June 19 in A.A. History

Today in A.A. History—June 19–21

In 1981, the University of Akron in Ohio hosted the 46th Annual A.A. Founders’ Day Weekend, as noted in issue #9 of the Founders Day Herald from 1981 [left].

June 18 in A.A. History

In 1935, [Date assumes Dr. Bob’s last drink was on June 17th.] In Akron, Ohio, one day after his last drink, Dr. Bob S. proposed that he and Bill W. find other alcoholics to work with.

    A local minister, J. C. Wright, connected them with a prospect who lived down the street from Dr. Bob. They would spend the summer trying, in vain, to sober him up: Edgar “Eddie” R. [left], an “alcoholic atheist able to produce a major crisis of some sort about every other day.” Notoriously, he once chased Bob’s wife, Anne, around their home with a butcher knife. Eddie also claimed to have visited Bill D. (A.A. #3) in the hospital alongside Bill and Bob.
    Although he missed the chance to become A.A. #3 himself, years later, at a large A.A. meeting in Youngstown, Dr. Bob exclaimed, “Holy Moses!” upon seeing Eddie, who was reportedly sober for one year at that time. Eddie attended Dr. Bob’s funeral in 1950 and later became a member of the Youngstown, Ohio group. When Eddie died in 1963, his wife said he had been sober for 17 years, dating back to 1946.

In 1940, the first meeting at the original A.A. clubhouse, located at 334½ W. 24th St. in New York City, was attend­ed by 100 people. A February 1951 article in the A.A. Grapevine would say about this location: The cryptic letters “AA” had gone up on a battered green doorway in the undistinguished neighborhood of New York’s once elegant Chelsea district. It isn’t a very auspicious doorway, nor a conspicuous sign.… Wedged in between two old-fashioned brick-fronts,… there isn’t supposed to be any doorway there at all.… You push open the door. You’re in a little ves­­tibule.… And you open the inner door to find—nothing! Nothing, that is, except a long, bare, tunnel-like and mysterious looking hallway.… Actually this is merely the passageway between the two houses back to the oddity of an “extra building” built in the rear, over what had once been the “gardens.” It was Bill who first christened this hall “The Last Mile.”… Ultimately you step into the inner sanctum which… is the “meeting room.” An old upright piano, a card table or two, a few nondescript chairs and, of course, people. But the center of the room to your newcomer’s eye is the fireplace, pine panelled [sic], with a plain wooden mantel and, over it… the sign reading—“But For The Grace of God….” On the second floor there is another room of about the same size only somewhat lighter and airier because of the skylight. Here, in addition to the secretary’s desk, is what is called… grandly… “the lounge” … two wicker divans, three chairs and a table! Off in the far corner is a door leading to two tiny rooms that will be Lois and Bill’s living quarters during a period when AA’s financial affairs could easily be kept on the back of an old envelope.     Herbert “Bert” T. and Horace C. personally guarantee rent for the building. [Above left, top to bottom: climbing the the stairs behind the entrance; main room of clubhouse. Above right, top to bottom: entrance; the “long, bare tunnel-like and mysterious” hallway; the upstairs room, where Bill and Lois lived for the first year the clubhouse was open. Below: The Saturday Evening Post’s photo of “a typical meeting,” which was anything but typical.]

June 17 in A.A. History

In 1926, Lois W.’s sister, Katharine “Kitty” Burnham [near right, 1924], married Gardner Swentzel [far right, 1916] at the Church of the New Jerusalem, near the Burnham home in Brooklyn. 
    Bill and Lois had interrupted their motorcycle tour in Alabama to attend the wedding. On their way, they had an accident outside Dayton, Tennessee, where Bill broke his collarbone and Lois twisted her leg, resulting in “water on the knee.” They spent a week recovering and then, after a few more days, shipped their motorcycle and belongings home while they took the train. As Lois described it:

Although we were in plenty of time for the wedding, I made a sorry looking matron of honor, when, with red gashes on my face, I limped up the aisle.

In 1935, Dr. Bob S. [left] had his last drink, according to recent historical research. The best known but incorrect date is June 10, the official founding date of Alcoholics Anonymous.
    Dr. Bob had decided to attend the annual American Medical Association convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from June 10 to 14. During the trip, he engaged in several days of binge drinking: on the way to the convention, during the convention, and while returning home. 

