The Message, Not My Message – AA Speaker – John S.
AA speaker John S. explores singleness of purpose in recovery, from the Washingtonians to modern AA meetings. Learn why clarity of message matters for alcoholics.
John S., an AA speaker from Pensacola, Florida, takes a deep dive into one of AA’s core principles: singleness of purpose. Drawing from AA history—the Washingtonians, the Oxford Group, and Bill W.’s early work—John traces how the fellowship has survived by staying focused on one primary mission: carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. He examines what happens when groups drift from this single purpose and shares real stories from meetings where that drift caused real harm to newcomers seeking help.
AA speaker John S. explores singleness of purpose, tracing it from the Washingtonians and Oxford Group through AA’s founding and into modern recovery meetings. He shows how staying focused on the primary purpose of helping alcoholics—grounded in the miracle of identification—is what has kept AA effective for nearly 90 years. John emphasizes that when AA groups deviate into other issues, causes, or agendas, they lose their power to attract and retain newcomers, and he illustrates this with specific stories of meetings that failed to deliver the core AA message.
Episode Summary
John S. walks into this talk with a stack of AA literature, and right away you know this is going to be grounded in the actual words of the founders, not opinions. He’s speaking as someone who’s been active in service work—an area delegate and representative to the General Service Board—and he brings that institutional knowledge into a talk about one of AA’s most misunderstood principles: singleness of purpose.
The core of his message is simple but profound: Alcoholics Anonymous exists for one reason—to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. That’s it. Everything else, no matter how well-intentioned, is distraction.
John takes you back to 1840 and the Washingtonians, a temperance society of six drinkers that exploded to 300,000 members along the eastern seaboard. For a few years, they were wildly effective at helping alcoholics achieve total abstinence. Then they started getting involved in everything—prohibition politics, slavery abolition, sectarian religion. Within 50 years, they were completely extinct. So extinct that when Bill W. and Dr. Bob founded AA, they’d never even heard of them.
Then came the Oxford Group in the 1920s and ’30s, founded by Dr. Frank Buckman. John reads from original Oxford Group literature, and you hear echoes everywhere: surrendered lives to God, spiritual principles, the power of identification between people with shared struggles. It worked beautifully—until it didn’t. The Oxford Group’s strength was also its trap: it tried to be everything to everyone, and it diluted its message.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Bill W. got sober through Ebby’s connection to the Oxford Group, but Ebby led with religion first. Bill almost shut down. It took Dr. Silkworth—the doctor treating Bill’s detoxes—to reframe it: “Stop preaching. Give them the medical facts about alcoholism. That will soften them up so they’ll accept the spiritual ideas.” That shift was everything. John reads Bill’s own account of meeting Dr. Bob: “I was a gas” when Ebby said he’d gotten religion. But when Bill finds Dr. Bob in Akron, Ohio, he doesn’t preach. He leads with identification—the miracle of recognizing yourself in another person’s story.
This is the foundation of early AA’s explosive growth from 1935 to 1939. Not preaching. Not fixing everything. Just the miracle of one alcoholic understanding another alcoholic.
In 1946, Bill began developing the Traditions. John reads them straight from the literature—Tradition Three (membership open to all who suffer from alcoholism, no money or conformity required) and Tradition Five (each group has one primary purpose: carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers). The words are crystal clear. And yet, John says, modern AA has trouble understanding them.
Then John tells two stories that illustrate what happens when groups lose their focus. At one open meeting, a newcomer—a woman who identified as an addict—raised her hand and introduced herself. The meeting chair told her to get the hell out. The speaker that night? He gave a talk that had nothing to do with AA. Meanwhile, the well-meaning chair thought she was protecting singleness of purpose. The second story is darker: John brought his lifelong friend’s wife—someone genuinely alcoholic, reaching out—to a meeting. The speaker talked about drug dealing and addiction but never mentioned drinking or alcoholism. Afterward, the woman asked John, “What the hell was that?” He had one shot to bring her to recovery, and they blew it.
“We are under this incredible obligation,” John says, “to make sure that when an alcoholic walks into a meeting, they hear our message. They hear the message, not my message.”
John then addresses the professional community and treatment facilities. He reads from Bill W.’s pamphlet “Problems Other Than Alcohol”—non-conference-approved literature, written by the co-founder himself. Bill’s position is direct: a non-alcoholic drug addict cannot become an AA member. They can attend open meetings. They should be welcomed. But AA membership and AA groups are for alcoholics only. Why? Because AA has to confine itself to one purpose or it will collapse. And if it collapses, it can’t help anyone.
