Dick's Personal Appraisal of State of Things in A.A. today.

An A.A. Appraisal by an Appreciative Insider
Dick B.
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
dickb@dickb.com; http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
Ph/fax: 808 874 4876
© 2004. All rights reserved
An Insider?
There have been lots of drifts, trends, and changes in Alcoholics Anonymous since Bill and Dr. Bob founded the society on June 10, 1935. Most of them took place before I entered the rooms on April 23, 1986 after two days of sobriety, some fifteen years of chronic alcoholism, and sixty years of natal birthdays. I was a late bloomer in more ways than one. But I haven’t had one drink from the first day forward. My life has really changed, and I’m one very happy, thankful dude as I approach my eightieth birthday.
I’ve done the whole A.A. gig—everything but climb into the leadership or employed service ranks. That is to say that I detoxed in A.A. I shook and shivered in A.A. I was ashamed and terrified in A.A. I came early to, and left late from, meetings. I attended thousands of meetings. I served as a greeter, a chair-setup person, a group secretary, a group treasurer, general service representative, frequent speaker, and hands-on sponsor of over 100 men in their recovery. I put my shoulder to the wheel in learning things to pass on—compassion, transportation, communication, Big Book study, step coaching, and camaraderie. Also participating in important sobriety-related side-activities: conferences, conventions, gratitude nights, service nights, unity nights, phone calls to other AAs and A.A. newcomers, newcomer netting, retreats, campouts, dances, study groups, sober club activities, and so on. It was an appealing way of life for someone who had felt disgraced, disgruntled, discouraged, depressed, and down-trodden. And I have never left Alcoholics Anonymous.
Just to make sure you know I’m a veteran insider, I’ll tell you I’ve done the treatment center thing, the therapy thing, the psych ward thing, the jail and penitentiary thing, the probation thing, and all the wreckage-of-the-past sidelights from divorce to tax problems to financial difficulties to health problems to unwanted publicity.
I’m not a professional worker for A.A. or anyone else. I don’t work for a treatment center, a rehab, or a detox unit. I’m not a therapist, psychologist, counselor, facilitator, coordinator, government or non-profit employee, or academic. I don’t lead or belong to a para-church group, self-help group, mutual support group, Christ-centered ministry, other anonymous fellowship, moderation management program, rational recovery group, or any kind of secular support group. I’m just a drunk who got sober in Alcoholics Anonymous and stayed that way because I wanted to (and because I had help)!
All the foregoing just to establish that I’m writing about, and appraising A.A. today from the inside, from within its rooms, from the fellowship itself, and as one who is—in today’s parlance—"recovered" and—in the commendable parlance of early A.A.—"cured" of alcoholism. I speak for myself and my opinions do not necessarily represent those of A.A. itself or any of its groups or members. I don’t write articles or books to or for A.A. or for organization. I just write what I find.
This will not be a comprehensive review of every nook and cranny or of every benefit to be found in A.A. It is intended to be a 75th anniversary summary of where I believe A.A. to be today.
A.A.’s major accomplishments for which I am appreciative
Let’s keep this simple and free of controversial facts.
A. A. has grown to about one million members in America and maintained that number.
A.A. is as close as the school or church next door. You can find meetings in almost any community and offices or telephone contact in most communities.
A.A. is easy to find. You look in the yellow pages and phone. You look in newspapers, and there’s be an ad. You look on the internet, and you can find A.A. in your area.
A.A.’s basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous, is available everywhere—at A.A. meetings, in major bookstores, in libraries, in treatment programs, on ebay, on internet book sites, in the offices of professionals, and in used book sites.
A.A.’s basic text—in four editions—now numbers many millions of books in print.
A.A.’s basic recovery program—consisting of Twelve Steps—can be found in its basic text, in innumerable books about A.A., printed in posters on the walls of most A.A. meeting rooms, and widely mentioned and discussed on websites and in a host of guides describing how to "take" those Steps.