    Ul­ti­mate­ly, a drunken Dr. Bob ended up at the home of his office nurse in Cuy­a­hoga Falls, Ohio. His wife, Anne [near right], and Bill W. [far right] came to pick him up. With Bill’s help, Bob spent three days sobering up. Facing surgery at Akron City Hospital, he made a pivotal decision:

I am going through with this—I have placed both the operation and myself in God’s hands. I’m going to do what it takes to get sober and stay that way.

    Before the surgery, Bill gave Bob his last drink, a beer, along with a “goofball” (a barbiturate) to help steady him.

In 1942 , local A.A. groups hosted the inaugural New York City area meeting, which attracted 424 attendees. The event featured speakers Rev. Vincent Donovan [near right], Dr. William D. Silkworth [middle right], and Williard S. Richardson [far right], Treasurer of the Alcoholic Foundation and associate of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

In 1967, T. Henry Williams [left] died and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Twinsburg, Ohio.

    From the early 1930s until 1939, he and his wife, Clarace, had hosted weekly Oxford Group meetings at their home [above right], welcoming early members like Henrietta Seiberling, Dr. Bob, Anne S., and others. Following Bill W.’s arrival in 1935, new members of the emerging Alcoholics Anonymous group in Akron, Ohio, were included as part of the “alcoholic squadron” of the Oxford Group.

June 16 in A.A. History

In 1938, James “Jimmy” B. [right], author of “The Vicious Cycle” in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous, had his last drink following a successful week of selling car polish in New England, after which two customers had taken him to lunch.

    I spent the next four days wandering around New England half drunk, by which I mean I couldn’t get drunk and I couldn’t get sober. I tried to contact the boys in New York [City], but telegrams bounced right back, and when I got Hank [P.] on the telephone he fired me right then. This was when I really took my first good look at myself.… My brilliant agnosticism vanished, and I saw for the first time that those who really believed, or at least honestly tried to find a Power greater than themselves, were much more composed and contented than I had ever been, and they seemed to have a degree of happiness I had never known.

    Humbled, Jimmy returned to New York City, where the group welcomed him back. The story of “Ed,” mythologized on pages 143-145 in the chapter “Tradition 3” of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, represents Bill W.’s reinterpretation of this part of Jimmy’s journey.

In 1940, the first Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) group in Baltimore, Maryland, was founded by James “Jimmy” B. and James “Jim” R. 
    Jim had gotten sober on 7 June 1933, more than 18 months before Bill W. At this time, he was working, without success, with two other alcoholics. Jimmy learned of Jim through the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City and reached out to him. Jim was very happy to have what Jimmy described as “AA” help.

    The two met with three other men at Jim’s house, located at 2936 St. Paul St. [left]. A few days later, Jimmy received a letter in Philadelphia from a Baltimore lawyer who wished to help his alcoholic brother. The lawyer offered his office in the Munsey Trust Building on Fayette St. [right, c. 1920s] as a meeting place. Just six days later, the same six men held Baltimore’s second A.A. meeting in the lawyer’s office. 

    Over the years, the group has moved several times, but the 857 Club (also known as the Rebos Club) has remained active for 85 years. It currently hosts 13 meetings a week at 100 S. Haven St. in the Canton/Highlandtown neighborhood.

June 15 in A.A. History

In 1938, in Lois Remembers, Lois Wilson will recall this date as the first time the term “Alcoholics Anonymous” was first used.