John also reads a letter from the Narcotics Anonymous Trustees that honors this boundary. NA affirms that AA’s strength is its “singleminded focus on one thing and one thing only.” By respecting each fellowship’s primary purpose, both programs stay effective.
He touches on AA members taking prescribed medication—a common fear and confusion point. The pamphlet on this is clear: yes, take medication you need. But be honest with your doctor, avoid chemicals for everyday discomforts, stay active in AA, and work with doctors who understand alcoholism.
Finally, John brings it home personally. He came into AA with what he calls “a boatload of other issues.” He wanted to share all of them in meetings. Over time, loving but firm AA members showed him what he was doing: every time he introduced himself as “John S., alcoholic and [anything else],” he was saying “I’m different from you.” He was setting himself apart from the core miracle of AA—identification.
“I get to be one little speck in that beautiful mosaic that we call Alcoholics Anonymous,” John says. And that’s the whole point.
Notable Quotes
The message, not my message. That’s our obligation.
The miracle of identification—until that happens, you got nothing. We’re just a bunch of drunks.
If we don’t stick to these principles, we shall almost surely collapse. And if we collapse, we cannot help anyone.
Every time I introduced myself as an alcoholic and anything else, I was setting myself apart from the core of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Our society therefore will prudently cleave to its single purpose—the carrying of its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Most individuals cannot recover unless there is an AA group. A personal sacrifice is too great for the preservation of this fellowship.
Topics Covered in This Transcript
- Singleness of Purpose
- Sponsorship
- Fellowship & Meetings
- Big Book Study
- Founders & AA History
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▶ Full AA Speaker Transcript
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Welcome to Sober Sunrise, a podcast bringing you AA speaker meetings with stories of experience, strength, and hope from around the world. We bring you several new speakers weekly, so be sure to subscribe. If you'd like to help us remain self-supporting, please visit our website at sober-rise.com.
Whether you join us in the morning or at night, there's nothing better than a sober sunrise. We hope that you enjoy today's speaker area delegate and he is also the representative of area one to New York. He's still very active in service work and he is here to give us a work ship a workship workshop on the uh on singleness and purpose which is uh something that is important to a great many of us and so I'd like to introduce John Shirley.
Let me get my pile out here. My name's John Shirley. I'm definitely alcoholic.
If >> you saw this pile up here, you'd believe me. I've uh gathered a little information here. I'm going to try and uh you know when you're talking about a a principle in Alcoholics Anonymous, I believe the first thing that we should all do as members of Alcoholics Anonymous is reach for our literature and that's what I've done here today.
So, um but let me get started here. I am Alcoholic. My home group is the indepth Bigbook study in Pensacola, Florida.
We meet on Wednesday night at 8:00 at the East Brent Baptist Church. We'd love to have you come. It is a closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.
And um my sponsor is a guy named Hal and his home group is the downtown group in Pensacola. And my sobriety date is January 11th, 1989. I tell you all those things because I think that that's uh integral to sobriety.
Uh the old rough necks that sobered me up were from Bowwin County. And um and if uh you had ever met these guys, they would have asked you what your home group was and your sobriety date was. And probably they would ask you where you were in the steps in about the first two and a half minutes that you met them.
Um they were like that. They believed in the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Let me mind my manners here.
Um, I'd like to thank the committee and Anna and for asking me to be here and talk to you today about singleness of purpose and it's a subject that's very dear to me. Um, it's kind of a daunting task. Uh uh it's a pretty broad subject and um there's quite a bit of information.
Uh I'm not an expert on this topic or any other topic. I'm kind of like the donkey that rode Jesus into Jerusalem. Just another jackass carrying the message.
Um I a uh I've tried to use information and I'm going to try not to put you to sleep. So I'm going to kind of watch your heads here. Um you know I've probably dug into this topic a little too deep or something but uh u I'm going to be doing a lot of reading.
I'm going to try to intersperse that reading with comments so that I'm not just reading to you. But uh again, I want to really hold out what our literature, the literature in Alcoholics Anonymous, the conference approved literature uh holds out as single purpose. I think that that's vitally important.
And I think I'm going to show you what I'm reading from. I'm going to tell you what I'm reading from so that you'll know so that you can put your hands on the same piece of information that I'm talking about. so that should this question arise, you can answer it with our literature rather than your opinion or my opinion.
Um, so I'm getting pretty good. I've got a 5-year-old and I'm really good at sleepy time stories. So, I'm I'm hoping that this doesn't become one.
Um, uh, let's see things. I'm I'm going to talk about the history of of singleness of purpose, the Washingtonians, the Oxford group, Alcoholics Anonymous, maybe its early days. I'm going to talk about the group level, personal level, trying to work with professionals uh in facilities and out.