In the last twenty-years, excellent seminars have been conducted all over the United States by members who review and explain the basic text and the Twelve Steps in detail.
Despite language suggesting otherwise, there is no formal membership in A.A., no rosters, no roll-call, no attendance record, no prohibited behavior, no prohibited people or groups, and no enforced requirement for membership.
Meetings of A.A. usually begin with a prayer, a moment of silence, a preamble that explains what A.A. is and a reading from its basic text that explains details of the program of recovery.
Meetings, except for a few "closed" meetings for alcoholics only, are generally open to anyone wishing to attend, visit, support, or learn.
At its best, every meeting of A.A. is focused on the new person—the person who still suffers from alcohol. That person is welcomed, recognized, and assisted to the extent he seeks help. Telephone numbers are usually given to enable cries for further help. Sponsorship in the program is often volunteered by seasoned members who focus on service.
Membership is free. Coffee and refreshments are free. Some literature is free, and the rest is reasonably priced and often provided free to a newcomer by some well-wishing and knowledgeable existing member.
At the meeting level, the groups are self-supporting through donations by those able to provide support. The expenditures are minimal, consisting primarily of low-cost evening rental, purchase of coffee and refreshments, and purchase of low-cost meeting schedules and literature.
As much A.A. goes on outside the meetings as goes on in the meetings. Sponsors work with newcomers to support them and teach them the program of recovery. Fellowship at dances, conferences, seminars, conventions, special events, retreats, picnics, "birthday" parties, and holiday marathon meetings is the norm. Supportive phone calls among members are common. Transportation to meetings and events is usually offered by one member to another. The "meeting after the meeting" often occurs in cars, restaurants, and meeting halls near the regular meetings. Opportunities to serve as greeters, set-up people, clean-up people, coffee and refreshment tables, literature tables, and leadership as a secretary, treasurer, group representative, speaker, or chair-person are available for the asking.
There is a genuine emphasis on mutual love, kindness, and support.
There is a genuine recognition of the "moral" or "spiritual" aims of the program, challenging members to honesty, tolerance, patience, kindness, acceptance, unselfishness, and service to others.
Those who take the Twelve Steps seriously find a path either to a relationship with God, or a set of moral principles designed to free the taker from fear and resentment and dishonesty and selfishness. They offer a challenge of religious affiliation, reading of outside literature suggested by members of the cloth, and action principles which originally were sifted from the "Four Absolutes"—honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love; and from Jesus’s sermon on the mount, the Book of James, and 1 Corinthians 13.
The element of "filling your hours" is a big factor in helping the shaking, twisting, lonely, fear-filled, guilt-ridden, shame-faced, bewildered, forgetful, and often despairing person who now must face huge chasms of "empty time" that used to be filled with bad habits, bad places, bad companions, bad ideas, and bad examples.
The emergence of interest in A.A. history. In slightly more than two decades, A.A. has grown from a society which had virtually forgotten where it came from to a society which is more and more being supplied with its history from outside sources—both good and bad. These include books, articles, lectures, seminars, exhibits, collections, internet presentations, audio tapes, movies and video presentations, and conferences. I count this development as one of the major, welcome achievements of A.A. today which holds out a real prospect of preventing the division of the fellowship, the secularization of its program, and the departure of tens of thousands of Christians and adherents to other belief-systems who don’t enjoy the religion-bashing they hear day in and day out in some quarters.
Any negatives? Of course!
