April 1950

enough to be humble. It takes a of these. The constant recognition of strong person to accept his life as it the need for the redeeming grace of really is, both the faults and the God is another. The concrete reality assets. of good persons present who have The person then, chaplain or pa- been overwhelmed time and again by tient or anyone else who approaches feelings they could not handle is still AA to really grasp its meaning, must a third. come with an attitude of openness One is struck at once with the and searching, including self-search- fact that any AA group always has ing. He must be ready to move as one in it persons who have always been among equals. This does not mean deprived and more or less unproducthat some in AA are not stronger tive, and, at the same time, alongside than others. It does not mean that the these are people whose lives have stronger and more experienced do been relatively good, useful and joynot support and strengthen the weak. ful, but who have ceased to be so and Of course there would be no forward who have revealed tendencies toward movement without the tension be- destructiveness that they cannot tween those who move ahead toward handle. stability and creativity and those who The experience in AA, then, is one are still stuck with useless and des- of being accepted alongside people tructive ways of living together. of varying strength. The chaplain A chaplain comes to AA, there- finds that he, himself, is accepted at fore, grateful for what strength God face value as a helpful man of God. has given his life, but aware that he At the same time, he finds, perhaps will learn from his friends who seek slowly, as the relationship deepens to learn from him. This learning is in meaning, that he is accepted as a conveyed in two ways: First through person who is to be understood with the experience of being accepted in his human frailties, as any other man. the fellowship, then through the ideas If there remains some difference, not above people is he able to under- I T seems to me impossible to look at AA from the outside and really understand it. If one would grasp its stand AA. It is first of all a leveling experience which every person, no of the program itself, the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions. The experience of being accepted then, between the chaplain and others, it becomes a difference in meaning and power to release the matter how strong he may seem or ability to live and work with internal how weak he may feel and act, stands is always a moving experience. For difficulties. It is not a sharp differhealing power in persons, it is neces- some it is a seductive flattering expesiry to feel one’s own need for such with others before the higher power, ence between the strong and the acknowledging weakness and need. rience that does not always bring weak, the saint and the sinner. It healing. It is an anxiety-provoking good to the lives of others, nor to the experience to stand before any group The person who cannot say, “I comes to be recognized that there need help,” cannot really be a part one so seduced. There are always are saintly qualities in the weakest of people, especially those who ex- elements of this in any human situapect strong conviction and life from of the AA experience and fellowship. of persrms, and that there are areas There are many curious who begin tion. But in the AA program and ex- of conflict and need in the strongest a leader, and admit to need and perience there are certain safeguards. weakness. the process. They do not continue in and best of persons. the meetings unless they gain strength The principle of anonymity is one Hope lies in the deepening and But only as one stands with and

increasing honesty with which these life finds he is actually a participating the help of the higher power and ful for the life-saving power that I difficulties are faced. And this member of a significant and produc- the powet of the group.” have experienced as I have been privhonesty and humility grow with the tive group that he can influence, if he Finally, the experience of freedom ileged to share closely in the lives of person’s experience of being accepted can follow the Steps and the Tradi- itself is transforming. There is free- AA members, especially during the as he is in the group. When others tions. For the person who has felt dom to express the deepest feelings. past six years at this hospital. accept him, he is finally able to ac- that he had no possibility of good There is freedom to fail without feel- I have sought to share regularly cept himself with less guilt and hu- influence or leadership, the fact of ing quite so painfully that this is the in its program through the Chaplain miliation. Hence, there is less need this new experience of worth and end. There is freedom, within the es- Discussion Group on faith and life to hide these feelings with alcohol, effectiveness is transforming and re- sential, sincere experience and tradi- that I have conducted in the hospital. drugs or other ways of living and inforcing. tion of the group to develop and I have received more than I have keeping from people. He comes to see that he no longer apply one’s own specific ideas. There given. The persons all across the Hope lies, therefore primarily in is treated as a thing or worse. He is is a common experience to cling to country who have continued to send the experience of being in,living with, respected and treated as a person at as a rock. But this experience and the word of their lives have given courreceiving from and giving to the a time when he has yet to earn any statement of it is not used as a verbal age for continued effort. This courgroup and the members of the group. such treatment. Through this he is creed which one must conform to or age applies, not only to the specific The Twelve Traditions were de- enabled to come to treat others as suffer anathema. One is not cast out work with new patients, but to my scribed and listed after the primary persons and not as things to be used. for disagreement and non-conformity whole life. expression of The Twelve Steps. But Furthermore, the concreteness of so long as the individual expression It has been a precious gift. they are actually equal in importance. the Steps gives a floundering person and action does not threaten the life Much of what the group talks about something he can cling to, some feel- of the group itself, and the funda- The foregoing article is reprinted is involved in The Steps, but how the ing of choice and power. It seems mental purposes for being together. from “The Key,” a pubIication o f the group relates and carries out its fel- contradictory that some choice be- AA, then, is a transforming group United States Public Health Service lowship is expressed in The Tradi- gins with the First Step; accepting experience and set of ideas concrete Hospital at Lexington, Kentucky, tions. the fact that one is powerless. Yet enough to help, but not constricting where its author, Rev. Jack M . Sher- The Steps are published regularly this powerlessness is specifically and enslaving. I am profoundly grate- ley, is Protestant Chaplain-ED. as they should be, for the guidance stated. Powerless where drugs, alcoof all, and especially for the new per- hol (or other personal problem or son unfamiliar with the program. But addiction) is concerned does not it is equally important that the in- mean the abject powerlessness over coming member begin to experience everything that he has assumed. T o the meaning of The Traditions from admit one’s powerlessness is to do the outset. And it is essential that something, to take a tangible step. leaders understand and apply the From that point on, each Step democratic principles consistently, affirms in an increasingly clear way, if the movement is to survive at all. for anyone to see, both the continued “Our leaders are but trusted servants need for a higher power, and the . . .they do not govern.” This idea ability of a person to accept, cooperruns through The Traditions and is ate with and grow in the service of one of the keys to the whole move- that power. “It may be nearly imposment. sible, but I can become willing to The person getting a hold of his make amends. I can make them, with