Central Office vs. World Wide Fellowship

 

It is perhaps helpful to demonstrate our understanding and appreciation of other viewpoints than our own. It might strengthen our concern for it to be clear that we have investigated what we consider shortsighted methods that leave most members out in the cold. The other side of the picture goes like this:

 

The NA Fellowship has grown too large for group conscience to be an effective guide to action. Efficiency is best achieved by a small board with links to all parts of the Fellowship. Administrating the World Office, the NAWS, Inc. Board of Directors brings together the most experienced and able of the membership to take care of the business of NA. Members are not evenly informed and there is no practical way of doing this. Some members are getting clean and others are relapsing, making the idea of voting on real issues a dangerous undertaking. Instead of letting things rock along to inevitable disaster, a few brave members made solid plans to restructure world services. This would enable the Office to do its job without the endless parade of critical members and the necessity of presenting everything to an uninformed and loosely organized Fellowship. If we took on the job of providing informational material to all the members who need it, we would never get any work done.

 

This view would be acceptable only if NA was going to abandon the Twelve Traditions and become a business. It may appear, “more book sales, more recovery” overlooking the effects of betraying the fellowship giving them despair instead of hope, robbing them of their allegiance and identification. It is like building the front of a house while burning the back. Helping people grow in knowledge of the spirit and the incredible beauty and power of a loving God is what NA is all about. And this is what takes NA way beyond to scope of a business operation. Good service should be seen and felt. WSO was planned to be our primary service center. It is hoped that the fascination with bigness will give way to something more wondrous as time goes by.

Another member shares:

 

 

Many have often thought and shared with others the idea that "political correctness" is killing the fellowship of NA. Many members who have been around for over ten years have agreed with me. I have given it much thought and I am starting to think that when the WSO made its move to control the Fellowship, the idea of "politically correct thinking" invaded the fellowship. By this I mean that in today’s Fellowship, where I live, we do not question anyone's motives. We go along to get along. We do not make waves. Anything goes in NA because of the 3rd Tradition. It is ok to use because relapse is ok; you can always come back. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but things are different today than 13 years ago. When I got clean, I was told to sit down and shut up as I had nothing to share about recovery and the men I was going to meetings with already knew how to get loaded. I was instructed on clarity of the message of NA. I was given stern warnings about 13th Stepping, both as predator and prey. I was made to do service as a greeter and butt can monitor. I was told to work the steps as my life depended on it. I was called on my foul language and on my foul behavior. It was pointed out to me that with membership in NA comes responsibility. All of this was just what was needed. Today, I do not see this happening. Maybe it is just out West here and this kind of Fellowship exists somewhere else. I get flack from those who would allow anything to happen in the rooms when I talk about leaving the newcomers alone to heal. I have been told all must share whatever as we can not dictate to others what recovery means, all the while as we hear about the hardship of someone's day in their warm treatment center. Do not get me wrong, treatment is tough but to hear about issues for six meetings running is a bit much. We dare not question what was handed down from ASC as it was voted on, even though no such vote was allowed to happen at group level. Service Wonders of six months ramming the down 12 Concepts down our throats because it has the NAWS logo on it can get to be heartbreaking when they will not listen to older members talking about the 12 Traditions being our only guide to service.

 

It is better to be informed than right. An informed person can listen, discuss, assimilate new information and can put to work what they have learned and studied to better deal with things that come up in life. A person who is merely right must assert themselves, appeal to authority figures, evade specific questions and regard those who have a different viewpoint as the enemy and restrict their associations for fear of changing their minds. Political correctness is a substitute for morality. Over the course of time, the Fellowship of NA has seen many changes. We started out as a small but committed group of addicts who could not find freedom in other places. We were told by other 12 Step programs we could not share about our drug use. We were thought of as unsavory characters who would always end up in prison. We had to deal with laws that in some states made coming together openly in a recovery meeting a crime. We were looked down upon. Out of this adversity arose the idea that there could be a place for addicts to come together to help one another. That idea was Narcotics Anonymous. In 1953 our Fellowship as we do not know it today was born. There were even earlier meetings of Narcotics Anonymous though opinions vary as to how much they might be like recovery today. In the early years of NA we had very little to work with, other than bits and pieces of literature cobbled together from various parts of the country. We relied upon literature from another fellowship. It was of a specific nature that catered to a symptom of addiction. It did not deal directly with the nature of addiction. As such, it was inadequate for our needs as addicts. On the other hand our early members were real adamant about living a certain way. Recovery meant abstinence from all drugs. One drug was no different from another. We suffered from the disease of addiction and we could not expect to recover if we did not give up all drugs. Not only was this expected of members, it was driven home time and time again by the desire of our founders for NA to be a refuge where safety was paramount. Once you got to NA it was made clear that using was frowned upon. No drugs or paraphernalia was to be brought to meetings. We were to start to live as productive members of society, even if that just meant we would not be a risk to others at a meeting. Our 8th Tradition warns us against submitting our recovery program to professionals. 

8. Narcotics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our Service Centers may employ special workers.

 

Coupled with the 9th, we are further warned against ‘organization,’ and allowing our service boards to become autonomous. Bureaucracy has long been cited as the enemy of self-help organizations like ours.

9. NA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

 

When a few are given power over the many, tyranny is the natural result. Usually the tyrants don’t think themselves so terrible, just the people who take issue with them and find fault with their failing to follow the process. The few seek to hold their power by listing those who agree as supporters and those who disagree as detractors. In the twist from spirituality to oligarchy, detractors become enemies. This is the part we cannot tolerate in NA. We are all in a state of progress recovery and if ‘incorrect’ people are not allowed to participate, they are not free to grow to a better understanding. In no case should sanctions be made against those who disagree – as it is their right, even duty, to disagree where occasion warrants. It is what makes our freedom reality. It is freedom that makes us responsible because clean we can see the results of our actions in time to head off trouble. NA is the self-correcting program. Without freedom and choice there is no real morality.

“If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything.”

- Edward Johnson, 1990 “I’m not interested in the future.