139
Tradition Three - long form
The only requirement for A.A. membership is
a desire to stop drinking.
T
HIS Tradition is packed with meaning. For A.A. is real-
ly saying to every serious drinker, You are an A.A. mem-
ber if
you
say so. You can declare yourself in; nobody can
keep you out. No matter who you are, no matter how low
youve gone, no matter how grave your emotional compli-
cationseven your crimeswe still cant deny you A.A.
We dont
want
to keep you out. We arent a bit afraid youll
harm us, never mind how twisted or violent you may be.
We just want to be sure that you get the same great chance
for sobriety that weve had. So youre an A.A. member the
minute you declare yourself.
To establish this principle of membership took years of
harrowing experience. In our early time, nothing seemed
so fragile, so easily breakable as an A.A. group. Hardly
an alcoholic we approached paid any attention; most of
those who did join us were like fl
ickering candles in a wind-
storm. Time after time, their uncertain fl
ames blew out and
couldnt be relighted. Our unspoken, constant thought was
Which of us may be the next?
A member gives us a vivid glimpse of those days. At
one time, he says, every A.A. group had many member-
ship rules. Everybody was scared witless that something or
somebody would capsize the boat and dump us all back
TRADITION THREE
140
into the drink. Our Foundation offi
ce
*
asked each group to
send in its list of protective regulations. The total list was
a mile long. If all those rules had been in effect everywhere,
nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, so great was
the sum of our anxiety and fear.
We were resolved to admit nobody to A.A. but that
hypothetical class of people we termed pure alcoholics.
Except for their guzzling, and the unfortunate results there-
of, they could have no other complications. So beggars,
tramps, asylum inmates, prisoners, queers, plain crackpots,
and fallen women were defi
nitely out. Yes sir, wed cater
only
to pure and respectable alcoholics! Any others would
surely destroy us. Besides, if we took in those odd ones,
what would decent people say about us? We built a fi
ne-
mesh fence right around A.A.
Maybe this sounds comical now. Maybe you think we
oldtimers were pretty intolerant. But I can tell you there
was nothing funny about the situation then. We were grim
because we felt our lives and homes were threatened, and
that was no laughing matter. Intolerant, you say? Well, we
were frightened. Naturally, we began to act like most ev-
erybody does when afraid. After all, isnt fear the true basis
of intolerance? Yes, we were intolerant.
How could we then guess that all those fears were to
prove groundless? How could we know that thousands of
these sometimes frightening people were to make aston-
ishing recoveries and become our greatest workers and
* In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General
Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation offi
ce is now
the General Service Offi
ce.
TRADITION THREE
141
intimate friends? Was it credible that A.A. was to have a
divorce rate far lower than average? Could we then fore-
see that troublesome people were to become our principal
teachers of patience and tolerance? Could any then imag-
ine a society which would include every conceivable kind
of character, and cut across every barrier of race, creed,
politics, and language with ease?
Why did A.A. fi
nally drop all its membership regula-
tions? Why did we leave it to each newcomer to decide him-
self whether he was an alcoholic and whether he should
join us? Why did we dare to say, contrary to the experience
of society and government everywhere, that we would nei-
ther punish nor deprive any A.A. of membership, that we
must never compel anyone to pay anything, believe any-
thing, or conform to anything?
The answer, now seen in Tradition Three, was simplicity
itself. At last experience taught us that to take away any
alcoholics full chance was sometimes to pronounce his
death sentence, and often to condemn him to endless mis-
ery. Who dared to be judge, jury, and executioner of his
own sick brother?
As group after group saw these possibilities, they fi
nally
abandoned all membership regulations. One dramatic ex-
perience after another clinched this determination until it
became our universal tradition. Here are two examples:
On the A.A. calendar it was Year Two. In that time noth-
ing could be seen but two struggling, nameless groups of
alcoholics trying to hold their faces up to the light.
A newcomer appeared at one of these groups, knocked
on the door and asked to be let in. He talked frankly with
TRADITION THREE
142
that groups oldest member. He soon proved that his was
a desperate case, and that above all he wanted to get well.
But, he asked, will you let me join your group? Since I am
the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized
than alcoholism, you may not want me among you. Or
will you?
There was the dilemma. What should the group do? The
oldest member summoned two others, and in confi
dence
laid the explosive facts in their laps. Said he, Well, what
about it? If we turn this man away, hell soon die. If we al-
low him in, only God knows what trouble hell brew. What
shall the answer beyes or no?
