March 24 in A.A. History

In 1939, as the writing of the Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous) neared completion, Hank P. [near right] wrote Bill W. [far right, 1937] a 1½-page memo addressing Bill’s reluctance to make certain editorial changes^*:

  Dogmatic;  Marked by positive and authoritative assertions. As “shown by God.”
  Doctor Howards [sic] position is that Mr. Wilson should not let himself be put in a position of being dogmatic  anywhere in the book. That instead of saying to any person . . . ”You do this or You do that.” . . . the whole attitude should be we did this or we did that and received certain blessings from God[…]
  My personal opinion is as follows: EVERY personality should be laid aside[…] Therefor [sic] Bill should take the book someplace where he can study it quietly with the attitude of taking from it <handwritten>changing</handwritten> any dogmatic statements or insinuations.[…] Simply to change it where necessary from . . . You do this . . . to . . . we did this. At the same time certain men such as Frank Amos, Harry B———, Jack D———, Doc. S———, Horace C———, Paul K——— and any others who might be suggested should <handwritten>could</handwritten> do the same thing. Then a meeting sh<handwritten>c</handwritten>ould be called for final discussion of these points and any changes made where this seemed right.[…]
To bring this proposal down to concrete few words.
A committee to study the book to ▓▓▓▓▓▓ change any “ You do this [sic] or [sic] you must do that [sic] statements or insinuations to, “ We did this [sic] or [sic] we did that.”
Then at a meeting to decide [sic] by the vote of the majority the changes. ANY people who desire and will spend the necessary time to be able [sic] to serve on such a committee.

---

^* The following excerpts include Hank’s errors; my notations are in red. “could <handwritten>should</handwritten>” indicates that Hank drew a line through “could” and hand-wrote “should” above above it.

In 1971, Margaret (or Margarita) Von Lüttichau Marbury [left, 1915] died in Washington, D.C.
    In the September 2020 issue of The Journal of Analytical Psychology, the article “Margarita Von Lüttichau: Intermediary between Jung and Bill W[—–]” by Ian McCabe, Christine Boyd, and Pádraig Carroll claimed that

Her contribution within this mediator role [i.e, between Carl Jung and Bill W.] has not been previously recognized but is an important factor in explaining how Jung became introduced to the AA 12‐step format and validated the effectiveness of group work. After the Second World War, Von Lüttichau travelled between America and Switzerland and introduced the writings and ideas of Wilson and Jung to each other and acted as an intermediary between both titans. Jung gave Von Lüttichau extraordinarily detailed instructions on how the 12‐step programme of AA could be applied to ‘general neurotics’. Von Lüttichau’s private papers provide a bridge between Jung and Wilson’s correspondence and help to piece together gaps in both Jungian and AA history.

March 23 in A.A. History

In 1898, James “Jimmy” B. [right] was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Nellie C. and Robert B. He was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1938 but slipped for about a week a few months later. After returning to A.A., he remained continuously sober for the rest of his life. His story, “The Vicious Cycle”, appears in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edi­tions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1936, Bill and Lois W. visited John Fitzhugh “Fitz” [left] and Elizabeth Gwathmey M. in Cumberstone, Maryland. Bill’s intellectual and scholarly qualities provided common ground with Fitz, and like Fitz, Bill was a dreamer. They became devoted friends of the Ms. Lois remarked that she and Bill had “practically commuted” to the M.’s home, while Fitz often visited them in Brooklyn, New York. He frequently attended the Tuesday night meetings at the W.s’ home in Brooklyn. Lois described Fitz as an “impractical, lovable dreamer.” Fitz’s story “Our Southern Friend” appears in all four editions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1941, Sybil M. [right] got sober in Los Angeles, California, becoming the first woman to join A.A. west of the Mississippi River. Her story, “Learning to Fly,” was published in the February 1982 issue of the A.A. Grapevine.
    In 1939, she had read the Liberty magazine article “Alcoholics and God.” Though fascinated, she did nothing. Eighteen months later, she read Jack Alexander’s article about A.A. in the 1 March 1941 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. She wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City and received a reply from Ruth Hock, who informed her that there were no women members in California but that Marty Mann was sober in New York. Ruth referred her to a small group of men in the area.
    Her non-alcoholic husband took her to that group, where they found 10 to 12 men around a table and 3 to 4 women against the wall. The chairman began the meeting by announcing, “As is our custom before the regular meeting starts, we have to ask the women to leave.” Sybil left with the other women, while her husband stayed, leading the members to assume he was the alcoholic. When he rejoined Sybil, he said, “They don’t know you’re alive. They just went on and on bragging about their drinking until I was about to walk out, when they jumped up and said the Lord’s Prayer, and here I am.” Sybil then headed for the nearest bar and got drunk.
    However, she remembered that Ruth Hock had written, “If you need help, call Cliff W. [left],” and had given her his phone number. When she called, he explained, “You didn’t tell us you were an alcoholic. We thought you were one of the wives. If you had identified yourself as an alcoholic, you would have been welcome as the flowers in May.” Sybil returned the following week and became the group’s only woman.
    Frank R. brought in a large carton of letters, bundled into groups of twenty to fifty. They were all inquiries and calls for help from people in Southern California. “Here they are! Here they are! If any of you jokers have been sober over fifteen minutes, come on up here and get these letters. We’ve got to get as many of these drunks as we can in here by next Friday, or they may die.” The last bundle contained letters from women. Frank called out, “Sybil Maxwell, come on up. I am going to put you in charge of all the women.”
    Sybil liked the idea of “being in charge” but replied, “I can’t, sir. You said I have to make all those calls by next Friday, or somebody might die. Well, I’ll be drunk by next Friday unless you have some magic that will change everything so I can stay sober.” Frank replied that everything she needed to know was in the Big Book, “and it says right in here that when all other measures fail, working with another alcoholic will save the day. That’s what you will be doing, Sybil, working with other alcoholics. You just get in your car and take your mind off yourself. Think about someone sicker than you are. Go see her and hand her the letter she wrote, and say: ‘I wrote one like this last week, and they answered mine and told me to come and see you. If you have a drinking problem like I have, and if you want to get sober as bad as I do, you come with me, and we’ll find out together how to do it.’ Don’t add another word to that, because you don’t know anything yet. Just go get ’em.”
    It worked, and she never had another drink.

