November 1960

so the founding fathers avoided them of an avowedly spiritual nature, or of in the working practice of AA. These the scientific work of psychiatrists twenty-five years have been glorious and doctors, we believe God is presones, with literally millions of peo- ent and at work. Whence otherwise ple’s lives entirely different because comes hope or faith to desperate of AA. Together with you all, I thank people or indeed any desire to be God for what has happened. better, rather than to crawl away and die like an animal? The program of recovery turns, as we all know, on the faith in a Power I have never for one instant seen greater than ourselves. Will power, clearly within myself; how then and the appeal to it as sufficient to would you have me judge the get any of us out of his troubles, are deeds o j others? a snare and a delusion. This is not Maeterlinck only true of alcoholics, I think it is true of nearly everybody else. When you think you are able to manage your own affairs without the help of We all know that principles may God, you add pride to whatever other guide our aims, but principles alone sins you may have. And pride is not never saved anybody from real defeat only the first named of the seven and trouble. The principles must be deadly sins, but I think pride ought found at work in people, so that they to have a category all its own. It is become incarnate, visible and avail- vastly more subtle and vastly more able to those in need. They must be dangerous than any other sin what- . clothed with life, with caring, with ever, for it is always striving to sit in intelligent emotion. Behind those the seat of God. Many people’s probwho have found an answer are yet lems begin to be solved the very others who have found an answer, moment they know they cannot solve and so on back through a long kind them themselves. This puts pride of apostolic succession of real spiri- right out of the driver’s seat. God tual discovery, which must have been would be psychologically necessary set in motion originally by God. But even if He were not theologically He did not give these principles a necessary. Nobody but He is big primeval push and set them to work enough to tell the human ego to by themselves: He was in the prin- move over. ciples. He was also in the people who But how was this to be suggested rate those truths into its principies, lived them out, and in whatever in a program that was to reach, not Also, we had made some mistakes spiritual methods they used and only Catholics and Protestants and — found helpful in winning their battle. Jews, but skeptics, agnostics, atheists, that did not need to be made twice, In all human transformation, whether total non-believers in any kind of

God? Some people have had very If we are satisfied with the beliefs ” unhappy experiences with churches ourt,ownchurch asks us to hold, then absurd modern names for God, like what they called sin and drink, whose and religious people, and many think we shall go along with them and grow the Man upstairs, are crude attempts name was Fred but who was called they have had. How avoid the re- as that church encourages us to do. to use an easily grasped picture to The Spider. He greeted The Spider calling of these experiences, with But if we come to AA with little or suggest God, rather than to use by saying, “I thought you wuz dead.” possibly disastrous emotional conse- no faith, our initiation does not begin theological language to dogmatize Fred replied, “I am. The fellow you quences? A word or phrase that by our being asked to swallow a lot about Him. Beginners need all kinds used to know is dead. This is a new brought back unfortunate associa- of doctrine which we are not pre- of practical self-starters and en- one.” Larry was puzzled and intions would not be the right one to pared to swallow. AA says, begin couragements to experiment; for trigued. He asked how this happened. use in these early stages. with as much faith as you have-there nobody ever found faith sitting in a “See that sign across the street?” It was one of the true inspirations is Something, some Higher Power chair reading a book and wishing he asked Fred. “You come down there of the Twelve Steps that phrases like that is helping these people. What we had faith. We must often begin by tonight at eight o’clock and you’ll a Power greater than ourselves and have to deal with is the God that acting as if faith were true, in order find out where the new Fred came God as we understood Him were really is, not with our human con- to find out whether it is true. This is from.” That very night, without any used. They meant that if anyone cepts of Him. It is much better for precisely what the scientist does when vestige of faith of any kind, never came to AA with already-formed anyone to pray to the God that is, he thinks a hypothesis might be true: having heard God nor Christ as anyloyalties that concerned, say, any one He with no name, we with no words, he treats it as if it were true long thing but words to swear with, Larry body of Christians, these loyalties than to pray to your own creation of enough to verify or to disprove itself made a start. He had been brought would not be interfered with, but God, with words prettier than a by results. It is the same with faith. up by an atheist who had been kind to strengthened, by their AA associa- poem, but fictitious. The first prayer I have always thought the first