Originally Posted by
joedris 
Anyone who tries to scare or intimidate anyone else into joining AA is going against everything AA stands for. They forget the tradition that says AA seeks by attraction, not promotion. People who use this scare tactic lead others to believe they represent the AA program when indeed they're the antithesis of it. Unfortunately, there are people like that out there.
I'm in AA and have been for a number of years. It worked for me. If I see someone struggling with sobriety, I'll suggest they give AA a try. If they find they don't care for it, fine. It's not the only game in town.
The 11th tradition of AA is one of the most misunderstood:
"Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films."
This tradition has nothing to do with how we carry a message to suffering alcoholics, but does talk about how the organization operates publicly. It has unfortunately been distorted to suggest that we need to be passive and reticient with alcoholics, that anything that may frighten a newcomer into thinking their situation is dire is somehow mean-spirited.
The tradition is about publicity not how we deal with other alcoholics.
AA's success rate of 4-5% might have something to do with the misapplication of "attraction not promotion." People are dying, but thank God we haven't offended them.