My favorite Shoemaker quote is from "How to Become a Christian", Harper & Row, 1953, Chapter 8 "Christian Witness" first paragraph. 

"Most people owe their Christian faith, especially when it becomes sharp and effective, to other persons. Not long ago I was listening to a man in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting give his own story. He had been a proud materialist[*], and it took a long time for him to get the "spiritual" angle of A. A. or to admit that God had anything to do with recovery. He took the "program" and went along well for some months. Then he was asked to lead a meeting, and did it. Afterwards a dumply little English seaman who was in the meeting came up to him and said, "You didn't say anything about God in the meeting." He made some excuse. The Britisher took him by the lapels and said, "You are evading Him!" He got so much under conviction from this that he went on another spree, which showed how shallow was his first commitment. But when he came out of it, his pride was broken. He had to admit that he needed God, that God and God alone had the answer for him. The word of that fat little Englishman had done it. Thank God for people with that kind of simple, friendly courage!"

*Shomaker was hyper-concerned, even in this book, about Communism vs Christianity and most likely considered Joe McCarthy a gift from God.

It is clear the early AA lingo involved being "cured" but not without working the ongoing steps (which ARE very Christian). But doesn't this suggest it could also be considered they were not "cured" but only conditionally sober? This may shock many, but I have seen it written where AA is labeled "the foremost moderation program" because of the gross conditionality of program sobriety (such as that stated in the above quote from Shomaker) - and especially in recent times with so much 'diseased' 'one-day-at-a-timism'. Is it not suggested that if people don't like the conditions of AA sobriety that they might try some controlled drinking? Again a moderation connection. For those that keep coming back, might one even consider it an immoderation program - because if you 'slip', drinking is bad, and who knows what will happen tomorrow?

I would be most interested in an encyclopedia on the WOD that reaches back (eg Thomann, "Colonial Liquor Laws", 1893) and spreads wide (eg Smith and Snake, "One Nation Under God", 1996) and primarily revolves around the legitimate controversies surrounding the entrenched self justifying service industries of the AA/Treatment Cartel suppressing (?) the demand side and the Enforcement/Judicial Cartel suppressing (?) the supply side. 

The detailed Christian roots (and offshoots - McGoldrick, Cain, eg) of AA are not trivial, but in any encyclopedia it's all a question of balance due to limited space. For instance, I previewed Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History for 30 days online. It's a good attempt, but just too mainstream in my opinion. Where is reference to Calvin Colton's Protestant Jesuitism? Lawrence's Plain Thoughts on Secret Societies? The bad side of Lyman Beecher (inciting arson)? What the IOGT thinks of AA? 

I'll close with an answer to the last question.

-----------------------

Midsommar Bladdet, Svenskarnas Dag, Sunday, June 17, 1956, p. 9, [this is an annual souvenir magazine for Swedish Day in Suburban Chicago published by the IOGT in Chicago - some English some Swedish] (I've got almost the complete run from 1916 to 1956 and it's almost all in Swedish which I don't know, so if someone wants to borrow it or knows a good home for it, feel free to let me know.)

"Why Are People Good Templars?

Because we hate drinking, of course. But why hate drinking? Why not be broadminded? ... [snip]...if there was a way to stop it at the right time, then there would not be four million alcoholics. ...[snip] ... of course, these represent only a small percentage of those who drink. Just one in fourteen, that is all. And then there is the one in ten that is still working, but drinking heavy. But all the rest know how to stop, at lease, most of the time. And we have Alcholics Anonymous to reassure us. They often save drunks. The A.A.'s say it's o.k. to drink if you can take it. But if you find you are one of those who can't control it, Well, when you have realized that then you have to stop! The A.A.s will help you. After your nevous system has become used to the narcotic effects of alcohol, they will pray with you and watch over you. They do! About one in every thousand alcoholics are reclaimed. At least until some hospitable person forces "just one little drink" on them. That is enough to start them off again. But the A.A.s are patient. The trouble is, not all drunks want to be saved. It takes too much will power. Good Templars say: "Prevention is better than cure. There is no need for drinking, so let us have total abstinence. ... etc..."

-------------------------

Dave Trippel

PS There is a little joke right after the above article. "1st Farmer: Ye goin' courtin' with a lantern? I never took one. 2nd farmer: Yeah, and look what y'got!" LOL

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dick B 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 12:23 PM
  Subject: The Encyclodpedia


  I read Ernie's comment with a good deal of surprise. I may have overloaded with booze in my palmy days, but I sure didn't overload on Akron in my historical research on Alcoholics Anonymous. I suspect there are a good many pieces of historical work that Ernie, and most others, have not examined. Fortunately, bits of it have been presented on ADHS from time to time.