And hopefully I'll be able to wrap that up with uh some form of uh how singleness affects all of us personally and a spiritual level. Um, I believe that Alcoholics Anonymous is like this great mosaic. And a mosaic is just a painting or a a image that's created by taking little stones or pieces of tile and carefully laying them together so that they form an image.
Um, back in 97 I had a chance to visit with an old guy from over here in Bowwin County, Hillary, um, to uh, Rome. And we went to Rome and went to St. Peter's.
And after I'd been in St. Peter's Cathedral for better part of a day, somebody pointed out that none of these wonderful murals on the walls were actually painted. They were all mosaics.
And the deal is if you walk up to a mosaic and it's real close to you, all you can see are the little pieces and it doesn't really make any sense until you begin to back away from the image. And as you back away, then the image begins to become in focus and it makes sense. And I think that aa I know that certainly my my life has held that out that unless I'm able to back away from it and look at it, it's hard to really see the full beauty of the image of what we are part of.
Um, on April 2nd, 1840, six drinkers got together and formed a little organization called the Washingtonian Society. And it was a temperance society. They met for the first time at this place called Chase's Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland on Liberty Street.
The idea was that they were going to help relying on each other, sharing their alcoholic experiences and relying on divine help that somehow or another they could experience total abstinence from alcohol. And in the passage of time, this uh they became a sort of prohibitionist organization, which is pretty hot at the time. and they believed in the legal and mandatory prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
Uh concurrent with that movement was also this loose group of um treatment centers except they weren't called they were actually they were facilities for inebriate living uh popped up. Temperance was kind of the hot topic at the time. So these guys were fitting in pretty well.
Uh so maybe 1840s, you know, treatment's not quite as cutting edge as you may think. Um but the Washingtonians at their peak reached somewhere around, you know, tens of thousands uh as high as an estimate of 300,000 alcoholics just along the eastern seabboard of the United States. That's a pretty good number, 300,000.
Um and in the space of just a few short years uh they began to be become sort of fragmented from their primary purpose. They began to get involved in all sorts of public controversial issues, alcohol reform, prohibition, sectarian religion, politics, the abolition of slavery. Um it was reported that Abraham Lincoln actually came to one of their big gatherings at one point in time and um just not to because he had an alcohol problem but to listen to the topics of the day.
Uh so they were involved in all sorts of things. Uh the Washingtonians drifted away from their initial purpose of helping alcoholics and began with infighting and arguments, disagreements, controversy, and eventually it destroyed the group. I guess that wouldn't be much, but if you think about the Washingtonians became so entirely extinct, 300,000 people, now think about that, that 50 years later, Bill Wilson, Dr.
Bob joined together for sobriety, had never even heard of them. That's extinct. So the Oxford groups pop up.
Oxford groups rose to prominence in the 1920s, 1930s. Uh gentleman by the name of Dr. Frank Buckman.
He was a Lutheran minister. And uh Frank in 1908 had had a revolutionary spiritual experience and had um uh started this Oxford movement of the time. in um Kzwick, England in 1921.
Originally, it was called the first century Christianity or the first century Christian fellowship later to become known as uh the Oxford group. I brought with me a a copy of what is the Oxford group. This is a original publication that I managed to get my hands on.
So, this is nonconference approved AA literature. But I want to read a couple things to you from their book and just listen for some similarities. See if any of this sounds familiar to you.
You cannot belong to the Oxford group. It has no membership list, subscriptions, badge, rules, or definite location. It is a name for a group of people who from every rank, profession, and trade in many countries have surrendered their lives to God and who are endeavoring to lead a spiritual quality of life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Oxford group is not a religion. It has no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments. Its workers have no salary, no plans, but God's plan.
Every country is their country, every man their brother. They're holy crusaders in modern dress wearing spiritual armor. >> Um the uh you know that I'm sure sounds a little familiar to me.
Uh Frank Buckman was notorious for having these tea parties, they called them. And the tea parties were typically held in sort of socially elite. Frank believed that if um members of society that were sort of elite, highranking business professional folks had these spiritual experiences that it would trickle down.
He believed in a trickle down kind of theory. And um and so these tea parties would typically be held in some social elite's house, some big person in the community's home. So if you got an invitation to a tea party and you were part of a little community, you wouldn't say no cuz you would probably be thought ill of in the community.
So these people would show up. The catch was Frank Buckman believed that uh people suffered from like sin is his term. We would probably call it a character defect in Alcoholics Anonymous.
But uh uh Frank believed in these sins if by sharing of one's sins with others that you might be able to be relieved of that. And so at these tea parties uh Mr. Mr.