In 1995, seventeen years after Bob P. of New Zealand conceived the idea for a zonal meeting serving Asian and Pacific Island A.A. groups, the first Asia/Oceania Service Meeting (AOSM) was held in Tokyo, Japan. Its purpose was to provide an opportunity for countries in the same geographical area to come together and share experiences, similar to a mini-World Service Meeting. The theme was “Twelfth Stepping Your Neighbor Country.” Representatives from five Asia-Oceania countries attended: Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and Vanuatu. Australia, despite being in the region, did not attend this first meeting due to financial constraints. There were also four non-member observers present. Bob chaired the meeting, and George D., General Manager of the General Service Office in New York City, was the keynote speaker.

March 22 in A.A. History

In 1951, Dr. William Silkworth, 77, died at his home, 45 W. 81st St., New York City, from coronary occlusion, a condition characterized by the partial or complete blockage of blood flow in an artery that supplies blood to the heart. In their later years, he and his wife, Marie [right, together in front of their home in New Jersey], had left New Jersey to live in Manhattan.

In 1984, Clarence S. [left], 81, died at home in Casselberry, Florida, from lung cancer. He was 46 years sober. Clarence was the founder of Cleveland A.A., the creator of the sponsorship concept as we know it today, and the author of “Home Brewmeister” in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

March 21 in A.A. History

In 1881, Anne Ripley [right, 1915], Dr. Bob S.’s future wife, was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She was the only daughter and the oldest of four children, her brothers being Paul, Charles, and Joseph. Dr. Bob once said of her, “For some reason, we alcoholics seem to have the gift of picking out the world’s finest women.” Bill W. referred to her as a “founder” of A.A. and “the mother of our first group in Akron [Ohio].” He described her as a woman who possessed a deep faith in God and an unwavering love for those who suffer.

In 1913, a memorial service for Bertha Bamford, who had died in November 1912 and was Bill W.’s high school love, was held in the chapel at Burr and Barton Seminary by the YMCA and YWCA associations of the school (Bill was president of the former, while Bertha had been president of the latter). A short article [left] on page 2 of The Bennington Evening Banner stated, “Many glowing tributes were paid to Miss Bamford’s memory by students of the upper classes and teachers.”

In 1915, Frederick Harold “Hal” M. was born in McDowell, North Carolina, the first child of Fred Harold and Louise Emma Clarke M. He sobered up in 1964 and became known as “Dr. Gratitude” for the custom “Attitude of Gratitude” pins he designed and gave to members.

In 1966, Edwin “Ebby” T. [right], from the last photo taken of him], the man Bill W. called his sponsor, died sober. He spent the last two years of his life at McPike’s Farm on Peaceable Street, a pioneering treatment facility for alcoholics located in Galway, New York, just 25 miles north of his hometown, Albany. Ebby’s caretakers believed he had given up after the death of his dear brother, Ken, in January 1966. Although he fell ill, Ebby resisted going to the hospital until he seemed to realize it was the end. “Well, we all have to go sometime,” he admitted before suffering an apparent stroke. He was rushed to a nearby hospital in Ballston Spa, but by Sunday night, he was in a coma. Ebby died of a stroke (cerebral thrombosis) at 1:00 a.m. on Monday and was later buried in Albany Rural Cemetery.

