A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous
Thomas B.What a gratifying little book John Lauritsen has written about his 46 years of continuous sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous! I spent a wonderful day this week sitting outside in bright sunshine on the usually rainy coast of Oregon, delighting in his experience, strength and hope. He forthrightly shares his stable recovery through A.A. that isnotbased upon any religious or spiritual influence. Rather, as a freethinker, he effectively relates how he found in the Fellowship of A.A. unconditional support and the tools he needed to cease his addiction to alcohol. He has thereby been enabled to live a sober, healthy, productive life ever since his first meeting at New York City's Perry Street workshop in early January of 1968.Though he readily attributes that he owes his life to the A.A. Fellowship, he also advocates for a radical reformation away from what he terms is False A.A.:"False A.A. is one of dogmatism, cultic behavior, conformity, intolerance, anti-intellectualism and helpless-without-God religiosity."I agree with him that this False A.A. ultimately kills....One of the most informative chapters is the one entitled "Physical Recovery" ... Perhaps the most important chapters are the two that describe the essence of "True A.A.": the 24-hour Plan and the Fellowship.The absolute essential prerequisite for continued recovery is to not pick up the first drink, a day at a time: the 24-hour Plan.... In both the chapter on "The 24-Hour Plan" and a chapter describing the 19th Century Washingtonian movement, John elucidates this essential principle....In the chapter on the Fellowship, John takes AA to task for undermining the Fellowship "by a growing and stultifying orthodoxy." This includes formalized readings from the Big Book, which discourages and limits authentic sharing of experience strength and hope.... He describes poignantly free-wheeling discussions at Perry Street and other meetings, where people shared their victories -- getting an expensive haircut, a new job, another relationship -- as well as their losses of loved ones, pets, jobs, apartments, etc. All throughout the meetings, people related to each other, identifying with and supporting what's going on here and now in their actual lives -- not just intellectually, but perhaps even more importantly, empathetically.As I am, he's perturbed when Christniks -- my term for Big Book/Bible Thumpers -- denigrate what qualifies us as alcoholics in a qualification [AA talk] as mere "drunkalogs". I still consider myself a newcomer, who needs to experience the therapeutic benefit, as John describes it, of "a catharsis in reliving the horrors of drinking." So-called "solution-based" discussions are archly described by John as when "speakers often just parrot phrases from the Big Book, or babble about their Higher Power and 'spirituality', telling nothing about lives, past or present." ...John critiques the Steps, and discusses opponents as well as alternatives to A.A. I especially resonate with his final chapter, "Conclusion" in which he encourages other non-believers -- once a solid base in recovery has been attained, "at least a year" -- to feel free to help in bringing about the needed reformation to make A.A. relevant in the 21st Century to all alcoholics who meet the only requirement for membership, a desire to stop drinking. --AA Agnostica, 21 May 2014