From: The Fundamentals – In Retrospect, By Dr. Bob Smith,
Copyright © AA Grapevine, Inc EXCERPTS are from this article in the September 1948 issue

For all those people who say the book is old-fashioned and we can interpret it any way we want to, READ THIS from a co-founder:

“Much has been written; much has been said about the Twelve Steps of AA. These tenets of our faith and practice were not worked out overnight and then presented to our members as an opportunist creed. Born of our early trials and many tribulations, they were and are the result of humble and sincere desire, sought in personal prayer, for divine guidance.

As finally expressed and offered, they are simple in language, plain in meaning. They are also workable by any person having a sincere desire to obtain and keep sobriety. The results are the proof. Their simplicity and workability are such that no special interpretations, and certainly no reservations, have ever been necessary. And it has become increasingly clear that the degree of harmonious living that we achieve is in direct ratio to our earnest attempt to follow them literally under divine guidance to the best of our ability.”

The Twelve Steps (The Program):
– Simple in language
– Plain in meaning
– Workable be any person having the sincere desire to stay sober
So simple and workable that…
No special interpretations are necessary
No reservations are necessary
– Harmonious living = our earnest attempt to follow them
LITERALLY
under divine guidance
to the best of our ability.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.  STICK WITH THE FUNDAMENTALS.

The result of humble & sincere desire, sought in personal prayer, for divine guidance.
“No random expressions, these, based on just casual observation. On the contrary, they represent the sum of our experiences as individuals, as groups within AA, and similarly with our fellows and other organizations in the great fellowship of humanity under God throughout the world. They are all suggestions, yet the spirit in which they have been conceived merits their serious, prayerful consideration as the guidepost of AA policy for the individual, the group, and our various committees, local and national.”

Our Leaders are Human Agents of the Higher Power (they don’t have halos)
“We have found it wise policy, too, to hold to no glorification of the individual. Obviously that is sound. Most of us will concede that when it came to the personal showdown of admitting our failures and deciding to surrender our will and our lives to Almighty God, as we understood him, we still had some sneaking ideas of personal justification and excuse. We had to discard them, but the ego of the alcoholic dies a hard death. Many of us, because of activity, have received praise, not only from our fellow AAs, but also from the world at large. We’ve all seen the new member who stays sober for a time, largely through sponsor-worship. Then maybe the sponsor gets drunk, and you know what usually happens. …Left without a human prop, the new member gets drunk, too. He has been glorifying an individual, instead of following the program.”

A Kitchen Table and a Coffeepot:
“Alcoholics Anonymous was nurtured in its early days around a kitchen table. Many of our pioneer groups and some of our most resultful meetings and best programs have their origin around that modest piece of furniture, with the coffeepot handy on the stove. True, we have progressed materially to better furniture and more comfortable surroundings. Yet the kitchen table must ever be appropriate for us. It is the perfect symbol of simplicity. In AA we have no VIPs, nor have we need of any. Our organization needs neither titleholders nor grandiose buildings. That is by design. Experience has taught us that simplicity is basic in preservation of our personal sobriety and helping those in need.”

_____________________________________________________________________________
ETC, a recovered alcoholic in Oregon—relieved of the obsession but not cured of the allergy.