We Who Condemn Them Are The Pharisees

What did he say? And… why?

There are those “out there” who seem to have a need to place themselves in a position of authority regarding who may or may not be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Thankfully Bill W. had the foresight to know such could happen. A copy of what he wrote in the Grapevine is posted at the Silkworth site.

Briefly – what happened in the early days was groups setting all sorts of impossible rules and members passing all grades of judgments they weren’t qualified to pass. (Sadly, this is still occurring today but I won’t mention where.) Eventually something comes to pass…

“After a time fear and intolerance subside. The group survives unscathed. Everybody has learned a great deal. So it is that few of us are any longer afraid of what any newcomer can do to our A.A. reputation or effectiveness. Those who slip, those who panhandle, those who scandalize, those with mental twists, those who rebel at the program, those who trade on the A.A. reputation-all such persons seldom harm an A.A. group for long. Some of these have become our most respected and best loved. Some have remained to try our patience. sober nevertheless. Others have drifted away. We have begun to regard these not as menaces, but rather as our teachers. They oblige us to cultivate patience, tolerance, and humility. We finally see that they are only people sicker than the rest of us, that we who condemn them are the Pharisees whose false righteousness does our group the deeper spiritual damage.”

God levels the playing field. Not you or I.

[Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., August 1946]