Daily Reflections reading November 26th
The Hazards Of Publicity
People
who symbolize causes and ideas fill a deep human need. We of A.A. do not
question that. But we do have to soberly face the fact that being in the public
eye is hazardous, especially for us. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 181
As
a recovered alcoholic I must make an effort to put into practice the principles
of the A.A. program, which are founded on honesty, truth and humility. While I
was drinking I was constantly trying to be in the limelight. Now that I am
conscious of my mistakes and of my former lack of integrity, it would not be
honest to seek prestige, even for the justifiable purpose of promoting the A.A.
message of recovery. Is the publicity that centers around the A.A. Fellowship
and the miracles it produces not worth much more? Why not let the people around
us appreciate by themselves the changes that A.A. has brought in us, for that
will be a far better recommendation for the Fellowship than any I could make.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on November 26th Reading
Tradition Ten "Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on
outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public
controversy."
This Tradition was born out of the failure of another group
called the Washingtonians they were successful for a while in helping people
with a drinking problem, over 100,000 people sobered up and then the movement
collapsed.
It decided to turn it’s attention to other worldly matters
trying to decide exactly what the group stood for caused so much disunity
within two years, because of the disagreements in how to run the group, they
had destroyed there effectiveness and folded, most of those thousands drank
again
Learning from this example, AA can not comment on any
outside issue, AA groups don’t form opinions on outside issues but do have
opinions with in their own groups pertain to their own primary purpose, or how
they affect AA as a whole
There are lots to disagree about in AA, any visit to a group
conscience or service committee, such as inter-group, will quickly demonstrate
that we have differences of opinion on almost any service matter these
disagreements are not always expressed graciously.
This sort of disagreement is not disunity, all the
discussions are about how we can best carry the message, for all the
disagreement, we are united behind the idea that we should carry the AA message
of recovery thru the 12 steps
I have to remember as individuals we are entitled to hold
opinions on any outside issues, but its not appropriate to share them in an AA
meeting, we should ensure that we are not speak for AA, but only for ourselves
in matters like this
AA does communication with society to help carry they
message to professionals, when it does so in a spirit of humility, we cannot
rely on any of us doing anything with humility, if left to our own devices
thanks God tradition eleven is there to help us with this.
Regarding personal anonymity, people shouldn’t break others’
anonymity at any level; we should not break our own anonymity ever at the level
of radio, TV, film, publishing, and the Internet. If we do either of these it
discourages new people from seeking help
They are afraid that we couldn’t be trusted to protect their
anonymity, some member think AA should make more use of its famous members, there
are occasional high-profile anonymity breakers, some do so because they
mistakenly think they are helping AA.
Many are just trying to gain publicity for themselves, when
famous people break their anonymity the answering services do receive more calls.
But in the long run, the bad publicity of some high-profile people subsequent
relapsing, has always outweighed the previous good publicity.
The principle of attraction rather than promotion is the
one, people want to change, they argue that humility is a handicap in
public-information work, we should be more active saying what a great job we
do, in helping other alcoholics
It is worth remembering the Traditions are guidelines, they
will enable us harness the power of a loving God as we understand Him, the best
way to get people coming to the fellowship is to adhere to the Traditions as
closely as possible, and trust God to do the work for us.
The Big Book itself encloses a non-alcoholic doctor’s
opinion of AA and reference to an award given to AA in the US by the medical
fraternity called the Lasker Award. However, even in reproducing these, the
writers are very careful to do so in a spirit of humility.
God bless you Al M
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