At fi
rst the elders could look only at the objections. We
deal, they said, with alcoholics only. Shouldnt we sacri-
fi
ce this one for the sake of the many? So went the discus-
sion while the newcomers fate hung in the balance. Then
one of the three spoke in a very different voice. What we
are really afraid of, he said, is our reputation. We are
much more afraid of what people might say than the trou-
ble this strange alcoholic might bring. As weve been talk-
ing, fi
ve short words have been running through my mind.
Something keeps repeating to me, What would the Master
do? Not another word was said. What more indeed
could
be said?
Overjoyed, the newcomer plunged into Twelfth Step
work. Tirelessly he laid A.A.s message before scores of
people. Since this was a very early group, those scores have
since multiplied themselves into thousands. Never did he
trouble anyone with his other diffi
culty. A.A. had taken its
fi
rst step in the formation of Tradition Three.
TRADITION THREE
143
Not long after the man with the double stigma knocked
for admission, A.A.s other group received into its mem-
bership a salesman we shall call Ed. A power driver, this
one, and brash as any salesman could possibly be. He had
at least an idea a minute on how to improve A.A. These
ideas he sold to fellow members with the same burning
enthusiasm with which he distributed automobile polish.
But he had one idea that wasnt so salable. Ed was an athe-
ist. His pet obsession was that A.A. could get along better
without its God nonsense. He browbeat everybody, and
everybody expected that hed soon get drunkfor at the
time, you see, A.A. was on the pious side. There must be a
heavy penalty, it was thought, for blasphemy. Distressingly
enough, Ed proceeded to stay sober.
At length the time came for him to speak in a meeting.
We shivered, for we knew what was coming. He paid a fi
ne
tribute to the Fellowship; he told how his family had been
reunited; he extolled the virtue of honesty; he recalled the
joys of Twelfth Step work; and then he lowered the boom.
Cried Ed, I cant stand this God stuff! Its a lot of malar-
key for weak folks. This group doesnt need it, and I wont
have it! To hell with it!
A great wave of outraged resentment engulfed the meet-
ing, sweeping every member to a single resolve: Out he
goes!
The elders led Ed aside. They said fi
rmly, You cant talk
like this around here. Youll have to quit it or get out.
With great sarcasm Ed came back at them. Now do tell!
Is that so? He reached over to a bookshelf and took up
a sheaf of papers. On top of them lay the foreword to the
TRADITION THREE
144
book Alcoholics Anonymous, then under preparation.
He read aloud, The only requirement for A.A. member-
ship is a desire to stop drinking. Relentlessly, Ed went on,
When you guys wrote that sentence, did you mean it, or
didnt you?
Dismayed, the elders looked at one another, for they
knew he had them cold. So Ed stayed.
Ed not only stayed, he stayed sobermonth after month.
The longer he kept dry, the louder he talkedagainst God.
The group was in anguish so deep that all fraternal charity
had vanished. When, oh when, groaned members to one
another, will that guy get drunk?
Quite a while later, Ed got a sales job which took him out
of town. At the end of a few days, the news came in. Hed
sent a telegram for money, and everybody knew what
that
meant! Then he got on the phone. In those days, wed go
anywhere on a Twelfth Step job, no matter how unpromis-
ing. But this time nobody stirred. Leave him alone! Let
him try it by himself for once; maybe hell learn a lesson!
About two weeks later, Ed stole by night into an A.A.
members house and, unknown to the family, went to bed.
Daylight found the master of the house and another friend
drinking their morning coffee. A noise was heard on the
stairs. To their consternation, Ed appeared. A quizzical
smile on his lips, he said, Have you fellows had your morn-
ing meditation? They quickly sensed that he was quite in
earnest. In fragments, his story came out.
In a neighboring state, Ed had holed up in a cheap hotel.
After all his pleas for help had been rebuffed, these words
rang in his fevered mind: They have deserted me. I have
TRADITION THREE
145
been deserted by my own kind. This is the end ...nothing is
left. As he tossed on his bed, his hand brushed the bureau
near by, touching a book. Opening the book, he read. It
was a Gideon Bible. Ed never confi
ded any more of what
he saw and felt in that hotel room. It was the year 1938. He
hasnt had a drink since.
Nowadays, when oldtimers who know Ed foregather,
they exclaim, What if we had actually succeeded in throw-
ing Ed out for blasphemy? What would have happened to
him and all the others he later helped?
So the hand of Providence early gave us a sign that any
alcoholic is a member of our Society when
he says so.

I know some non-alcoholics that could benefit from the 12 Steps ... !!!