Arizona Secular AAWe Agnostics (Tempe) Group History
By Beth H.
From: No Booze News, July, 2016, P.12
My name is Beth H. and I’m an alcoholic. I’m one of the founding members of this secular AA group. Not the main one or the most important one, but I’m only speaking for myself as to why this meeting was started.
Recovering from the committee in my head
by Beth H.
We frequently hear talk in the rooms of AA about “the committee”, or the different thoughts and voices swirling around in our heads, often giving us conflicting messages or bad advice. In my sobriety, I have benefited tremendously by taking the time to identify those voices.
Ann’s Story
by Ann M.
Already in kindergarten I felt different from others. I often felt ashamed and that I couldn’t do things right. I mostly felt disliked throughout school, sometimes because I was the teacher’s pet, sometimes because I would treat other kids badly to compensate for how I felt. I was also a crybaby.
Changes to the Big Book
An Interview with Jerry F.
Jerry is another founding member of the We Agnostics Group. He talked with John S. of AA Beyond Belief about changes to the first 164 pages of the Big Book that “never happened” (but he found them), and the change to the fourth edition which his efforts brought about.
The Ninth Step of William Beebe – A Cautionary Tale
by Jerry F.
William Beebe, a real estate agent and massage therapist in Las Vegas, was in and out of alcohol rehab centers in the early 1990s. In 1993 he came into AA where he got sober and stayed that way. In September 2005, Beebe wrote a letter to Liz Seccuro in which he acknowledged his guilt and shame at having raped her.
The second biennial Arizona Secular AA Conference was held Saturday December 9, 2017 in Tempe, Arizona.
Here’s How it All Got Started.
by Dave H.
There is something about being in a room full of people united in a common purpose that evokes a sense of refuge. For a handful of alcoholics from the Phoenix area this was felt in the fall of 2014 in Santa Monica California. The occasion was the first international conference of agnostic, atheistic and freethinking members of Alcoholics Anonymous, an event which has since become memorialized in the local parlance as “Santa Monica.”
Outside Issues — What’s That About?
by Jerry F.
October 22, 2017
In some of the meetings I attend I have heard what sounds like a misunderstanding of the 10th tradition. The long form of the tradition reads like this:“No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues–particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.“
The Thing About Traditions…
by Jerry F.
Much has been written about the secular AA beliefs and attitudes towards the Twelve Steps. Some groups have chosen to rewrite them to eliminate god references. The risk there, of course, is incurring the wrath of the local Intergroup and perhaps that of our fellow AAs.
Some groups simply don’t mention the Twelve Steps in their format and other readings. My home group is in the latter category with the implicit understanding that we approve of and adopt some steps and at least some parts of other steps.
But what about the Traditions? Is there anything there that might give us pause? Spoiler alert: there sure as hell is.