it would be very hard to take a new guy coming in and jump on him about spiritual or religious things, don't you think? They just wouldn't accept it.

It still scares some off.

Yes. So we owe the Oxford Group a tremendous debt of gratitude, but it was necessary to make the split."

The Founding of A.A. in New York:

1934

"After Bill’s release from Towns on December 18, he and Lois started attending Oxford Group meetings at Calvary House, adjacent to Calvary Episcopal Church. The rector, Dr. Sam Shoemaker, was a leading figure in the Oxford Group. In time, Bill would come to regard this man as one of his closest friends". (Pass It On Page 127)

1935-1937

"In the fall of 1935, Bill and Lois began to hold weekly meetings on Tuesday nights in their home on Clinton Street... .... ....

182 Clinton Street, Brookyn Heights, home and meeting place for New York alcoholics in A.A.'s formative days" (Pass It On Page 162)

"While Lois later admitted that their success rate was low during the 1935-36 period at Clinton Street, she pointed out that many of the alcoholics Bill worked with during that time did recover later on. In other words, Lois said, seeds of sobriety were being planted, to take root slowly" (Pass It On Page 166)

" Lois and Bill went to Oxford Group meetings at Calvary Church from late 1934 until about 1937, and they also went to a number of Oxford Group "house parties" during those years. From 1935 on, Hank and Fitz often joined them. Tension began to develop between the main group at Calvary Church and Bill’s struggling band of alcoholics. The Oxford Group leaders resented the fact that Bill was holding separate meetings for alcoholics at Clinton street. They criticised his work with the alcoholics as being narrow and divisive.... ... ... Jack Smith, one of Sam Shoemaker’s assistants, disapproved of Bill's work and finally brought the conflict out into the open. In an informal talk at a Sunday Oxford Group gathering, he made reference to special meetings 'held surreptitiously behind Mrs. Jones Barn' The atmosphere of the Oxford Group then became 'slightly chilly' toward the Wilsons. Near to the end of 1935, the alcoholics living at the Calvary mission were instructed not to attend the meetings at Clinton Street. 'This not only hurt us, but left us disappointed in the group's leadership,' Lois remembered." (Pass It On Pages 168-169)

"This incident led Sam Shoemaker to apologize to Bill later, after he himself had broken with the Oxford Group in 1941. Shoemaker wrote: ' If you ever write the story of A.A.'s early connection with Calvary, I think it ought to be said in all honesty that we were coached in the feeling that you were off on your own spur, trying to do something by yourself, and out of the mainstream of the work. You got your inspiration from those early days, but you didn't get much encouragement from any of us, and for my own part in that stupid desire to control the Spirit, as he manifested Himself in individual people like yourself, I am heartily sorry and ashamed.' " (Pass It On Page 178, footnote)

1937

“Bill and New York alcoholics separate from Oxford Group. More than 40 alcoholics are now staying sober. (Pass It On Page 407)

“..but by counting everybody who seemed to have found sobriety in New York and Akron, they counted more than 40 alcoholics who were staying dry as a result of the program! … … … ‘Despite the fact Ebby had slipped, a benign chain reaction, one alcoholic carrying the good news to the next, had started outward from Dr. Bob and me.’ ” (Pass It On page 178)

1939

“These ex-alcoholic men and women number about one hundred at present. One Group is scattered along the Atlantic seaboard with New York as a center. Another and somewhat larger body is located in the Middle West” (Dr. W.D Silkworth M.D. (A New Approach to Psychotherapy in Chronic Alcoholism,” Journal Lancet, July 1939; A.A. Comes of Age, appendix E:a, pages 304-305)”

(our emphases)

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)