May 15 in A.A. History

In 1945, the Canadian magazine Maclean’s [right: cover] published “I Was a Drunk,” as told to J. J. Dingman. The piece was subtitled “A Personal Experience of Reclamation by Cooperation: The Story of a Practical Fellowship—Alcoholics Anonymous.”

In 1949, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ed W. [far left], the principal author of The Little Red Book [right], wrote a note to Bill W. to inform him that Barry C. [near left] had made significant progress. He also wanted to confirm that Bill had received the copies of The Little Red Book that Ed had sent.

    Published in 1946 by Ed W. and Barry C., The Little Red Book was intended to serve as a guide to A.A.’s Twelve Steps. Dr. Bob Smith contributed to its editing, consulted on the text, and is known to have distributed copies. It was A.A.’s first step book, intended as a companion to the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, just as Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions would later be. Together with the Akron guides and pamphlets, The Little Red Book offers insight into how Dr. Bob worked the steps and guided others through them.
    Although Bill spoke highly of The Little Red Book, the Alcoholic Foundation declined to take over its publication because the Trustees sought a book that A.A. could own. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was eventually published in 1952.

In 1954, the Baltimore, Maryland Area Groups of Alcoholics Anonymous held their 9th Annual Banquet [left: program] at the Emerson Hotel, located at the intersection of Baltimore and Calvert Streets.

In 1961, Bill W.’s mother, Dr. Emily Ella Griffith Strobell [far right, with Bill in Yosemite National Park, 1947], 91, died at a nursing home in Dobbs Ferry, New York [near right: her gravestone].

1962. in a letter to the Calix Society^*, Bill Wilson wrote:

As you know I always have been personally partial to all persons or organizations whose good will and helpfulness to A.A. is beyond question. You need not have said that you strive to keep your efforts within the framework of the traditions of Alcoholics Anony­mous. I know you have tried and have succeeded.

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^*  A Catholic organization that supports people recovering from alcoholism and other addictions, their families, and friends. Founded in the 1940s, Calix helps members maintain sobriety by integrating their Catholic faith with the principles of 12-Step recovery.

May 14 in A.A. History

In 1939, the first A.A. meeting in New Jersey, and the fourth in the world, was held in Upper Montclair.

In 1948. the Long Beach (California) Central Office [right, 1128 Dawson Ave., Apr 2011] opened with 10 known groups at the time. It was listed in the Long Beach Telephone Directory as:

Alcoholics Anonymous Harbor District
1128 Dawson Ave. — Long Beach, California
Telephone number 305-150 [later changed to 905-150]

According to the story, Jack J. grew tired of traveling to Los Angeles whenever they needed something. So he collaborated with the group in Signal Hill to propose the establishment of a Central Office in Long Beach for the mutual benefit of the groups in the Harbor Area.

In 1998. Sybil C. [far left: 1940s; near left: 1961] died just six days shy of her 90th birthday. A former bootlegger, dance hall girl, and the first woman in Alcoholics Anonymous west of the Mississippi, she also served as Long Beach (California) Archivist and the first executive secretary of California A.A. Sybil got sober on 23 March 1941. Having been married several times, she would often begin her later talks by saying, “My name is Sybil Doris Adams Stratton Hart Maxwell Willis C—–, and I’m an alcoholic.”

May 13 in A.A. History

In 1935, the day after first meeting each other, Bill W. and Dr. Bob S. had dinner together.

May 12 in A.A. History

In 1935 , on this Mother’s Day, Bill W. [near right] (age 39) met Dr. Bob S. [far right] (age 55), his wife Anne, and their son Smitty (age 17) at the home of Oxford Group member Henrietta Buckler Seiberling [far left] —the Gate Lodge [near left] of the Stan Hywet estate^*—at 5 p.m.

     Dr. Bob was so badly hungover that he could not eat dinner and planned to stay only 15 minutes. Left alone in the library, Bill told Bob he was not there to help him but to keep himself sober. He then shared his own experience as an alcoholic, as suggested by Dr. Silkworth, i.e., to emphasize the medical hopelessness rather than preach. Dr. Bob opened up, and he and Bill talked until after 11 p.m., extending Dr. Bob’s planned 15 minutes to over 6 hours. As Dr. Bob would say in his story “Doctor Bob’s Nightmare” (included in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous ) [emphasis is Dr. Bob’s]:

    … he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language. He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading

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^*  This was the estate of Franklin Augustus “Frank” Seiberling (1859–1955), co-founder of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in 1898 and of the Seiberling Rubber Company in 1921. Estate features include the historic 65-room Tudor Revival Manor House, the Gate Lodge, historic gardens, and the Corbin Conservatory. Frank was father to John Fredrick “Fred” Seiberling (1888–1962), who married Henrietta (1888–1979) in 1917. They separated in 1935, and he moved back into the Manor House; they never divorced.

In 1956, the First Annual A.A. Convention for England and Wales was a two-day event held at the Belle Vue Hotel [right, 1956] in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. At that time, there were 56 registered English groups at the UK headquarters. Sackville M. and Richard P., both from Ireland, served as speakers at the convention.

