AA 'fundamentalism' in the US

Extract from our forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch

“There is plenty of material here on AACultwatch to get you started. AA's own histories ('Pass it On' and 'Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimer') can be helpful.

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 [Clancy I] in Southern California, the MidTown [Michael Quinones] 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.”

Cheerio

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

A few observations from the States

Pacific Group:

"The anti-medication madness has little support locally, when mentioned it is usually decried. Out here the notion is ascribed to Clancy and his 'Pacific Group' in Southern CA. This group is notorious for abusive sponsorship and groupthink. Jackets and ties/skirts or dresses are required for meeting attendance, gurus have scores of sponsees who dress alike and perform chores for sponsors etc. etc."

The 'Oxford Group' and 'Moral Re-Armament':

"Another recommendation. For those who only know of the Oxford Group through AA, Tom Driberg's expose The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament is a must. Rereading it lately, I find I missed Driberg's repeated hints that Frank Buchman was a self-hating homosexual. Also, no one approaching the OG/MRA would have had any reason to expect any help for alcoholics. MRA was strictly concerned with money property and prestige. Nowadays, the latest incarnation of MRA takes responsibility for founding AA, and claims NOT to be a religious organization!"

Gresham's Law

"......Gresham's Law & Alcoholics Anonymous article, by Tom P. senior, 1974, may be a primary source for the success claims nonsense. Certainly Mr P is certain that HIS new program does it the 'right way.' I wrote to them, and after 50 years in existence, All Addicts Anonymous doesn't even try to maintain a meeting list. The magic formula only seems to work in their treatment center/commune/work camp in upstate New York."

Not God:

"Ernest Kurtz's history, published variously as Not God, and AA the Story, alludes to a long standing strain between OG dominated 'Akron' AA and 'New York' AA, he even identifies geographical zones associated with each."

Joe and Charlie [well known circuit speakers]:

"Your own 'Enquiry into Primary Purpose/Back to Basics' paper [see here] identifies Joe and Charlie as wellsprings of cultishness. They seem to link quite directly to 'Back to Basics.' ...."

Note: "The excellent 'An Enquiry Into...' needs a correction. The author confuses the First ed. Big Book with the pre-publication multilith version. This, with its intensely prescriptive and religious language, is widely promoted as somehow 'purer' or 'realer' than the actual Big Book. Of course the multilith was rejected by the original membership until modified to the form we know."

'The Pod People':

"....near San Francisco, we have another cultish subgroup called the 'pod people' (Invasion of the Body Snatchers and all that) This group defines the 'program' as consisting of a daily written 10th step and not much else. Members avoid non-pod meetings, poach for sponsees, and speak in an annoyingly uniform style--even imitating the grating giggle of their original guru. There are many rumors of sexual misdeeds. Sponsors require their sponsees to PAY to receive meditation mantras from Transcendental Meditation (and receive kickbacks)."

Some features of the cult operation in the US:

"Promotion of fundamentalist Christianity (this may be more overt in the US).
Distorting AA history to attempt to whitewash the Oxford Group.
Promoting compulsory (and usually abusive) sponsorship.
Obsessive reading of 9th step 'promises' at every meeting."

Finally, our contributor comments: "I had my 21st birthday last month. Over the last 5-10 years I have been increasingly bothered by odd new mannerisms posing as 'old' or 'real' AA. As an atheist, I tended to downplay my discomfort as hypersensitivity, and the cultishness as part of the general rise of the religious right in the US. Examining the 'Joe and Charlie' and 'Back to Basics' material convinced me that a quasi-organized movement to suborn AA was in action."