Happy Birthday

One our members surprised our Saturday Meeting with cake. Proving that we are not a glum lot.

But the message is a bit confusing?  6 month's sober, thanking god for Agnostic Meetings? Hey, it doesn't matter, it's a program of progress, one way or the other.  What matters is he's got 6 months in a row here.

In any event, Congratulations, Badger! 

Westside Agnostics History, Per Jeff Cunningham

The Following was written by Jeff Cunningham, at one of the last AA meetings that he attended prior to his passing away due to cancer roughly a month later. Jeff was quite instrumental in the early days of the “Westside Agnostics” meetings.


-Randy N.

Before we start today, I'd like to ask that you indulge me for a few minutes to impart a bit of group history, which of course does not exist in written form.

We are upon our second anniversary. Our first documented meeting was January 25, 2014, but I believe our actual first meeting was a week earlier, January 18, 2014. I was elected secretary at the first meeting.

However, the credit for doing the legwork to start the meeting goes to Emily Valdez and Ryan Broadhurst, who found the venue, day and time - critical steps! Emily moved in 2015 to take a job in San Diego, and Ryan we haven't heard from since around February 2014. I have no idea what became of him.

They recruited attendees - me included - from the mother ship, We Agnostics on Sunday morning in Cleveland Heights, to attend the first meeting. With the support for many, many months from a dozen or so folks from the east side, we were able to build the meeting we enjoy today. Our weekly attendance of 40ish is larger than many well established, long-term meetings in Cleveland. Only two original members are in the room today: me and Campbell.

Our topic Wednesday reminded me that this meeting had two important principles accepted by the first group conscience to define our purpose:

I had a desperate desire - yes, I admit that I tried to impose my will - to get an agnostic meeting listed in the book as quickly as possible. A meeting where others suffering as I had suffered could find refuge in the storm. A suggestion was made that we use an alternative 12 Steps without the references to god. To get listed it was critical that we be an AA meeting - no deviations or other purposes. An operating committee member was required to attend one of our meetings. Deviating from official AA literature was not acceptable. The group opted to use standard AA literature. Our meeting started in January 2014; we were listed in the December 2014 book.

The second was equally as important to me. I had been tormented by the religiosity heard in most AA meetings, certainly the ones I attended in the western WASP burbs. I always felt like I was in a church prayer group with all the "here's what god did for me today" comments. So I was trying to escape the pressure to pray and get god. I didn't want to turn around and create a meeting where Christians would be as repulsed at god-bashing as I had been at the pressure to get god. The group conscience accepted that principle also - that we would not be a godbashing meeting. While occasionally our topics stray into that territory, for the most part we have avoided it. I'm very uncomfortable when we do because I don't want to drive anyone away.

Our purpose as a meeting is to discuss how to get and stay sober based on working the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, particularly the action steps that drive the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism - steps 4-7, maybe 8-9, and 10. Carl Jung talked to Roland Hazard about the most desperate cases requiring a profound mental change, a psychic change, to achieve recovery. Some of his examples were from William James, who also referred to slow, educational changes over time to achieve the same purpose.

Bill added appendix II to the second edition of the book after constantly being asked about the spiritual experience, the spiritual awakening. In the first paragraph, he defined them as "the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism." Step 12 reads "Having had a spiritual awakening as THE result of these step,..." If we substitute the definition, it reads "Having had the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism as the result of these steps,..."

So our group purpose is to help each other achieve and maintain that personality change, not to debate theological concepts. Regardless of what god we may or may not pray to, or how hard we may or may not pray, we aren't going to get and stay sober until we undergo that personality change. If praying and getting god were enough, we wouldn't have priests and clergy in the program.

Bill made this pretty clear in two very subtle phrases - three, actually - in two paragraphs of We Agnostics: bottom of pages 46 and 50. While espousing the wonderful things that happened once we had accepted god, he subtly states "provided we did certain simple things." Those certain simple things are the action steps of the program that drive the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism.

Regardless of what we were or are as a meeting today, that can be changed with a simple group conscience. I just didn't want that history to be lost. Thanks for listening. I'll now turn the meeting over to Don, our official substitute secretary.

- Jeff Cunning, January 2016

JEFFREY THOMAS CUNNINGHAM(1953 – 2016)

Club 24 Anniversary

Club 24 is having an anniversary meeting on the 31st of Jan at 11:30 AM. Food and fun for everyone. :)

Club 24 Inc

1635 Lee Rd # 2, 

Cleveland, OH 44118

S.N.A.