In 1945, Jeannie C. held the first A.A. meeting in Springfield, Missouri at her home, 1950 S. Jefferson Ave. [right, Mar 2016].
    During World War II, Jeannie temporarily lived at the Bellerive^* Hotel, a prominent and historic apartment hotel located at 214 East Armour Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, where she first tried to stay sober. After several setbacks, she came across Jack Alexander’s article in The Saturday Evening Post titled “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others.” She reached out to the Alcocolic Foundation in New York City and was connected with A.A. members in St. Louis. However, maintaining communication from Kansas City proved difficult. Almost by chance, Jeannie said, she noticed an ad in a Kansas City newspaper for people with a drinking problem. She wrote to the listed P.O. Box, which connected her to the Kansas City Number One group, where she ultimately found sobriety.
    After two years of sobriety, Jeannie returned to Springfield. She stayed sober for two years by making frequent trips to Kansas City, despite gas rationing, and by corresponding with Bobbie B. at the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City. Encouraged by the group, she wrote an editorial about A.A. for the local Springfield paper and secured a post office box. After gathering a dozen names, she organized Springfield’s first group meeting at her home on January 15.
    Later, Jeannie played a crucial role in establishing A.A. in Joplin, Missouri, after receiving a call from Jim S. asking how to start a group. In response, Jeannie rallied several carloads of members from Springfield and Kansas City and descended on Joplin.

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^* The document “A Journey into Sobriety: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous [in] Springfield, Missouri” states that it was the “Bellflower Hotel.” However, there is no evidence of a hotel by that name in Kansas City, suggesting that this may be a misspelling of “Bellerive Hotel [left].”

In 1953, Dr. Earle M. [right], author of “Physician Heal Thyself” in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous, had his last drink and drug. Harry H. a friend and A.A. member, took him to his first A.A. meeting the following week at the Tuesday Night Mill Valley group, which was meeting in Wesley Hall at the Methodist Church in Mill Valley, California. Only four other people attended: a butcher, a carpenter, a baker, and Harry, a mechanic/inventor. From the start, Earle loved A.A., and although he sometimes critiqued the program, his devotion remained unwavering.

In 1969, n a letter to the International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA), Bill W. wrote,

… in recent years I have found nothing for greater inspiration than the knowledge that A.A. of tomorrow will be safe, and certainly magnificent, in the keeping of you who are the younger generation of A.A. today.

June 14 in A.A. History

In 1940, The Evening Star of Washington, D.C. published “the second article in a series on Alcoholics Anonymous, national brotherhood of recovered alcoholics,” titled “Clergymen Discover the Efficacy of A.A. in Curing Drunks” [left]. It read, in part,

    Progress of Alcoholics Anonymous during the past 18 months, especially in many larger cities of the Nation, has attracted the interest of leaders in religion and medicine. They have studied closely this movement that originated in New York City five years ago. They have sought to determine how, in so many cases, the Double A’s [sic] have succeeded in straightening out drunks where other formulas have failed.

In 1946, The March of Time newsreel service released “Problem Drinkers” [right: screen capture], a documentary on alcoholism that prominently featured Alcoholics Anonymous. These shorts were widely distributed and often shown in movie theaters before the main attraction.

In 1954, in a letter to Bernard Smith, Chair of the Alcoholic Foundation/General Service Board, Bill W. shared his thoughts on the upcoming second edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, set to be published in 1955. His comments included:

    The story section of the Big Book is far more important than most of us think. It is our principal means of identifying with the reader outside of A.A.; it is the written equivalent of hearing speakers at an AA meeting; it is our show window of results. To increase the power and variety of this display to the utmost should be, therefore, no routine or hurried job.
    The best will be none too good. The difference between “good” and “excellent” can be the difference between prolonged misery and recovery, between life and death, for the reader outside A. A.
    The main purpose of the revision is to bring the story section up-to-date, to portray more adequately a cross-section of those who have found help. The audience for the book is people who are coming to Alcoholics Anonymous now. Those who are here have already heard our stories. Since the audience for the book is likely to be newcomers, anything from the point of view of content or style that might offend or alienate those who are not familiar with the program should be carefully eliminated.

Bill also outlined several “Basic Editorial Approaches” that remain relevant today, more than 70 years later. These included:

1.  The desire to reproduce realistic stories should not be overemphasized to the extent of producing an unrealistic book.… There should be no shrinking from the job of editing ruthlessly if such editing will preserve the story, without the realism.
2.  Profanity, even when mild, rarely contributes as much as it detracts. It should be avoided.
3. All minor geographic references should be avoided.
4. The stories should be organized coherently, either in terms of chronology or of the specific points the individual is trying to make.
5. “Selling” or other “gimmicks”—editorial and otherwise—should be avoided. The story section is not a popular magazine. The appearance and approach should be straightforward, without frills.
6. Humor should stem from the character of the storyteller and of the situations he describes, not be the result of gags.
7. The end results of editing should be that the stories will be suitable for reading aloud—at closed meetings, etc.—without embarrassment.