March 20 in A.A. History

In 1960, the weekly half-hour radio program, The Catholic Hour, aired Part I of “Alcoholism: The Problem and the Hope” with Marty M. [right, 1964] and an unnamed staff member from the General Service Office.

In 1961, having written to Dr. Carl G. Jung on 23 January and received a reply dated 20 January [left: these two letters], Bill W. wrote a second letter to Jung:

    Your observation that drinking motivations often include that of a quest for spiritual values caught our special interest.… Years ago, some of us read with great benefit your book entitled Modern Man in Search of a Soul. You observed, in effect, that most persons having arrived at age 40 and having acquired no conclusions or faith as to who they were, or where they were or where they were going next in the cosmos, would be bound to encounter increasing neurotic difficulties; and that this would be likely to occur whether their youthful aspirations for sex union, security, and a satisfactory place in society had been satisfied or not. Neither could any amount of resolution, philosophical speculation, or superficial religious conditioning save them from the dilemma in which they found themselves.

    Bill also remarked that Jung’s words “really carried authority, because you seemed to be neither wholly a theologian nor a pure scientist,” and he observed that Jung “spoke a language of the heart that we could understand.”
    He further wrote about his experiences with LSD, noting that many members of A.A.…

    have returned to the churches, almost always with fine results. But some of us have taken less orthodox paths. Along with a number of friends, I find myself among the later.

    Bill cited the Canadian research of Humphry Osmond, the man who introduced Huxley to mescaline in 1953. Osmond reported that 150 hardcore alcoholics were “preconditioned by LSD and then placed in the surrounding AA groups.” Over three years, they achieved “startling results” compared to similar individuals who were not treated with psychedelics but only participated in A.A. “My friends believe that LSD temporarily triggers a change in blood chemistry that inhibits or reduces ego thereby enabling more reality to be felt and seen,” Bill told Jung.
    “Some of my AA friends and I have taken the material (LSD) frequently and with much benefit,” he added, noting that the powerful psychedelic drug ignites “a great broadening and deepening and heightening of consciousness.”
    Bill informed Jung that his first LSD trip in 1956 reminded him of a mystical revelation he had experienced after hitting rock bottom in the 1930s and ending up in a New York City hospital ward for hardcore alcoholics. “My original spontaneous spiritual experience of twenty-five years before was enacted with wonderful splendor and conviction,” he wrote.
    He received no reply from Jung, who suffered a stroke just days after receiving the letter. Aniela Jaffé, a Jungian analyst and colleague of Jung, responded to Wilson on May 29, 1961, stating, “… as soon as Dr. Jung feels better and has enough strength to begin again his mail, I will show it to him.” Jung died a week later.

March in A.A. History, day unknown

Origins of A.A. in Barbados: Information about the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous in Barbados has been imprecise and often contradictory. The "founder" has been reported as either a Californian or a Canadian.
    The most reliable accounts suggest that in the early 1960s, an American named Ed A. from San Diego, California, who had previously been exposed to A.A. in the U.S., was living and working in Bridgetown, Barbados. Ed, a former professional tennis player, often worked as an umpire at local tournaments and was a member of the exclusive Barbados Yacht Club, which was restricted to white members. He struggled to stay sober, threatening his job.

    In March 1962, Ed visited the offices of the Advocate, Barbados’s principal newspaper [right: front page, Dec 1966]. He met with Ian Gale, the editor, expressing his interest in raising awareness about alcohol-related issues and suggesting a notice or column on alcohol abuse. He indicated that Barbados needed an A.A. program. Mr. Gale referred Ed to journalist Tony V., known for his heavy drinking and previously advised to reduce his alcohol consumption.
    In their first conversation, Ed requested that someone write an article on alcohol abuse in Barbados, including statistics, and expressed his desire to start an A.A. program.

    As a result, Mr. Smith the Headmaster of St. Matthias Boys School in Christ Church, was contacted. He agreed to provide a meeting place for the first regular A.A. group in Barbados, in the annex of St. Matthias Church [left: late 1800s, c. 1965]. A donation of $3 was given weekly to the sexton for opening and closing the church. Early members included Ed A., Tony V., Robert, Cyrus, and Bert E.
    Despite claiming to have brought A.A. to Barbados, Ed A. struggled to maintain sobriety. After umpiring a tennis match at Bachelors’ Hall, St. James, he drunkenly announced he was the President of A.A. in Barbados.
    Bert, a salesman, got sober but relapsed when his pigeons won a competition. He later sobered up again and became a committed A.A. member.

March 18 in A.A. History

In 1905, Clinton T. “Duke” P. was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to George W. and Frances Thompson P. In 1918, the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Duke graduated from the University of Missouri in 1926 and from the Kansas City School of Law in 1932, the same year he married Catherine “Katie” Northern.

