PO Box 1980

The article in the May issue, "The Kingdom Within," written by John M., prompts my first letter to the Grapevine. I am a Christian whose AA experiences, like John's, have deepened beyond measure my trust in Jesus, and it is with some reluctance that I disagree with John in two areas. One: His references to those parts of our literature which acknowledge AA's debts to organized religion and its spokesmen have nothing to do with confessing Jesus, explicitly, in a meeting. Two: In my opinion, it is sad but true that the worst advertisements for Christianity are some of its narrow-minded, pontificating adherents; the sharing of spiritual beliefs in a meeting, couched in specifically Christian terminology, awakens in many AAs the specter of a "get-ya" god that Jesus never knew, but with whom--in their minds--he is linked. The discovery of a coffee table as higher power just doesn't evoke the same associations. (And, yes, I'm sure John had his tongue pretty far into his cheek when he came up with that comparison.)