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You hear it in meetings, “…we have AA Approved
Literature available for sale at cost…”
You hear it in group conscience meetings “…we should
only allow readings from AA Approved Literature…”
You hear non-group members crosstalking in a meeting
when someone reads from Richmond Walkers’ 24 Hours a Day,
Emmet Fox’s Sermon On The Mount, or one of Ralph Pfau’s Golden Books
–“You can’t read that in an AA meeting – it’s NOT AA Approved Literature…”
Factually, unlike Alanon, there is no such thing as AA
Approved Literature. The early AA’s read from the
Bible, the Upper Room, Oswald Chambers, Cecil Rose, Leslie Weatherhead, Sam
Shoemaker, Emmet Fox, Richmond Walker, Ralph Pfau and many others – a simple
visit to
Dickb.com will bear this out. As
Dick B. aptly points out “Whatever some may think, A.A. has no index of
forbidden books.”
In the 1950’s AA World Services took over WORKS
publishing’s rights to publish the Big Book and began publishing other books
as well. In the course of the next 40 years AAWS
began to publish more books but eventually lost the copyright on the first
two editions of the Big Book. Until 1993 books which were owned and printed
by AAWS were identified by the use of a Circle/Triangle Symbol bearing the
three legacies.
On
May 21, 1993 , an AA World
Service Ad Hoc committee released an unsigned document titled: "Follow-up
Statement Regarding Use of the Circle/ Triangle Symbol."
In it, AAWS stated that "Alcoholics Anonymous will phase out the
'official' use of the circle and triangle symbol in and on its literature,
letterheads and other material." That document
was issued without a conference action or a "group conscience".
The term “Conference Approved” literature now replaces
the Circle/Triangle Logo to merely
“identify” ( AAGV Vol. 50-7 1993
) the books solely owned and published by AAWS and not as a
predetermined list. The most definitive illustration of this is that the
public domain first edition of the Big Book is NOT “Conference Approved”.
“Conference Approved” in no way constitutes a list of any written documents
of which an AA body approves or disapproves. (
Please see the ad
hoc committee Final Report
of the 1993 General Service Conference
)
A formal statement concerning the Conference, the
G.S.O, and what AA members read was issued by the General Services Office of
AA in 1978.
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“WHAT CONFERENCED-APPROVED MEANS”
GSO Box
4-5-9 1978
(Volume 23, No 4)
AA’s General Service Office said:
“It
does not mean the Conference
disapproves of any other publications. Many local A.A. central
offices publish their own meeting lists. A.A. as a whole does
not oppose these, any more than
A.A. disapproves of the Bible or any other publications from any source that
A.A.’s find useful.
What any A.A. member reads is no business
of G.S.O., or of the Conference,
naturally.” |