Before I begin – in the last post I encouraged readers to respond with comments. I am very grateful to those of you who did read and comment. I want to respond to all comments – and I will respond to those that were made just as soon as possible. I have been fighting with a bronchial infection, but am confident that it will be possible for me to return to my normal routine very soon. So – please please keep those comments coming.

Whenever a civilization or society perishes, these is always one condition present.

They forgot where they came from.

Dick B., in his book The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible (Kihei, HI. Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1997), includes these words early in his book (page 13). In a footnote he writes: A quote from historian Carl Sandburg, which is frequently used by A.A.’s current archivist, Frank M, in his talks about the origins of A.A.

Remembering our roots is important. For many it is the source for many of life’s most important decisions – sometimes remembering to follow a familiar path – sometimes intentionally making a different, and hopefully better, choice.

As I began my studies in the area of substance abuse recovery it was very important to me to learn the importance and the development of spirituality within Alcoholics Anonymous as well as all of the other “anonymous” organizations.

Almost immediately I found myself studying the Oxford Group – a protestant evangelical movement founded in the 1920’s by Frank Buchman, a Lutheran pastor of German-Swiss background. This was important, because contact with the Oxford Group, and Buchman’s way of talking about the issues, forced both Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith to rethink the New England evangelical tradition in which they had been brought up, and made them go back and look again at its original formative ideas. [This will become very important in posts that are written in the coming days.] Bill W. and Dr. Bob eventually ended up restating these ideas in even more modern language, and began proclaiming the evangelical message in a way which pushed it in an even newer and more radical direction (Chestnut, Glenn F. Changed by Grace: V. C. Kitchen, the Oxford Group, and A.A. New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2006, page 6). NOTE: This book offers superb insight into the development of spirituality in A.A. Prior to my studies in this area I had never even heard of the Oxford Group, nor did I know anything about it.

As I continued my studies the importance of the Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7) for both A.A. and Christianity became more and more clear. In fact, my studies about A.A. also did a great deal to help me clarify most of my current understandings of what I mean when I self describe myself as Christian. My studies also made me more and more aware of the many layers of dogma and doctrine that have been overlaid on the Sermon to fortify a multitude of doctrinal statements of the organized church which I imagine would not be approved by Jesus. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that the current continuing decline of many organized churches is directly related, at least in part, to much of the excess baggage that has been hoisted upon the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

The coming posts on this blog will focus on this subject. I am going to try to add a post each day while we are in this discussion. I encourage each of us to read again these three very important chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.

I imagine that there will be numerous points where we disagree in the coming days – again, I desire your comments but I request that this discussion must remain polite and calm. We must not heap additional layers of non-relevance on the already existing areas of un-necessary disagreement, turmoil, name calling, and judgment that we see and experience so often today.

Grace and peace.