steps him, and he wound up in the undertion. They meant that nobody was gets through-it is seeking to be in towards it must be made severely world with no knowledge of religion going to tamper with your religion. spirit and in truth, and we are told experimental, and put within reach of whatever. To what then did he begin They meant that one could begin with that “the Father seeketh such to wor- the greatest skeptic, provided he has to surrender his life that night? To a very modest faith, for really what ship Him.” The second will not get an open and honest mind. the God he saw at work in Fred, the one was dealing with was Whatever- I cannot get away from the feeling God that had changed Fred and – Power is – helping – these – other – that AA is fundamentally a spiritual might change him. ‘ people. We didn’t know much about experience. What gives the lift is the AA has never had any of the usual that mysterious Power yet; we only Power greater than ourselves. I re- connotation of a rescue mission, but knew these people used to be de- When you see a good man, try to emulate him. When you see a this combination of exposure and feated and now they were victorious bad man, search yourself for his experiment, of seeing the Higher I in one very important area of life. faults. People seldom improve, when Power at work in someone else, and I This never did mean nor can mean Confucius they have no other model but seeking the same experience in one’s that we remain satisfied with this themselves to copy. own life, goes on in the lives of all often truncated idea of God with AAs who have no faith whatever to which we began. The God that is, is start with. It is the experimental apa great deal more than we can ever member in the very early years of the proach to faith, and I think it is a understand of Him; and we learn through, because it is said out of old Calvary Mission, in the Gas good one. There will come a time more of Him by experience than ever conformity to someone else’s faith, House District on Twenty-third when you cannot leave it at just an we do by argument, or the often and not out of the heart. Sometimes Street in New York, a character experiment: you must go on to think futile discussions as to whether our for beginners, suggestion is better came in one night, named Larry. He out what has happened. You will own church is better than some other. than explication. Some of the often came because he had met on the probably be a good deal stronger if street an oId pal of his in the days of you link up with some kind of outfit

0 1 that exists to help people definitely they ought to be doing, and at their And we must say something else. known the ghastly loneliness and with their religious faith; for we need best are doing, is to show them While we must always allow for some terror of desperation of most alcoto grow in the spiritual dimension, samples instead. people in AA who continue to say holics. Before there is anything and we certainly do not want to make That’s what AA is doing all that they do not believe in God in suggested about a change and a cure, a church out of AA. But as a pre- around the world. We don’t hold our any conventional way, and recognize the first impression must be of what cursor to the Church, as what St. Paul people up as saints and paragons, any that they have found sobriety as well Masefield called “The Everlasting called the Law, a tutor to get us more than the church holds up its as those who do so believe, we must Mercy.” ready for the church, I think AA people as saints and paragons. We speak of how much AA has done to ‘ stands second to none. But it has don’t say, “Look how good these Now God’s expectations of us are change what we meant when first we part of that Everlasting Mercy; but been wisdom to keep ordinary re- people are!” We say, “Look what may have said, “God as we underligion and AA separate, as it has they used to be and how much prog- when we disappointed those expectastood Him.” For all too many of us, tions, (as all of us have done) and been wisdom in America to keep ress is being made, and come and God has been for too long a concept Church and State separate. It does join us in a fellowship of need and of when we know ourselves to be only, a figure with a long beard and beyond the reach of any merely not mean they do not work together: honesty.” If this ever got to be a a book’ in which is being kept the I, it means neither tries to usurp the league of dry and righteous people- human help, the first Face of God we (usually unfavorable) record. He has need to see is the Face of Love. ‘ function of the other. well, there is no use to finish that been a figure to frighten us or call us – Jesus didn’t always show that face to This is one thing that the churches sentence, because they’d most of to task, while He sat there in celestial the professional religious of His time; ‘ and all agencies that deal with the them be drunk by sundown. I’ve judgment upon the sons of men. This but He consistently showed it to the need for a change in the human na- known a good many saints and real picture of God goes out of the win- needy and the disreputable, the outture itself would do well to heed. We spiritual leaders in my time, and I dow when you discover Him as a siders and the outcasts, the helpless need our scholars who can give us don’t know a single one of them that power and a force, Someone to and the desperate. And