A Proposal To Eliminate The “Lord's Prayer” From A.A. Meetings
All too many A.A. meetings end with a group recitation of the
“Lord's Prayer” (also known as the “Our
Father”), a prayer peculiar to the Christian religion. This
practice is wrong — contrary to the spirit of A.A. unity, and in
obvious violation of the Third Tradition and the A.A. Preamble.
As an atheist I am committed to the philosophy of science, the reasoned
use of evidence from the material world. I therefore hold no belief in
any god or in any religious creed, ritual, or dogma. I consider
superstition in general, and the Christian religion in particular, to
be harmful. My atheism is a deeply held conviction, and I regard my
present relationship to Reality As I Understand It to be one of the blessings of eight years of A.A. sobriety.
A.A. members can believe in anything they wish, including the fables of
the Christian religion, but they have no right to exclude freethinkers
from full membership in the A.A. fellowship. And we atheists and
agnostics are not the only ones involved. There are also Jews, Moslems,
Buddhists, Hindus, and many others who are recovering alcoholics.
The A.A. Preamble
The A.A. Preamble states: “A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution.”
This is clear enough. If A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination
... or institution, then it should not be allied with the Christian
religion, which is, after all, one particular “sect”. There
do exist other religions. If anyone claims that the habitual recitation
of the so-called Lord's Prayer does not violate the A.A. Preamble, then
he has the obligation to explain what the Preamble secretly means, as opposed to what it so clearly says.
The Third Tradition
The Third Tradition says: “The only requirement for A.A.
membership is a desire to stop drinking.” It does not say,
“first-class membership for Christians, second-class membership
for everyone else.”
It is true that no one
is “forced” to say the “Lord's Prayer”. The
fact remains that someone who is not a Christian is forced into either
dishonestly saying something he doesn't believe, or feeling left out as
everyone else in the room participates in a Christian prayer ritual.
This is unfair and unnecessary.
The Honesty Part Of The Program
Many A.A. members are not Christians, and their sobriety compares
favorably with that of the Christian religionists. Nevertheless, the
pressure towards conformity is sufficiently great that most of these
non-Christian members stand up during the “Lord's Prayer”
(though many of them don't say anything, or just mumble, or keep their
eyes open). They are afraid of “standing out”, and probably
— with reason — of being ostracized.
No one's sobriety is helped if he is forced to pretend to be something
he's not, forced to say something he doesn't believe, and forced to do
something he believes is wrong. A.A. should encourage honesty, not
hypocrisy.
At any rate, the long form of the
Third Tradition says, “Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon
money or conformity.” It shouldn't.
But Isn't It Traditional?
Reciting the “Lord's Prayer” after meetings is indeed a habit,
and if it is a bad habit, then it ought to be broken. Every sober A.A.
member has broken a dangerous and insidious habit, and it should not be
too hard to stay away from the “Lord's Prayer”, one meeting
at a time.
I have never once heard the
“Lord's Prayer” recited in any of the many A.A. meetings I
have attended in England or on the Continent.
How Wrong Can A Group Be?
In the early seventies, the Greenwich Village Group, which meets at St.
Luke's, rewarded everyone who spoke at their meetings by presenting the
person with a St. Luke's medal. This appalling practice was offensive
not only to non-Christians, but to anyone with Protestant sensibilities.
A meeting was held to discuss the merits of the practice, and a
majority decided to continue giving out the religious medals. The two
pious members who had initiated the medal giving took it upon
themselves to express the group conscience further by beating up Jim
M., who had objected to the medals.
I never
attended another meeting at St. Luke's, nor would I advise another
freethinker to go there, though I hear they have since stopped
dispensing the medals. The St. Luke's story shows the dangers of
abandoning A.A. principles.
What Makes A.A. Work?
Probably all sober alcoholics would agree that a requirement for
sobriety is not picking up the first drink. Aside from that, alcoholics
would give a variety of answers, for A.A. is an individual program.
I would say that for me, A.A. consists of the realization that I am
powerless over alcohol; that total abstinence is required on a 24-hour
basis; that alcoholics can provide practical help and moral support for
each other; that life is worth living and things can get better; that
honesty is the basis for lasting sobriety; and so on.
