The 12 Step Journey – An Historical Perspective 

by Fr. Bill W.

Step Six: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Step Seven: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”

A wise observer once noted: “It's always the victor in any war that gets to write the history.” This certainly proved to be the case when the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was written. Troublesome parts of the A.A. story were quietly omitted, not so much with an intent to deceive, but more as a way to protect the young Fellowship from being tainted by the negative publicity then surrounding the man responsible for developing so many of its core beliefs and principles: Dr. Frank Buchman.

Buchman was the Lutheran minister who founded an evangelical Christian movement focused on producing deep and radical change in individuals - and subsequently in nations. Known initially as a First Century Christian Fellowship and later as the Oxford Group, Buchman provided many of the spiritual tools that helped Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob and many other alcoholics find sobriety.

While several reasons contributed to the alcoholics in the Oxford Group separating themselves from Buchman in the late 1930's and forming into their own Fellowship, a primary factor for their departure was that Buchman had come under fire for making statements that were interpreted by many in the press to be “pro Adolph Hitler.”* The adverse publicity this generated plagued the Group for many years to come. Naturally, when the alcoholics left and started their own society, they wanted to downplay anything in their past that might associate their new fellowship with Buchman. This little historical detour may be helpful in understanding the origins of A.A.'s Steps Six and Seven.

Perhaps the most well known part of the Oxford Group "program" were the Four Absolutes: Absolute Honesty - Purity - Unselfishness - and Love. Any specific reference made to these by Wilson in the Big Book would have identified the new A.A. program as an offshoot of the Oxford Group with all the attending negative publicity. And so the Four Absolutes disappeared from our view. When Wilson was later asked where the Four Absolutes were to be found in the A.A. program, he directed the questioner to look for them in Steps Six and Seven. When Dr. Bob was questioned about them, he said he still found them a most helpful part of his own program and recommended their use. To this day, the Cleveland Central Committee of A.A. still publishes a pamphlet describing them. 

The Four Absolutes came about initially from the work of Robert E. Speer, a Presbyterian missionary and scholar who studied the life and teachings of Jesus. Speer came to the conclusion that Jesus taught a set of absolute moral standards to guide his followers in determining the course of their decisions and actions. Speer then grouped these moral guidelines under the headings of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. (See:Robert  E. Speer. The Principles of Jesus:  Applied to Some Questions of Today. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1902.

  Once the history is understood, the purpose of Steps Six and Seven become clear as does the centrality of the Four Standards to the process of spiritual transformation. The character defects, shortcomings, or sins recognized in Steps Four and shared in Step Five block the achievement of the “in-depth psychic change” that is needed for recovery fromalcoholism or any addiction. We alcoholics and addicts must become willing to aim toward a much higher moral standard for ourselves. If we do not, we risk sliding back into our addiction or substituting other addictive patterns that are often equally as destructive. So following Step Five, we commit to this new life-course through Steps Six and Seven; then we make amends for our past wrongs in Steps Eight and Nine; and finally, we continue to monitor our thoughts and actions in Step Ten while seeking daily guidance toward achieving the far better plan God has for our life in Step Eleven. If we follow this course, the needed spiritual awakening of Step Twelve is assured.

I’ve always been troubled to hear people in the Fellowship say, “The goal of Steps Six and Seven is ‘progress’ and not ‘perfection.’” I believe this interpretation is dead wrong. The goal is perfection; the trick, however, is to settle for progress! Now that may sound like splitting hairs, but setting the bar low at the level of progress can actually short-circuit a full recovery. It keeps us from experiencing the necessary humility that comes when we realize the full impact this higher goal has on our then more deflated egos and as we come up short at the end of most days. Clearly seeing the goal as perfection, with the Four Absolutes in mind, forces us to realize our total dependence upon God because it would indeed take a miracle for that goal to be achieved. But this is exactly the point: Just like it took a miracle to remove our obsession to drink, it takes the daily miracle of God's grace to remove all the defects of character to which we cling. An ever-deepening experience of humility is the result; and without this precious commodity our needed spiritual transformation is delayed and sometimes, destroyed.

A final thought: We alcoholics and addicts are, by and large, extremists. We’re either shooting for the stars or heading straight toward the gutter. We’re all or nothing people. If we set the recovery goal as anything short of perfection, then the addict, in his grandiosity, will likely think the goal is unworthy of his effort! Steps Six and Seven set the standard intentionally so high that we are forced to realize our absolute need for God’s help in achieving the degree of willingness they demand. 

* For a clearer understanding of how this misunderstanding came about, see T.  Willard Hunter. World Changing Through Life Changing -­‐ The Frank Buchman Revolution. Regina Press, 2009, pp. 43-­‐ 59.