He focuses on the practical aspects of his triumph over alcoholism and includes guidelines for the formation of secular support groups. The SOS movement began with an article in the Summer 1985 issue of Free Inquiry magazine, the leading secular humanist journal in the country. This path has led Christopher from seventeen years of a fearful and guilty alcoholism to a fearful and guilty sobriety with Alcoholics Anonymous. Christopher felt that there must be other alcoholics who wanted to achieve and maintain sobriety through personal responsibility and self-reliance. As a result of the tremendous response to the article from alcoholics and addicts who wanted to maintain sobriety as a separate issue from religion, Jim Christopher founded the Secular Organizations for Sobriety.
Today there are SOS groups meeting in every state, as well as in other countries.
SOS has gained recognition from rehabilitation professionals and the nation's court systems. In November of 1987, the California courts recognized SOS as an alternative to AA in sentencing offenders to mandatory participation in a rehabilitation program. Also, the Veterans Administration has adopted a policy which prohibits mandatory participation in programs of a religious nature. The SOS National Clearinghouse publishes a quarterly newsletter that is filled with items of interest to all recovering substance abusers, to professionals, and to the families and friends of alcoholics and addicts. The SOS International Newsletter serves as an information source for group convenors and as a forum for newsletter subscribers.