“We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”¹

— Eighth Step

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”²

— Ninth Step

Often presented as a given, “The Twelve Promises of A.A” do not exist, as such, in our literature.

All that can be said on the topic of these “promises” is that they will be realized through the practice of Step Nine, “if we are painstaking about this phase of our development”.³ It is also true that “We will be amazed before we are half way through”³ our journey to self-fulfillment.

In the specific context of the Ninth Step, each of us knows how far he has come on that journey, and each of us has his list of persons he has harmed and to whom he must make amends.

The Importance of Specific Context
in Sourcing our Literature

As soon as we use this specific text of Step Nine outside of its proper context, we are inventing something that risks biasing who we are fundamentally. We are integrating the notion that there are “general promises” that really don’t exist, in and of themselves, in A.A.

Neither in the Conference-approved literature, nor in the documentation produced by our General Service Office (G.S.O.) have we come across a text presented as “The 12 Promises of A.A.”, or “The A.A. Promises” or whatever else might allow us to think that A.A. “makes promises”.

In a general way, Alcoholics Anonymous neither makes promises nor insinuates that they exist. The approach taken by A.A. has always been that of attraction.

Without making distinctions or judgements, A.A. suggests Twelve Steps of recovery for whoever has the desire to stop drinking. A.A. does not pretend to be the solution, but a solution that has worked and continues to work for millions of people around the globe. To present A.A. as being the solution would be to elevate ourselves above other existing programs of recovery. The A.A. movement does not do this. A.A. does not make this kind of value judgement since they have no opinion on outside issues. Consequently, Alcoholics Anonymous itself does not pretend to be the ideal solution among all those that exist.

Essentially, we introduce ourselves by saying, “Here is what worked for us. In turn, we are offering it to you in the hope that it might work for you too.” There are no promises in our approach. It is essentially based on attraction, on the one hand, and on the other the freedom to decide if the program is for you.

The Basic “Altered” A.A. Text

In each new edition of the Big Book (we are now on the fourth edition), even though the forewords and the personal stories change, the basic texts of Chapters 1 through 11 remain intact, exactly the way they were written in the first edition. These eleven chapters, taken together, are generally known as the basic A.A. Text.

The Big Book extract presented as being “The 12 Promises of A.A.” is part of the basic A.A. text. Principally, the paragraph found on pages 83 and 84 of the Big Book (fourth edition) has been appropriated as is to create “The 12 Promises of A.A.” :

• The paragraph is taken out of the specific context of Step Nine. This context is essential to the notions of “this phase of our development” and “before we our half way through”.
• A title has been added : “The 12 Promises of A.A”, effectively implying that the entire A.A. movement “The A.A. promises you this”. This is false. Taken out of its specific context concerning the practice of Step Nine, A.A. does not make these promises.
• The number “12” in the title is justified by the fact that the sentences of this paragraph have been arranged in a way that facilitates numbering them 1 to 12. The first sentence has been cut into two parts. The first part then becomes a sentence introducing “The 12 Promises of A.A.” and the second part of the sentence becomes — in and of itself — the first “promise”. The remaining sentences are simple taken out, one after the other and numbered.

Simply reading these “12 Promises of A.A.” no one has the slightest idea what one should do to live these “promises”, no one can say with certainty what delineates the “half way” mark of our journey to recovery, or even what constitutes the “phase of our development” in question. Nevertheless, upon reading the original text it is clear that A.A. makes these promises within one specific context : when we are seriously committed to the making of amends for wrongs done. This is a considerable condition. When this phase of our development, necessary to the realization of these “promises” has been quietly reached, it is at this moment that they can take on the allure of an offering, one that is susceptible to the conditions in fine print.

This in no way prevents “each group is free to work out its own customs and ways of holding meetings, as long as it does not hurt other groups or A.A. as a whole”.⁴

Position of the Area Web Site Work Group:

In the spirit of preserving our Three Legacies and in light of the preceding observations, it seemed wise not to reproduce on our website an extract from our basic A.A. text in a manner which is inexact (altered text) and taken out of its particular context, deemed essential in this case.

Instead, it is with great pleasure that we have reproduced on our site a beautiful extract from the Big Book, one which carries hope- in its original form and context :

> The Ninth Step Promises

— The Web Site work group, 2007

 

¹ Extract from the book Alcoholics Anonymous,
Chapter 5 — “How It Works”, page 59.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid., Chapter 6 — “Into Action”, page 83.

⁴ Extract from the pamphlet A brief guide to Alcoholics Anonymous, page 9. See also the long version of Tradition 4 concerning the autonomy of A.A. groups.

© A.A.W.S. Inc.
All extracts derived from the A.A.W.S. site and reproduced with their permission.