Article Hero Image
October 1998

Staying Off the Soap Box

Tradition Ten

What a wonderful bit of advice this Tradition carries; like so many AA principles, it had to have been divinely inspired to give such important guidance to us drunks. Some twenty-five or thirty years ago I was heavily involved in public information work, and we often encountered questions which, had it not been for the guidance of this Tradition, would have allowed someone to get right up there on a soap box and voice opinions on all sorts of things which could be detrimental to AA. Fortunately, within AA, when controversy on questionable subjects arises, common sense generally prevails and the matter is settled amicably. We know that since AA began, we've never been divided by a major controversial issue and we have never taken sides publicly on any cause. Individual members can represent, and often do, outside issues as long as they don't bring their AA association into the matter. Any verbal or written connection of AA to any outside issue, organization, or cause could quite easily contribute to the demise of AA as we know it. I think the information in AA Comes Of Age, regarding the Washingtonians and the pitfalls they fell into, teaches a valuable lesson.

WANT TO CONTINUE READING?

You must have an active online AA Grapevine subscription to access full stories and audio.

Login Renew Subscribe

Need help with customer service?

Call 800 631-6025 (English), 800 640-8781 (Spanish), 212-870-3456 (French) or email: [email protected]
or [email protected]

Have Something You Want To Share?

We want to hear your story! Submit your story and it could be published in a future issue of AA Grapevine!

Submit your Story