G/”e CnRISTIHN CENTURV CPublished Weekly

A Christian Thanksgiving By O. Walter Wagner Utopia or Cataclysm By Vernon Nash

S*paration of Church and State An Editorial W

Ltrope for Alcoholics By Wilburn Echols To Save Our Own Souls An Editorial

Flere’s Flope for Alcoholics Bv Wilburn Echols LCOHOTICS ANONYMOUS is an important interestecl pemons were invited to call. FIe called it an<l , new spiritual movemellt. “Spirittral” is the right was answered by a friendly voice which respondecl to a acljective. l,et me illtrstrate by the story of a mal] rapid sketch of the situation with a cheerlul: “Yes, I think now about fifty-seven yeam old. Bill, we will call him. Bill we can help you and your rnan. I’ll come and see you, was left an orphan at an early a.ge, hacl little schooling whenever and wherever you say.” If the relative hacl and was generally rieglected. When he came out oI the called up an insurance agent or ordered a new refrigerzrtor, navy at the end of the l”irst Wolld War he was a con- he couldn’t have been greetecl more cordially. PLrzzled firrned drunkard. Reing a clever rncchanic and able to go but hopeful, he set a place and an hour lor a rnccting. reasonably straight for a while after one of his sprees, he Bxac;tly at the appointed tinre a handsome young l;usiusually had no serious diffictrltl, in securirrg a job. Some- ness man walked into the relative’s ofFce. “My name’s times he workecl more or lcss steaclily for a ycar or two, Herberl S’-*,” he said. “f was one of the worst clrunks but the craving for an uproarir:us clrunk always caught in the state before Alcoholics Anonymous pullecl me out him sooner or later ancl flung him into the gutter again. of it. But I might not stay pulled out if I clidn’t stantl He not only tirrew to the dogs every cent he earned, but ready at any hour of the day or night to help pick somc he was always thinkin.g up tall tales to relieve relatives other poor devil orrt of the gutter. When you callecl me and accluaintances of large and small sums which disap. to help Bill, you did me the greatest favor you could havt: peared in carousals that left him each time fouler and thought of. We’ll shoo John Barleycorn off him if we can. more dilapidateri. At fift,v-forrr he was a picturc oI frowsi- Brrt we can’t shoo worth a cent if Bill doesn’t want us t.) ne.s and misery. Hc hacl rleserterl his wife ancl had himsclf and won’t cooperate. Tell us how to reach him, ancl we,li becn abandoned by most of his relatives. He had appar- be there double quick.” ently surrk aborrt as rleep in the mrrd as a man can sink The rclative relayed the information to Bill. lJill wasn’r and keep breathing. enthusiastic; said hc could quit withrrrrt anylxxly’s helP. After a prolongc<l and particularly outrageous spree, a But finally he consented to see Herbert. Two ol tlre A.A.’s kinclhearted emplover who harl been trying to help Bill went to call on him. They won his heart at the firsr to his Ieet gave up thc atternpt and threr.r’ hirn out. He nrcctins. A fcw months latcr Bill was rcleiuscrl from tlrr disappeared and was gone fol rnonths. C)ne evcning what institution. Now he i.s one n[ tire engineer.s at thc sanr. was left of him–a blear-eyed scarecro$,—slurrk to tlre place rvhele a year ago he was an inmate. He has joinrri door of a relative and begged for help. 1’he relative got a chr.rrch. (‘Ihe A.A.’s discreetly leavc confessional rcligir,rr him into his car and cleposited him in a state institution. alone. ‘l’hey are members o[ any chtrrch or uo chrrrch. After six or eight months under strict surveillance, the Rut I lra,ve attendecl several of their open tncetingr atirl alcohol had pretty rvell evaporated and Bill looked a littie I notice that they always recite the Lord’s Prayer together. I cleaner and brighter. He was very anxious to be released. So far as f know, Bill rrever touchus even the nrilclt,r but it wa-s plainly useles; tri go through the horrible farcc liquonr. i once hcard an A.A. say that one swallou, nrav again. not make a spring but it’s preltv sllrr ter rrrake n lr,,rr.i Matters stoocl like this when the relative read in the fighter orrt of an A..4″ Bill looks you in tlre face now as paper an account of a meeting of Alcoholics Anonyr.nous” Ite never looked anvlxrdy in the lace in the twenty-fir,r At the end nf the anticle tlrere was a phnne number which yearx 1 have known him” I clon’t know that he coulcin,t