    In 1938, Duke was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) by Charles “C.J.” K. and Eddie B., and was admitted to Akron City Hospital in Akron, Ohio, with “acute gastritis.” It was there that he sobered up and was visited by members of the Akron A.A. Group. Dr Bob S. became his sponsor. In 1940, Duke led the first A.A. meeting at 2222 Maumee Rd. [upper right: house; lower right: aerial view with house at lower left] in Toledo, Ohio.

    Duke served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, continuing his service in the Army Reserve before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He then became a distinguished salesman for Proctor & Gamble. In 1988, Duke and Katie moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where they lived out the rest of their lives.

In 1947, the Dallas (Texas) Central Office opened and held its first Board meeting, even though there were only two A.A. groups in the area. The Central Office was located on Akard Street in the Davis Building [left, c. 1931]. It was a musty old office and a little cluttered.

    Dick P. was the director. He suffered physically from a Jamaica Ginger [right] poisoning^* during Prohibition, but that didn’t stop him from answering the phone, coordinating 12th-Step calls, or sharing with a friend or stranger over a cup of coffee. He even sold some literature.
    The location of the office would change a few times over the next several years, but always stay in the Downtown Dallas area.

---

^*Prohibition Era Jamaica Ginger was usually homemade or produced illegally, made with available ingredients, resulting in varied quality and potency. Homemade versions often included fresh ginger, sugar, water, and high-proof alcohol like moonshine. The quality and safety of such bootlegged Jamaica Ginger were questionable, with risks of contamination or harmful ingredients. Despite these risks, ginger liqueurs remained popular during Prohibition, often used in cocktails to mask harsh flavors of low-quality alcohol.

In 1951, Cliff W., [left] who had gotten sober in 1941 in Los Angeles, California, was elected as the first Southern California Delegate to the General Service Conference. Before getting sober, in March 1940, Cliff had invited a stranger who knocked on his door into his home. The man, Mort J., [below right] had just left the residence of Kaye Miller, a non-alcoholic who had been trying to start and sustain A.A. meetings in Los Angeles, but who was giving up and moving to Hawai'i. Cliff’s name and address, originally submitted by his wife, were among the leads Mort had retrieved from Kaye’s wastebasket. Mort had expressed a desperate need to talk to someone about his alcoholism to help him stay sober. Although Cliff had no interest in quitting drinking at that time, he felt sympathy for Mort and agreed to listen.

March 17 in A.A. History

In 1938, John D. Rockefeller Jr. [near right] replied to a memorandum from Willard S. “Bill” Richardson [far right] on February 23rd, which had outlined the work and success of A.A. and requested $10,000 [~$225,000 in 2025] over two years. In this reply, John D. stated,

    … What has been accomplished according to these records in regener­ating human life is almost miraculous. I do not wonder at your interest in the work.
    On the other hand, much as I would like to do what you gentlemen want me to do and agree to contribute $5,000 a year for two years to the support of the work, as you know it is contrary to our office policy to undertake the entire responsibility for any enterprise, or even a fifty per cent responsibility, unless we expect to carry it indefinitely or to its conclusion. This policy I am sure you agree has been proved, by our long experience, to be a wise one. I feel that it would be a mistake to deviate from it.
    However, because of the interest of yourself and these other friends in the matter, I will provide a total of $5,000 for this enterprise. Because the service for which this sum is to be used is closely related to the Riverside Church, the friends who present the request to me being officers of the Church, I am making the contribution of $5,000 to Riverside Church as a non-quota item of of the Benevolent Department, understanding that it will be dispensed for the object mentioned in response to your requisition.
    From my standpoint it is understood that the money can be spend during one, two, or three years, as may seem to you wise, but that in any event you will not look to me for a further contribution for this object.…

March 16 in A.A. History

In 1940, the Alcoholic Foundation^* relocated from 17 Williams St. in Newark, New Jersey, to a two-room office at 30 Vesey St.^† [right, c. 1940] in lower Manhattan, New York City. Most of the draft-lined yellow pages and draft manuscripts of the Big Book were discarded before the move, including the first draft of the Twelve Steps, a huge loss for the A.A. Archives.

     Rent was $650 a year [~$14,750 in 2025]. The recently hired Lorraine Greim, Ruth Hock’s non-alcoholic assistant, received a raise from $12 [~$272 in 2025] a week to $15 [~$340 in 2025], because she had expected to work in Newark when she was hired. Bill Wilson affectionately referred to her as “Sweetie Pie.”

---

^*Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age dates this move—incorrectly—to February 1940.
^†On 11 September 2001, 30 Vesey Street was nearly destroyed when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

In 1940, Ruth Hock [left] became the first National Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation, effectively making her the first National Secretary of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1975, the first 12-step meeting conducted in Japanese took place at the Kamata Catholic Church [right] near Haneda Airport in Tokyo, in the district of Ōta. This event marked the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous in Japan and initiated the practice of the Twelve Steps, the foundation of the A.A. recovery program. Following this, A.A. events were held throughout Japan. 