May 11 in A.A. History

In 1935, it was Saturday. Bill W. [right], not quite five months sober, stood in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, Ohio. Howard Tompkins of Baer and Company had involved Bill in a complicated proxy fight for control of the National Rubber Machinery Company^* in Akron, which, if successful, could have made Bill president and lifted him and Lois out of their dire financial situation. However, the deal fell through, possibly due to rumors of Bill’s drinking. Dejected and distressed, he returned to the Mayflower Hotel where he had been staying.

    In the lobby, Bill found himself powerfully tempted by the lure of the bar. After a few moments of indecision, he suddenly realized that while his work with alcoholics at Towns Hospital had not helped them achieve sobriety, it had helped him remain sober.^† Turning away from the bar, he approached the public phone in the lobby and began calling ministers listed in a church directory by the phone, seeking someone he could work with. He finally reached Rev. Walter Tunks [left], who connected him with a local member of the Oxford Group, Henrietta Seiberling [right].

    Henrietta had recently begun praying for a particular Oxford Group member who was unable to stop drinking. When Bill introduced himself by saying, “I’m from the Oxford Group, and I’m a rum hound from New York,” Henrietta felt her prayer had been  answered, thinking to herself, “This is really like manna from heaven.” She had been praying for someone who could help Dr. Bob S. [left], a surgeon who had been attending her Oxford Group meetings for two and a half years, struggling unsuccessfully to get sober. She told Bill about this doctor. Although she would have invited them both over for dinner, the doctor was already too drunk to meet anyone that night, so Henrietta made plans for the two men to meet the following evening at her home, the Gate Lodge [right] at Stan Hywet, the Seiberling estate.

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^* T. Henry Williams—at whose home the Oxford Group that included Henrietta, the doctor, and the doctor’s wife met—had lost his job as Chief Engineer of the National Rubber Machinery Company in a reorganization earlier that spring.
^† There is no basis for believing that it was Lois who pointed this out, as much as many of us would have wanted it that way.

In 1939, the first group to adopt the name “Alcoholics Anonymous” (after the title of the recently published book) met at the home of Albert “Abby” G. [left], located at 2345 Stillman Rd. in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

    This group would come to be known by various names, including the Cleveland Group, the Stillman Road Group, and the “G” Group. Prior to this meeting, the Cleveland A.A. members had been part of the Akron, Ohio, Oxford Group’s “alcoholic squad,” attending weekly meetings on Wednesdays. During the previous night’s meetin Akron, Clarence S. [right] announced their decision to leave the Akron group and start their own. Clarence later reflected,

    I made the mistake of telling these people the address. They invaded the house and tried to break up our meeting. One fellow was going to whip me. All in the spirit of pure Christian love! But we stood our ground.

May 10 in A.A. History

In 1939, at the regular Wednesday night meeting of the Oxford Group in Akron, Ohio, Clarence S. [right] announced, as he later recounted:

    … that this was the last time the Cleveland [Ohio] bunch was down as a contingent—that we were starting a group in Cleveland that would only be open to alcoholics and their families. Also that we were taking the name from the book Alcoholics Anonymous.
    The roof came off the house. “Clarence, you can’t do this!” someone said.
    “It’s done.”
    “We’ve got to talk about his!”
    “It’s too late,” I said.…
    I made the mistake of telling these people the address.

    Newly sober Albert “Abby” G., [left] a patent attorney from Cleveland, was still in Akron City Hospital, but his wife, Grace, had offered their large home to host the new Cleveland meeting.

In 1946, Searcy W. [right] took his last drink and went on to accumulate 57 years of sobriety before his death on 30 Sep 2003.

In 1969, for Searcy W.’s 23rd anniversary, Bill Wilson gave him a signed copy of his paper promoting vitamin B-3 (niacin) therapy, inscribing it: “For Searcy W. May 10, 1969, Bill W.”

May 9 in A.A. History

In 1882, Silas B. was born in Millersburg, Kentucky, the youngest of three known children of Rev. James McClelland and Sarah Ann “Sallie” Burnam B. He became a journalist, sobered up as A.A. #3 (or 4) in New York City, and wrote an early story about Alcoholics Anonymous titled “There Is Hope” [below], published in the 19 Jan 1939, issue of The Hackettstown (NJ) Courier-Post. He would relapse within a year and died in 1945.

In 1944, at the invitation of Drs. Silkworth and Tiebout, Bill W. gave a talk to the Section on Neurology and Psychiatry at the annual meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

    In 1949, this talk, along with another presented to the American Psychiatric Association, was published as a pamphlet titled “Alcoholism the Illness.” Later, a third talk on alcoholism given by Bill to the New York City Medical Society in 1958 was included, and the pamphlet was retitled “Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill W.” [left]. This pamphlet was “retired” by a General Service Conference Advisory Action in 2017, as the committee deemed the content “dated” and “not helpful for today’s communication about A.A.”

