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SOS welcomes
sobriety in whatever
form it takes. We
are not in
competition with or
opposed to AA or
other 12 Step
programs. SOS
recognizes that AA
has helped, and
continues to help,
many people to get
and stay sober and
clean. Although many
SOS members consider
12 Step programs can
have dangerous
consequences, due to
its cultist
tendencies, it no
doubt fulfils needs
which a proportion
of recovering
persons can find
success with.
On the
organizational level
SOS cooperates
occasionally with
friendly AA groups
or AA members at a
local level and some
members attend both
SOS and AA meetings.
This can be
especially important
to newly sober
people, who need to
attend as many
meetings as possible
and where SOS cannot
provide the larger
number of meetings
which the longer
established AA
network can. AA
members are welcome
to attend SOS
meetings, however,
only on the clear
understanding that
discussion of
religious and
spiritual ideas are
not a part of our
agenda and format.
In a similar vain,
though many SOS
members have joined
our organization as
a consequence of
some bad experiences
in particular AA
groups, we do not
encourage SOS
meetings to be "AA
bashing" affairs.
While understanding
the need for some
new members to vent
their anger and
disappointment with
some AA experiences,
we prefer that our
meetings concentrate
on the key issue of
sobriety and
positive recovery
methods.
Having said this,
the philosophy and
methods of SOS and
AA are quite clearly
almost diametrically
opposite of one
another. SOS is for
those people who
find that the ideas
of reliance on a
Higher Power or God,
"powerlessness" and
the emphasis on
character defects to
be an obstacle to
recovery. Also, many
spiritual or
religious people
prefer to join SOS
because they prefer
a less cult like
atmosphere and/or
are uncomfortable
with the white,
middle class
Christian character
of many meetings.
Instead, SOS is
about
self-empowerment,
rational,
free-thought and
open discussion,
where ideas,
differences and
exchanges are aired
openly in cross
talk, which is not
permitted in AA and
12 Step meetings.
Many people,
religious or
non-religious prefer
the SOS forum,
because it has a
less rigid, more
real and cult-free
character and spirit
and encourages
individuality and
self-reliance.
It should
also be noted
that even though
SOS is secular
and, many of its
members are
agnostic or
atheist, there
are also many
SOS members who
are religious or
spiritual, be
they Catholic,
Protestant,
Jewish, Islamic,
Buddhist or New
Age or whatever.
SOS respects
people's
personal beliefs
and does not
enquire about
them. They are
considered
personal and
private issues
outside of the
meeting context
or the SOS
approach to
sobriety.
Furthermore,
many religious
SOS members also
appreciate the
strong emphasis
SOS places on
understanding
the scientific
and medical
basis of
addiction and
our close, but
independent
cooperation with
the professional
sector.
SOS and AA do
have one key
thing in common
and that is both
are committed to
total abstinence
from all
mind-altering
drugs as the
cornerstone of a
person's
recovery. Unlike
AA, SOS does not
consider itself
the be "THE WAY"
and, therefore,
we extend an
open hand of
co-operation and
mutual respect
to all
recovering
people,
including AA
members, who are
able to keep an
open and
positive mind
towards our
secular
alternative.
Below is a
quote from AA
co-founder Bill
Wilson from
a speech he
gave to the
American Medical
Association
"We
must also realize
that the discoveries
of the psychiatric
and the biochemists
have vast
implications for us
alcoholics. Indeed,
these discoveries
are today, far more
than implications.
Your president of
the New York Medical
Society and other
pioneers in and
outside of your
society, have been
achieving notable
results for a long
time. Many of the
patients, having
made good recoveries
without AA at all,
it should be noted
that some of the
recovery methods
employed outside AA
are quite in
contradiction to AA
principles and
practice.
Nevertheless, we
of AA ought to
applaud the fact
that certain efforts
are meeting with
increasing success.
Therefore, I would
like to pledge to
the medical
fraternity that AA
will always stand
ready to cooperate,
that AA will never
trespass upon
medicine, that our
members who feel the
cause will
increasingly help in
those great
enterprises of
education,
rehabilitation, and
research which are
now going forward
with such great
promise."
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SOS
& AA RELATIONS