Did AA’s general service council abide by the tenth tradition when they changed the preamble? In case you don’t remember what the tenth tradition is, it reads like this:
“Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.”
Apparently, at the 71st General Service Conference annual meeting, which was held online from April 17 to April 25, 2021, the group who attended decided to change the wording in AA’s Preamble. Who were the advisors? And why did they decide to wade into the murky pool of political correctness? The change replaced the words men and women with the word people in the first sentence of the Preamble.
How is the word “people” more inclusive than men and women? If this is to serve the transgender crowd, they are still either men or women, correct? So can anyone explain, why, after many decades of remaining neutral to controversy, ( AA was founded in 1935) that an advisory board decided to throw out eighty-eight years of precedent and good common sense to be politically correct?
I can’t think of one argument that makes human beings anything other than male or female. There is no such thing as a “nonbinary” person, and if you want to grab onto that argument, then does that mean we ignore the rest of the program since it IS a spiritual program? Do we denounce “God” or the spiritual aspect that is woven through the AA program? Many believe AA was divinely inspired, and many of its concepts are reflective of world religions and biblical principles that value the practice of confession/atonement of our wrongs, and discussing them with another human being.” How can we honor those trite yet helpful AA sayings such as, “Let go and let God,” and then debase God’s creation of men and women?
How do we reconcile this incongruent idea for the newcomer? AA is a serious program intended to save the lives of alcoholics who may have no other way to get out of the mess they are in. Why did AA piss on eighty-eight years of tradition to jump on a fad that is embraced by the woke mob who demands we suspend critical thinking to embrace their demand du jour? Are we to spit in God’s face and declare that he made “nonbinary” people when in fact he did not?
The reality is that the percentage of people who identify as transgender is actually very low. For example, 1.8% of youths identify as trans in the NE and 1.2% in the Midwest. And, as stated above, acknowledging only two genders IS inclusive of the trans community. When we are born everyone wants to know if it is a boy or a girl. I have yet to hear of anyone giving birth to a “nonbinary” baby.
I am dismayed at how willing people are to go along with things that make no sense. If we cannot think critically and question things that don’t make sense, then we are no better than animals who are driven solely by instinct.