In 2000, Nancy O. [left] founded AA History Buffs on egroups.com. After at least 444 posts to the group, she somehow lost the password and subsequently moved the group to Yahoo Groups.

March 15 in A.A. History

In 1941, the first A.A. group in Connecticut was established in New Haven, which led to the formation of additional groups in surrounding towns. Alex P., a Westport resident who attended the New Haven group, managed inquiries in his area. Soon, a group was started in Westport. In October, New Haven sent a team to Bridgeport to establish a group there. Soon, a group was started in Westport.

March 14 in A.A. History

In 1906, Sylvia B. [right, 1923] was born in Washington, DC. She would marry and later divorce Philip K. Despite the divorce, she would continue to use his last name and, as Sylvia K., become the first woman in Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) to achieve “permanent” long-term sobriety, which would begin on 13 September 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. Her story, titled “Keys to the Kingdom,” is in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1942, the New Jersey Group of Alcoholics Anonymous held an anniversary dinner at the Hotel Suburban [left], located at 141 S. Harrison St. in South Orange, New Jersey, with Bill W. as the featured speaker. Tickets were priced at $2.50 [$49 in 2025 dollars].

In 1949, Dr. Bob S., knowing he was dying of cancer, wrote to Bill W. [far right] concerning the General Service Conference idea,

    Have been feeling quite painfully ill… Do not have the feeling that this [conference] is a particularly guided thing to do now. Maybe I am wrong, but that is the way I feel. Why don’t you see if can get the boys to put across this committee and let it go at that.

Supporting A.A. in Ukraine

[Note that this post was written in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian Federation.]

An A.A. friend sent me a very well-done flyer for an online A.A. meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. It's shown to the left, but I've removed the Meeting ID and Passcode; I don't want to make it that  easy to attend. When I first saw it, I thought, "I only wish that we could do something similar for all the Russian alcoholics, who must also be terribly distressed at this time" (especially those in the Russian military).

This flyer was immediately followed by a less well-done message, shown below, purporting to be from "Ukrainian AA Service Center and the Ukrainian AA Service Board" to "the AA World Community." I was skeptical. This looked so much like a myth that I expected to find it debunked at Snopes ("the internet’s definitive fact-checking resource"). I did not. But I did find an article titled, "UKRAINE: New Crisis, Grimly Familiar Disinformation Trends", which said, in part, 

It is a grim measure of the frequency of crisis events in recent years, and the ubiquity of online disinformation, that when a major story breaks — a terrorist attack, a mass shooting, or an act of war — the writers and editors at Snopes can typically predict what comes next. Recycled videos and photographs, stripped from their proper context, and the same old tropes, all designed to inflame or confuse, or even amuse, the reader.

This is followed by a "grim overview of the familiar disinformation trends and recurring memes… in the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."

But, as I said, I only later looked on Snopes. First I searched the Internet. To my surprise, I immediately got a hit that looked very promising. It was on the aa.lviv.ua website and looked like this:

Since I don't know what I presumed was Ukrainian, and not having much patience, I immediately had the page automatically translated into English. It is indeed Ukrainian, and here's the English translation I got:

It was only later that I noticed that an English translation of the message follows the Ukrainian on the original, one click further down. I felt stupid and impatient for not looking.

Ultimately, I decided I'd check into the Kyiv online meeting and see if there was some way I could be helpful. I tried to log in a few minutes before it was to start. Due to the meeting having reached capacity, it was impossible to get in. It then occurred to me, If I'm having this much trouble getting in, there are probably Ukrainians who are also unable to get in. It horrified me to think that I could have had a part in disrupting their meeting. If, by some miracle, I had been able to get in, I sure hope I would have realized that the meeting was at capacity and left. But even if I had, my spot would have been filled by a non-Ukrainian.

I tried joining after the meeting was over. It was bedlam. It appeared that most people were unmuted and there were multiple conversations going on at the same time. I saw one man, who appeared to be that single Ukrainian member. He appeared to be quite stressed out. I also saw some A.A.friends of mine, which was disappointing. I only stayed a minute. The last thing they needed at that point was yet one more non-Ukrainian A.A. to join the fray.

Tonight, I learned from a reliable source that only one of the seven or eight regular Ukrainian group members was able to get into the meeting (presumably, the Zoom host). No doubt, many of the attendees had good intentions, although I'm also pretty sure some did not. Clearly, many also didn't think through the consequences of their actions.

