Over the past few years
from time to time we've received a few emails in relation to the above group.
The name is suggestive (although not necessarily) of some kind of connection
with the Joys/Visions cult in the UK. It does seem though that there is more of
a direct linkage than that. Indeed we are given to understand that David (The
Icon) C has been a regular visitor over the years and is even sponsor to at
least one of its members. We are told that he enjoys some status within the
group hierarchy, this led apparently by a husband and wife double act who
function as “mummy and daddy” to its members. (The latter two have moved out of
the area but still continue to sponsor many members of the group “cascade
style”” thereby effectively controlling the group conscience. See below).
English by birth David C has is now a resident in the US. For those of you who
are not familiar with the cult lineage the Icon took over from the founder of
the Joys movement, David B, when the latter finally shuffled off this “mortal
coil” in 1998. He is one of the central coordinators of the cult's activities in
the Great Britain and Ireland, and co-author of one of the cult websites from
which so much of their ideas are drawn (including this little sample – now withdrawn
from the website). We are told that the Detroit group exhibit all the usual
characteristics of the Joys cult. As mentioned above they operate a “cascade
style” of sponsorship ie. a hierarchical system based on the notion that
recovery is impossible without the “direction” of a sponsor and moreover that
compliance must be absolute; the sponsee must ALWAYS defer to the will of the
sponsor. This is an effective paraphrase of Step Three (see here for our ironic interpretation of
the steps 'cult style') . This dogma driven approach results
in a top down pyramid power structure with the main sponsor(s) “running the
show”, and dictating the group conscience to successive layers of sub-sponsors
(sponsees). Those who fail to fall into their appointed role within this schema
will find themselves excluded and indeed subject to summary “excommunication”
from the collective; dissent - unlike misery apparently - is NOT optional.
Effectively the central principle of AA , that each person (in order to recover)
should seek to establish some kind of conscious contact with a God or Higher
Power of their understanding, has been displaced by “sponsor power”, this last
concept a direct contradiction of both the Steps and of the second “pertinent
idea” referred to in Chapter Five “How It Works”:
(b) That probably no
human power could have relieved our alcoholism
leading to the
conclusion:
(c) That God could and
would if He were sought.
Note: the complete
absence of the terms “sponsor”, “sponsee”, “sponsorship” throughout the entire
basic text.
We shall see though
what we shall see
Cheerio
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
(our thanks to our
various reporters)