A, who had a gambling problem, would be politely introduced to Mr. B with some reference to, I think you may have something in common. And the guy who had already had this spiritual experience, who had been relieved of his gambling obsession, would know that that was his hot little cue to begin to share in a very matterof fact way how he had been relieved of his problem, his sin, his character defect.
um in the again the Oxford group he says people in need are more inclined to tell us the truth about themselves if they know we are willing to tell the truth about ourselves. This is the foundation and the mutual trust which is essential when we witness in order to bring others to a life change. That's from the Oxford group.
Again, non-conference approved literature here. Um, you know, you think about that is the relationship that Frank Buckman put out there. This miracle of identification, that's something he locked into.
You heard the Washingtonians. It is the principle that they locked into and it was effective up until they began to deviate from that singleness of purpose. Same deal with with the Oxford group.
Very effective mode of sharing that when we have that identification. Oxford group is not an alcoholic identification. As a matter of fact, Bill Wilson when he finally does sober is going to run into some trouble over this.
Uh but Ebie who is being committed for alcoholic insanity and many of you know the story. Three men appear in court and uh talk the judge into letting him have it and they he gets under the clutches of the Oxford group who share with him and he has a spiritual awakening. And I don't know about anybody here, but ever been on a fiveday jag at home and you know, hadn't had a shower in five days and you open the door and it's one of your drinking buddies and woo, you know, you're about the only person that can stand to be around you because your stench is so bad.
And I can feel Bill, you know, how he must have felt when Ebie, his lifelong chum, shows up at the door. I mean, I really just understand that and Ebie starts talking to Bill and something's different about Ebie. It's so wonderful when you look in uh in uh the book Alcoholics Anonymous and you read Bill's story.
I think it's so the words are so wonderful. You know, the door opened. He stood there fresh skinned and glowing.
There was something about his eyes. He was inexplicably different. What had happened?
You know, Bill's excited for this guy. Okay. But then all of a sudden, he asked him what happens and he goes, he goes, "I've got religion." Now listen to Bill.
Now, this is a paragraph down. I was a gas. So that was it.
Last summer, an alcoholic cracked pot. Now, I s suspect a little cracked about religion. You remember those fresh skin glowing?
Well, now he's starry eyed. Look. Yeah, the old boy was on fire.
All right, let him rant. Bill has just shut down in two seconds. Y'all identify with that.
I mean, that's just always amazed me. But Evie is able to sit and talk to him. And Evie knows from the Oxford group this this wonderful pattern of discussion.
He did no rant ranting in a matter-of-fact way. He told how the two men had appeared in court and persuaded the judge to suspend his commitment. They told of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action.
That was two months ago and the result was self self-evident. It worked. It's beautiful stuff.
Eddie's just very calm. Bill doesn't readily accept that. It takes Bill a while to finally sober up as we know, but finally he does.
He finally soers up and um has that miracle. And Bill is on a a jag to find some other alcoholic. And he spends six months fighting and trying to find other alcoholics to work with.
works. And uh it's funny because for that 6 months, I can't imagine being a a 6 months sober. Think about that.
Your first 6 months of sobriety, you were alone. There's no meeting. There's no real help outside of this religious organization.
What must that have been like for Bill? And he is desperate to find somebody who can really identify. And Ebby is the only guy he's got.
It's the only guy he can hang on to. Um, lots of failures. He's trying to pull drunks off of bar stools and sober them up.
And he finally goes to Silkworth. And Silkworth gives him that combination. Dr.
Silkworth was the doctor who treated Bill on all three of his detox periods. Um, Bill gives him these magic words, the obsession of the mind that compels us to drink and the allergy of the body that condemns us to go mad or die. He talks to him about that that allergy and obsession.
Bill says these were the indis indispensable passwords to till the black soil of hopelessness out of which every single spiritual awakening has flourished that I first got to reach that place of hopelessness where I can surrender. Beautiful stuff. that identification of my alcoholism, the identification of that allergy, the the allergy that causes me to not be able to control my drinking or not stop drinking whenever I've started.
It's simple identification, that obsession that continuously takes me back to it despite all the evidence to the contrary that it's going to be okay for me to drink again over and over and over again. My life holds that out. Um, Silk suggests to Bill that he stop preaching at the alcoholics, that he gives them the hard medical facts.
Silkward says this may soften them up at depth so that they'll be willing to do anything to get well. They may even accept those spiritual ideas of yours and perhaps a higher power. This is Dr.
Silkworth talking to Bill. He is uh he knows that Bill has been on this this you know you gotta got to get God quick deal and he's forgetting that he's missing that miracle of identification and then we know that that's exactly where Bill takes this trip to Akran. Uh he um is in Akran.
