... on this august occasion. It's about time... This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty.

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http://www.barefootsworld.net/commencement.html

Commencement Address (Texas A&M)

This is long but well worth reading

This Texas lawyer, himself recipient of an Honorary Degree, is obviously opinionated, but to say what he does, in a commencement address a couple of weeks ago (January, 2008), in front of a class of Texas A & M graduates, and especially the faculty, is amazing. I would have loved to have been there just to see the faculty reaction.

This should be considered must-reading for every adult in North America . It is extremely rare that anyone speaks the truth like this at any College or High School Commencement Address.

Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a nationally syndicated talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates of this year's A&M class is far different from what either the students or the faculty expected. His views are thought provoking.

"I am honored by the invitation to address you on this august occasion. It's about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you; you'll have enough smoke blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet your tassels I'm not here to impress the faculty and administration. You may not like much of what I have to say, and that's fine. You will remember it though. Especially after about 10 years out there in the real world. This, it goes without saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your careers and your fortunes as government employees.

This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You've heard the old saying that those who can - do. Those who can't - teach. That sounds deliciously insensitive. But there is often raw truth in insensitivity, just as you often find feel-good falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your faculty because now you are getting ready to go out there and do. These folks behind me are going to stay right here and teach.

By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma doesn't mean the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private pilot's license many years ago, he said, 'Here, this is your ticket to learn.' The same can be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has just begun.

Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact, you are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so much. You want to help so much. After all you're a compassionate and caring person, aren't you now? Well, isn't that just so extraordinarily special. Now, at this age, is as good a time as any to be a liberal; as good a time as any to know absolutely everything. You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow, for the truth to set in.

Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of reality down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast... including your own assessment of just how much you really know.

So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality: Pay attention to the news, read newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases that proud Liberals use to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of the left to the words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless, greedy conservatives. From the Left you will hear "I feel." From the Right you will hear "I think." From the Liberals you will hear references to groups -- The Blacks, the Poor, The Rich, The Disadvantaged, The Less Fortunate. From the Right you will hear references to individuals. On the Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right, individual rights.

That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are pack animals whose identity is tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives and Libertarians think -- and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their identity is centered on the individual.

Liberals feel that their favored groups have enforceable rights to the property and services of productive individuals. Conservatives and Libertarians, I among them I might add, think that individuals have the right to protect their lives and their property from the plunder of the masses.

In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at your diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them. Not the name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your name. Your group identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation of your individual identity starts now.

If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself to be a libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly as you can and apply for a faculty position. These people will welcome you with open arms. They will welcome you, that is, so long as you haven't developed an individual identity. Once again you will have to be willing to sign on to the group mentality you embraced during the past four years.

Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your eyes. You're going to actually get a full time job!

You're also going to get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn't going to help you do your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday. This partner doesn't want to share in your effort, but in your earnings.

Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent; an agent representing a strange and diverse group of people; an agent for every teenager with an illegitimate child; an agent for a research scientist who wanted to make some cash answering the age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth. An agent for some poor demented hippie who considers herself to be a meaningful and talented artist, but who just can't manage to sell any of her artwork on the open market.

Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job skills, but who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent for tin-horn dictators in fancy military uniforms grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for multi-million-dollar companies who want someone else to pay for their overseas advertising. An agent for everybody who wants to use the unimaginable power of this agent's for their personal enrichment and benefit.

That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive government. Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this agent has. Power that you do not have. A power that no individual has, or will have. This agent has the legal power to use force, deadly force to accomplish its goals.

You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to you, introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out, and move right on in. Say hello to your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep anywhere it wants to.

Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful it will seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there just isn't any way you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can't decrease its share of your income. That power rests with him, not you.

So, here I am saying negative things to you about government. Well, be clear on this: It is not wrong to distrust government. It is not wrong to fear government. In certain cases it is not even wrong to despise government for government is inherently evil. Yes ... a necessary evil, but dangerous nonetheless ... somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that in the proper dosage can save your life, an overdose of government can be fatal.

Now let's address a few things that have been crammed into your minds at this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as possible. These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they fail miserably out there in the real world.

First is that favorite buzz word of the media, government and academia: Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group of people - be it a social group, an employee group, a management group, whatever - is based on diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal because diversity is based not on an individual's abilities or character, but on a person's identity and status as a member of a group. Yes, it's that liberal group identity thing again.

Within the great diversity movement group identification - be it racial, gender based, or some other minority status - means more than the individual's integrity, character or other qualifications.

Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual achievement and excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught you over the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is absolutely no replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard work. From this day on every single time you hear the word "diversity" you can rest assured that there is someone close by who is determined to rob you of every vestige of individuality you possess.

We also need to address this thing you seem to have about "rights." We have witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called "rights" in the last few decades, usually emanating from college campuses.

You know the mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to live. The right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an education. You probably even have your own pet right - the right to a Beemer for instance, or the right to have someone else provide for that child you plan on downloading in a year or so.

Forget it. Forget those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are! You have a right to live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your labor. I'll also tell you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of another.

You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care. After all, Hillary said so, didn't she? But you cannot receive healthcare unless some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time - his life - to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation, but that's his choice. You have no "right" to his time or property. You have no right to his or any other person's life or to any portion thereof.

You may also think you have some "right" to a job; a job with a living wage, whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force your services on another person, and then the right to demand that this person compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would scream if some urban outdoorsmen (that would be "homeless person" for those of you who don't want to give these less fortunate people a romantic and adventurous title) came to you and demanded his job and your money.

The people who have been telling you about all the rights you have are simply exercising one of theirs - the right to be imbeciles. Their being imbeciles didn't cost anyone else either property or time. It's their right, and they exercise it brilliantly.

By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase "less fortunate" a bit ago when I was talking about the urban outdoorsmen? That phrase is a favorite of the Left. Think about it, and you'll understand why.

To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out on drugs, unemployable, and generally miserable because he is "less fortunate" is to imply that a successful person - one with a job, a home and a future - is in that position because he or she was "fortunate." The dictionary says that fortunate means "having derived good from an unexpected place." There is nothing unexpected about deriving good from hard work. There is also nothing unexpected about deriving misery from choosing drugs, alcohol, and the street.

If the Liberal Left can create the common perception that success and failure are simple matters of "fortune" or "luck," then it is easy to promote and justify their various income redistribution schemes. After all, we are just evening out the odds a little bit. This "success equals luck" idea the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to high-achievers as "people who have won life's lottery." He wants you to believe they are making the big bucks because they are lucky. It's not luck, my friends. It's choice. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino, entitled "The Greatest Secret in the World." The lesson? Very simple: "Use wisely your power of choice."

That bum sitting on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He's there by choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made in his life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to accept, especially those who consider themselves to be victims of something or other - victims of discrimination, bad luck, the system, capitalism, whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept the blame for his or her position in life. Not when it is so much easier to point and say, "Look! He did this to me!" than it is to look into a mirror and say, "You S. O. B.! You did this to me!"

The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.

Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school Whether or not to get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to keep this job you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or not to save some of your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments for that new car.

Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies with. Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read a book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts. Each choice is a building block - some large, some small. But each one is a part of the structure of your life. If you make the right choices, or if you make more right choices than wrong ones, something absolutely terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable. You, my friend, could become one of the hated, the evil, the ugly, the feared, the filthy, the successful, the rich.

The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they provide the investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of new businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send millions of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.

Second, the rich are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred. Few things are more valuable to a politician than the envy most Americans feel for the evil rich.

Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional minefield that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White House interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that power by promising the envious that the envied will be punished: "The rich will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with it. The truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this country pays almost 50% of all income taxes collected. I shudder to think what these job producers would be paying if our tax system were any more "fair."

You have heard, no doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Interestingly enough, our government's own numbers show that many of the poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of the rich actually get poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and the poor who remain poor ... there's an explanation -- a reason. The rich, you see, keep doing the things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that make them poor.

Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an endless string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor So, you need to know that under our government's definition of "poor" you can have a $5 million net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all completely paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and $ million in your checking account, and you can still be officially defined by our government as "living in poverty." Now there's something you haven't seen on the evening news.

How does the government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To determine whether or not some poor soul is "living in poverty," the government measures one thing -- just one thing. Income. It doesn't matter one bit how much you have, how much you own, how many cars you drive or how big they are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether you winter in Aspen and spend the summers in the Bahamas , or how much is in your savings account. It only matters how much income you claim in that particular year. This means that if you take a one-year leave of absence from your high-paying job and decide to live off the money in your savings and checking accounts while you write the next great American novel, the government says you are 'living in poverty."

This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy statistics, is it? Do you need more convincing? Try this. The government's own statistics show that people who are said to be "living in poverty" spend more than $1.50 for each dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit fishy here. Just remember all this the next time Charles Gibson tells you about some hideous new poverty statistics.

Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare programs, which translates into an expansion of its power. If the government can convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of "poor" is increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion Disorder.

I'm about to be stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed their minds about that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK, though. I still have my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for Insensitivity Training. I learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks. It's a trap. Think about it - the truth knows no sensitivity. Life can be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity and you'll be unable to deal with life, or the truth So, get over it.

Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random thoughts.

• You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living off the efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and shutting up until you are on your own again.


• When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more important than your vote for president. The House controls the purse strings, so concentrate your awareness there.


• Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the country. If someone can't deal honestly with you, send them packing.


• Don't bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of plunder. If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned it -- to take their money by force for your own needs -- then it is certainly just as wrong for you to demand that the government step forward and do this dirty work for you.


• Don't look in other people's pockets. You have no business there. What they earn is theirs. What you earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes you anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you the hell alone.


• Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers Forty hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't see highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five. The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners drive home in the dark.


• Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.


• Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,


1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.


2. Use wisely your power of choice.


3. Go the extra mile .. drive home in the dark.
Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can.

Now, if you have any idea at all what's good for you, you will get the hell out of here and never come back.

Class dismissed.

Reproduction of all or any parts of the above text may be used for general information.
This HTML presentation is copyright by Barefoot, August 2008

Mirroring is not Netiquette without the Express Permission of Barefoot

The Term “God of Our Understanding,” Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth By Ken B.

The Term “God of Our Understanding,”
Occurrences of the Word “God” and Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth
By Ken B.

© 2012, 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
This article will address three topics: (1) the use of the phrase “God of our understanding” in Alcoholics Anonymous and some historical background relating to it; (2) the number of occurrences of the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical and non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001)--often called “the Big Book;” and (3) a harmful myth that has been floating around A.A. about the definition of the term “basic text” as it relates to the Big Book.



1. The term "God of our understanding" does not occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (2001).1


A.A. cofounder Bill W. decided to write what he described as “the new version of the program, now the ‘Twelve Steps.’”2 A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's sponsee Clarence S. founded the third A.A. group in the world in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 11, 1939. Clarence's biographer, Mitchell K., states:
Two years after the publication of the [Big] book [in April 1939], Clarence made a survey of all of the members in Cleveland. He concluded that, by keeping most of the ‘old program,’ including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety.3 [bolding added].

Frank Amos's summary of the seven-point “old program”--which he prepared for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in February 1938 (the month and year in which Clarence S. got sober in Akron under Dr. Bob)--is quoted on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.4 Interestingly, there is no mention in those seven points of “God as we understood Him,” “a Higher Power,” or “a Power greater than ourselves.” Rather, item #2 states:
He must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is no hope.
Dr. Bob--whom A.A. cofounder Bill W. called “the prince of all twelfth-steppers” because he, accompanied by Sister Ignacia, helped 5,000 alcoholics recover between 1940 and 1950--stated:
I didn't write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them.5
“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13] In speaking of a very significant “battle over the book,” Bill W. stated in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:

All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had consistently used the word “God,”
. . . We [i.e., Bill W., Hank P., John Henry Fitzhugh M. (“Fitz”), and Ruth Hock] finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. Who first suggested the actual compromise words I do not know, . . . In Step Two we decided to describe God as a “Power greater than ourselves.” In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words “God as we understood Him.” . . . Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics. . . . God was still there in our Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that anybody--anybody at all-- could accept and try.6 [italics in original, bolding added]
Bill W. states in the Big Book:
My friend [i.e., Ebby T.] suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, “Why don't
you choose your own conception of God?”7
The paragraph in which the suggestion above occurs was part of a four-paragraph, handwritten section of text that was inserted in the “printer's manuscript” of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous at the last minute as the Big Book was going to print. The four handwritten paragraphs were not present in the so-called “Multilith Edition” or “Original Manuscript” of which Bill W. states “four hundred mimeograph copies . . . were made and sent to everyone we could think of . . .”8,9 As can be seen in the printer’s manuscript of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, the four handwritten paragraphs containing that well-known question attributed to Bill W.’s “spiritual sponsor,” Ebby, were added at the last possible moment to an otherwise-typed document.10,11


