The Compromise on “God”
Dick B.
(from Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age, 166-67)
Just
before the manuscript was finished an event of great significance for our
future took place. At the time it looked like just another battle over the
book. The scene was Henry's office in Newark, where most of the writing had
been done. Present were Fitz, Henry, our grand little secretary Ruth, and
myself. We were still arguing about the Twelve Steps. All this time I had
refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original
draft, in which, you will remember, I had consistently used the word
"God," and in one place the expression "on our knees" was
used. Praying to God on one's knees was still a big affront to Henry. He
argued, he begged, he threatened. He quoted Jimmy to back him up. He was
positive we would scare off alcoholics by the thousands when they read those
Twelve Steps. Little by little both Fitz and Ruth came to see merit in his
contentions. Though at first I would have none of it, we finally began to talk
about the possibility of compromise. Who first suggested the actual compromise
words I do not know, but they are words well known throughout the length and
breadth of A.A. today: In Step Two we decided to describe God as a "Power
greater than ourselves." In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words
"God as we understood Him."
From Step Seven we deleted the expression "on our knees." And, as a
lead-in sentence to all the steps we wrote these words: “Here are the steps we
took which are suggested as a Program of Recovery.” A.A.'s Twelve Steps were to
be suggestions only.
Such were the final concessions to
those of little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists
and agnostics. They had widened our gateway so that all who suffer might pass
through, regardless of their belief or lack
of belief.
God was certainly there in our
Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that anybody—anybody at all—could accept and try.[1] [italics in original]
[1] Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age: A Brief History of A.A. (New York: Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 166-67.
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