“
Each man is
good in the sight of the Great Spirit." Sitting Bull Teton Sioux Another crowd of A.A.'s says: "We were plumb disgusted with
religion and all its works. The Bible, we said, was full of nonsense; we
could cite it chapter and verse, and we couldn't see the Beatitudes for
the 'begats.' In spots its morality was impossibly good; in others it
seemed impossibly bad. But it was the morality of the religionists
themselves that really got us down. We gloated over the hypocrisy,
bigotry, and crushing self-righteousness that clung to so many 'believers'
even in their Sunday best. How we loved to shout the damaging fact that
millions of the 'good men of religion' were still killing one another off
in the name of God. This all meant, of course, that we had substituted
negative for positive thinking. After we came to A.A., we had to recognize
that trait had been an ego-feeding proposition. In belaboring the sins of
some religious people, we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we
could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings. Self-righteousness,
the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was our own
besetting evil. This phony form of respectability was our undoing, so far
as faith was concerned. But finally driven to A.A., we learned
better.” Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions pg.
30 "You are an A.A. member if you say so. You can declare yourself in; nobody can keep you out. No
matter who you are, no matter how low you've gone, no matter how grave
your emotional complications--even your crimes--we still can't deny you
A.A. We don't want to keep you out. We aren't a
bit afraid you'll harm us, never mind how twisted or violent you may be.
We just want to be sure that you get the same great chance for sobriety
that we've had, So you're an A.A. member the minute you declare
yourself." Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions pg.
139 Great Spirit help me honor all my
relations. |