The 29 personal testimonies of early A.A. pioneers contained in the "Personal Stories" section of the 1939 edition of Alcoholics Anonymous spoke about the “old,” highly-successful(!) Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program which A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing together over the summer of 1935. Bill W.'s “new version of the program” did not exist! 22 of those personal testimonies in the first edition were not included in the second edition published in 1955. And another four of the personal stories in the first edition were not included in the fourth edition published in 2001. Thus readers of today's Big Book only have access to three of the original 29 personal testimonies found in the “Personal Stories” section of the first edition. As a result, they are receiving very little information about the highly-successful, “old program.” To see the many personal testimonies in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous to the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable" alcoholics, check out: Alcoholics Anonymous: The Original 1939 Edition.12

2. Here are some facts about the number of times the word “God,” capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, occur on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of the Big Book:
•
•
•
So there are 232 occurrences of the word "God" and related words on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (or 230, see above). I have attached three documents providing all of the actual occurrences of the words and phrases just discussed. In addition, I have also attached a document containing the 41 occurrences of non-biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., "God") on pages 1-164 of the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous for your review.


3. There is a myth that has been floating around A.A. for a long time that needs to be put to rest. The myth relates to the common/standard/approved answer to the following question:
What is the “basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous?
I recently asked a medical doctor that question. He was here in Maui spending time with my dad (pen name “Dick B.”—www.DickB.com) and me in order to learn more about A.A. and its history. If I heard my dad correctly, he said that this doctor had three years of sobriety but had been around “the rooms” of A.A. for more than 20 years. His answer to my question was:
The first 164 pages of the Big Book.

“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13] 

The word "God" occurs 135 times on pages 1-164. [This figure includes related word- forms, including "God-consciousness" (p. 13), "God's" (pp. 24, 25, etc.), "God- sufficiency" (p. 52), "God-given" (p. 69), and "God-conscious" (p. 85).] If one chooses to omit/disqualify "for God's sake" (p. 24) and "the God of reason" (p. 54), that would leave 133 occurrences of the word “God” which fairly clearly refer to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Capitalized pronouns referring to the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God) occur 81 times on pages 1-164; i.e., "He," "His," "Him," "Thou," "Thy," and "Thee."

Biblical descriptions of the Creator of the heavens and the earth (i.e., God)—other than the word "God"—occur 16 times; i.e., "Creator," "Maker," "the Father," and "the Father of Light."

[Some people might also include the Preface in the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (“the Big Book”), the four Forewords, the chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion,” and/or “Appendix II: Spiritual Experience” in their answer.]
The problem with the claim that “the first 164 pages of the Big Book is ‘the basic text’ of Alcoholics Anonymous” is that it is NOT true. It is a myth!
If one looks up the meanings of the word "text" in a standard, college-level dictionary, most of the questions would be answered. For example, here are a couple of the definitions of the word “text” given in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
1 a (1) : the original words and form of a written or printed work
7 : TEXTBOOK13
But for the purpose of exploding this myth, one may look at the front cover of the dust jacket of
the hardback fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. The front cover states:
Alcoholics Anonymous: This is the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for
Alcoholics Anonymous
In other words, according to the front cover of the Big Book’s own dust jacket, it is the whole book—from cover to cover—that is “the basic text” for Alcoholics Anonymous!
If that isn't clear enough, one may go to page xi of the Preface of the fourth edition of the Big Book for clarification:
. . . This book has become the basic text for our Society . . ."
So again, it is the whole book that is “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The original “Big Book”--i.e., the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (which had a copyright date of April 10, 1939)--was 410 pages. It contained 10 pages of “front matter,” 396 pages of “main text,” and four pages of “back matter.” The chapter titled “The Doctor's Opinion” was included in the “main text,” and its pages were numbered 1-9. “Chapter One: Bill's Story” began on page 10. Chapter 11, “A Vision for You,” ended on page 179. The “Personal Stories” section, containing 29 personal testimonies from early A.A. pioneers for whom A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among those “who really tried” and “thoroughly followed our path,” began on unnumbered page 181 (with Dr. Bob's personal story beginning on page 183) and ended on page 396. (The “Personal Stories” section was 215 pages long.) At the end of the book, there was a single appendix about the Alcoholic Foundation, which began on unnumbered page 397 and ending on page 400.

In today's fourth edition (published in 2001), the “front matter” of the book is 32 pages long and includes “The Doctor's Opinion.” The “main text” of the book consists of eleven chapters (including “Chapter 1: “Bill's Story”--which now begins on page one), spread over 164 pages, and the “Personal Stories” section—which now begins on unnumbered page 165 and ends on page 559. The “back matter” of the book consists of seven Appendices (pages 561-73) and a final, unnumbered page titled “A.A. Literature.” It is the whole book—i.e., all of the “front matter,” all of the “main text,” and all of the “back matter” (taken together)—which makes up “the basic text” for the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.



