If any man do anything,
sincerely believing that thereby he is worshipping the Great Spirit, he is
worshipping the Great Spirit, and his worship must be treated with respect, so
long as he is not trespassing on the rights of others.
Wabasha
Lakota
Still
dubious, he demanded, "Do you really mean the only reason you are here is
to try and help me and to help yourself?"
"Yes,"
I said. That's absolutely all there is to it. There's no angle."
Then,
hesitantly, I ventured to talk about the spiritual side of our program. What a
freeze that drunk gave me! I'd no sooner got the word 'spiritual' out of my
mouth than he pounced. 'Oh!' he said. 'Now I get it! You're here proselytizing
for some damn religious sect or other. Where do you get that "no
angle" stuff? I belong to a great church that means everything to me.
You've got a nerve to come in here talking religion!'
Thank
heaven I came up with the right answer for that one. It was based foursquare on
the single purpose of A.A. 'You have faith,' I said. 'Perhaps far deeper faith
than mine. No doubt you're better taught in religious matters than I. So I
can't tell you anything about religion. I don't even want to try. I'll bet,
too, that you could give me a letter-perfect definition of humility. But
from what you've told me about yourself and your problems and how you propose
to lick them, I think I know what's wrong.'
"Okay,"
he said. "Give me the business."
"Well,"
said I, "I think you're just a conceited Irishman who thinks he can run
the whole show."
This
really rocked him. But as soon as he calmed down, he began to listen while
I tried to show him humility was the main key to sobriety. Finally, he saw
that I wasn't attempting to change his religious views, that I wanted
him to find the grace in his own religion that would aid his
recovery. From there on we got along fine.
Twelve
Steps & Twelve Traditions pgs. 152 & 153
Great
Spirit help us to respect others’ beliefs.