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.