As Bill Sees It

[~graced~]

Unlimited Choice

Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if ever
they go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand
of faith or theology. They just don't realize that faith is never an
imperative for A.A. membership; that sobriety can be achieved with an easily
acceptable minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God -
as we understand Him - afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual
belief and action.

<<<>>>

In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be
agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with
your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it
makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a
Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

[mender1]

How can it be said any better
I believe it was well put

[majestyjo]

Unlimited Choice

Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if ever they go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or theology. They just don't realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership; that sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God - as we understand Him - afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.

<<<>>>

In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

As Bill Sees It

AA is a spiritual program not a religious one. Anyone of any religious belief can enter the doors of recovery and work the 12 Steps. The 12 Steps are applicable to those who are atheists and agnostic too. They are a way of life. They are not a way of religion.

[majestyjo]

As Bill Sees It


Personality Change, p. 1

"It has often been said of A.A. that we are interested only in alcoholism.

That is not true. We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive.

But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking permanently without undergoing a profound personality change."

<< << << >> >> >>

We thought "conditions" drove us to drink, and when we tried to correct these conditions and found that we couldn't do so to our entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.

1. Letter, 1940

2. 12 & 12, p. 47

[caressa222]

So grateful for Bill and even more grateful that he reached out to others.