Getting Started (Continued)
J: What we're going to be talking about this weekend--and you might go back to your groups, and we hope this is what this is all about, to really look in our fellowship. What we're going to be talking about is not the program in the fellowship (of) Alcoholics Anonymous. We're going to be talking about the program that's in the Big Book, "Alcoholics Anonymous," that was used (and has been) given to us--that's unchanged--by the first one hundred people. It is a program, precise program, of recovery from alcoholism.
C: We might say, of course, people change. We know that. One reason for (putting) this down in a written form was to keep it pure, and to keep it from becoming changed and garbled. Now, the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous today, hardly resembles the original fellowship at all as far as the program is concerned. But the Big Book has never been changed. So the program has remained the same even though the fellowship has changed.
Joe and I got into a meeting not long ago. They were talking about group depression, sexual dysfunction; God I could name another half a dozen subjects. I looked at Joe, and I said, Joe where in the hell are we anyhow? He said, I don't know, we must be at B.B.
And I said, B. B., what's that? He said, beats the hell out of me, but it's not A. A. is it?
(laughter) And, really, we only have one program of recovery, and it's in the Big Book, "Alcoholics
Anonymous".
In many of our groups today, we talk about everything but that. I think that is the responsibility of the older members of Alcoholics Anonymous: to be sure that the newcomers, when they come in, realize that there is a program of recovery. It is in the Big Book, "Alcoholics Anonymous," and that it's never been changed.
In our zeal to help people, maybe in our zeal to play the numbers game and say we've got five million instead of one million, we tend to water down our program. We tend to be afraid to offend the newcomer, and maybe they'll run off, or something like that. You know, it is our responsibility to tell the newcomer what A. A. really is.
The newcomer doesn't know that. The only way they're going to learn that, is for the older members to be sure that we bring this out, and they understand that. I think we have come to a sorry place when we are letting the newcomers determine the program that we're going to use within our own groups. I think that's up to us to determine our program, and then the newcomer fits into that program.
Now, that's what we're about, and that's what we're for. That's what the Big Book is about. Joe.
J: Okay, here's a -- we would like to read this on roman numeral twenty, at the top of the page. (p. xx, par. 1) '... public acceptance of A. A. grew by leaps and bounds. For this there were two principal reasons: the large numbers of
recoveries, and reunited homes. These made their impressions everywhere. Of alcoholics who came to A. A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A. A. showed
improvement.'
In 1939 when this book was written, and they were using in the fellowship the program in the Big Book, half the people who came to A. A. got up and stayed sober. Twenty-five percent had some problems and got sober-se .. later on. So, when they were using this program in the book in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, 75% of the people who came to A. A. got sober. And I wonder today, are 75% of the people who come to A. A. getting sober?
If we got back to what we were talking about--this is what this weekend is all about--getting our fellowship back to the program in the Big Book, back to what really works.