We know the story. He's desperate. His business deal is falling through.
He's in the Mayflower Hotel pacing the lobby thinking about taking a drink. Maybe I'll just have one. He's, you know, 6 months over at Listen to those glasses jingling.
And uh he makes the phone calls to to Tunks, the reverend in the city, and subsequent phone calls that finally put him in touch with Dr. Bob Smith. And even Dr.
Rob Smith is saying, you know, I'll give the guy five minutes. And what's amazing to me about this whole thing and this part of the mosaic that I love, is that Akran, Ohio, where he is, is one of the cities that the the Oxford group had appeared in and uh they had pretty much had a preacher in every pulpit in the city prior to this lo to Bill showing up in town. So Dr.
Bob is well familiar with the Oxford group principles. He's probably better read than Bill is at this time, but yet he's not able to stay sober. And all of a sudden, Bill shows up at his door and starts talking about this.
He's not preaching at him anymore. If if Bill started preaching at Dr. Bob, we probably wouldn't be here.
But Bill laid out this miracle of identification one more time and Dr. Bob related to him and they began this wonderful relationship. Um later to so to sober um you know you think about the years that went through Dr.
Bob and the fellowships mushrooming growth as we go along from 35 until the publication of the book in 39 and then you know this is where the literature starts to get clear is Dr. Bob, Bill, the other AAS knew that the fundamental principle of the fellowship's growth came from the miracle of identification. There is they are crystal clear about that.
Every bit of growth that happened as a result of that and that's why in the book we found you know we are people who normally would not miss but there exist a fellowship and uh a friendliness and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. They talk about the ex-prom drinker who has boundless solution, who is properly armed with the facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.
I mean, these guys are crystal clear about this. Um, that the miracle of identification has to happen. 1946, Bill begins to develop the traditions and we start to see the traditions evolve by in Bill uses the AA grapevine as the mode to sell the traditions.
So he's printing these little articles in the grapevine in the 1940s about individual traditions. And then we see them appear in 1950 at the first international convention in their long form. And I think it's interesting because once again if you read the long form of the traditions there is um very little doubt about what we're talking about.
And yet today in modern AA we um have trouble comprehending it. It seems um the long form of tradition three. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism.
Hence we may may refuse none who wish to recover nor AA membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group provided that as a group they have no other affiliation. Tradition five.
Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose. That of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Spiritual entity with one purpose.
Um I think it's interesting when we get into singleness of purpose and we start telling stories. There are sort of two sides to this. It doesn't when we talk about singleness of purpose it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we still are under obligation to be principled in our behavior that kindness still is part of what we are and that honesty is part of what we are and I think there are two little stories there.
Um, I went to a to a speaker meeting one time with a guy sponsor and we arrived early, did the meet and greet, wandered around, and then we sat down and watched and uh uh we were kind of watching the crowd and there was a guy who was wandering around giving the uh I don't know how you say that. He he was we were laughing because he was hugging all the ladies, you know. He was going out way out of his way to grab all the ladies, you know, give him a little extra pelvic hug, you know.
And uh uh uh just before the meeting started, he ran out and grabbed a tape recorder. So, we figured he was going to chair the meeting. And uh turned out he was the speaker.
>> But um I guess he needed a tape of himself. And uh but the lady that was chairing the meeting, it's an open meeting. Keep in mind, open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.
And the meeting started and she said, "Anybody new or here for the first time?" And this little girl in the back of the room, you know, raised her head and she, you know, I'm Kimmy or whatever it was and I'm an addict. The woman chairing THE MEETING GOES, "YES, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE." At which time, uh, I'm not really sure whether to cry or, you know, laugh manically, but the the guy I'm with is uh ready to come out of his skin. Um, fortunately the little girl just seemed undaunted by it.
She stayed right where she was. I guess, you know, the woman appeared crazy enough that it just didn't, you know, it's just kind of like whatever. And uh, and then, you know, classic, you know, so this woman really believed that she was doing the right thing, you know, that she was maintaining a a singleness of purpose.
I'm sure in her mind if you hooked her up to a lie detector test, that was what she was supposed to do. And uh uh ironically, this guy who gives up gets up that she's asked to talk uh gets up and gives some sort of a sex anonymous talk. I don't know what it was.
It was uh it was anything but an AA talk. It was, you know, I mean, it was the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. And uh again, you know, you probably have a group of really well-meaning people here, but they are just way off track.
