[nandm]

Should A.A. Change?

I ran across the below quote from Bill W. I found it interesting because I have come across people from both extremes. People who believe that AA should remain unchanged or the message will get diluted causing the program not work. I have also come across people who definitely dilute the message; some of the sayings they tend to use:

• Take what you want and leave the rest. This to many people means work the Steps that you want to work. Only listen to people who don't **** you off. Don't worry about reading the BB and finding out what it really says all you need to know is what you hear in meetings.
• Keep coming back. To many this means go ahead and go out drinking, it's okay to do because we will welcome you back after each relapse with open arms.
• there are many more out there that I can not think of right at the moment.

I am curious to know how you feel about AA and change to keep up with the times. I have also added a poll to make it easier to see how people compare in their beliefs. I appreciate hearing any thoughts you have on this.

Perhaps our very first realization should be that we can't stand
still. Now that our basic principles seem established, now that our
functioning is fairly effective and widespread, it would be temptingly
easy to settle down as merely one more useful agency on the world
scene. We could conclude that "AA is fine, just the way it is."
... We have to grow or deteriorate. For us, the 'status quo' can only
be for today, never for tomorrow. Change we must; we cannot stand
still.
So then, if our basics [Steps and Traditions] are so firmly fixed
as all this, what is there left to change or to improve? The answer
will immediately occur to us. While we need not alter our truths, we
can surely improve their application to ourselves, to AA as a whole,
and to our relation with the world around us. We can consistently step
up "the practice of these principles in all our affairs."
... Let us continue to take our inventory as a Fellowship,
searching out our flaws and confessing them freely. Let us devote
ourselves to the repair of all faulty relations that may exist, whether
within or without.
-- Bill W., "The Shape of Things to Come", reprinted in
"The Language of the Heart"