ended the battle.
Later, Bill explained in some detail that there had been a “compromise.” He claimed that “God” was still there, but in terms that anyone could understand. He said the language was substituted to accommodate the atheists and agnostics in A.A. Lois Wilson said the change was agreed to because “not all drunks were Christians.”
The Inept Attempt to Attract Atheists and Agnostics
So. What did this newly coined phrase “God as we understood Him” really refer to? The fact is that Bill had used the phrase in his own surrender story in the Big Book. He also said that Ebby had suggested he do so. The phrase was to the effect that Bill humbly surrendered to his Maker as Bill then understood Him. And this was language that Bill’s mentor Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Jr., had suggested in many writings. Shoemaker contended that one could begin his quest to find and establish a relationship with God by surrendering as much of himself as he understood to as much of God as he understood. You can find the statements in Shoemaker’s book Children of the Second Birth. That idea wasn’t from the Bible. It was from Sam Shoemaker.
In all the earlier descriptions, the Cofounders, and their mentor Sam Shoemaker, were referring to “the God of the Scriptures” as they spoke of God, Creator, Maker, Heavenly Father, and God of our fathers.
The New Names Confused, But Did Not Enlighten
Was Bill therefore introducing some new kind of “god” into his program and manuscript as he substituted the Oxford Group phrases after the compromise battle of 1939? There is no definitive answer; but we do know that it was not until Dr. Bob was long dead that Bill surprisingly added in his Twelve Steps and Twelve