And uh another instance, a little more serious. I I have a lifelong friend who uh watched me. He was a roommate in college and um I literally he packed his car and left in the middle of the night one night because he just couldn't stand, you know, what was going on around me.
and um he married and his wife uh called me one afternoon and asked me about not drinking and we talked for a while and I invited her to meet me downtown Pensacola and go to a meeting and we went to a meeting and I thought you know it's that's if somebody asks me about sobriety I'm going to bring them to you I'm going to bring them to Alcoholics Anonymous because this is not about on. It's a lot bigger than I am. And um I brought her to a meeting and subsequently this meeting, open meeting, this woman got up and um I I I don't know what she was talking about.
I mean, I I she she talked about her addictions. She talked about being a drug dealer. She talked about, you know, doing this and doing that.
She didn't talk about drinking. I don't even know if she made reference to it. And I walked out of the meeting with this lady who's alcoholic and I've probably got one shot at.
And she looks at me and says, "What the hell was that?" And what am I supposed to say? I don't know. It wasn't a I hope you'll try somewhere else.
and try it again. And that's all I can say. And I never got another shot.
I can tell you that. And unfortunately for us, I don't know about you, but I know what it took to get me to my first AA meeting. And you didn't have a second shot.
>> You didn't have a second shot until it got really ugly. We are under this incredible obligation to make sure that when an alcoholic walks into a meeting, they hear our message. They hear the message, not my message, the message of Alcoholics Anonymous.
That begins with this miracle of identification. Until that happens, you got nothing. We are just a bunch of drunks who you may as well be in a church meeting or a Kowanas meeting.
And it's the truth. And I've been to meetings where we've been talking about a whole bunch of other things other than what we should have been talking about. And you know, we have this incredible group of principles that we live by.
And uh I hate it to see when something goes sour like that. Um you know, I I said that I was going to talk a little bit about our obligations with the professional community. And you know it's interesting in in the home group if you look at a home group and what uh AA's singleness of purpose at the home group level Bill says in tradition five each group has but one primary purpose to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
And today what we have is we have a lot of people who come to AA with other issues. How many people here have other issues? Yeah, no kidding.
There are those who predict that AA may well become a spearhead for a spiritual awakening throughout the world. When our friends say these things, they are both genuine and sincere. But we of AA must reflect that such tribute and such a prophecy could well prove to be a heady drink for most of us.
That is if we really came to believe this to be the real purpose of AA and if we commence to behave accordingly. Terry, how am I doing on time? Our society therefore will prudently cleave to its single purpose, the carrying of its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
Let us resist the proud assumption that since God has enabled us to do well in one area, we are destined to be a channel of saving grace for everybody. If you want to see this principle lived out, pull up to an AA meeting and open the hood of your car. You'll get about 15 mechanics, not one of them's cars running.
We're like that, aren't we, >> Bill? um created a little pamphlet and it's called problems other than alcohol. This is a general service conference approved piece of literature and um it's a wonderful wonderful pamphlet.
Um there is an abridged version which looks like this. There's a stack of them right here. If you'd like some, please take them.
Um, I'm going to read this little abridged version because I think that uh Bill's words, these are not John's words. These are the founder co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous words. This is what he said, not what I said.
The problem of drug addiction and its several forms lies close to us all. It stirs our deepest interest and sympathy. Many AAS, especially those who have suffered these particular addictions, are now asking, "What can we do about drugs within our fellowship and without?" Specifically, here is a list of questions we are often asked.
Can a non-alcoholic pill or drug addict become an AA member? Bill's answer, no. Two, can such a person be brought as a visitor to an open AA meeting for help and inspiration?
Yes. If so, should these non-alcoholic pill or drug users be led to believe that they have become AA members? No.
Can a pill or drug taker who also has a genuine alcoholic history become a member of AA? Yes. Now there are certain things that AA cannot do for anybody regardless of what our desires or sympathies may be.
Our first duty as a fellowship is to ensure our own survival. Therefore, we have to avoid distractions and multi-purpose activity. Sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of an AA group.
groups have repeatedly tried other activities and they have always failed. It has also been learned that there is no possible way to make non-alcoholics into AA members. We have to confine our membership to alcoholics and we have to confine our AA groups to a single purpose.
If we don't stick to these principles, we shall almost surely collapse. And if we collapse, we cannot help anyone. I see no way of making non-alcoholic addicts into AA members.
Experience says loudly that we can admit no exceptions, even though drug users and alcoholics happen to be first cousins of a sort. If we persist in trying this, I'm afraid it will be hard on the drug user himself as well as on AA. We must accept the fact that no non-alcoholic, whatever his affliction, can be converted into an alcoholic and an AA member.
We cannot give AA membership to non-alcoholic addicts, but like anyone else, they should be able to attend open AA meetings, provided, of course, that the groups themselves are willing. That's pretty direct. Very little ambiguity there.