The importance of learning, reporting, and respecting A.A. history is that present-day A.A. is awash in a variety of conflicting tugs—hostility to religion, intimidation of religiously inclined members, promotion of idolatry and nonsense gods, manufacture of ill-defined "spirituality" and "spiritual ideas," intrusion of mystical and atheistic doctrines, the entrance of a wide-variety of members from different sects, denominations, races, creeds, sexes, sexual preferences, atheist leanings, new age influences, new thought popularity, and enforced attendance brought about by the insistence of courts, probation, and correctional people and professional therapists and treatment programs. There is much much more. The success rates have plummeted from the original 75 to 93% cures to less than 5% today—a reluctantly admitted fact known to anyone who is active in the program. There has been a recalcitrant outflow to other "anonymous" and "self-help" support groups—hundreds of them. There has been a strong constitutional challenge to the practice of public enforcement of A.A. attendance. There has been a widespread shift in the government, academic, and scientific community from enthusiasm for A.A. to talk of "prevention" and "treatment" and consideration of a host of other definitions of alcoholism. There has been a decided hostility by some in A.A. to its acceptance of addicts and others suffering from life-controlling problems. There has been tremendous opposition in religion where A.A. used to enjoy its endorsement. Some churches condemn A.A. as anti-Christian and idolatrous. Some churches urge the formation of, and attendance at, "Christ-centered," or Bible-oriented groups such as Alcoholics for Christ, Teen Challenge, Celebrate Recovery, Overcomers, Overcomers Outreach, Inc., NACD, and Alcoholics Victorious, as well as a host of private Christian groups, ministries, programs, and prison outreach people. On the opposite end, there are those in Rational Recovery, atheist organizations, secular recovery groups, advocates of medicinal or psychiatric treatment and doubtful non-profits who see and declare A.A. as an ineffective, albeit confused and undefined religion of sorts.
Some think the conflicting forces will divide or destroy A.A. I’m not a sociologist, but I don’t agree. I point to the Y.M.C.A., Freemasonry, the Salvation Army, the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, the endless Protestant denominations, the two major political parties, the Service Clubs, the lodges, and the secret college fraternities. All have been buffeted with the loss of charismatic leaders, dynamic programs, widespread memberships, and popular support. Yet these large organizations adapt, resist, modify, struggle, change, and even vigorously fight opposition. More important, they survive whatever change may be seen in their form and programs. A.A. will also be likely to survive. A few think the "Washingtonians" are an example of what could happen to A.A. Or the "Oxford Group" demise. Or the temperance movement. But they can’t see the differences and dote on the threats. The Washingtonians rejected God and went into politics. The Oxford Group depended largely on the vitality of one man—Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman. The temperance movement is another story, but I haven’t seen any decline in pubs, bars, cocktail parties, or beer factories.
Regrettably, a host of critics ignore, distort, misreport, and modify A.A. history and throw in their respective prejudices against church, clergy, religion, particular denominations and creeds, the Bible, Christianity, Jesus Christ, and even the Creator Yahweh. They intentionally omit mention of early A.A. or God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, Quiet Time, Christian literature, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Anne Smith, Christian Endeavor, or other elements that shaped the very form and content of the present-day program. The secularism that is rampant in America is rampant among some activists in the recovery community, particularly among those who don’t believe, who don’t believe in the efficacy of Divine Aid, who claim that neither the Oxford Group nor the Bible nor Christianity had any effective role in the A.A. program or its early successes. They fear the loss of book sales, of clients, of government support, of insurance company money, of secular-minded colleagues, and of people who might be driven away by the very mention of God. There is no answer to this trend or the efforts or the opinions other than the facts themselves. And within A.A., there is a minority group of angry, prejudiced, authoritative speakers and writers—Bill Wilson years ago called them "bleeding deacons"—who write (without authority) on the stationary and in the name of A.A., or who intimidate individuals and groups who dare to read something other than what recent A.A. has published, or study or discuss the Christian roots of the A.A. program, or hold meetings which discuss the religious history and origins of A.A., its steps, and its literature.

So What!
Line up and take your potshots at this insider if you care to.
But I don’t think A.A. is going down the tubes in terms of program, or support, or members. It’s too venerable. It has too many good features. And its governing forces—such as they are—just don’t have the power or support to junk the day-by-day enthusiasm and activities in favor of some universalized, secularized, sanitized hand-holding ex-drunks.
The government agencies and grants and scholarship programs may continue to search for some scientific cure for alcoholism—a drug, a war, a community awareness program, a government-sponsored educational campaign, new types of rehabs and treatment facilities, drug courts, new therapies, and new genes.