Study Guide to the AA Big Book

AUTHOR’S PREFACE:  This is a Study Guide to the book Alcoholics Anonymous. It is dedicated to those who want recovery from alcoholism, but have difficulty with the word "God". Especially, as that word gets used by individuals who embrace traditional religious concepts of what it means to them. Be advised that other ideas and interpretations, which are consistent with the basic AA text, also have value and usefulness in the recovery process.

Should you choose to follow this Study Guide, you will be presented ideas which
this author has found to be consistent with the basic text of AA. However, some of those
ideas go beyond the limitations many traditional religions have in their interpretation of the word "God" and what that word means for them. Readers who are open minded (see
Appendix II) may discover new thinking about "a power greater than yourself".

The three-letter word "God" is generally used to communicate a concept of infinite
knowledge and power. Concepts, other than those utilized by traditional religion, do
exist. One fundamental idea of God, based upon the basic text of AA, (see pg 55), is
being offered in this Study Guide. Some individual alcoholics may find the approach is
useful in their personal recovery.

It is self-evident that no person is qualified to speak for God, nor for AA as a
whole. The vital spiritual experience, necessary for recovery from alcoholism, is intensely
personal to the individual alcoholic. That is precisely the point. A readers concept of
God need not follow traditional lines.

The experience of the first successfully sober members of AA tells us:
"Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" (AA page 12)

Regardless of whatever approach you choose for yourself, you can be assured that:
THERE IS A POWER FOR GOOD, AND YOU CAN UTILIZE IT IN YOUR LIFE.
~by Ken W.

EXCERPT FROM EBOOK

Most of my books are available as ebooks at:
http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Montrose/e/B001K8MG0S.
Thanks,

Ken Montrose

You can also find an online version of it here.

God neutral 12 Steps the "We revision"

God neutral, The 12 Steps "We revision"

1. Drinking and drugs were bad for us.
2. We could not do it alone - something about fellowship with other drunks and drug addicts helped us stay sober.
3. Having all the answers was not a help--we had to learn to listen and follow directions.
4. We had to stop blaming, rationalizing, excusing, and we had to take responsibility, as well as take a good look at ourselves.
5. Our version of events was skewed, we needed to run it by someone a bit more objective.
6. All of our lives we had been doing things that hurt us, sabotaged our best efforts, our self esteem was warped, twisted, and improperly inflated.
7. We had to look at these things, stop doing them, and work on our selves.
8. We had shame over how we hurt others - we had to address this in order to move on--we did this by owning our part in things.
9. We had to make things right, mostly by living soberly, and by owning our responsibility to people we had hurt (appropriately, discretely, and not to those still raging and drinking).
10. We had to learn to use the emergency brake, that means when we started to lie or get angry, we had to learn how to slow down - shutting our mouth was usually a good start.
11. We came to understand that in the universe we are just specks and that life goes a whole lot better if we learn to act accordingly and when we forget this basic truth, we need to reflect about it until we remember.
12. Whew! When we do these things we are better people, we are happier, we can actually like the person we have become - sometimes people come to us for help and sometimes we have things to say that help them.

Revised by CC Property of the universe.

God Neutral 12 Steps

God Neutral 12 Steps

1. Drinking and drugs were bad for me.
2. I could not do it alone - something about the AA group helped me stay sober.
3. Having all the answers was not a help. I had to learn to listen and follow directions.
4. I had to stop blaming, rationalizing, excusing, and take responsibility, and to take a good look at my self.
5. My version of events was skewed, I needed to run it by someone a bit more objective.
6. I had all my life been doing things that hurt me, sabotaged my best efforts, my self esteem was warped, twisted, improperly inflated.
7. I had to look at these things, stop doing them, and work on my self esteem.
8. I had shame - I had to address it in order to move on, to own my part in things.
9. I had to make things right, by living soberly, and by owning my responsibility to people I had hurt. (appropriately, discretely, and not to those still raging and drinking) --- (I did not repay the sick leave I had taken because of hangovers though) I did a much better job at work though.
10. I had to learn to use the emergency brake. When I started to lie or get angry, how to slow down - shutting my mouth was usually a good start.
11. Came to understand that in the universe I am just a speck and to act accordingly.
12. Whew!! I do these things. I am a better person, I am happy, I can actually like the person I have become - sometimes people come to me for help and I sometimes have things to say that help them.