Bill’s Answer

Dear Bill W.,
Surely we welcome anyone who is trying to stop drinking and is unable to do so on his or own. However, membership has obligations and on of the obligations is ton not violate the Traditions.

The long form of the Third Tradition is a little easier to comprehend, but not much:

“Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence, we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought an A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves and A.A. group, provide that as a group, they have no other affiliation.”

I believe that if you say: I’m an Alcoholic AND an Addict; I’m an Alcoholic AND an Overeater; etc., you are declaring another affiliation. We have an obligation to maintain a “singleness of purpose” lest we go astray. This was clearly demonstrated by our friend Clancy I., who narrates the history of the Washingtonians and what happened to them.

Also, we succeed by identifying with one another. An Alcoholic cannot identify with a drug addict. It simply doesn’t work. Our pamphlets are weak on this subject. They say “all who participate to confine their remarks to alcoholism,” but it doesn’t say WHO can participate. Then the smarties say, “Each group is autonomous and they can do what they want!” I don’t think so. Traditions are not negotiable! The problem is compounded if the group has a weak leader that night and he or she can’t follow the Traditions and tell that non-alcoholic that they cannot speak in that A.A. meeting. I’ve caught a lot of flack in my 15 years trying to uphold the Third Tradition, but it is just the way I was taught way back at the old Bayside Alano Club. I was actually removed from the leader’s chair at the Friday meeting recently because I wouldn’t let an addict share. At my Friday night Clairemont South meeting a while back, an addict man was so offended by not being able to share that he stomped out of the meeting and a lot of members walked out with him!

I keep checking with my sponsor and he reassures me that I’m doing the right thing. Anonymous

“The Third Tradition is a sweeping statement indeed; it takes in a lot of territory. Some people might think it is too idealistic to be practical. It tells every alcoholic in the world that he may become, and remain a member of Alcoholics Anonymous so long as he says so. In short, A.A. has no membership rule. Why is this so? Our answer is simple and practical. Even in self-protection, we do not wish to erect the slightest barrier between ourselves, and the fellow alcoholic who still suffers. We know that society has been demanding that he conform to its laws and conventions. But the essence of his alcoholic malady is the fact that he has been unwilling to conform either to laws of man or God. If he is anything, the sick alcoholic is a rebel nonconformist. How well we understand that; every member of Alcoholics Anonymous was once a rebel himself. Hence we cannot offer to meet him at any halfway water mark. We must enter the dark cave where he is and show him that we understand. We realize that he is altogether too weak and confused ! to jump hurdles. If we raise obstacles, he might perish away.

For obvious reasons we wish the name Alcoholics Anonymous to be used only in connection with straight A.A. activities. One can think of no A.A. member who would like, for example, to see the formation of Republican A.A. groups, Communist A.A. groups. We think A.A. should offer its experience to the whole world for what ever use can be made of it. But not its name. Nothing can be more certain.

Let us of A.A. therefore resolve that we shall always be inclusive and never exclusive, offering all we have to all, save our title. May all barriers be thus leveled, may our unity thus be preserved.”
Bill W., February 1948 via, The Coordinator, San Diego