Traditions War: a pathway to peace
Preface
[PARTICIPANTS DRAFT OF WORK IN PROGRESS - NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION - ED]
Sunday, June 27,
2004
Shame - Guilt - Fear
Traditions
Wars:
a
pathway to peace
NA Fellowship Work in Progress
Cover
Art
The
Phoenix is a legendary bird whose tears have the power to heal. The Phoenix can
resurrect itself from its own ashes. When addicts get clean and stay clean, they
begin to resurrect themselves from the ashes made of their lives. The twelve
primary feathers represent the NA Twelve Steps of recovery. We look at the past
with shame, the present with guilt and the future with fear. Recovery changes
all that!
copyright © 2003
Victor
Hugo Sewell, Jr.
June
12, 2004 version from Draper, Virginia
NA
Foundation Group
1516 B Live Oak Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32301
www.nawol.org
Dedication:
To all that we lost during these times of
spiritual conflict. If you are alive,
Begun in February as the
Victors of the Traditions Wars, in April we moved to change the name of our new book effort to The
Traditions War: a pathway to peace. The
phrase was part of a sentence spoken by a member sharing in the Smyrna NA
Foundation Group. We had not thought of what happened as a war before, but it
was. People were hurt, some died, the conflict was real. That seems to cover the
action, the fire fights, the victims, casualties, victors and all levels of
conflict from cold-warism to outright attacks. We do not mean this as a literary
spin on real war. We mean this as the Japanese say, "business is war."
Our conflict has been very real and our members seriously injured by deliberate
actions, justified by confused members who had no better guidance to go on. We
love our members better. We don’t hate them better, control them better or
punish them better. Our purpose is to bring the conflicts out into the open
first and then to recommend alternative ways to deal with situations that have
the kind of give and take we need in a spiritual Fellowship like ours. You know,
where everybody and their friends are right about just about everything. To get
everyone on the same page, we need some more pages.
P
R E F A C E
If
you have been a member of NA since the late 1980's, and have gratitude in your
heart and hatred towards none, you are victorious over not only your disease but
also our historical episodes. Naturally, as a Fellowship, we expand for a while
numerically and conceptually – then
we contract. Our numbers follow this increase and decrease of conceptual breadth
and depth. The Tradition Wars is the
name we are giving to the conflict between those who think NA is set up like a
business and those who feel NA is a spiritual Fellowship. Many of us believe the
spiritual dominates the mental plane by including so great a number of factors
that go well beyond our field of perception.
This
is why we 'turn it over to God.' You can sense things of the world with sight,
hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. Things of the spirit are perceived in
another manner on a different, wordless, level. There are other good members who
have trouble relating to the spiritual and are more comfortable with the
material or mental idea of a Fellowship of clean addicts who follow a path of
action that while confusing seems to have good results, especially as to staying
clean. Many times in this work we will refer to WSO or the business-like
members. This is inevitable in dealing with issues and the written word. What we
don’t mean is that we hate the members or fail to see and value their
viewpoint. It is upsetting and troublesome to many people to have to deal with
the spiritual because it seems so intangible and unresolved to a person focused
on things of the world. The Tradition Wars have had to do with the violation of
our Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth and Ninth Traditions. Of course,
any violation involves them all ultimately but for purposes of our
considerations, we will deal with these first, through time and referencing
published minutes, reports and correspondence along with eyewitness accounts.
We
are fortunate to have talented, grateful members who are motivated to work on
this book in harmony and with the goal of inclusion of various viewpoints. As
someone pointed out recently, we don’t think there are serous casualties on
our side alone. Having many written materials should hasten the work and allow
us to reflect on the entries. Many reports and documents have flooded the NA
landscape and there are too many to present them all. We will attempt with the
help of an all loving, all-powerful creator to present samples representing
experience and viewpoints from all sides. Of course, we know this is a difficult
thing. Recovery has accustomed us to miraculous. It is no secret in life that
when you are exerting your full effort on behalf of someone in dire need, you
are able to step beyond your normal boundaries. Someone on the sidelines would
not see or understand that prayer gives people extraordinary energy and the
ability to do what is not normally possible. It is a mistake to think they are
doing it ‘on their own.’
