You'll need boots to wade thru this crap

[Guest guest]

Hi List --

Have a look at this stepper double-talk, Hawaiian style:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2001/Aug/06/op/op02a.html

Don't Confuse AA With Being a 'Religion'

The two most important things America gave the 20th century, author Kurt Vo=

nnegut is reported to have said, are the blues and Alcoholics Anonymous.

He's at least half right. Today AA, founded in 1935 by a New York stockbrok=

er and an Ohio proctologist both written off as hopeless drunks, claims more=

than 2 million members. Unless you are involved with AA, or know someone wh=

o is, you probably will be surprised to learn that AA holds more than 300 me=

etings a week on O'ahu.

Even more surprising, perhaps, AA doesn't want your money or even, unless y=

ou know someone in need of its services, your attention. Its members want no=

thing so much as to be able to extend to others what was so freely offered t=

o them — the gift of sobriety.

A disturbing threat to this organization and its friends has appeared, of a=

ll places, in federal courts on the East Coast. In one ruling, a prison inma=

te prevailed in his argument that he shouldn't be forced to attend AA meetin=

gs in his facility because " AA is a religion. " Of course, we can't constitut=

ionally force religion upon anyone in this country.

Ironically, AA doesn't force anyone to attend meetings.

In another ruling, testimony against a manslaughter defendant was thrown ou=

t because his disclosures of wrongs to fellow members should be protected by=

" a privilege granted to other religions similarly situated. "

AA doesn't claim any such privilege.

The appeals court based its conclusion on " the religious nature of the 12 s=

teps " of Alcoholics Anonymous.

As anyone familiar with AA can tell you, and a careful reading of its liter=

ature makes clear, AA is not religious. Neither, by the way, are the more th=

an 200 other organizations that have adapted, with the permission of AA, the=

12 steps: Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and=

the like.

" The only requirement for membership, " says AA's 3rd Tradition, " is a desir=

e to stop drinking. " A wide assortment of atheists, agnostics and others hav=

e become successful in AA.

Confusion arises, if that's what it is, because AA members are urged to dev=

elop a relationship with a " higher power. " The literature makes clear, howev=

er, that " AA is not allied with any sect (or) denomination " and that a membe=

r's AA group can serve as a suitable higher power.

How is the finding that AA is a religion a threat? The most immediate probl=

em is for judges, probation officers, treatment counselors and the like, who=

commonly require troubled people in their care to attend AA meetings. Why? =

Because they know that even if they don't try to follow the AA program, the =

meetings still are likely to stabilize them to some extent and to plant the =

seeds for the potential of a better life.

At some local AA meetings, literally dozens of the attendees are there not =

from choice, but because some outside agency ordered them there. A legal fin=

ding that AA is a " religion " means those agencies would have nowhere to send=

their clients.

Not all of these clients get the message and improve their lives. But some =

do. A Hawai'i court finding that AA is a " religion " thus would be a tragic m=

istake.

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