   

  Let's talk for a moment about the historical gaps as to the New York program that have been filled since Ernie published his landmark work in the 1970's. For a quick exposure, I would point the Encyclopedia to the rapidly growing body of historical material now being posted on Archives International as time and money permit (http://www.archivesinternational.org). The timeline that is posted there and on my personal blog site (http://www.dickb-blog.com) point out the two distinct origins of A.A. - United Christian Endeavor in Vermont in Dr. Bob's youth and the Rowland Hazard/Carl Jung encounters in Switzerland. As have several others, I have explored and published Rowland Hazard's story after work at Brown University, Rowland's birthplace, and many other spots. Next, I have managed to unearth accurate information from the writings of Lois Wilson, Mrs. Samuel M. Shoemaker, and the accounts of eyewitnesses who saw and heard Bill Wilson made a decision for Christ at the altar call at the Rescue Mission - at the same altar and the same kind of call that his friend Ebby Thacher had made shortly before and reported to Bill. From countless Oxford Group witnesses, manuscripts, and writings, I have been able to detail exactly what Bill and Lois did with the Oxford Group in New York before and after Bill met Dr. Bob in Akron. These materials came, in part, from Lois's own Oxford Group notes, interviews with Mrs. W. Irving Harris, and writings found at Stepping Stones. As far as I know, none of this material was ever reported or published prior to the extensive documentation - from Sam Shoemaker's personal journals (which I obtained from his daughters) and others meticulously documented in my footnotes and bibliographies. Thus, of my twenty-five published historical titles, perhaps two of the most overloaded with New York history are: The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml) and New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. (http://www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml). Recently, I made available the entire Shoemaker collection which is now being shown around the country and will be shown at Archives 2005 in Akron by Ray G., archivist at Dr. Bob's Home.  The materials came from extended visits to Hartford Seminary, the Wilson House, Stepping Stones, GSO archives in New York, Calvary Episcopal Church and St. George's Parish in New York, Princeton Alumni Archives, 58 boxes examined for a week at the Episcopal Church Archives in Austin, and personal correspondence, manuscripts, flyers, pamphlets, books, and articles obtained from Oxford Group leaders and Shoemaker friends James Draper Newton and his wife Eleanor Forde Newton in Florida, L. Parks Shipley, Sr., in New Jersey, T. Willard Hunter in California, Rev. Dr. Howard Clinebell in California, Thomas Pike (rector at St. George's), Steve Garmey (vicar at Calvary Church), Mrs. W. Irving Harris - wife of Shoemaker's assistant minister who, with her husband, lived at Calvary House where Shoemaker and Frank Buchman (at times) lived, Garth Lean (biographer of Frank Buchman), Michael Hutchinson (Garth's colleague), Dr. Morris Martin (Buchman's alter ego), James Houck who never went close to Akron but attended meetings with Wilson in Maryland, and a host of others.

   

  Over 23,900 of my collected historical materials have now been donated to, and placed at the Griffith Library at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont. The grand opening of the Library will be this July. And I think it fair to say that the great bulk of the materials pertain to the Oxford Group, Sam Shoemaker, Bill and Lois Wilson, and the New York origins of A.A. Of new and great importance will be the presentations at Tampa on April 6 to 9 where the entire program conducted by Clarence Snyder from the earliest days in 1938 to his death will be presented on Saturday in the form of the new book by three of Clarence's long-time sponsees and by Steve F. who will duplicate in a workshop exactly what Clarence did as he took hundreds through the Twelve Steps.

   

  There is no need for an ad hominem discussion of what Ernie Kurtz, Mitch Klein, Charlie Bishop, Bill Pittman, Mel Barger, Earl Husband, Willard Hunter, Wally Paton, Mary Darrah, Bob Fitzgerald, Francis Hartigan, Robert Thomsen, Susan Cheever, Bill White, Glen Chesnut, Steve Foreman, Nan Robertson, and a host of others have added to the pot since A.A.'s historical awakening in the 1970's. In fact, I credit a lot of the progress to the quiet and dedicated work of A.A.'s second archivist Frank Mauser (now deceased) who encouraged us all and opened many a door for me in the 1990's. In fact, Frank was possibly the very first speaker on our history when our landmark "Day in Marin" programs in 1991 and 1992 were held in Mill Valley, California, and at which Frank, Mel Barger, Smitty (Dr. Bob's son), Willard Hunter, and I were the presenters What is important is that the heavy overload and much over-worked story of Jung to Hazard to Thacher to Shoemaker to Wilson and even to the long-dead William James be looked at today in terms of what New York was doing be examined alongside of the development of the highly successful program and cures in Akron between 1934 and 1938 which gave rise to the newly successful approach of combining medical, religious, and alcoholic experience with the power of the Creator to help drunks who had theretofore not even been admitted to hospitals for specific care of their malady.

   

  I sincerely hope that the writings and collections of the past three decades will be intensely examined and incorporated in any new encyclodpedia pertaining to A.A.'s part in what has come to be called the "war on drugs" headed up by a "czar."

   

  God Bless, Dick B.