Chapter 7: Agnostics and Human Rights
Let’s begin by looking at some dates of historical significance. May 31, 2011. Two agnostic AA groups, Beyond Belief and We Agnostics, are voted out of the Greater Toronto Area Intergroup (GTAI) and off...
Tagged: Intergroup
Chapter 5: More Rejection
Service, not Governance One of the co-founders of AA, Bill Wilson, wrote this in the July, 1946, Grapevine: So long as there is the slightest interest in sobriety, the most unmoral, the most anti-social,...
Toronto Intergroup Yields to Agnostics in AA
By Roger C. It’s over. After a scorching battle that lasted almost six years, agnostic groups will once again be listed on the Greater Toronto Area AA meeting list and be recognized as full,...
Secular groups fight exclusion from AA
Alcoholics Anonymous’ religious undertone is under fire in Canada, where an atheist lodged a human rights complaint and secular groups have been delisted By Ashifa Kassam in Toronto Published on November 8, 2016 in...
AA Atheists and Human Rights
By Roger C. On May 31, 2011, two agnostic AA groups were booted out of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Intergroup and off of the area AA meeting lists. That was disturbing and offensive...
Alcoholics Anonymous accused of discrimination
By Michele Mandel First posted on Friday, February 19, 2016 in the Toronto Sun My name is Michele and I am not an alcoholic. But if I were, why does it matter whether or...
Does religion belong at AA? Fight over ‘God’ splits Toronto AA groups
When two agnostic groups were booted out of Intergroup in the Toronto Area, Roger C. emailed the Toronto Star and later that day spoke to a reporter/writer. He refused to let this story be...
We are unstoppable
By Dave S. I had my last drink on February 28, 1984. Within my first year I became aware that, for lack of a better term, I was a nonbeliever. At the time it seemed that...
Yet Another Intergroup Fight
By life-j. Laytonville, where I live, is a small coastal mountain valley village of about 2000 on Northern California’s Highway 101, about 3 hours north of the Bay Area. This is a sparsely populated...
One alcoholic judging another
By Roger C. The way our “worthy” alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the “less worthy” is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another! Bill...
A History of Agnostic Groups in AA
Review by Chris G. When the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was being written there was an irritating atheist in the mix: Jim Burwell. He was responsible for the phrase “God, as we understood Him”...
Booting the bastards out
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782) By Roger...
Pharisees and Recalcitrants
By Joe C. When asked about AA’s lack of rules and why we didn’t need them, Bill Wilson said, “AA is self-correcting.” It may be that Toronto Intergroup’s first controversial action of banning AA...
Intergroup Votes Against Re-Listing Agnostic Groups
On Tuesday (March 27, 2012) the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Intergroup voted 59 to 19 against including two agnostic AA groups on its meeting list (hard copy and online) and giving them a voice at Intergroup meetings. The...
