Tradition 10 · October 5

Evangelist or Reformer

Daily Traditions · October 5

How it gets captured

Before there were any Traditions, the Big Book's instructions for carrying the message already ruled out the crusade, because a crusade costs you the drunk. Chapter 7, Working With Others (Big Book, p. 89): "Don't start out as an evangelist or reformer. Unfortunately a lot of prejudice exists. You will be handicapped if you arouse it." Six pages later, sitting with the man still drinking (p. 95): "You will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform." A reformer, like a crusade, is out to change how everybody else lives; an evangelist is selling a faith. Either one makes the sick man pick a side before he can pick up the phone. Tradition 10 is the same instruction written for a whole group: what would handicap one member at a bedside handicaps a room in front of a town. Today the crusade comes in through a door marked "A.A. meeting" at a facility, where the program's cause is read before anyone shares: its doctrine, its position on the latest law. Test it tonight: could a drinker from either side of any argument sit down in your room and not be told what to think?

Sit with

The Big Book told the first A.A.s not to come to a drunk as reformers, because prejudice shuts the door. Is anything said in my room that would shut it?

Grounded in: Big Book pp. 89 and 95 (Working With Others); long form, Tradition 10 (Big Book, p. 565).

Tradition 10

"Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy."

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 10 → Get the app →

← October 4Eleven to Two Tradition 10All of October October 6 →The Right Kind of Education

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).