Dogma

I tend to despise dogma (An authoritative principle, belief or statement of opinion, especially one considered to be absolutely true and indisputable, regardless of evidence or without evidence to support it. From dogma - Wiktionary:. AA dogma is no exception.

Take Conference Approved Literature. There's no steadfast rule against it anywhere in "Official AA" (See below). But, go into a F2F meeting and see how much unapproved stuff there is. Or an online AA chat or a forum. Go ahead, link to something that's "Not approved or doesn't point to AA.Org". Bet there wiil be some grief to follow.

At the top of this blog is a quotation from Bob Pearson 's retirement farewell speech at the 1986 General Service Conference, he was General Manager of GSO from 1974 - 1084 and then Senior Advisor to 1986. It is taken from a large group of excerpts that the link points to. I can't post that link it at any of the chats or forums* I go to because it doesn't point to AA. org. Likewise, the complete speech . It points somewhere else too.

I can post this link, PDF Singleness of Purpose - Alcoholics Anonymous. It has some of the speech. Including that quote. But, it's an AA Newsletter PDF download. And it's buried inside. Because it meets all of the required criteria. Approved literature and approved site.

I can see some requirements though. Like it needs to address recovery in some way. Or is relevant to the Program or alcoholism in general. But a blanket NO! Seems a bit dogmatic to me.

Here are some interesting things to take note of; 

 (Conference Approved) does not mean the Conference disapproves of any other publications. Many local A.A. central offices publish their own meeting lists. A.A. as a whole does not oppose these, any more than A.A. disapproves of the Bible or any other publications from any source that A.A.’s find useful. August-September 1978 - Is Your Group in Close Touch With A.A. as a Whole?

 

The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read..SMF-29 Conference-Approved Literature

Some things that are not approved;The Bible, The First Edition of the Big Book,Twenty Four Hours a Day. and Grapevine. Grapevine is Conference endorsed but, the only approval comes from it's editor. A quick shortcut to approved AA literature. If it's published and sold by AAWS (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services) it OK. Otherwise, no. 

This blog is written for 1) The Newcomer, 2) The Relapser, and 3) The currently sober alcoholic. It does not, and will not, have any ads. July 30 was the the last video that's embedded and points back to YouTube. It will contain links that might point anywhere, for further reading, research and/or attribution. And yet, I can't even point to it in a chat room or on a forum. Regardless of who or how it may help.

* Interestingly, on those chats or forums, I can't point to a different one from another one. None of them are approved. In fact, they unambiguously disavow any association with AAWS.. Despite 3 out of 4 of them being hard-core AA.