The first agnostic AA meetings in New York
This was the third of three main talks at a workshop on the history of secular AA at the We Agnostics, Atheists and Freethinkers International AA Convention in Austin, Texas, in November 2016. By...
Tagged: Alcoholics Anonymous
Take What You Need and Leave the Rest
Chapter 29: Do Tell! Stories by Atheists and Agnostics in AA Chuck K. I sobered up in the Care Unit at St. Elizabeth Hospital on Chicago’s northwest side in June, 1982. Members of AA...
An Activist in Sobriety
Chapter 25: Do Tell! Stories by Atheists and Agnostics in AA John L. Some alcoholics are born that way – periodic drunks, who can stay away from a drink for a long time, but...
Dr. Bob – Part Two (Akron-Style AA)
From his last drink in June, 1935, AA became the centerpiece of Dr. Bob’s life… (He) worked with Sister Ignatia… to treat thousands of alcoholics, who were then channeled into AA. He provided all...
The First 164 Pages
By Bob C. My first sponsor, Rob, was getting the Saturday AA meeting ready by himself when I showed up there. It was my second meeting ever, the previous one being the same group,...
Step 11
This is a chapter from the pioneering book: The Alternative Twelve Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery. It was originally written by two women, Martha Cleveland and Arlys G., and published in 1991. As valuable today as...
We Agnostics and Atheists AA Convention – Day 3
Day 3 was the busy and energizing last day of the We Agnostics, Atheists and Free Thinkers (WAAFT) International Alcoholics Anonymous Convention (IAAC). To begin with, attendance had grown to almost three hundred women and men. And, besides more...
We Agnostics and Atheists AA Convention – Day 2
Day two – Friday, November 7 – of the Convention consisted of a number of panels and workshops, followed by a talk by the manager of the General Service Office (GSO), Phyllis H. What...
We Agnostics and Atheists AA Convention – Day 1
It began not with a whimper but a bang. Some two hundred delegates gathered on day one of a truly historical event: the first ever international convention for agnostics, atheists and freethinkers in Alcoholics...
Steps 8 and 9
This is a chapter from the pioneering book: The Alternative Twelve Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery. It was originally written by two women, Martha Cleveland and Arlys G., and published in 1991. As valuable today as...
Dr. Bob, AA Co-founder – Part One
By bob k St. Johnsbury, Vermont Dr. Bob Smith remembers his childhood hometown of St. Johnsbury, some 100 miles northeast of the East Dorset birthplace of Bill Wilson, as having a general moral standard “far above the average.” ...
Young Bill Wilson – Part Two
By bob k The Prequel Begins It was the night before Thanksgiving when the pains of child labor drove Emily Griffiths Wilson from preparations for the next day’s meal. Emily’s pains drove her from out...
Christmas, Christians, Lepers, and Alcoholics (Revisited)
By bob k This is a terrific time of year, but not for all of us. Alcoholism is an illness of loneliness and of loss, and these already powerful emotions are easily intensified by...
Another Agnostic Group Ousted
By Roger C. In the rooms of AA – A third agnostic AA group has been expelled by Intergroup in Toronto. On April 24, Widening Our Gateway, which had been a member of the Greater Toronto...
