Page 10 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Another reason for the wide acceptance of A.A. was the
ministration of friends—friends in medicine, religion, and
the press, together with innumerable others who became
our able and persistent advocates. Without such support,
A.A. could have made only the slowest progress. Some of
the recommendations of A.A.’s early medical and religious
friends will be found further on in this book.

Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization.
Neither does A.A. take any particular medical point of
view, though we cooperate widely with the men of
medicine as well as with the men of religion.

Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate
cross section of America, and in distant lands, the same
democratic evening-up process is now going on. By
personal religious affiliation, we include Catho-lics,
Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and a sprinkling of Moslems and
Buddhists. More than 15% of us are women.

At present, our membership is pyramiding at the rate of
about twenty per cent a year. So far, upon the total
problem of several million actual and potential alcoholics in
the world, we have made only a scratch. In all probability,
we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of
the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy
for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly. Yet
it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no
answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and
will presently join us on the high road to a new freedom.