And then, very late last night, My friend said that another friend of hers had found a Facebook post about the A.A. meeting in Kyiv earlier, shown at the left. It was so disheartening to read. Yes, many non-Ukrainians—maybe hundreds of them—got to feel good for a minute. Meanwhile, seven or eight locals never got to their meeting.

God As We Understand Him?

 I recently read Bill W.'s essay, “God As We Understand Him: The Dilemma of No Faith”, in The Language of the Heart (originally published as “The Dilemma of No Faith” in the April 1961 issue of the A.A. Grapevine). He begins this essay by saying, “The phrase ‛God As We Understand Him’ is perhaps the most important expression to be found in our whole AA vocabulary.”

For a long time, I've been vaguely uncomfortable with this wording, even though I knew what it meant the first time I heard it. In the last few years, but not in my early sobriety, I've sometimes heard newcomers asking about this expression, “How can anyone understand God?”  in a way that led me to think that perhaps this was an impediment for them. I realized my discomfort is just that. Perhaps understanding is not the best word. I think “God As We Conceive of God” is closer to the intended meaning. It will be interesting to see how the proposed plain language Big Book^* (i.e., Alcoholics Anonymous) will deal with this phrase. If at all.

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^* If you don't know what this is or what it means, check out Advisory Action #28 (on p 7) in this document: Conference Advisory Actions of the 71st General Service Conference, a list of all such actions adopted at the 71st General Service Conference last April.

19,560 days

Yes, I am still sober, still above ground. My posts slowed down drastically and then stopped altogether because I feared it would become too easy to identify who I was from my posts, due to circumstances of my life. Already, my brother had figured out this was me. For those who don't realize it, I was doing my best to respect Tradition 12. My brother already knew I was a deeply involved member of A.A.

Future posts will probably be less personal, on the whole. I hope this is, at least in part, because I have less interest in myself and more interest in others [v. Alcoholics Anonymous, p 84].

A.A. in these times of pandemic has been a great experience for me personally. Since mid-March 2020, I've attended online meetings on every continent that has them (Antarctica does not, due to insufficient bandwidth). I've been regularly attending meetings all over the US and Canada, as well as in Australia and South Africa. It has also become much easier to find workshops, conventions, conferences, and meetings that focus on topics like Traditions, Concepts, The A.A. Service Manual, and A.A. history. These are topics that I love learning about. I've been sober almost 29 years, been involved in General Service for 25½ of those years, but I sometimes think I've learned more about General Service in the last 16 months than in all the time before. Maybe not. Maybe it just feels that way.

Eighteen years

Still here, still sober, even if I'm not posting. Yesterday I celebrated 18 years of continuous sobriety.

Seventeen years

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of my first A.A. meeting, which marked the beginning of my current spell of continuous sobriety. I can't say I celebrated, because I was too busy doing things that are little more than the blessings of a sober life:

• Took my car in to have the oil changed and the engine light checked—I not only have a driver's license, I also have a car
• Worked—I am employable today
• Chaired a meeting of the local chapter of a professional organization—not only employed, but on the Board of Directors and also Program Chair
• Attended a funeral

The funeral, ironically enough, was for Bumblebee, someone I sponsored for a while. I suspect I was his last sponsor. I hadn't seem him in at least a year, and sometimes wondered if he named me when asked if he had a sponsor. Then I would wonder if he was even making meetings.

Apparently not. He was definitely out there. He committed suicide by stabbing himself to death in the parking lot of the apartment complex where he lived. In the femoral artery. Thank you, Bumblebee, for keeping it green for me on my anniversary.

Tonight I will celebrate with dinner and a meeting! Praise HP, from whom all blessings flow!

Is A.A. a religion?

On 17 March 2009, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in an appeal of the case of Glenside Center, Inc. [a clubhouse hosting meetings of various twelve-step programs] v. Abington Township. A lower court had found that the Glenside Center violated local zoning laws, after the Township received numerous complaints regarding an "adverse parking situation" that "made driving difficult and dangerous and prevented emergency traffic from getting through." There were also complaints about "urinating in public, using obscene language and trash which had been left by members attending meetings." Excessive noise and loitering are also mentioned in the opinion. (Clearly demonstrating the danger of these kinds of totally inappropriate, inconsiderate and non-sober behavior at any A.A. meeting.)

The appeal was on the basis of four issues, namely that the Zoning Board:

1. had incorrectly found that the use of the building did not meet the requirement of being primarily used as an "office,"
2. had denied the clubhouse its rights under RLUIPA¹,
3. had violated the clubhouse's right to free exercise of religion by determining that the clubhouse was a "Community Center," and
   
4. had failed to prove a compelling governmental interest and had failed to use the least restrictive means to further that interest.
   