eventually reasonable approaches to these great did not have clay feet. I don’t mean Whom, when you turn in your need, even the unlovely Pharisee recogrealities of spiritual faith and life. But they were insincere, or hypocrites, I you get the response of understand- nized that he needed the challenge I think it is very seldom that mere just mean they were all human ing and the offer of the help of what represented by Christ when He spoke good reasons or arguments get people beings, and human beings sin and is called grace. We may say that it in scorn and judgment; for it was the above their trials and temptations fail just as long as they continue to be represents the difference between a only thing that would puncture his and illnesses of body and spirit: it human beings. This is not a cynical dogmatic, and a dynamic, God; hard skin and get through ‘to his is evidence which does this-the sight between a God Who asks of us the heart. There is a perfect picture of the of someone healed and changed. impossible, and a God Who helps Prodigal and the Pharisee in the Arguments often confuse, irritate, The only true happiness we may bring His will for us within our nearer famous story of the Prodigal Son. drive wedges. The evidence of exper- look for comes from squandering reach. The whole world, non-Chrisience makes clear, draws and unites. ourselves for a purpose. The bad boy went off and raised Cain tian as well as Christian, owes an in the far country. The good boy There is a verse in the Acts which unspeakable debt to Jesus Christ stayed home and behaved himself. says, “Seeing the man that had been for revealing to us a God who But with what seething resentment healed standing beside them, they statement, just an honest one. All is like Himself, loving, patient, toward his Father! When the wastrel had nothing to say in opposition.” Do claims to perfection are for the birds. forgiving, eager to help, while came home, and the father had a it, and people are glad it happened. But sobriety and humility and yet expecting us to live accord- big welcome party for him, the good Begin arguing about it with them, mended lives and new relationships ing to His laws. But AA has provided son was furious and would not join and you’ll knock all the bloom off it. are within the grasp of us all, pro- an important footnote to this. None in; he only said, “You never even I n many places the churches are busy vided we seek and accept the help of need to know the reality of this kind gave me a kid to have a party for my giving people good arguments. What God as we understand Him. of God more than those who have friends.” We had a great wit in the

Ep~scopalChurch, Bishop Johnson asked me if I would talk with a young of Colorado. One day he was preach- woman alcoholic, a friend of her ing about the parable, and he said granddaughter’s, about her drinking. concerning this Pharisee brother that This woman had belonged to the “for any friends that fellow had, a Church since long before I was born. veal cutlet would have done him.” I said to her, “You are a Christian. But I have always had a kind of Why don’t you talk with her?” The hope that, after the Prodigal stayed lady replied, “Well, you see, I have home awhile, the two brothers may never had the problem of alcohol,” have gotten to know each other in a and I quickly answered her, “Neither new way. Maybe the Prodigal learned have I.” But I went on to say that I something about discipline from his knew enough about getting tight on brother; and maybe his brother impatience and self-will and some learned something about forgiveness other things, so that it was not hard from the Prodigal. The truth is that for me to make the transition to getthe good brother’s heart was just as ting tight on gin and whiskey. You far from his Father, living in the same see, she had many times told God house, as the Prodigal’s was when he she was a miserable offender, for she was way out in the far country. Good was an Episcopalian, and we tell Him people often need to learn a lot about that every Sunday morning. But she mercy. There is just one thing that didn’t really feel like she was a sinner, out-and-out sinners can thank God else it would not have been hard for for, and that is for a problem too her to talk to anybody about any sin serious to hide. It is a good thing to on earth. There is but one answer to have learned, even the hard way, that any of them, and it lies in the forgiveall of us need continuous repentance, ness of God for the past, and the and that we have no power of our- grace of God for the future. This I selves to help ourselves. take to be the spiritual angle for AA, I cherish a great hope for AA. It for I think it to be the spiritual angle is an indirect hope, not connected for all mankind. with its primary function. It is that I close with a prayer that is sup- AA may yet help to call the righteous posed to have been written long years to repentance. Its primary function is ago by a slave: with alcoholics: granted. But it will be a blessing if it can help all the rest 0 Lord, I ain’t what I ought of the world to feel like sinners, as the to be, Christian part of it says already that And I ain’t what I want to be, it does. Not only the naughty are And I ain’t what I’m going to be, God’s problem. Even -more of a But 0 Lord, I thank you problem, I think, are the good. Years That I ain’t what I used to be. ago an older woman in my parish