July 14 in A.A. History

In 1949, in a letter to Rev. Sam Shoemaker [near right], Bill Wilson wrote, “So far as I am concerned, and Dr. Smith too, the Oxford Group seeded AA. It was our spiritual wellspring at the beginning.” Bill later expressed regret for not having also written to Frank Buchman [far right]; in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Bill wrote,

    Early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups [sic] and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.

In 1950, the front page [left] of The San Quentin (California) News—a unique, non-profit, monthly newspaper written and edited by incarcerated individuals at San Quentin State Prison—overprinted “Greetings [to the] First International Conference [of] Alcoholics Anonymous” in red.

In 2023, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota, published an editorial by Steven Kind^* [right] titled “Counterpoint: AA helps many. For others, alternatives exist.” It was subtitled “Not every recovery program puts God at the center.” The first three paragraphs read:

    A July 10 commentary asked, “Could AA help more people if it were not Christian-centric?” Well, maybe, but there are better options out there for people who want a secular alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous.
    While Alcoholics Anonymous has undeniably helped countless people, it is not for everyone. Just removing references to God from AA’s 12 steps does not address important underlying issues.
    AA’s 12 steps call on members to admit they are powerless over alcohol and must rely on something outside of themselves to recover. The AA program treats addiction as a moral issue—or, as Step 2 suggests, a form of insanity.

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^*Kind was, at the time, serving as the Minnesota outreach coordinator for SMART Recovery, one of the alternatives he advocates.