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backslidc, but there is something fundarnentally different rnember whose funds were low nlet a fcllow rrtember, a between this Bill and the Bill who used to peep at you clotlring-store r:lerk, in an eating house. “Cotne ovcr to rrut of the corner of his eye and calculate how soon he the stoie when you’re through eatillg, Bob,” said the clerk’ rxruld spring a harci-luck story and panhandle you again “X’ve got sornethirrg for you.” Bob ate his hamburger and for the price of a trip to Barleycorn heaven. went over. “I’ve been paid,” said the clerk, “for a Stetson That;s Bill’s story. How is it different from the story hat, a suit o[ clothes, a pair of shoes, a white shirt, a pair r.’l John B” Gough and other reformed drunkards of the of socks and a necktie-all your size. I’m not allowed pn*l? I am not an A.A., so I cannot give’a completely to tell you who’s footing the bill.” Bob went out of the i:rtisfactory answer. But I see irnportant differences very store a good deal less shabby than he went in’ To this day t:learly” he doesn’t ktror,r’ wlto his Santa Ciaus was, but he carl rnake a pletty safc gr-ress that Satrta was an ex-alcoholic, I ,r. u g.u,rp of ex-alcoholics, with more i:zuh than he bu[ Ileforc the day of z\lcoholics Artoltyntous, tltc r-‘hurches, witii exactly the sanrc detcrmination to fight liquor to a the doct<rrs and the psychiatrisLs am()ng them are laicl to stanclstill and back up anybody eise wtro is fighting the have reclaimecl two or threc per cent o[ the drunkards $ante enefiry” who tried to quit. Approxitnately 8o pcr cent oI ihe tnenr- The A.A.’s have regular meetittgn, weekly or oftcner’ bership of A.A. (it has been in existence something like The spirit of comradeship that develops arnong thcrn is ,: y.i.t and has in the neighborhood of 5o,ooo members) so strong that they often spend a great deal of time in have stuck” Bill’s chances for pulling loose from thc devil each other’s company. Most of thcm give a good fraction arc a good rnany times greater than they would be if of their tirne to A.A. work. I know a grolrp in a fairly large there werc no such organization behind ltirn-a lland city whir:h has alrotrt 3oo members. A dozerr or two miles oI the saved with their arrns arouttd him antj each otirer, away iri every direction are snrall towns each o[ which likc a tug-of-war team. These ex-drunks understand him has an organization with qo or 3o mernlrers. Thus there ber:arwe they are jtr.st like him. They don’t despise him or are a score or more of groups within easy driving distance 1:atrouize him, because they have been just as ridiculous of each other, and they are constantll holding combined anri jrrst as low as he has. They love him for what he has meetingp, taking a ride out to hclp a handful of alcoholics rlone for them and quite as much for what they have start a new group, and collecting data on possible new rlone for him. They will never let him down because they members. know that if they shirk their duty to him they are pretty III $ure to fall flat on their faces again themselves. There is sornething in their situation psychologically very close to They don’t proselytize, for they have found that if a the way Napoleon’s Old Guard clung together. One could man joins beiause he lacks sales resistance instead of he is on his way to disease, irxanity, do a lot of psychologizing about the arnazing loyalty which becauie he sees that holds together this band of bruised, hopeful ex-slaves of poverty ancl early death, he won’t last long as an A’A’ ana wiU make him.self a nuisance while he is pretending King Alcohol. But after all was said thcre would still be to be one. A young buck who is proud of getting soused a touch of the miraculous about it. joins occasionally has nothing in common with the A’A”s’ In “When a man the A.A. without any strings atis an A.A. group, a bunch of tached,” one serious fellow said to me, “sornething happens a college town where there fraternity which they call “Alt.o hirn. He belongs to the A.A. soul and body. He’d get students have a drinking lJnanimous.” The A.A.’s laugh at it, becausc they up in the middle of the coldest night and cross the country coholics are usually good sports and because they know better than in a blizzard to sit with another A.A. who fclt the thirst on him and couldn’t fight it alone” He’d huue to. There anybody elie what a funny fool a drunkard is. But any and decides to transfer from wouldn’t be any qucstion about it, any lrl(.)re than about youngster who sees the light reaching for food if he was starving. He wouldn’t just have ihe Unauimous to the Anonymous will find a band of citizens who were once poor idiots like him, ready to, he’d want to. He wouldn’t and couldtr’t do anything decent to his hand and haul him out of the quicksarld’ else. I gues.s getting to be a real, hotrest-to-goodness A.A. grasp ‘I’he regular tneetings is like getting religion. Only it nlealls a million times more Wt ut ut. A.A. mcetirrgs like? than getting religion seems to mean to rxrst pcople”‘ are naturally sccrct. ln thcse the Inembers presurnably thrash otrt their common problerns’ They are incomparabll’ n clnser tosether thirtr a €Jroup of Presbyterians or Masons ‘l’here is a $trotrg emotional elerncnt itr thc mttvcrnent or collcge fratcrnity llrothers- But they have lreqtrcnt which borclers on mysticism; inrleecl I have hearcl eclut’.ated public nieetir.rgs which evellone is welcome- to attend and A.A.’s use that word rnore than otttrc’ Iior there are edu- at which inviiecl speakers who have special knowledge of cated ancl prosperous A.A.’s, just as there arc verv hurnble alcoholisni–physiiians, ministers, psychiatrists, social and ;gnorant A.A.’s. Such differences don’t count among workem and membels o{ other A.A. groups–discuss alcothem. There may be some friction in the grotlps somc- holism and related mattex$. I have attended a trumber of times, but if there is, outsiders don’t know much about it. these meetings. Thc A.A.’s themselves are almost alwalt When the Athenians were driving back the Persian in- amazingly frank, straight{orward, humbic, and wise with vaders at Marathon, they did not waste rnuch time and the wisJom that comes from gha”stly expcrierlce’ Noirody energy fi ghting*each other. can tr:ll you as much about hell il,s the soul th:rt ltas suf- “I’here is a Touching lot of kindness atrd helpfulne’s fered torrnent. And no mattel’ who is speaking or ltow among the A.A.’s. One day a faithful, hard-working well or hr-rw inadequately he gets acros’s, the A’A”s listen

