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Jim
H.
Jim H is truly a unique individual. He is ninety-five years old, sixty-six years sober, and one of the greatest "life-changers" of the past one hundred years.
Just like Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and the other "Big Book" authors, Jim H found God and sobriety in the Oxford Group. And, just like Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and the other "Big Book" authors, Jim had his spiritual awakening as the direct result of taking the Oxford Group Four Steps of Surrender, Sharing, Restitution and Guidance.
Jim attended Oxford Group meetings with Bill Wilson in Frederick, MD from 1935-1937. The Oxford Group considered all addictions to be equally detrimental in terms of cutting a person off from God. There was no more emphasis on alcohol than there was on smoking, womanizing, or drug addiction. All of these behaviors left us in the dark relying on self-will, rather than God's will to solve our problems. The Group believed that self could not overcome self. Only God could remove our addictions and afflictions, provided we established an intimate two-way relationship with Him. In 1937, Bill left the Group to work full time with alcoholics.
As Jim explains it, when Bill Wilson left the Oxford he didn't take all the drunks with him. Jim remained in the Oxford Group, as did Rowland Hazard, Cebra Graves, Victor Kitchen, and Charles Clapp among others. In fact, Dr. Bob didn't leave the Group until 1940; almost a year after the "Big Book" was written.
Jim is the only person alive today who has first hand knowledge of the material Bill Wilson and the other "Big Book" authors used to write the book Alcoholics Anonymous. On numerous occasions, he has stated that the "Big Book" is Oxford Group literature written for a specific segment of the Oxford Group fellowship.
Although Jim stayed in the Oxford Group, he did have contact with the early A.A. fellowship through Sam Shoemaker, a mutual friend of his and Bill Wilson's. Sam Shoemaker was the rector of the Calvary Church in New York City, which was the United States headquarters of the Oxford Group. Bill Wilson attended Oxford Group meetings at the Calvary Church and Sam was instrumental in assisting Bill Wilson with the writing of the "Big Book" Bill acknowledged this linkage when he wrote on page 39 of A.A. Comes of Age:
"The 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 and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else."
Since the Oxford Group had been responsible for his spiritual awakening, Jim remained with the fellowship even after it changed its name to Moral Re-Armament in 1938. He didn't attend A.A. meetings until the 1980's when he was working with a grandson who had a drinking problem. At these meetings, he saw people practicing a program that did not even remotely resemble the "original" program of the 1940's. That's when he started to speak at A.A. events about the early days of the fellowship.
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