Endigar 365 ~ Equality
From Today’s Daily Reflections;
Our membership ought to included all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety my call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 563)
Prior to A.A., I often felt that I didn’t “fit in” with the people around me. Usually “they” had more/less money than I did, and my points of view didn’t jibe with “theirs.” The amount of prejudice I had experienced in society only proved to me just how phony some self-righteous people were. After joining A.A., I found the way of life I had been searching for. In A.A. no member is better than any other member; we’re just alcoholics trying to recover from alcoholism.
END OF QUOTE
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For me, there is no more “us and them.” I am not a part of a religious group that is sent forth to convert those in need of rescue. I am available to those who chose to quit drinking and wish to utilize the 12 step program. I do not preach dogmatic demands to filter and control those seeking help. I want to stay alive while still resident on Earth and that survival is wrapped up in being available to others who desire to live while they are alive.
It is such a relief to be freed of the burden of guilt that was my life as a churchian. “Why aren’t you getting out there and knocking on doors? Why aren’t you selling the exclusive path of salvation to those who might die tonight and burn in an everlasting torment because you wanted to watch TV? If you are ashamed and embarrassed to publicly proclaim Him, He will be ashamed and embarrassed of you when you get to Heaven. Be perfect and holy as your Father in Heaven is perfect and holy, because this is the only way you will have a relationship with Him, and the only way the world will be kept from hell fires. You are the only Bible some people will ever read.” I am not the chosen voice of the chosen One, that you must heed to escape a God with a really big grudge and a psychopathic embrace for his creation.
We are in this together, as alcoholics and as fellow humans. I had a problem when I first entered the rooms and everyone held hands and recited the Lord’s Prayer. I overcame that by keeping my eyes open, and looking around at all of my fellows holding on to each other. We create our own infinity in that circle and our prayer is not based on dogma. It is based on the simple equality of working out this life together, evading the religious hijack of our spirituality through our own vision of Gomu (God of my understanding).
“To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 46)
Daily Reprieve 
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