Since
we don’t want money or personal credit for our work, it is obvious that others
figure we are nuts. It is just that it isn’t fair to take something where God
does all the work. Giving all credit to our Loving God is no exercise in
deception. It is the simple truth. It is important that those who would work
with us understand.. Love is
the flow of spiritual energy between people who care about one another and are
open to that caring. As NA has grown, there has been a hope among many of us
that the deep, abiding love would eventually be acknowledged. It certainly took
a lot of love to keep things going. Policies were pushed aside when they seemed
inconvenient. Members were wasted where they fell out of favor with the business
‘‘leaders’’ who began to take over world services. We see a far reaching
self-fulfilling prophecy downgrade membership in NA to prevent their having a
say in what happens in NA. The original, attractive NA enhanced members and
expected great things of them. This was uplifting and surprisingly many members
were able to rise to this level of expectation.
“As
I watched in the late 1980's the results of WSO's secret publication of the 4th
Edition Basic Text from my front row seat on the Board of Trustees, I was
appalled that my Fellow trustees were not upset. Some trustees seemed to be in
on the unauthorized changes. Unauthorized means the motion that called for the
light edit specifically removed the word ‘grammar’ lest it be interpreted to
allow for editing beyond spelling, tense, gender and verb agreement. [Look this
up and quote exactly! - Ed] This
created a system of ongoing tension between those who knew what happened and
those who did not. Obviously, much was being done outside the approved service
structure, leaving out the members who were following the rules and giving
ascension to those willing to break them. The level of damage was so great to
our spirit that the perpetrators could not be easily chastised or removed from
office. It was a fundamental breakdown of our system. Even to speak or write
about it today gets one tar brushed for being in the know. While all this was
going on, I prayed there would be a time of reckoning, so the membership would
understand that they have to take interest in what goes on at world level and
let their will be known! Otherwise, you can just wait for the next big surprise
to be thrown at us.
“I
have three obligations here. First to my own spiritual integrity, second to my
friends who died during these times or lost their spirit and third to you - who
would know the truth and pitch in to help us continue and expand our recovery
process in Narcotics Anonymous. Even
now in these quiet days, I wonder if they are up to something? Are there new
betrayals in the works? Or have they settled down to do their jobs in perfect
trust and faith to the NA Fellowship. Since the new WSO is styled as a business
corporation with little required reporting, no outside audit done in years and
delegates who vote how they 'feel' that day, and not representatives who vote
the conscience of their region, you can bet there are some nasty surprises
ahead. There is a tragic side to human nature that just wants to tear down
something beautiful. Like despoilers attacking a religious shrine, it is almost
as if they hate the serenity and peace of others and so attack their symbols.
The work of years can be torn down in a day. If there is nothing untoward going
on, well I am concerned for nothing. If there is, my apprehension only lowers
the impact of betrayal. It doesn't prevent it. The point is, I should not have
to worry about being betrayed in NA. Nor should anyone else. We can surrender
and play by the rules. It gets so twisted that to be forthright and correct is
to be deemed dumb and out of it. A world of recovering addicts has had its hands
tied for about twelve or thirteen years now. It was in trouble before that. But
like the complex inter-workings of an automobile, all the parts have to be in
place and in working order for the machine to run. A new Fellowship has grown up
wherein members are left out of processes, allowing themselves to be diverted by
the carefully presented policy motions that have as their main effect
neutralizing and immobilizing the creativity and curiosity of the Fellowship.
What makes it all funny and allows us to escape the mess is that by distancing
itself from us the supporters, world services if finally setting us free to
begin again advancing the processes they seek to control! Discipline is creative
- control is deadening.” – Bo S.