June 13 in A.A. History

In 1939, Lois W.’s [near right] diary entry for these dates noted that Hank P. [center right] was fighting with his wife, Kathleen [far right], and was determined to divorce her.

June 12 in A.A. History

In 1931, Rowland Hazard [right] departed on a three-month family trip to Europe. The Hazard Family Papers in the Manuscripts Division of the Rhode Island Historical Society show that he was in France on July 9, Italy on July 20, and apparently left for England on August 13. There is no evidence to suggest that Hazard visited Switzerland during this trip, making it highly unlikely that he saw Dr. Carl Jung, despite suggestions otherwise.

In 1941, Ruth Hock [left] wrote Henry S., a printer and member of A.A. in Washington, D.C., to get costs for printing the Serenity Prayer as a wallet card.

    She had received a clipping [right] of this prayer from Jack C. [below right], a newspaperman and fellow A.A. member, which he found in the “In Memoriam” section of the 28 May 1941 edition of the New York Herald Tribune. 

Ruth wanted to keep the clipping to include copies in outgoing mail. Horace suggested printing the prayer as a card and paid for a first printing. In response to Ruth’s request, Henry S. printed 500 cards [left: a vintage such card, date unknown] at his own expense and sent them to her, offering to provide more at no cost.

June 11 in A.A. History

In 1938, after what he described as “a very good week” selling car polish in New England, Jimmy B. [right] was taken out to lunch by two of his customers. Having been sober for just over five months, he refrained from drinking when they each ordered a round of beers, leaving both glasses untouched.

    Then it was my turn—I ordered, “Three beers,” but this time it was different; I had a cash investment of thirty cents [~$6.80 in 2025], and, on a ten-dollar-a-week salary [~$227 in 2025], that’s big thing. So I drank all three beers, one after the other, and said, “I’ll be seeing you, boys,” and went around the corner for a bottle. I never saw either of them again.

    The story of “Ed,” recounted—though inaccurately—on pages 143-5 of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, is Bill W.’s version of this part of Jimmy’s story.

In 1947, the 11th printing of the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous [left: copyright page], was published by Works Publishing, Inc. In this printing, all instances of the term “ex-alcoholic” were replaced with “ex-problem drinker” or “non-drinker.”

In 1969, Dr. Bob S.’s 23-year-old grand­daughter, Bonna [near right], the daughter of Sue S. and Ernie G. (A.A. #4, whose story is “The Seven Month Slip” in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous), shot and killed herself after first killing her six-year-old daughter, Sandy [far right], Dr. Bob’s great-granddaughter. Sue and Ernie had been divorced for four years, and Sue believed that Bonna was an alcoholic and abused diet pills.

In 1971, Ernest “Ernie” G. [left], referred to in the Big Book (p. 159) as “the devil-may-care chap,” died at the age of 66. Sue wrote, “Ernie never got over [Bonna’s death], and he died two years later to the day…”

In 2016, the Anchorage Dry Dock Club [right], established in Alaska in March 1982 by Alcoholics Anonymous members “to create a permanent meeting place for meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous available to recovering alcoholics in the South Anchorage area,” is officially incorporated as “The Dry Dock of Anchorage, Inc.” Today,

    … the Anchorage Dry Dock operates a social club where recovering alcoholics and addict [sic], their families and friends can spend leisure hours in an alcohol and drug free environment. The Anchorage Dry Dock provides space where groups of Alcoholic Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Pills Anonymous or any other recovery group can hold meetings.

June 10 in A.A. History

In 1935, this widely accepted date for Dr. Bob’s last drink marks the official founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. However, many historians believe the founders may have gotten the date wrong in their attempts to reconstruct history, suggesting that Dr. Bob’s last drink actually occurred on June 17. Barefoot Bill L. confirmed through the American Medical Association (AMA) Archives in Chicago, Illinois, that the 1935 AMA Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was held from Monday to Friday, June 10–14, 1935. Others speculate that Dr. Bob attended specialty meetings before the convention, during which he started drinking, preventing him from attending the main event and leading him to go home early.

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.