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Is "G.O.D. = Good Orderly Direction / Group Of Drunks" in the A.A. books?

In short:

  • No. Neither "Good Orderly Direction" nor "Group Of Drunks" is offered anywhere in the A.A. books in our sources as a meaning of the word God, and the acronym G.O.D. isn't there at all.
  • "A group of drunks" turns up once, in Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980), as a plain description of the first Akron alcoholics drinking coffee together (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). It has nothing to do with defining God.
  • What the Big Book does say is that the reader's idea of God is his own: "When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God" (p. 47), and a newcomer "can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him" (p. 93).
  • The same book calls that Power "God" in its own words (p. 46) and expects a person's understanding to grow (p. 47). It doesn't rule out the acronyms by name, and it doesn't offer them.

What the search found

All our sources (Big Book, pamphlets, history books, Experience, Strength and Hope, the Service Manual) was searched for "good orderly direction," "orderly direction," "good orderly," "good, orderly," "G.O.D.," "G. O. D.," "G-O-D," "group of drunks," "group of drunk," "bunch of drunks" and "gang of drunks," and for "acronym" and "initials."

  • "Good Orderly Direction" and every shorter form of it: not found. The only "orderly" in our sources are "disorderly" (drunk and disorderly charges in the stories) and "orderly management" of money in the Service Manual.
  • "G.O.D." in any spelling: not found. The capital letters "GOD" appear only in headings and in a pamphlet title on literature lists, never as initials.
  • "A group of drunks": once. Dr. Bob's old schoolmate Arba J. Irvin says that Bill and Bob went into Akron's lower edges and "gathered together a group of drunks, and they started talking and drinking coffee" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The book adds that this is true, but "there was more to it than that" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • "A bunch of drunks" shows up a few times, always as a description of the early fellowship or of how outsiders saw it, for example the "nameless bunch of drunks" before the Big Book named A.A. (Pass It On, 1984). None of them is about God.

What the Big Book says about the word God

Chapter 4, "We Agnostics" (pp. 44–57), is written for the reader who balks at the word.

  • About half the original fellowship had thought they were atheists or agnostics (p. 44).
  • Once they were willing to believe in a Power greater than themselves, "we commenced to get results" (p. 46), even though none of them could fully define or understand "that Power, which is God" (p. 46).
  • They "did not need to consider another's conception of God" (p. 46). Their own, "however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach" (p. 46).
  • "When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God." (p. 47). The writers say this applies "to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book" (p. 47).
  • They started with their own conception, "however limited it was" (p. 47), and afterward found themselves accepting "many things which then seemed entirely out of reach" (p. 47).

Bill's own beginning was the same. He could accept "Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature" (p. 12) but not a "Czar of the Heavens" (p. 12), until his friend asked, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" (p. 12).

In Chapter 7 the helper is told to make it emphatic to an agnostic or atheist that he doesn't have to agree with the helper's conception of God: "He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him." (p. 93). The same page tells the helper to "use everyday language to describe spiritual principles" (p. 93) and not to stir up prejudice over theological terms (p. 93).

So the book gives the reader wide room, and it tells helpers to speak plainly. That is the strongest support in the text for anyone who uses a saying like G.O.D. to get a newcomer started. But the book never supplies a substitute meaning for the word. It names the Power God (p. 46), it calls the Power "greater than ourselves" (p. 47), and its examples are of that kind: "a Creative Intelligence, a Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things" (p. 46).

The word "direction"

The Big Book does use "direction" for what comes from God, in its own words and never as an acronym:

  • Admitting the possibility of a Creative Intelligence, they "began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps" (p. 46).
  • Bill "placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction" (p. 13).
  • In Step Eleven's chapter the writers speak of "receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power" (p. 85).

In each place, direction is something given by God, not a name for God.

The group

The program text (pp. 1–164) never names the group as a person's Higher Power. One personal story does: the writer of "The Vicious Cycle," who dates his new start to June 16, 1938 (p. 229), says that for a long time "the only Higher Power I could concede was the power of the group" (p. 229), which was "at least a beginning" (p. 229). That is one member's experience, written in the story section, and the same writer says his one contribution to the book was his conviction that God should be qualified with "as we understand Him" (p. 229). For more on this, see: Can your Higher Power be anything, a doorknob, the group?

Where "God as we understood Him" came from

A.A. Comes of Age (1957) tells how the wording was settled as a compromise with the agnostic members before the book went to press: in Step Two God became "a Power greater than ourselves," and "In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words 'God as we understood Him.'" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill calls these concessions "the great contribution of our atheists and agnostics" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The room the book gives was made deliberately. It was made by qualifying the word God, not by replacing it.

What the text doesn't settle

The books don't mention either acronym, so they neither approve nor forbid it. What a reader can say from the text:

  • The Big Book leaves the conception to the person, as long as it makes sense to him (pp. 47, 93).
  • Its own word for the Power is God, and it describes a Power greater than ourselves (pp. 46–47).
  • It treats a first conception as a beginning that grows (p. 47).

Whether "Good Orderly Direction" or "Group Of Drunks" fits those words, the book leaves to the reader. Saying the Big Book teaches either acronym goes beyond the text.

See also: Do I have to be religious to work the Steps? and Does Step 12 require believing in God a certain way?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service — various
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 1, 4, 6, 7 12–13, 44–47, 85, 93 1939
"The Vicious Cycle," Part I 229 personal story, fourth edition (2001); the writer's new start dates from 1938
A.A. Comes of Age — 1957
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers — 1980
Pass It On — 1984

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.