To
prevent this unfair diversion of Fellowship attention and money, we have to
develop a firm understanding of the 12 Traditions of NA. Some things are not ok
here. We need to praise our steadfast members who do the daily miracles by
setting up the meetings and conducting the services of groups, areas and
regions. We have to continue the study we began when we got clean as we continue
to pass on what we have learned thus far. This chain of learning and encouraging
others must not be broken. It is not spiritual or OK to say God will take care
of it. Do we need a rash of new funerals to remind us what happens when we don't
do God's Will? People in a valley dying of small pox better get serious about
vaccination if they want to live. God inspires and gives gifted people the
ability to develop the vaccine, it is up to the doctors and nurses to get it out
to the people who need it in time. While
many carry into recovery notions that wrongdoers need to be punished, that won't
work very well in NA. If someone makes a mistake, deliberately or by accident,
chances are they didn't really understand that their actions would result in the
death of some of our members. While we pay a terrible price to learn these
lessons, we don’t have to pay additional pain and agony by punishing the
‘culprits.’ We don't have to vent the anger we feel towards ourselves for
not maintaining the learning days and discussions that should prepare our
members to lead recovery meetings.
It
takes work and study to learn the importance of really sitting down and
explaining membership to someone new. The Twelfth Step is the key Step to NA
peace and unity. NA is a self-correcting program. We also warn our members that
sometime, somewhere, somehow, we will be thrown off balance and it will make
using drugs seem like a good idea. With our disease that is absolutely certain
to happen. It may be a business thing, a love affair, a service committee deal.
Whatever it is, your package is on its way. Will you have the spiritual force
and energy to ward off the obsession and compulsion or will you star in one of
the early death scenarios that remind the rest of us to do our duty?
Dot Tally of the Pittsburgh Fellowship once said, "Addicts have
three requirements to live: food, shelter and someone to blame it on." All
us addicts are like this to some degree. Learning to take personal
responsibility is the same as saying we find ways to take actions to bring about
the good things we want and minimize the things we don't want. Spread out over a
Fellowship wide scale, it takes a lot of gratitude and devotion to do what we
do. In our NA Society, we each play a vital role, sometimes only known to us. As
we share and transmit what we have witnessed and what works for us, room is made
for us to learn and experience new things.
I
want members of NA to know the miracles we have enjoyed. If some of our members
have climbed to the tops of mountains in our name, every NA member should know
about it and feel good. How we solve our problems and get help has to be learned
because it is not in our nature to do these things well. Usually an addict will
be real good at two or three things at the expense of everything else. We have a
lot to share and be grateful for in NA. I know I am not alone in this desire and
my knowledge of the miracles we have seen.
It should be noted that there are many types of corporations and
industries that are creative and make themselves attractive by engaging and
involving their members, stockholders or employees in their processes. Corporate
does not have to be cold and exclusive. Many flourish by establishing and
maintaining an air of openness and fair play. When things go wrong, they make an
openhanded evaluation and renew their commitment to quality service or whatever
their business is. One of the irritating aspects of the past twenty years is the
many times we have been betrayed by orators who cover corporate mismanagement
and tampering with Fellowship practices under the guise of 'good business.'
Terms like streamlining and cost efficiency are used to describe curtailing
services that members want and need. Duplication of services is a term used to
eliminate vital checks and balances. In
NA, it is never 'good business' to leave the Fellowship feeling left out.
In
Loving Service,
Bo
S.
hits in 2004!
Reprinted from the
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright © December 2001
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
NA Foundation Group
6685 Bobby John Road Atlanta, GA 30349 USA
404.312.5166
All rights reserved. This draft may be copied by members of Narcotics Anonymous for the purpose of writing input for future drafts, enhancing the recovery of NA members and for the general welfare of the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship as a whole. The use of an individual name is simply a registration requirement of the Library of Congress and not a departure from the spirit or letter of the Pledge, Preface or Introduction of this book. Any reproduction by individuals or organizations outside the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is prohibited. Any reproduction of this document for personal or corporate monetary gain is prohibited.
Last update January 12, 2006