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as though their livcs depended on attentiveness. Beside ings. These men are no sissies, but they have been through the alcoholics are their wives and otirer relatives. Often a baptism of fire. Many of them srn<-rke a goocl deal and thesc others havc been as roughly hanclled by drink as clrink quantitics of strong coffee . T.his is a sort o[ “tapering the clrunkarcls thetnselves. Ali this rneans hope and help ofl” which they often allolv themselves. Their winp aren’t to them” They are rnen who lr:rve earned a rcprieve which sprouting yet, but I can say with conviction that they thcy hope to lengthen otrt iuto a full parclon. It is veryl seem to rne the most ltonest, ltrave ancl prornising aggrepathetic, very bearrti{ul. gation of “reformed sinners” I have ever known. l

i W What abor-rt wonren drr.rnkards? They are free to join,’ Alcoholics Anonymous has a publishing house which l:ut to date I believc there have llot been etrough of tlrern issues a slrrewd and rnanly “textbook” detailing twelve to make a perfectly easy and natural place for thernselves. p<liltts of rclorm ancl retribtrtion (these are practically their This is one o[ the problerns which still ]rave to be solveci. Ten Comrnarrdrnerrts) anrl various interesting pamphlets. I have mcr.rtioned the organization’s caution in the lnat- Anyone interrstecl can learn all about these mattcrs by ter of religion. A man could scarcely be a member if he rnaking contact with an A.A. There will I>e no trouble hacl no God ancl no hope in the world. But A.A.’s dorr’t in finding one. A.A. ha-s hundreds of rroups all over the sermonize a great deal. They are inclined to be matter-of- cor.lntry. Tlrcy are anonymous but not undersrourrrt. ‘fhe1, fact, serious but not sentimental, jocose, rnasculine, but are eager to kuow you. especially i{ yotr are convinced, clean, kind, courteous. They probably dn not r:ften ureet fror.n experience or otherwise, that booze is the devil’s withotrt women’s beir.rg present. I have never car.rght any- own meclicine. That’s their life business” To say they mean thing r-lf the off-ccllor “stag” element in any o[ their meet- business is putting it mildly.