AA members who are so inclined should be encouraged to band together in groups to deal with seditive and drug problems, but they ought to refrain from calling themselves AA groups. There seems to be no reason why several AAs cannot join, if they wish, with the group of straight addicts to solve the alcohol and drug problem together. But obviously such a dualpurpose group should not insist that it be called an AA group.
Nor should it use the AA name in its title. Neither should its straight addict contingent be led to believe that they have become AA members by reason of such an association. Certainly, there is every good reason for interested AAS to join with outside groups working on the narcotics problem, provided the traditions of anonymity and of no endorsements are respected.
I uh have a open letter that was published by the trustees of Narcotics Anonymous. I've got some copies of it if you'd like it. Um, I'm just going to read a couple of little excerpts from it.
Uh, Bill W, one of the, this is from this letter. Bill W, one of the co-founders, often said that one of AA's greatest strengths is its singleminded focus on one thing and one thing only. By limiting its primary purpose to carrying carrying the message to alcoholics, avoiding all other activities, AA is able to do that one thing supremely well.
The atmosphere of identification is preserved by that purity of focus. An alcoholic gets help. The simple fact that both fellowships have a six tradition for a reason to keep from being diverted from our primary purpose because of the inherent need of a 12step fellowship to focus on one thing and one thing only so that it can do that one thing supremely well.
Each 12step fellowship must stand alone unaffiliated with everything else. It is our nature to be separate to feel separate and use separate set of recovery terms because we each have separate unique primary purpose. The focus of AA is one of the alcoholic and we ought to respect their perfect right to adhere to their own traditions and protect that focus.
If we cannot use language consistent with that, we ought not go to their meetings and undermine that atmosphere. In the same way, NA members ought to respect our own primary purpose and identify ourselves at NA meetings simply as addicts and share in a way that keeps our fundamentals clear. Let's let us put together our energies now and unify behind these powerful principles.
Let's put these energies into our personal spiritual development through our own 12 steps. Let's carry our own message clearly. There's a lot of work to be done and we need each other if we are to do it effectively.
Let's go out go on with it in a spirit of NA unity. It's a beautiful letter. Um you can see that they're real clear about what singleness of purpose is just as we should be.
Um you know it's interesting there are um there are a lot of meetings now inside of institutions, treatment centers, uh correction facilities, etc. And our literature has really had to um hold out the information. We've um uh added some primary purpose statements to some of the pamphlets at the bottom of one directed to correctional facility people.
CPC and by the way CPC is cooperation with a professional community. Uh we had in recent years uh an instance where we had a CPC committee that thought that that meant uh confronting the professional community community and I had some folks go out and confront some uh uh administrators of some treatment facilities and um I think feel like AA was damaged by that. um some well-meaning again members with poor understanding of our principles of love and tolerance.
Um so be cautious and make sure that you're um you've done your research and read what we do and what we don't do before you go make those visits and interact with uh the administrators of these facilities, which is a crucial part of what we do. Um, anyhow, the singles of purpose statement that's pretty much been added to many of those CPCs. Some professionals refer to alcoholism and drug addiction as substance abuse or chemical dependency.
Non-alcoholics are therefore sometimes introduced to AA and encouraged to attend AA meetings. Anyone may attend open AA meetings, but only those with a drinking problem may attend closed meetings. and uh that's in most of the CPC pamphlets now, the recent edition.
Um the other topic that uh I just wanted to dabble in is the question of AA members medication and other drugs. And I think that this is important because uh we all uh have instances where we have illnesses that we have to deal with. And I would encourage you uh to read I'd encourage everybody to read this pamphlet.
I think it's a it's a a great read. And there's some information here that's pretty vital. I'm going to read just a little bit of it.
Again, I apologize to reading to you, but again, I think that it's the literature that needs to be held out and that you need to put your hands on and touch and not listen to other people's opinions because unfortunately I've got opinions that are probably just flatout wrong. Um, a report from a group of physicians in AA because the subject is one which goes deeply into the field of medicine. and a group of physicians who are members of AA was asked to help prepare this pamphlet.
The experience of some AA members reveals that drug misuse can threaten the achievement and maintenance of sobriety. Yet, some AA members must take prescribed medication in order to treat certain serious medical problems. Experience has shown that this problem can be minimized if the following suggestions are carefully heeded.
One, remember that a recovering alcoholic, your automatic response will be to turn to chemical relief for uncomfortable feelings and to take more than the usual prescribed amount. Look for non-chemical solutions for the aches and discomforts of everyday life. It's an helpful little suggestion, don't you think?
Maybe the third bottle of Nyquil was too much. Remember that the best safeguard against drugreated relapse is an active participation in the AA recovery program. No AA member plays doctor is number three.