There is no evidence that religious belief is necessary for good
sobriety. Thousands of alcoholics have stayed sober and helped others
to sobriety without having the slightest belief in the supernatural,
let alone the Christian version. In the Scandinavian countries, the
steps have been reduced to seven, eliminating all references to
“God”, and A.A. seems to work just fine without
“Him”.
If anything, the evidence
suggests that A.A. works in spite of rather than because of religion.
During the first year that Bill W. tried to get A.A. going in New York,
his approach was mainly religious, and he failed dismally —
couldn't sober up even one other alcoholic. But when he came to rely on
practical experience, on human beings helping each other in the real
world, then A.A. started to work. The slogans, the 24-hour Plan, the
Twelve Traditions, the 90-Day Trial, and the A.A. Preamble: all these
developed from practice, and they are what gets and keeps alcoholics
sober. [1]
What Harm Does It Do?
The “Lord's Prayer” recitation is offensive to
non-Christians. It makes it harder for us to feel comfortable in the
A.A. fellowship and it undoubtedly prevents many non-Christian
alcoholics from coming to A.A. in the first place. Who knows how many
thousands of alcoholics never made A.A. because they were afraid it was
a religious organization. And their fears will hardly be dispelled when
they hear a Christian Prayer at their first meeting. [2]
What If The Group Conscience Wants The Lord's Prayer?
If so, then the group should officially designate itself a Christian
group, whose meetings would be terminated with a Christian prayer. It
would be a special purpose group, and should be so listed in the
meeting book. Just as there are special purpose groups for young
people, or men, or women, or gay people, this would be a special group
for Christians.
No Exclusion And No Part-Exclusion
If a group is open to all who have a desire to stop drinking, then its
meetings should not feature a sectarian religious practice that
excludes those who are not Christian religionists.
Conclusion: The “Lord's Prayer” should no longer be recited at the end of A.A. meetings.
John L. (East Village)
1976
Notes:
1.
After six months of failing to dry up even one drunk, Bill W. was
brought down to earth by Dr. Silkworth. “Stop preaching at
them”, Dr. Silkworth said, “and give them the hard medical
facts first!” For an account of how atheists and agnostics
influenced the Twelve Steps, see Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, especially pp. 166-67.
2.
The case against obligatory religion in A.A. is eloquently made by R.L.
Wild in his article, “Only with God's Help?” (New Humanist,
January 1975). Wild, a member of A.A. with 20 years of sobriety
at the time of writing, analyses the A.A. program, and concludes that
“A.A. has one member too many, God!” To read Wild's
article click here.
Afterword 2011:
In 1976 I began circulating the above proposal to end reciting the
“Lord's Prayer” (LP) at A.A. meetings. The only
change made in this HTML version is adding the last sentence to
the second footnote. I donated a
copy to the archives of the General Services Office in New York City,
where I was allowed to read letters that Bill W. had written over the
years to people who objected to the LP. Frankly, the letters were
appalling: poorly written and intolerant. Bill W. didn't budge an inch,
and in effect told his correspondents that they'd better say the LP
anyway — shape up or ship out.
It is clear from various biographies of Bill W. (see Bibliography on Alcoholism)
that most of the religiosity in A.A. originated with him, and that at
every stage there were those in A.A. who opposed his ideas. Bill
W's sobriety was not happy: he suffered from severe depression for
thirteen consecutive years; he took drugs other than alcohol, including
LSD and belladonna, and persuaded others to take them; he smoked
heavily and compulsively, even when he was dying of emphysema; and in
the last two months of his life he repeatedly demanded that his male
nurses give him whiskey. Taking the relevant information into
consideration, it is highly likely that Bill W., the alleged
“founder” of A.A., had relapsed and was drinking in the
final years of his life: he had ceased attending A.A. meetings, giving
the feeble excuse that he would be asked to speak; he took drugs other
than alcohol; he hoped for a drug that would “cure”
alcoholism and permit a return to drinking; he gave short shrift to the
principle of life-long abstinence from alcohol under the 24-hour plan;
and he attempted to slug a male nurse who refused to get whiskey for
him (suggesting that he had been drinking whiskey, when still
physically able to get it himself).
Since 1976,
more and more A.A. groups have chosen to end their meetings with the
Serenity Prayer, rather than the “Lord's Prayer” — a
step forward.
This is a chapter in my new book, A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous.