Into Public Controversy

A.A.'s own parent movement was dragged into a public fight, and Bill W. would not even thank it in public, because the drunk's chance came first. The Oxford Group, the Christian movement where Bill and Dr. Bob first found help, made the newspapers in 1936 when its leader was quoted praising a dictator; Pass It On records that "the article brought the group into public controversy." In 1940 Bill wrote to a member who asked about it (Pass It On): "unfortunately, a vast and sometimes unreasoning prejudice exists all over this country against the O.G." O.G. means the Oxford Group. He was grateful; some of its message, he wrote, had saved his life. But thanking it in public might "establish a connection between the O.G. and Alcoholics Anonymous which does not exist". So: "I had to ask myself which was the more important" — his own pleasure in paying the debt, "or that alcoholics everywhere have the best possible chance to stay alive regardless of who gets credit." A drinker who hated that fight would have taken A.A. for part of it. Today the pull is gratitude too: a church, a program or a funder that helped the group and wants its name beside A.A.'s. Test it tonight: ask whose name your meeting wears besides A.A.'s, and what fight that name is in.