(article also available
at http://hindsfoot.org/aacaths.doc and see http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/7609)
Click here for (pdf)
download
"BRIEF
SUMMARY:
The story of Joe
Doppler, Morgan Ryan, the Cleveland Catholics (and Clarence Snyder). How Sister
Ignatia devised a formula in January 1940 (AA, like St. Thomas Hospital, should
be nonsectarian, extending help and healing to people of all religious
backgrounds), which resulted in AA becoming 25% Catholic by Fall
1940.
Also includes accounts
of the liberal vs. fundamentalist controversy in early twentieth-century
Protestantism, the problems raised by the Oxford Group, and the way the Roman
Catholics broadened and deepened the AA understanding of the fourth
step.
The Golden Age of AA
expansion after Roman Catholics began flooding into AA -- between 1939 and 1949
the AA membership grew over 750 times larger, the biggest growth in all of AA
history."
Comment: An interesting
analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous' separation from the Oxford Group (and their
dogmatic and exclusive religiosity), and the fellowship's subsequent adoption of
a more liberal and inclusive 'spirituality' (a process which we believe must
continue if AA is to have any significant future role in alleviating human
suffering as it is expressed in one of its more degrading forms: alcoholism). Or
to put it quite simply: cults don't work!
Enjoy the read!
Cheerio
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
(Our thanks to our reporter for drawing this interesting article to our attention)
