Това писмо се получи на мейла на нашата група и го поствам тук почти цялото, защото ми се вижда много интересно. Не знаех, че в рамките на АА има групи на атеисти, агностици и свободомислещи. И защо да няма? След като има чисто женски групи или гей-групи.
Не знам какво е отношението на АА General Service Office към тези групи. Но каквото и да е то, макар че самият аз не съм атеист, тази идея ми допада. Защото тя показва широтата и толерантността на АА. В противовес на онези непознаващи АА, но изказващи мнения, че АА е секта или поне прилича на секта.
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My name is Dorothy H. and I am the chairwoman of the first biannual We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Convention (WAFT IAAC) that will be held in Santa Monica, CA on November 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2014.
I would like to give you an idea of who we are and what our goals are. We are committed to Alcoholics Anonymous and we are AA members!
We are committed to remaining sober and to keeping the rooms of AA open to everyone, regardless of their beliefs. WAFT IAAC is dedicated to these AA principles: The utter importance of AA unity; that the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking; carrying this message to other suffering alcoholics (including atheists and agnostics); and that AA in no way should “express any opinion on outside issues—particularly those of politics, alcoholic reform, or sectarian religion.”
We believe that no one should be asked to deny their own beliefs nor accept anyone else's out of peer pressure. For us it's about not picking up the first drink.
We know the power of AA and its fellowship to transform people's lives. We are people who are freethinkers, seekers, agnostics, atheists and non-believers. It was in Agnostic and Freethinker meetings where we learned about the power and the freedom of a secular environment as a place to begin to heal by not being forced to navigate through other peoples' god based recovery.
We are reaching out to every part of Alcoholics Anonymous to let people know we are available to those who struggle with belief and religious talk within the program. We want to tell them about the convention and more importantly to let them know that there are people with long term sobriety who are non-believers, agnostics, freethinkers and seekers and they did not have to “fake it 'till they made it” or “hide it until they believed.”
There are over 150 agnostic type meetings in the USA and in 5 foreign countries. These groups date back to 1975 with the formation of the Quad A groups in Chicago, IL followed by my home group We Agnostics in 1978 in Los Angeles, CA.
What we are not!
We are not a group of people trying to form a split within AA, nor do we have any desire to create another step program. We are not asking to change the steps, the principles, the concepts, the traditions, or anything else that makes AA what it is. We are not a publishing house which publishes it's own literature or anyone else's, nor do we aspire to be that. We are simply a group of people who are putting on a themed convention, as in the themed meetings for women, seniors, LGBT, Hispanics, men etc.. We are committed to remaining neutral on any internal conflicts within the AA fellowship. We are just providing a place for people to convene and talk about whatever they wish.
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