My interest is only in the 2^nd and 3^rd issues insofar as they relate to whether or not A.A. can legally be considered a religion. In its opinion, the Court essentially determined that Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religion:

Glenside argues... it is a protected entity under RLUIPA because its activities are a religious exercise.... Glenside argues that AA is not a religion, but its activities and programs constitute a free exercise of religion under RLUIPA. It contends that the 12-step program that AA follows is certainly based upon a belief in a higher power, and various AA members testified that they found a connection with God by attending AA meetings. Glenside directs our attention to a New York Court of Appeals case, Griffin v. Coughlin,... which held that an AA meeting constituted an exercise of religion.

The Board, however, argues and we agree that Glenside presents no binding authority for its proposition that an AA meeting is a religious exercise as that term is used in RLUIPA.² Glenside failed to prove that any of the meetings are administered by a religious leader, i.e., a minister, priest, rabbi or other spiritual leader. Glenside does not hold any religious services or have any religious affiliations. Its Articles of Incorporation state nothing about being incorporated for a religious purpose, but only to assist people in recovering from addiction. Similarly, Glenside’s printed materials state that Glenside is not a religious organization and do not require that members possess any religious belief to participate. While Glenside argues that members have found a connection with God at its meetings, clearly, the primary purpose of the group meetings, whether they be for AA, NA or DA, is to support individuals who are recovering from alcohol, drug, gambling and debtor addictions, not to advance religion. Particularly where AA and NA meetings are concerned, the primary concern of those meetings is to treat substance abuse. Moreover, Glenside and others on its behalf testified that members come from all religious walks of life whether they be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or non-believers in a higher power. The fact that the 12-step program is used and it contains references to “God” and a “Higher Power” does not mean that all members believe that they are partaking in a religious experience when they are attending an AA or NA meeting.

Good for the Court, bad for Glenside Center, Inc. Bad, not because they lost their appeal, but for (1) encouraging the courts to consider A.A. a religion, (2) giving the appearance of violating A.A. tradition of having no opinion on outside issues, and (3) for providing a forum for a number of members of A.A. to violate A.A.'s tradition of anonymity at the level of press, radio and film (not to mention on television and on the Internet).

Glenside Center is not in any sense A.A. or part of A.A. It is a separately organized enterprise with the [presumable] purpose of providing meeting space for various twelve-step organizations. From the point of view of A.A. groups, it is in no respect different from a church, municipal building or community center providing space for meetings—all these entities are nothing more than landlords.

However, I suspect that all the principals of the Glenside Center are members of A.A. As stated in the opinion, many of those who testified on behalf of the Glenside Center are also members of A.A. One was identified by full name as a member of A.A. for 53 years (you'd think he'd know better after that long). The Center's argument included the following:

While AA or its related organizations do not claim to be an established religion, the constituent groups can and have been viewed as engaging in an exercise of religion. The Act broadly defines religious exercise to include "any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious beliefs."

I became aware of this ruling when a friend in A.A. sent me a link to an entry about it in a Washington Post blog named "Under God." In it, David Waters argues that the Court made a mistake on the basis of four objections. After each objection, I'll give my objections to Mr Waters' objections.

Objection 1: Any person of faith can be a spiritual leader.

Actually, I would go even further than Mr Waters. Lack of "a religious leader, i.e., a minister, priest, rabbi or other spiritual leader" should not preclude a gathering from being religious. A prime example would be an unprogrammed meeting for worship of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.

Objection 2: Assisting people in recovering from any addiction is a religious (and spiritual) purpose.

Accepting this argument would make every rehab and detox in the U.S. a religious organization. It would also make seeing any health-care practitioner for help with an addiction into a religious activity.

Objection 3: Any group that advances the healing of bodies and souls (and the forgiveness of debts and debtors) also advances religion.

By this argument, entering into any course of psychiatric or psychological therapy, participating in any of numerous self-help organizations or classes, going to see the doctor, going to the gym to work out, or seeking credit counseling would be considered a religious activity. This is patently absurd.

Objection 4: Clearly the court is unaware of the history and purpose of AA.

Clearly Mr Waters is not fully aware of the history and purpose of A.A. Let me address each of the facts he cites in support of his objection.

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded as a spiritual program, direct outgrowth of the Oxford Group at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York.

True. But it's also true that the Oxford Group (known since 2001 as Initiatives of Change) considered itself non-religious. Furthermore A.A. separated from the Oxford Group at least in part due to the latter's belief that alcoholism was a sin rather than a disease, and to sever what might appear as ties to a Christian organization.

AA meetings include recitations of The Lord's Prayer and the Serenity Prayer.

Actually, this seems to me to be a reasonably good argument. It's one reason I do not participate in saying the Lord's Prayer at meetings. Not all meetings use the Lord's Prayer, though I'd have to say that most in the U.S.³ do. As for the Serenity Prayer, so far as I know, it is not perceived to be associated with Christianity, despite its purported author being a Christian theologian. As insightful as it may be to us drunks, the idea would seem to be quite universal in thought and application among those who consider and practice such things. Indeed, the essential idea can be found in a Mother Goose rhyme:

For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.

