Refuse None

The short form's "only requirement" is often heard as a test that somebody gets to give, and the Long Form takes that power away from everyone. The short form (Big Book, p. 562): "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking." Read alone, "requirement" can sound like a gate with a guard on it. Read the Long Form beside it (p. 563): "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover." Hence means therefore. Because membership belongs to every alcoholic, nobody in the room is given the job of refusing one. The desire is the drinker's own business, and he is the only one who can say whether he has it. Today the gate gets a guard anyway. A newcomer admits his wife made him come, or his boss did, and someone tells him he doesn't have the desire yet and should come back when he does, as if anyone else could measure it. The Long Form leaves no seat for that judge. It puts the refusing power at exactly zero, and it does that on purpose, so the drinker who isn't sure is still in. Test it tonight: ask whether anyone in your room has ever told a newcomer he wasn't really a member yet, and on whose authority.