Why are these details important? First and foremost, because the whole book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is “the basic text” for the Alcoholics Anonymous Society; and the Big Book itself says so!

Second, because vitally-important personal testimonies illustrating the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A.'s astonishing successes are contained in the “Personal Stories” section of the Big Book--beginning after page 164 of the fourth edition. For example, have you seen the last line of Dr. Bob's personal testimony in the Big Book?
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!14
Have you seen this statement by A.A. cofounder Bill W. in the Big Book?
. . . "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."15
Have you seen this statement by A.A. Number 3, Bill D., in the Big Book?
Bill [W.] was very, very grateful that he had been released from this terrible thing, and he had given God the credit for having done it, and he's so grateful about it 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 a golden text for the A.A. program and for me.16
Enjoy!
 

In GOD's love,
 

Ken B.


PS: Please check out the International Christian Recovery Coalition. It is FREE to become a "Participant": www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com. And please check out the "Christian
“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ [rev 11/6/13]

Occurrences of the Word “God”
& Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth”
By Ken B.

Recovery Radio with Dick B." show, the "Russell S. Talks," and other Christian Recovery
resources, available at: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.

1 Please see the attached file "The Term 'God of Our Understanding' Is Not in the Big Book or the 12 and 12" for a detailed discussion.
2 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 162; bolding added.
3 Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio (Washingtonville, NY: A.A. Big Book Study Group, 1997), 108.
4 DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 131. 5 The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (New York, NY:
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 14.
6 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 166-67.
7 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (New York City: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 12. 8 Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 165.
9 See, for example: The Original Manuscript 1938: “The following text is an exact reproduction of Clarence Snyder’s (The Home Brewmeister) copy of the manuscript used to compile the Big Book” (Malo, WA: The Anonymous Press, n.d.); See also: The Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous: “This is a reproduction of the 1938 Original Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous. This was the version of The Big Book distributed to friends and colleagues of AA's founders before the First Edition was printed. The text of this document, "Original Manuscript," was left just as it originally appeared in 1938.” http://www.silkworth.net/originalmanuscript/ originalmanuscript.html; accessed 11/27/2013.
10 The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010), 24-25, 38.
11 For a detailed discussion of the question “Why don't you choose your own conception of God?” see Appendix One: “‘Why Don’t You Choose Your Own Conception of God?’” in Dick B. and Ken B., Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God’s Role in Recovery Confirmed! (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012), 43-64. This book is available in 6" x 9" format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/c02zd), in Kindle eBook format from Amazon.com (http://mcaf.ee/3l0e7), and in other eBook formats.
12 (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2011) with a 23-page Introduction by Dick B.: http://mcaf.ee/pkj5l.
13 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/text; accessed 11/27/2013. The word “textbook” is defined in the same dictionary as: “a book used in the study of a subject”: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/textbook; accessed 11/27/2013.
14 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 181. 15 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 191. 16 Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 191.

“The Term ‘God of Our Understanding,’ Occurrences of the Word “God”
& Related Words in the Big Book, and a Big Myth” By Ken B.

A recovered or a recovering alcoholic

By:
Cliff  B.  (214) 350-1190
e-mail - CBBB164@aol.com

All too frequently, a rather senseless argument is heard within our Fellowship as to whether a person is a recovered or a recovering alcoholic.  Ironically, that argument is usually initiated by a person who is neither.

If you will look carefully at the “Dust Jacket” of our Basic Textbook “Alcoholics Anonymous” you will notice in the lower right-hand corner the following words, “This is the Third Edition of The Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous”.  If your copy of the Big Book lacks a “Dust Jacket”, turn to page xi, 2nd paragraph and read, “Because this book has become the basic text for our Society,.....”  So, if it is “The Basic Text” for the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, the answer to the recovered/recovering question must lie between pages xi and 164.

First of all, let’s go to page xiii and read how Bill W. introduced the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” to the world.  He wrote:

“We of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.  To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.”

Hmmm, recovered alcoholics authored the Basic Text for the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

What do they mean by recovered?  Well, Dr. Silkworth said he believed that we had an allergy of the body that produced a craving once we took the first few drinks, the result of which is that we always drink more than we wanted to, passing through the well known stages of a spree emerging remorseful with a firm resolution to never drink again. (AA, pg xxvii).  There is no known solution for that problem.  We are not cured of alcoholism.  (AA, pg 85)  So that problem is solved only by entire abstinence.  (AA, pg xxviii).   If we don’t drink, we can’t get drunk.  What an insultingly simple truth.

