Tradition 6 · June 28

Decline to Marry

Daily Traditions · June 28

The threat today

A letter of support is how a program asks a group to vouch for it, and A.A. has already answered. Bill W. put it in one line in 1955 (A.A. pamphlet P-17, p. 50): "We will cooperate with practically everybody, yet we decline to marry our Society to anyone." To cooperate is to work alongside: carry the message into a detox when asked, leave literature, answer the phone. To marry is to take on someone's name, terms and future as your own. The Long Form draws the same line from the group's side. Cooperation may go a long way, but never as far as affiliation or endorsement. Affiliation means belonging to someone; endorsement means vouching for them. Today the request comes as paperwork. A program applying for public money asks the local groups for a letter saying they support its work. Another wants a line for its website saying the groups recommend it. Each request is polite, each cause sounds good, and each one puts the group's name behind somebody else's business, where the drunk still drinking will read it and assume A.A. sent it. A group that signs has spoken for a program it does not run and cannot stop. Test it tonight: if a program asked your group for a letter of support tomorrow, who would answer, and what would they say?

Sit with

A.A. cooperates with nearly everyone and marries no one. Has my group ever put its name behind someone else's work?

Grounded in: P-17, p. 50 (Bill W., "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous," 1955); long form, Tradition 6 (Big Book, p. 564).

Tradition 6

"An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose."

Read the Long Form (pp. 563–566). The short form on pp. 561–562 is the one everybody quotes — but the Long Form is where the Traditions actually say what they mean. Tradition 3's "no other affiliation" clause, for instance, exists only in the Long Form. That single clause is why no treatment centre can own an A.A. group. Most of what circulates online skips it.

And a distinction worth keeping straight: the Traditions are governance, not theology. They bind A.A. groups and the Fellowship — not individuals, and not outside businesses. They were adopted in 1950 to keep A.A. from being owned or co-opted. They are not a rulebook for your personal life.

What the Traditions actually say → The Long Form, p. 563 → Search the Big Book → Every day this month →

Ask Recovery Einstein about Tradition 6 → Get the app →

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Daily Traditions is an independent educational resource from Recovery Starts — not official A.A. literature, not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and not medical advice. The Twelve Traditions are the property of A.A. Page references are to Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book), 4th Edition: short form 561–562, long form 563–566. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).