These four decisions do not stand alone in this matter of A.A.’s religious character.

De Stefano v. Emergency Housing Corp (2002). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that A.A. is a religious activity and accordingly OASAS funding of providers who mandate patient participation in A.A. and, by extension, other government funding of providers who mandate participation in A.A. is a violation of the principle of separation of Church and State (This is a summary taken from Volume 8 of Visions, July, 2002, published by NAATP).

“Appeals court says requirement to attend AA unconstitutional”

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer [San Francisco Chronicle]

Saturday, September 8, 2007 “Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

“In fact, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the constitutional dividing line between church and state in such cases is so clear that a parole officer can be sued for damages for ordering a parolee to go through rehabilitation at Alcoholics Anonymous or an affiliated program for drug addicts.

“Rulings from across the nation since 1996 have established that ‘requiring a parolee to attend religion-based treatment programs violates the First Amendment,’ the court said. ’While we in no way denigrate the fine work of (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous), attendance in their programs may not be coerced by the state’."

The authoritative status of these six decisions has yet to be decided by the United States Supreme Court as far as the First Amendment aspect is concerned. But the factual determinations are persuasive on the question of A.A. as a religion.

Tribunal after tribunal has taken a look at the Big Book and its 400 references to God; a look at the Twelve Steps and their unmistakable references to God and the Biblical phrase “Father of light,” the prayers in A.A. meetings; and the language which puts the steps on a path to a relationship with God. While there has been much sympathy for the A.A. cause by various courts in various jurisdictions, the majority see A.A. as a religion; and so do I. In fact, when I was practicing law, a distinguished California court ruled that a humanist organization was a religion. The dictionary places A.A. in the religion category by very definition. But newer A.A. literature keeps pumping out irrelevant and illogical statements that A.A. is “spiritual but not religious,” that you may need a “higher power” as part of the program, and that this “higher power” can be Something or Somebody or nothing at all.

A.A.’s basic text provides a conclusive answer to the reasoning mind: Compared to the ruling that a humanist organization is religious, even these obfuscations do not remove A.A. from the religion category. In fact, I have found no significant writing between 1935 and 1939 that alters the Big Book declarations which explicitly speaks of “that Power, which is God” (3rd ed., p. 46), saying, “Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God” (3rd ed., p. 29), and  “many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives” (3rd ed., p. 51), and “Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us” (3rd ed., p. 77), and “How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done” (3rd ed., p. 85). In fact, many an AA goes into a church and kneels to say his “Third Step Prayer.” Bill adds: “We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. . . The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God’ (3rd ed., p. 68).

And how much more time will be spent by good-hearted people denying the obvious. The real question is not what A.A. is or what it isn’t. The real point posed by Hebrews 11:6 and by Rev. Sam Shoemaker and by Bill Wilson in the Big Book is that God either is, or He isn’t. Bill added, “We had to have God’s help” (p. 62). The alcoholic has a choice. According to A.A.’s basic text, he can choose to believe that God is, and rewards those who diligently seek Him; or he can go on to the disaster, destruction, and even death yielding to temptation and resuming self-destruction. 

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