Frank Buchman was the founder of the Oxford Group. Both Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, the co-founders of AA, were -- independently of one another -- members of the Oxford Group before they met. The first AA meetings were in fact Oxford Group meetings.

Much of what constitutes our modern-day 12-Step programs comes straight from Frank Buchman and from nowhere else. The spreading of the message of recovery one-to-one; our Fellowships' lack of interest in money; the habit of "quiet time" each day for guidance; the dedication to spiritual growth; the emphasis on personal honesty -- all come directly from the Oxford Group.

But by 1936 Frank Buchman had been involved with some other matters which caused Bill Wilson to de-emphasize the debt that our 12-Step programs owe to Frank Buchman. Buchman had not merely a personal but a national and international agenda for the Oxford Group. He had made an extremely unfortunate remark about Hitler which many regarded as supportive of the Nazi dictator. His message was basically a Christian message. Inevitably, Buchman himself became a contentious figure in the US, the UK and other countries. Bill Wilson must have watched these developments and wisely brought some changes to AA -- some immediate, some later. The cult of the personality disappeared; by 1955 AA was in charge of its own destiny. Christianity gave way to spirituality. Personal, not national, recovery was always the goal. Eventually the lessons that AA learned from Buchman were enshrined in the Twelve Traditions. As someone once said, the Steps protect us from our addiction; the Traditions protect us from one another.

Our Fellowships today enjoy the success and freedom that has come from avoiding Buchman's mistakes. But at the heart of our recovery lie Steps 10, 11 and 12, which are almost pure Frank Buchman -- to the extent that one can say with confidence that had Buchman never lived, there would be no 12-Step programs.