So what’s the problem?  “Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.”  (AA, pg 23) And the  problem is:


“The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.  Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent.  We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.  We are without defense against the first drink.”  (AA, pg 24)

How does that problem of the mind manifest itself in the chronic alcoholic?

“The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.”  (AA, pg 30)

 “He had much knowledge about himself as an alcoholic.  Yet all reasons for not drinking were easily pushed aside in favor of the foolish idea that he could take whiskey if only he mixed it with milk!”.  (AA, pg 37)

“Whatever the precise definition of the word may be, we call this plain insanity.”  (AA, pg 37)

How should “insanity” be defined for our situation?

Insanity - State of being insane; unsoundness of mind or without recognition of one’s illness - (Webster)
We cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false - (Dr. Silkworth, AA, pg xxvi)

The real problem of the chronic alcoholic, then is the insane thinking when it comes to alcohol, i.e. cold sober, and having lost many things and created numerous problems because of our drinking, we go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of the stuff that has robbed us of everything decent in life and start drinking again because we love the sense of ease and comfort that comes at once by taking a few drinks.  But then the craving for the next drink kicks in and every drink convinces us that we need another drink.  Then the spree.  Then the guilt and remorse.  Then the pledge, the vow, the promise, etc.  Then restless, irritable and discontented.  Then the drink.  Then the drunk.  Then the spree.  Then the humiliation.  Then the pledge, the vow, the promise.  Then restless, irritable and discontented.  Then the drink.  Then the drunk.  Then the spree.......  It is all repeated over and over and over.

The insanity of our disease if the source of the unmanageability of our lives.  If we could manage that decision, pledge, vow, promise, etc. to never drink again, we would not need the Power of the Program of A.A.  There may be other areas of our lives with lacking degrees of unmanageability but the killer is that relating to our inability to stay stopped.  Drinking is not the problem.  Alcoholics have no problem drinking.  Stopping is not the problem.  Alcoholics have a variety of ways to stop drinking.  Staying stopped is the problem.  If we had the will power to stop starting, we would have no problem with alcohol.   Lack of will power, that was our dilemma.  We must find a Higher Power!!!

Now we have identified the real problem of the hopeless alcoholic.

“However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.  Strong language--but isn’t it true?” (AA, pg 38)

We are real fruit cakes because we lack the power to manage a decision to not take the first drink.  We must therefore find a Higher Power if our power is insufficient to act sanely where alcohol is concerned.

So, if we carefully follow the clear-cut directions (AA, pg 29) up to and including pages 84 & 85, we will receive one of the many promises of our Program (The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous), “For by this time sanity will have returned.” (AA, pg 84)  Now, we have recovered.  Read the Tenth Step promises from the bottom of page 84 to the bottom of page 85.  If that leaves any doubt in your mind, carefully read pages xiii (2X), xv, xvii, xxiii, 17, 20, 29, 91, 97, 113, 132 & 133.   You will find recovered on each page.

It seems to me that the most powerful statement of those referred to is this one on page 132. “We have recovered and have been given the Power to help others.”  What a miraculous deal!!!   Don’t miss it!!!!

We have clearly identified who the recovered alcoholics is.  What about the recovering alcoholic?  The recovering alcoholic is one who is somewhere between Steps Three and Eleven.  They are in the process of coming to believe but have yet to have a spiritual awakening/experience.  Bill W. was a recovering alcoholic for 2 - 3 days in Townes Hospital.  Most of the alcoholics who participated in the writing of the Big Book took the Steps during the first 7 - 10 days after their last drink.  Many had recovered before they ever attended a meeting.

If a person coming to Alcoholics Anonymous for help because they have been unable to find a way to stop starting to drink and are not taking or have not taken the Steps, they are neither recovering nor are they recovered.  They have a case of untreated alcoholism and if they have developed an alcoholic mind, they will drink again.  They are the ones who choose to declare that there is no such thing as a recovered alcoholic.  How would they know?

No where in Alcoholics Anonymous literature does it suggest that if an alcoholic goes to enough meetings, they will recover.  No, the recovered  alcoholics who authored our Basic Text Book said they recovered as the result of taking the Steps, not going to meetings.

We paid a hell of a price to get here.  Let’s pay the price to stay here by having a spiritual awakening as the result of taking the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.