Is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous ?

Is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous?


It seems like a very strange question really. Those that are familiar with the history of Alcoholics Anonymous will know it grew out of the Oxford Group or First Century Christian Fellowship. The following is true story which happened recently and shows what is happening in AA today.


I picked up a newspaper one day and there was front page article about a lady who was having a series of meetings based on the 12 steps. Since it was only a few blocks from my home I decided I would go. The lady was “facilitating” the meeting at a local Catholic Church and was using the 12 and 12. The meeting was not listed in the local AA directory.



One day one of the so-called "oldtimers" who is involved in all the local AA politics showed up at the meeting. I showed her the letter I have from the General Services Offices of Alcoholics Anonymous saying that reading from the Book of James is acceptable if the AA group has taken a group conscience on the matter(although I showed her the letter the group had never read out of anything but the 12&12 and the Big Book of AA,)

I asked her if she had ever read the First Edition and she said yes. I pointed out to her that most of the Christian Testimonies had been deleted by Bill Wilson in the Second Edition. Her response:

"Yes, they took them out. And she said they stopped reading the Bible in early AA because it "didnt work".

When I pressed the point a little, she kind of got in a huff about the whole matter, said she wasn’t comfortable at the meeting and ran out the door. She was the former secretary at the local AA central office and she made sure that they refused to list the meeting in the AA directory when we submitted it.

Since the area I live in is kind of overlapped by 2 central offices I suggested to the lady who started the meeting we submit it to the other AA central office. We did and they accepted it.

However, this is what happened today when I went to pick up meeting lists. I got the meeting lists and the volunteer asked me if they were for my personal use or a meeting. I said a meeting. She asked which one, and I told her. Then she told me that she had just put in the newsletter that was a “dead meeting”. I informed her that the meeting wasn’t dead and we had 3 people regularly attending it. Hold on she told me, and got someone on the phone. Here is part of the conversation I had with the lady on the phone.

“ Is this that Christian meeting?,” She asked.

I thought about it for a moment. Although I believe in Christ and one other lady does, Im not sure if the third lady does or not. And we have had a lady come to the meeting who had no belief in God at all and thought it was “weakness” to depend on God. But she wanted to stop drinking and we didn’t tell her she had to believe in anything or that she wasn’t welcome.

So I said “No”. However for the sake of honesty, I explained to her that I believe in Christ and that if I worked with anyone I would certainly encourage that.She was ok with that but said the following.

“Well,” she said, “Ive been sober since 1966. And we don’t want people talking about Jesus Christ in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings “

I explained to her the history of the meeting and that I had been attending meetings since 1976, and that anyone was welcome if they had a desire to stop drinking.

“Well,” she said “ This is a spiritual program not a religious one ( as if a religious person could somehow not be spiritual)

I went on to explain to the woman on the phone that I knew where the steps came from (The Bible) and nobody could tell me what I could say at an AA meeting.

She backpedaled a little and allowed that ,”Jesus Christ could be mentioned but not very much. After alL,” she said, “You wouldn’t want people talking about Buddha would you?”

I explained to her that I have been to thousands of meetingsand have heard people talk about Buddha and that I didn’t have a problem with that if they wanted to.

Finally, I suggested to her that she send someone to investigate our meeting to see if it met her standards.

“Good idea,” she said, “Ill send somebody from the General service structure to investigate”

As it stands now, the meeting is listed in the AA directory but the AA “Thought police” will be investigating to see if we say Jesus Christ too many times.

Im quite sure Dr. Bob is turning over in his grave. So is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous?

Not very.





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