June 20, 2025
“Although we can borrow from religion, medicine, and psychiatry, we are not any one of them. We cannot run hospitals nor half-way houses, nor marry the group with a religious sect. We cannot send lobbyists to Congress and we don’t mix AA with banking enterprises. We aren’t educators nor counselors. We cannot lend our name to any other cause except our own. The more we mind our own business, the greater our influence becomes; medicine, religion, and psychiatry start borrowing from our experience and ideas. So do the fields of education, research, and rehabilitation. All kinds of groups based on AA’s Twelve Steps have evolved, groups that deal with gambling, eating, drug addiction, mental illness, divorce, etc. They’ve borrowed from the AA program and made their own adaptations. We didn’t have to endorse them or lend our name. This tells us strongly that the more AA sticks to its primary purpose, the greater will be its helpful influence.”
San Antonio, Texas, June 1996, “Simplicity Works Best,” AA Grapevine
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