May 8 in A.A. History

In 1935, five hundred sober alcoholics gathered in Akron, Ohio, to celebrate the 8th anniversary^* of A.A.’s first group, which Bill W. referred to as “Akron Number One” and is now known as “King School Group #1.” After splitting from the Oxford Group in Dec 1939, the A.A. group initially met a few times at Dr. Bob S.’s home before relocating to the King School [right] in Jan 1940, where it remained for many years, possibly until the building closed in 2018.

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^* The official founding date was 4 Jul 1935, the day Bill D., A.A. #3, was discharged from Akron City Hospital. 

 

In 1971, after a church memorial service [left: white-haired Lois, front right], Bill W. was buried [right: gravesite] in a private ceremony at East Dorset Cemetery in East Dorset, Vermont. Bill had always wanted to be buried there with his family, so his body was kept in cold storage in Miami, Florida, inside a Vermont oak casket until the New England ground thawed enough for the burial.

May 7 in A.A. History

In 1946, the Seafarers Log, the official organ of the Atlantic and Gulf Region of the Seafarers International Union of North America, published an article titled “AA Fights Alcoholism As Disease” [right]. This article references the Alcoholics Anonymous Seamen’s Club located at 334½ W. 24th St. in New York City, as well as their pamphlet “For Seamen Who Drink” and their newsletter “The Ropeyarn.”

 

In 1973, in an episode titled “Alcoholic Women,” David Susskind interviewed five women who were members of A.A. on his television program, The David Susskind Show[left: interviewing a Mafia hit man, 1973].

In 1994, the AA Flanders National Congress [far right: program cover] was held in Ypres, Belgium [near right: view of the Cloth hall and City hall at the Grote market of Ypres]. Here is a rough translation of the program cover:

MAY 7, 1994 / Start at 10:00 a.m. / DIET^* [of] ANONYMOUS ALCOHOLISTS / WESTHOEK - EXPO HALLS / YPRES / AA: “E”VERYTHING “E”LSE

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^* LANDDAG literally means country day or country assembly; a diet is a formal deliberative assembly.

May 6 in A.A. History

In 1896, Gilbert “Gib” K. was born in Germania, Wisconsin. He would found the first A.A. group in Milwaukee.

In 1939, Clarence S. [left], concerned about the challenges faced by Catholic alcoholics with the Oxford Group, approached Dr. Bob S. [right], his sponsor, regarding this issue (not for the first time).

Dr. Bob:	“What do you have in mind?”
Clarence:	“To start a group without all this rigmarole that’s offensive to other people. We have a book now, the Steps, the absolutes. Anyone can live by that program. We can start our own meetings.”
Dr. Bob:	(referring to OG members, especially to Henrietta Seiberling, and to T. Henry and Clarace Williams) “We can’t abandon these people. We owe our lives to them.”
Clarence:	“So what? I owe my life to them, too. But what about all these others?”, referring to Catholic A.A. members.
Dr. Bob:	“We can’t do anything about them.”
Clarence:	“Oh yes, we can.”
Dr. Bob:	“Like what?”
Clarence:	“You’ll see.”

Less than a week later, Clarence started the first group in Cleveland, Ohio, which is usually considered the third A.A. group anywhere. It was also the first group to adopt the name “Alcoholics Anonymous,” after the book published the previous month.

In 1941, in the Twin City of St. Paul, Minnesota, the first A.A. meeting was held in the home of Dr. Glenn Clark [left], a non-alcoholic professor at Macalester College. After reading Jack Alexander’s article in The Saturday Evening Post, Dr. Clark wanted to help a friend struggling with alcoholism. A local story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press published a few weeks later further boosted membership to 15, including the first woman.

May 5 in A.A. History

In 1940, Washington, D.C.’s The Sunday Star published Robert A. Erwin’s article [right], “Victims of Alcohol Hold Weekly Meetings to Aid One Another in Overcoming Weakness for Drink,” which favorably reported on the first A.A. group formed in the District of Columbia: the Washington Group.

    John Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [left] was one of Bill W.’s successes at Charles B. Towns Hospital in 1935. Although he lived in Cumberstone, Maryland, he spent much of his early sobriety in New York City, making the long trip from home to attend A.A. meetings at Bill’s home in Brooklyn.

    In 1939, Fitz had moved to Washington, D.C., where he immediately contacted Hardin C., who had reached out to the Alcoholic Foun­dation in New York City, and whose information had been forwarded to Fitz. They began meeting at Hardin’s apartment and soon recruited Ned F., who had also gotten sober in New York City, a retired Navy Commander from  California, and others. Their first female member, Dorothy H., joined the following year. James “Jim” B. [right] of Philadelphia was a significant help to the D.C. members. He considered the weekly meetings at Philadelphia General Hospital essential to the success of the Philadelphia group and urged the D.C. group to work with alcoholics in the Psychopath Ward at Gallinger Municipal Hospital [left]. He also introduced the practice of serving coffee and doughnuts at meetings.

    The D.C. members revisited the discussion that had taken place in New York City between Jim and Fitz regarding the references to God in the Big Book, with Jim emphasizing the psychological approach and Fitz focusing on the religious aspect.
    The Sunday Star article attracted many new members, and by the end of the year, the group had reached 70 members.

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.

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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.