Number four, be completely honest with yourself and your physician regarding the use of medication. Number five, if in doubt, consult the physician with demonstrated experience in the treatment of alcoholism. Number six, be frank about your alcoholism with any physician or dentist you consult.
Such confidence will be respected and is most helpful to the doctor and it's a great way to help with a professional community. If you're a resource that they can call and say, "Hey, I've got somebody and I need a reference or I need to know what they can where they can go." It's a wonderful opportunity. Don't miss it.
U number seven, inform the physician at once if you are experiencing side effects from prescribed drugs. Number eight, consider consulting another doctor if a personal physician refuses or fails to recognize the peculiar susceptibility of alcoholics to sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants. It'll be okay to take them.
I've been taking them years. give give your doctor doctor copies of this pamphlet. Anyhow, I'd encourage you to uh read this.
It's a it's a nice it's a nice pamphlet and some great suggestions in there. Um, another opportunity is if you've ever been on the Alcoholics Anonymous website, the general service website, uh, pretty much all of these pamphlets are available to read. They're not available to be printed, but there's there is an article that appears it's called about AA.
And about AA is you can pull up past issues. It is really directed towards the media and the professional community and in about AA there will be workshops and uh topics from the past. Uh the couple that I have here, um this one was from summer of 2001 and was actually kind of highlighting Elaine McDow who was uh our a PhD uh class A non-alcoholic trustee at the general service board and then later served as the chair of the general service board for Alcoholics Anonymous.
And I thought her comments were interesting as a professional person and she was kind of the uh government's go-to person on addiction. Um I had somebody tell me a story about being in a highlevel government addictions thing and they were waiting on this u person to get there to give a talk and they said that the doors kind of burst open and a couple guys came running in. Then Lane McDow came in, gave this presentation on addiction stuff and then was shuttled off by these guys to uh go to some other conference or something.
So, a lot of the people that serve us in Alcoholics Anonymous on our general service board um are really incredible talented professional folks. Um but Elaine's comments uh she says that um ability to understand and adhere to its primary purpose is AA's real strength. Noting that the fellowship is a program of attraction rather than promotion in the spirit of its 11th tradition.
She observes that for 66 years the hand of AA has been there for the alcoholic. works to waver from its primary purpose would compromise AA principles and diminish its effectiveness in attracting and retaining alcoholics. She goes on and on about treatment facilities and whatnot.
Um, fantastic article. I am uh probably running tight on time and I wanted to at least touch base on something. It we all kind of raised our hand when we said we had other issues.
I came into Alcoholics Anonymous with this boatload of other issues. And I felt as though I really needed to share them all in the meeting. And I was as many andas as you could possibly put together.
And thankfully there were some very loving but firm AA members who uh shared with me what I was doing. Yeah. >> You know, it's it's interesting because over the years I've listened to a lot of inventories and in those inventories I've listened to a lot of people who had all kind of sort of sexual devincy stuff going on and they were just as obsessed about that as they ever were about drinking.
But I never once heard anybody refer themselves as an alcoholic in a goat herd. I sorry, >> but but it was explained to me in early in in early sobriety. I'm really thankful that every time I introduced myself as an and anything else I was setting myself apart and separate from the core of alcoholic synonymous is I was saying outwardly to you I am different from you.
This is how I'm different and whatever it didn't matter what it was. Every time I said I'm John Shirley and I'm alcoholic and uh peanut picker, I I'm setting myself apart from the core of Alcoholics Anonymous. The very principle we're founded on is a miracle of identification.
It is the reason for our existence. We have no other reason to exist than that. Um I'm going to read one last little thing and then I'm going to kind of move into a close here.
The AA member has to inform conform to principles of recovery. His act his life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principles. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift.
He sickens and dies. At first, he goes along because he must, but later he discovers a way of life he really wants to live. Moreover, he finds he cannot keep this priceless gift unless he gives it away.
Neither he nor anybody else can survive unless he carries the AA message. The moment this 12step work forms a group, another discovery is made that most individuals cannot recover unless there is an AA group. realization dawn that he is but the small part of a great whole that no personal sacrifice is too great for the preservation of this fellowship.
He learns that the clamor of desires and ambitions within himself must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. It becomes plain that the group must survive or the individual will not. And let me say what the tradition one says that each AAA member is but the small part of a great whole.
And what I love is that in this mosaic of Alcoholics Anonymous, I get to be one little speck, that small part of that great hole of that beautiful panorama that we call Alcoholics Anonymous. and I'd like to thank you for having me and thank you for my life. Thank you for listening to Sober Sunrise.
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