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Seen in the New Yorker, December 2014.
The real message of Appendix II in the Big Book
By Tim Campbell
By Tim Campbell
Having stayed sober and
active in the AA felowhip for over 40 years,
I believe I can note accurately that there are are lots of honest and
open-minded people in AA who stay sober and go to meetings but who are also
continue to be agnostic, atheistic or skeptical free-thinkers. In my opinion, Alcoholics Anonymous added
Appendix II to the Big Book to welcome these people. AA also welcomes lots of
people who refuse to read anything past page 164 or who prefer to talk about
stories in the Big Book of fervently religious people. This is unfortunate. Cosequently, I offer the following quotes
from Appendix II followed by two paragraphs from the early pages of the Big Book
I believe that appendix is meant to conteract.
I’m hoping some of my more religious friends in AA will take notice.
…
Yet
it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these
personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden
and spectacular upheavals. Happily for
everyone, this conclusion is erroneous…
…Though
it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have
nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate
and overwhelming “God-consciousness” followed at once by a vast change in
feeling and outlook. Among our rapidly
growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations, though
frequent, are by no means the rule. …
…With
few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner
resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power
greater than themselves. Most of us
think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of
spiritual experience. Our more religious
members call it “God-consciousness.”
Most
emphatically we wish to say that any
alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in the light of our
experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to all
spiritual concepts. He can only be
defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial.
We
find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program.
Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are the essentials of recovery. But these are indispensable.”
(Alcoholics Anonymous,
Fourth Edition, page 567-568)
Three paragraphs Appendix II was written to conteract
First,
on page 45, in Chapter 4 “We Agnostics,”
Bill Wilson wrote: “Lack of power, that was our dilemma.
We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power
greater than ourselves.Obviously.
But where and how were we to find this Power? Well,
that’s exactly what this book is about.
Its main objective is to enable you to find a Power greater than
yourself which will solve your problem.
That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as
well as moral. And it means, of course,
that we are going to talk about God.” Appendix
II was written precisely to conteract the idea that believe in God was required
for recovery. Hence it states
emphatically: “We find that no one need
have difficulty with the spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty and open-mindedness are
the essentials of recovery. But these
are indispensable.” (page 568)
Second,
on page 57, Bill Wilson says “Even so has God restored us all to our
right minds. To this man, the revelation
was sudden. Some of us grow into it more
slowly. He has come to all who have honestly sought
Him. We
drew near to Him, He disclosed Himself to us!” This sentence comes at the end of Wilson’s
chapter “We Agnostics.” It really turns off lots of agnostics.
Third,
on page 181, Dr. Bob says : “If you think
you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of
intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel
sorry for you.” Many readers find
other passages in the Big Book which also seem to imply that belief in God is
essential to recovery. The success of
thousands of atheists and agnostics staying sober proves that is not so.
Consequently,
I tread lightly or skip reading passages from the Big Book that extol religion
and that predate the approval of Appendix II.
I believe honest students of the Big Book weigh all the parts of that
work including the opening chapters, the stories, and the appendices. Naturally, I hope those who refuse to pay
attention to anything beyond the first 164 pages might reconsider honesty,
open-mindedness and willingness.
Tim
C
January 4, 2015
Lots of things people do in real life are staged to look like one has foresight....as in this picture.
Appendix II in the AA Big Book may have been meant by some in AA to correct the errors on the absolute necessity of God in recovery found in the first edition of AA's document. Unfortunately, putting those thoughts in a footnote and relegating the document to the back of the book was about as effective as these risers will be at protecting that hose from a train. When the religious majority wants to railroad something, it can and has acted like a freight train.
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Quietism, Agnosticism and AA
By Tim Campbell (Tim C where AA etiquette is applied)
In October of 2013, I started an AA group in Houston, Texas
for secular people in pursuit of sobriety.
I attended those meetings regularly for a year and a half but they eventually became frustrating. Perhaps even more
frustrating than ordinary AA meetings here which tend to be quiet Baptist in
tone.
Why were these agnostic meetings frustrating? Because the group attracted a preponderance
of people who may have rejected the
concept of the Christian God but who insisted during the meetings on a kind of
theology called quietism books about
various theologies.
Merriam Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition defines quietism as “1 a: a system of religious mysticism teaching
that perfection and spiritual peace are attained by annilation of the will and
passive absorption in contemplation of God and divine things b: a passive withdrawn attitude or policy toward the world or
worldly affairs 2 : a state of calmness or
passivity.
Quietism is
preached in AA meetings and texts by various rewordings of Step 3, “Made a decision to turn our will and our
lives over to the care of God.”
Variations of that theology include the common AA sayings “Let go and let God!” and “We stopped fighting everything and everybody.”
In my opinion, quietism is completely incompatible with
atheism or agnosticism. And I don’t
think I am the only student of philosophy who felt that way. In fact, the primary literary and
philosophical work in the repertoire of
most of the population of France is the Marquis de Sade’s tongue in
cheek critique of quietism in Philosophy in the Bedroom. (Personally,
I’d translate Philosophie dans le boudoir
more broadly as Philosophy in the Bedroom
Area. To me, that helps suggest
applying philosophy to areas of real life.)
Philosophy in the
Bedroom Area is a send-up of a treatise by Fénelon, the Arch-Bishop of
Cambrai, on the education of young ladies.
Sade proposes that to be a true atheist and a true member of a modern
republic of the people, young ladies should be taught all the facts of the most
libertine of sexual practices so they can have fun and avoid pregnancy.
In the early 20th Century, Marcel Proust placed
the early action of his libertine novels in an imaginary place called
Combray. I’d guess he had de Sade’s
place in mind.
Works like de Sade’s seem to have been incorporated
thoroughly in the minds of the French people, and in the minds of many other
Europeans. Over there, anti-clericalism
and rigorous secularism are assumed. By
that I mean most Europeans have by now liberated themselves from all the
dictums of religion, even those that have to do with sex. That’s why millions of Europeans—including
many leading politicians-- were happy to march in the streets of France
recently chanting “I am Charlie! I am
Charlie!” That’s a reference to a truly
radical and agnostic comic publication.
No surprise no American politicians were there.
Gosh, wouldn't it be
different to be in an AA meeting where quietism was not so widely
assumed. In my opinion, preaching quietism equals being allied with that
religion. Preaching it in agnostic meetings continues to annoy me. I’m wonder how many others in sobriety think
the same.
Sign me “Robespierre de Sade.” No sign me Charlie! What I want out of AA is sobriety not
religion, no matter how subtly disguised.
Tim Campbell
Houston TX
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