We Agnostics and Freethinkers in AA Anniversary Celebration-08-06-2016 [music] 0:00:15 John S: Hello and welcome to AA Beyond Belief, the podcast. I'm your host, John S. Today's episode was recorded on August 6, 2016 at a celebration for the anniversaries of two AA groups in Kansas City, Missouri. Freethinkers and AA Kansas City celebrated one year and the We Agnostics group celebrated it's second anniversary. Amy P chaired the meeting and Roger C was the featured speaker. This was a wonderful way to celebrate the anniversaries of our groups, and it's nice to be able to share this time with you. I hope you enjoy it. [music] 0:01:05 Amy P: Hello, my name is Amy and I'm an alcoholic. 0:01:07 Audience: Hi, Amy! 0:01:08 Amy: Hi, everyone. Before we start, I would like to say thank you for being here tonight to celebrate with us. A special thank you to all souls in St. Paul's for their support of our groups. I would like to take a moment on behalf of the many members of Freethinkers and We Agnostics, to say how grateful we are to three special members and trusted servants of the Alcoholics Anonymous. To Jim, John and Kevin, thank you for your tireless efforts, your perseverance and your dedication to getting the We Agnostics and Freethinkers groups started. Many people say Alcoholics Anonymous saved their lives. For this alcoholic, that is certainly true. However, Secular AA has given me a new purpose and outlook on life. Over the past year, I have been more excited, dedicated and in love with the program and its members than ever before. Many of us have come to Secular AA out of frustration or perhaps seeking a place to belong once again. Some of us felt left out of our groups because of our beliefs or lack of beliefs. What I love the most about Secular AA is the personal responsibility for my recovery. If John, Jim and Kevin would come up, I'd like to present a gift to the We Agnostic group and the Freethinkers group. 0:02:24 John S: Isn't that nice. 0:02:27 Amy P: These are little placards that I made, so we can start collecting our anniversary coins. [applause] 0:02:41 Amy P: Maybe, someday, we'll be able to afford a proper shadow box. [laughter] 0:02:49 Amy P: If things continue the way they are, we'll have many more evenings like tonight. Just a couple of housekeeping items, and this is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. If you are unfamiliar with Alcoholics Anonymous, we do have the anonymity thing, so please, who you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here. [background conversation] [laughter] 08/09/16 Page 1 of 14 We Agnostics and Freethinkers in AA Anniversary Celebration-08-06-2016 0:03:11 Amy P: Oh, cool. And then, if you guys could please either silent or put your phones on vibrate, so that we don't distract the speaker. And also, we're gonna be recording, so if your phone goes off, it's gonna be caught on the recording. So now, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna turn the meeting over to John but I wanna do just a little introduction. I've known John for the last year, and very rarely do you see somebody that is so dedicated, hardworking, constantly thinking of ways to get the message out about Secular AA. And I know for me, I admire you so much and I'm so grateful for everything that you guys have done. And this last year has been one of the most difficult periods in my life, with my dad getting sick and then dying, and I truly believe that I've been able to deal with it so much better because of the We Agnostics and Freethinkers groups. So John, would you like to come up? Thank you guys. [applause] 0:04:26 John S: I don't think my wife would agree that hardworking part but... [laughter] Anyway, so I'd like to open the meeting with the reading of the AA preamble. So, Jim would you come up and read the AA preamble? 0:04:41 Jim C: Alright. Jim, alcoholic. 0:04:44 Audience: Hi, Jim! 0:04:45 Jim C: I'm so glad to be here from Indianapolis, be back home, so to speak, that's why I'm very pleased to read this. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. 0:05:35 John S: Thanks, Jim. 0:05:38 John S: Jim's a co-founder of the We Agnostics group. He was the only atheist I knew in AA and so, thank you, Jim. And now I know a lot more about 'em. [laughter] Now, like other agnostic groups from around the world, we also have an agnostic AA preamble, and I'd like to invite Kevin to come up and read that. 0:06:00 Kevin P: I'm Kevin P. I'm an alcoholic. 0:06:03 Audience: Hi, Kevin! 0:06:03 Kevin P: Glad to see everyone this evening. Photos are allowed while I'm up here. [laughter] 0:06:10 Kevin P: Help yourself. I do have a story about agnostic... About this particular paragraph. I call it the most important paragraph in Sector AA, because the first time that I came to We 08/09/16 Page 2 of 14 We Agnostics and Freethinkers in AA Anniversary Celebration-08-06-2016 Agnostics from another large group in Midtown, when they read this paragraph, I thought, "I've got something here. This sounds just exactly the way I believe." So, I was thrilled to find this particular paragraph. Agnostic AA meetings maintain a tradition of free expression, where everyone is free to express any doubt or disbelief that they may have, and to share their own personal form of spiritual experience, their search for it, or their rejection of it. In keeping with AA tradition, we do not endorse nor pose any form of religion or atheism. Our only wish is to ensure that anyone with a desire to stop drinking may find support in AA without having to accept anyone else's beliefs or to deny their own. Thank you. [background conversation] 0:07:10 John S: I'm not sure if I introduced myself, but in AA, if you're not familiar with this, we love to say this. My name's John and I'm an alcoholic. 0:07:16 Audience: Hi, John. 0:07:20 John S: Welcome. And thank you for attending this celebration of the first anniversary of the Freethinkers in AA group, and the second anniversary of the We Agnostics Kansas City AA group. This is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. I'd like to welcome those of you who are visiting from other AA groups in the community, those of you who have come from out of town, and our family and friends. I would also like to thank the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church for their kindness and their tolerance, which I know, we've tested from time to time. And I'd like to welcome the members of the church who are in attendance here tonight. Welcome to everybody. Before I introduce our speaker, I'd like to provide a little history about our two groups. On July 20th of 2014, I asked Jim C if he'd like to start an AA meeting for agnostics, atheists and Freethinkers. Without hesitation, he answered yes and that very night, we put up a website and started searching for a meeting location. And knowing that agnostic AA groups have a long history of holding meetings at Unitarian Universalist churches, I contacted All Souls and I was happy to learn that they had a space for us to rent. 0:08:30 John S: The week prior to our first meeting, Jim and I attended a meeting at the We Agnostics group in Lawrence, Kansas, which unbeknownst to us, had been meeting for two years prior to our starting our group. That was the first time either of us had ever experienced an agnostic meeting. Three of the members from that group, Dave, Austin and Justin, made it to our first meeting here at All Souls. After we had been meeting for about a year, it was sometime in July of 2015, really a landmark time for our group, Erika K went to a meeting at the Unity group, and after the meeting, she walked up to Richard W and she said, "You're an atheist. You need to go to We Agnostics." [laughter] 0:09:12 John S: In a few days, Richard and several others from the Unity group came to one of our meetings.