Question
2:
“Would
the Fellowship review and re-affirm what constitutes an AA Group,
within the Fellowship in Great Britain with specific reference to
Traditions 4 - 6?
Background
Consider
the contribution to the carrying of the message, financial and
practical implications when deliberating each question.”
Extract:
“In
reply to …....... Most of the tiresome group problems and hair
splitting, nit picking discussions on traditions that I have seen
over the years have involved drug addict alcoholics trying to bend AA
to their way of liking, instead of them trying to find solutions to
problems other than alcohol outside the fellowship. The leaders of
problem groups in my area, besides claiming to be alcoholics, have
also been drug addicts. I think it would be a good idea in general,
if multiple drug addicted alcoholics asked themselves “What is my
primary addiction?” and then go to a fellowship, or to a
professional who can help them iron out the mental twists associated
with that addiction. I also think alcoholics who have not been
addicted to drugs ought to be asking the same question of others
“What is your primary addiction?” then, if drug addicts, suggest
they may need help with mental twists associated with their drug
addictions elsewhere. When it comes the sole purpose of an AA group,
experience has shown that AA cannot help nonalcoholic drug addicts
who may have drunk alcohol. AA can only help multi addicted
alcoholics with their alcoholism.
The traditions are paradoxical and what is said in one tradition can be used to argue against what is said in another. They are a set of related principles that need to be taken as a whole. There are two themes within the Traditions concerning liberty, one is for the AA group, the other is for the individual AA member. Throughout the Traditions the currents of these themes run parallel to each other, but in opposite directions. Each tradition tightly restricts the AA group’s freedom to a single purpose with no other affiliation, while at the same time affording the individual AA member almost unlimited freedom of thought and action. It appears to be very easy for some people to confuse these themes and then to use them to invert the principles of the Traditions. This inversion of Traditions can be seen in groups that apparently believe that they can do as they please as a group, whilst at the same time, restrict their individual group member’s liberty to a religiously precise dogma.
“In AA, the group has strict limitations, but the individual has scarcely any.” (Bill W. AA Grapevine February 1958. The Language of the Heart page 225).“
The traditions are paradoxical and what is said in one tradition can be used to argue against what is said in another. They are a set of related principles that need to be taken as a whole. There are two themes within the Traditions concerning liberty, one is for the AA group, the other is for the individual AA member. Throughout the Traditions the currents of these themes run parallel to each other, but in opposite directions. Each tradition tightly restricts the AA group’s freedom to a single purpose with no other affiliation, while at the same time affording the individual AA member almost unlimited freedom of thought and action. It appears to be very easy for some people to confuse these themes and then to use them to invert the principles of the Traditions. This inversion of Traditions can be seen in groups that apparently believe that they can do as they please as a group, whilst at the same time, restrict their individual group member’s liberty to a religiously precise dogma.
“In AA, the group has strict limitations, but the individual has scarcely any.” (Bill W. AA Grapevine February 1958. The Language of the Heart page 225).“
Cheerio
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