But nobody stops drinking until he wants to. Nobody has eliminated temptation since the Serpent introduced himself to Eve. Nobody can ban temptation. And nobody has eliminated the great Tempter—at least not yet. Most importantly, God has never seen fit to remove free will from our menu.
We can be stinkers. We can be drinkers. We can be smokers. We can be abusers. We can be liars and cheats and thieves. We can be angry. We can be afraid. We can deny God. We can ignore the Bible. We can refuse to confess Jesus Christ. We can refuse to go to the doctor, the lawyer, and the priest. And we can fail to listen to the host of critics around us—friends and family who warn and scold us; society which educates and punishes us; religion which condemns or encourages us; scientists who conclude we have bad genes, bad behavior, bad diet, bad vitamin programs, insufficient exercise, mental problems, secrets, and self-centeredness.
I think we have free will. In fact, I know we do. It’s God-given.
Nobody in my family ever stopped me from drinking, though some prayed for me, warned me, belittled me, ignored me, and one even joined Al-Anon.
Nobody in my church ever stopped me from drinking. Some of them were alcoholics too. The minister had a father who had been a drunk and apparently saw the same disgusting behavior in me, but did nothing to quell it even though his dad had gotten sober in A.A. That group finally ignored me when the going really got tough. But they didn’t stop my drinking and probably didn’t even think it possible.
I give a lot of credit for my sobriety to the San Francisco Chronicle and its devastating publicity. I give a lot of credit to the District Attorney’s office across the Bay and its relentless quest to imprison me for a good long time. I give a lot of credit to a State Bar investigator who zealously pursued my pursuits and influenced me into resigning my lawyer credentials. But I give the greatest credit to fear, to nine months of depression, to a week’s blackout, and even to my former wife—who nudged me into A.A. in answer to my bewildered despair and illness.
Most of all, I give the credit to A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous was there. It was a phone call away. It was a few blocks away. It never shamed, judged, or excluded me. It never even silenced me. It was there, and I gave it all I had. I didn’t like saying: "I’m Dick. I’m an alcoholic." But I finally concluded I must be an alcoholic because I quacked the same way all the other ducks in the room quacked. And I’d just been in the same puddles most of them had waddled into. They didn’t really care what I decided, and I found they worried more about their own problems than my shortcomings. And they had a common understanding that drinking was a "no" "no" that could lead to death, insanity, or jail—true or not.
Temptation had been my problem. Early A.A. saw that in its frequent study of the Book of James and the dire consequences of giving in to temptation. Submission to God for help had been my problem. And early A.A. saw that in its frequent urging that we submit ourselves to God for guidance, His commandments, forgiveness, love, and healing—all in the Book of James, and elsewhere in the Good Book. Failure to resist the devil had been my problem. And early A.A. saw that in its explicit quotation of the verse in James that said: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." I did, and he did.
For me, the first step was complete abstinence—just as it was in early A.A. The second step was resisting temptation—just as it was in early A.A. The third step was turning to Almighty God for help: in prayer, with thankfulness, in obedience, in trust, and in study. That was a big one in early A.A.; and you started it with an initial and mandatory acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Way. And after eight months of suffering in A.A. without a drink, I set my own and similar course within A.A.—objections or no—of learning the A.A. program, helping newcomers, relying on God, studying the Bible, applying the principles of restitution, praying often, and sticking with the ship. No matter that it was named Alcoholics Anonymous. That’s the one I chose to sail on.
Top that. I can’t, and I haven’t found it necessary to try. Life is too good to spoil it with booze. God is too good for me to turn my back on Him.
END
Dick B. is an active A.A. member and uses his pen name to conform to A.A. Traditions. He is a writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible student, and Recovered AA. He has published 23 titles, and over 60 articles, on all aspects of early A.A. history. He can be reached through his website http://www.dickb..com/index.shtml or by email: dickb@dickb.com.
He frequently speaks on panels and at seminars, conferences, and conventions all over the United States.