Oops, another A.A. history mistake–this time Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

http://mywordlikefire.wordpress.com/tag/bill-wilson/
The unholy meditation of the Oxford Group has been ignored. So have the spiritualistic practices of A.A. co-founders Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson. So has the New Thought influence of Emmet Fox, Glenn Clark, and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.

According to A.A. historian Dick B., “Dr. Peale’s role in Alcoholics Anonymous was enormous.” [1] In Dick B.’s article, Akron AA Founders Day Celebrations To Include AA–Norman Vincent Peale Connection, he writes, “Famed Christian preacher Dr. Norman Vincent Peale had many important contacts with A.A. and its founders.” [2] (bold mine)

Peale did have an enormous role in Alcoholics Anonymous–but not as a Christian. Like so much of the presentation about A.A.’s alleged “Christian” or “biblical” roots, we are dealing with inaccurate reporting.

Most people know that Norman Vincent Peale denied that Jesus Christ is the Savior. Interviewed on Phil Donahue in 1984, Peale stated, “It’s not necessary to be born again. You have your way to God; I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto shrine … I’ve been to Shinto shrines, and God is everywhere.” [3] When host Phil Donahue questioned him about this, Peale replied, “Christ is one of the ways. God is everywhere.” [4]

Like Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Dr. Bob Smith, Norman Vincent Peale was a Freemason.

Pro-A.A. author Dick B. has admitted he “missed the boat” on the New Thought influence in early A.A. (Read), so perhaps this error regarding Norman Vincent Peale is not surprising.

According to Let Us Reason Ministries, “Peale’s spirituality is not Christian but New Thought“… [5]

Let Us Reason also notes, “Peale has acknowledged that his theology of positive thinking came Ernest Holmes, founder of New Age/Occultic Church of Religious Science (Ernest Holmes, The First Religious Scientist, James Reid, p. 14). The phrase “Positive Thinking” came originally from Charles Fillmore, but it was Peale who made it a cultural icon. ([Of] course Robert Schuller used it as well)” [6] (bold mine)