Service, Part I
Step 12 of AA states: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Even though this is the last step, from the very beginning members of AA are encouraged to do service work which can help other alcoholics. It is said that in order to keep it ("it" being the gift of sobriety) you must give it away.
From early in sobriety my sponsor encouraged (hounded?) me to do service work. Being the rebellious sort I resisted for a while. Even though I finally complied, I still had to make it a little different (to fulfill that "terminal uniqueness" so near and dear to my heart). At the same time I was looking for a service work "position" I had also recently become passionately opposed to the death penalty. (An interesting step in my sobriety - similar to some sort of adolescent declaration of self - upon which I will not elaborate at this time.)
Back to the point. My interest in the death penalty led me to explore possible AA service work in jails. That exploration led me to this website:
BTL
I read most everything on the website. It looked pretty "Christian" to me - a scary thing at the time. And it wasn't exactly AA service work, but the program sure looked similar in content and intent.
I was intrigued, so I sent an email to one of the contacts asking if someone like me - an AA member with about a year of sobriety and a very real yet very sketchy concept of a higher power - might work out as a facilitator.
Within a week I found myself sitting in a correctional facility classroom with about 50 prisoners and a few volunteers - most of whom (at that time) appeared to me to be (elderly) church ladies.
To be continued...
5 comments:
I am not an expert on AA, but I do know the two founders were affiliated with Christianity. One was Catholic and the other was Protestant (not certain of the affiliation). Most of faith-based organizations in the state that we both live are probably associated with Christianity.
The Death Penalty: Interesting topic. As a social worker, I really don't know what my position is. I lean more toward conservative than liberal. That probably has to do with my many years in the military which is pretty conservative overall. The logical train of thought is that if I agree with killing in the name of armed conflict (I was in the Air Force; never was in combat and never killed anyone)then I would support the death penalty. Honestly, I try to avoid those "hot button" subjects as I hate to debate people. Another hot button is the debate over abortion. I am pro-life but I don't agree with bombing the clinics. Before I got married, my wife was sexually assaulted (raped) and subsequently became pregnant. Having been raised in a conservative Christian home, she did not believe in abortion. She decided against a justifiable abortion, and that baby is now a 16-year old young man that she gave up for adoption living somewhere in the Southern U.S.. I hate to be pigeoned-hole as a conservative with a laundry list of topics I am supposed to agree with or oppose.
Thanks for letting me share.......
I, too, disagree with the death penalty. For many reasons that I won't go into here.
Looking forward to the continuation.
I know a person who has worked for the resource centers in death penalty states (a medical professional) and he has told stories - people convicted with physical and mental ailments where the convict did not realize their innocence. Scary stuff.
Wow, sounds scary to me too...but I think anything that can help someone is always rewarding to everyone! Hope it goes well for you. :)
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