What do religious leaders think of A.A.?
Also see pamphlet: Members of the Clergy ask about Alcoholics Anonymous Probably no lay movement of modem times has been more richly endowed than A.A. with the support of the clergy of all the great faiths. Like the doctors, mankind’s spiritual advisers have long been troubled by the problem of alcoholism. Many of these advisers have heard honest people make sincere pledges to abstain from alcohol they could not control – only to see them break those pledges within hours, days, or weeks. Sympathy, understanding, and appeals to conscience have been of little avail to the clergy in their attempts to help the alcoholic. Thus it is perhaps not surprising that A.A. – although it offers a way of life rather than a way of formal religion – should be embraced so warmly by representatives of many different denominations. Here is how some of them have referred to A.A. in the past: The Directors Bulletin, a Jesuit periodical published at St. Louis, Mo. “Father Dowling of The Queen’s Work staff ha