Back to Mr Waters' argument:

"AA indirectly derived much of its inspiration from the Church," Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Rector of Calvary Church, said in 1955.

Key word: indirectly. I'd say that a huge number of institutions of Western civilization were indirectly derived from Christianity, not the least of which is the United States of America. Furthermore, citing a single person—a non-A.A. member at that—saying this in a single speech is not much of an argument. Bill W., co-founder of A.A. and a much better source to cite, said of the phrase God as we understood him that it was "tremendously important," "a ten-strike," enabling "thousands to join AA who would have otherwise gone away," opening the door to "those of fine religious training and those of none at all," making "one’s religion the business of the AA member himself and not that of his society."⁴

AA's Twelve Traditions includes No. 2: "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience." Seven of AA's famous Twelve Steps reference God, including:

• 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
• 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
• 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Newcomers to A.A. are commonly encourage to find a power greater than themselves even if that power is nothing more than a doorknob or an ashtray. Many A.A. members attain long-term sobriety using A.A. itself as a higher power (God is sometimes identified as an acronym, standing for "Group of Drunks"). Even casual acquaintance with A.A.'s program makes it clear that this higher power can be of whatever conception one so chooses. See also the quote of Bill W.'s referred to above.

"Would that the Church were like this," Shoemaker said in 1955, "ordinary men and women with great need who have found a great Answer, and do not hesitate to make it known wherever they can - a trained army of enthusiastic, humble, human workers whose efforts make life a different thing for other people!"

Is Mr Waters saying that a non-religious group of people cannot exhibit these same characteristics? I suspect that any number of political activists would be happy with such a description.

If a group that meets under spiritual precepts, performs rituals, and seeks to heal its members isn't religious, what else is it?

Rituals? To what rituals does Mr Waters refer? He hasn't mentioned any up to this point in the article and doesn't mention any after this either. And without rituals, all that's left is a group that uses spiritual precepts and seeks to heal its members. In at least one sense of the word spiritual, a vast number of groups satisfy this description.

Indeed, much of the argument comes down to whether or not there is a difference between spirituality and religion, and what that difference might be. From the American Heritage Dictionary:

spir·i·tu·al
ADJECTIVE:1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. See synonyms at immaterial. 2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul. 3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific. 4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred. 5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.

As will be clear to anyone who is familiar with A.A. and its program of recovery, A.A. itself would not accept any definition other than one with the broadest possible meaning. The meaning of A.A. being a spiritual program could be that it is religious to the member who is herself religious. That meaning could be only that it is intangible or immaterial to the member who is himself not religious. A.A. itself doesn't care. A.A. is areligious.

---

¹Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act—a federal statute passed in 2000 to provide stronger protection for religious freedom in the land-use and prison contexts.

²The opinion footnotes this sentence with the following:

RLUIPA defines “Religious exercise” as follows:

(A) In general. The term “religious exercise” includes any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.

(B) Rule. The use, building, or conversion of real property for the purpose of religious exercise shall be considered to be religious exercise of the person or entity that uses or intends to use the property for that purpose.

³I know from personal experience that the Lord's Prayer is rarely used in Australia, and that because of this Australian members of A.A. pride themselves on being more consistent with A.A. principles than A.A. in the U.S. is.

⁴Full quote, from A Conversation with Bill W., A Synopsis of the Question-Answer Period following Bill W.'s talk at the NCCA Syposium in New York in 1960:

When these Steps were shown to my friends, their reactions were mixed indeed. Some argued that six steps had worked fine, so why twelve? From our agnostic contingent there were loud cries of too much “God.” Others objected to an expression which I had included which suggested getting on one’s knees while in prayer. I heavily resisted these objections for months. But I finally did my statement about a suitable prayerful posture and finally went along with that now tremendously important expression, “God as we understand Him” — this expression having been coined, I think, by one of our former atheist members. This was indeed a ten-strike. That one has since enabled thousands to join AA who would have otherwise gone away. It enabled people of fine religious training and those of none at all to associate freely and to work together. It made one’s religion the business of the AA member himself and not that of his society.

Still above ground and sober

For anyone who's wondering, I'm doing okay. I got elected to another Area office and expect to continue in General Service for another two years. Nimue is divorcing me after nearly three years of separation. Despite that, I feel as good as I have in a long time. Despite some heavy bouts of depression over the last nine months, I recently thought to myself, "Ah, so this is what it feels like not to be depressed! I had forgotten."

Despite the fact that I haven't posted for over nine months, every now and then, someone adds a comment to an old post. This, if nothing else, sporadically reminds me that I'd like to taking up at least semi-regular posting again. Absolutely no promises, we'll see.