AA "White Paper" etc

Extracts from the aacultwatch forum (old) 

“The 'cult' that the Fellas are struggling against is a specific manifestation of certain ugly trends, pushed by an identifiable set of individuals in the UK. As an American AA, I see several broad trends of ill-influence working against the fellowship.

1. Religion. In the US, far-right religious groups are working to destroy every democratic institution that stands in the way of their dreams of dominion. This encourages an infestation of 'Christian' recovery literature and organization which attempts to cross over into AA.

2. Related to 1 is the idealization of a fantasy of 'old style,' 'hardcore,' 'REAL' AA. This involves cherry-picking AA literature to promote a pseudo-religious movement. The 'AA White Paper' exemplifies this. These folks usually promote a false notion of the Oxford Group/Moral Re-Armament which implies that it was a harmless 'spiritual' movement rather than a sinister cult. Read 'The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament' by Tom Driberg for a good background on the OG.

3. Abusive and controlling sponsorship. This seems to flow from several 'mega-groups' like the Pacific Group in Southern California, the MidTown Group in Washington etc. These groups encourage a rigid, conformist approach enforced by a kind of pyramid of authority with a leading guru or swami at the top. I also suspect the influence of treatment centers attempting to force unwilling patients through pop-psych versions of 'The Steps.'

There is NO clear line between sponsorship and 12th-stepping, every AA member owes his gratitude to fellowship, not to any guru. My sobriety (8,557 days) comes 24 hours at a time, just like the newcomer's. I may need his/her help more than they need mine.

Anyway, that's enough out of me for this morning. Just don't drink, go to meetings, 'take what you need and leave the rest' (knowing that some of 'the rest' is not really AA at all) and learn as much as you can.

Even though AACultwatch is focussed on specific problems in England, the general principles apply wherever alcoholics stay sober together.”

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

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