The Agnostic’s Gateway to a Power Greater Than Himself – Pat

Recovered alcoholic, my name is Pat Rogan. Thanks to the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous outlined in this big book of Alcoholic Anonymous, which is the program of AA, I have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. For that, I will be forever grateful. AA didn't just save my life, but it gave me an absolutely amazing new life that I get to live in this program. And all that I was ever asked to do was when somebody asked me to speak, to say yes. And if somebody asked Me to sponsor them, to Say Yes. And that's all I've ever been asked of. And I continue to say Yes as much as I don't like doing it. Not sponsorship speaking. Uh-huh. so last week i kind of took you on my 20-year journey uh of how i ended up here and uh in the end i had uh blown up my life like most of us do to get here not necessary by the way if you're new and you're young you don't have to blow up your life you You don't have to be married and divorced, and you don't have to have a career and lost it or have done jail time. It's not a requirement for recovery. I mean, you can get off that train anytime you want. I didn't. I had to blow up my life. I hadと lose everything that I loved, and everybody that loved me had to be gone. And that isn't what got me here. What got me here is that alcohol would no longer justify my behavior. and uh gary used to always say that alcohol would give me permission to violate your principles and mine and uh that it would give my absolution later and uh and that was the case no matter what i did no matter who i hurt no matter what the consequences were i could always go to brady's pub and get with the group conscience and uh after about 10 beers everything was fine and we would all decide, yes, if you had your life and Pat, if I was married to the lady you're married to and if I were under the pressure you're under I'd be here too and we'd just go on and on and I did not know about obsession and compulsion I didn't know about choice and control I had no idea about any of that kind of stuff I didn'T know that once I put a drink in me that I was on a run I had NO idea about a physical craving that developed after you put a drink in you and i had no idea that i didn't have a choice in the drink i always thought that i had chose to have a couple of drinks and yeah i know i said i was on my way home but i changed my mind you know and uh you know something came up you know and i would just uh i'm a grown-ass man i mean nobody tells me what to do you know i mean what do i have to come home at a certain time i'm 30 years old for god's sake you know and that was just you know the group conscious we'd get together and we'd say yeah you're right man yeah nobody should tell you what to do you're grown i'm here because alcohol stopped working that's why i'm and i i shared with you guys last week that i spent my first 90 days in here suffering from untreated alcoholism hanging in there I was hanging in. How you doing? Got him hanging in there. How's it going? I still didn't get the house back. How's It Going? She hasn't lifted the restraining order yet. How's IT Going? Living in the back room of my mom's. Things are not getting better. I always think I share with you guys last week, Charlie Pommel used to say, You'll feel better. You'll Feel Resentment Better. You'll Fear Better. You'll Anger Better. That's what I was feeling better. i found out what my problem was uh when i was ready to leave aa i i just had enough of this program i had enough identities i was not going to denny's ever again i'd been there for 90 days in a row and uh i had done about 270 meetings in 90 days and uh and this shit wasn't working for me that's just the way i felt and uh and i told you guys all off at a 10 p.m meeting and picked up my red chip and left that meeting and i was at what the vision for you calls the jumping off point you know who's been there where you can't live with it and you can live without you know that's a tough place to be that's an emotional bottom and that's it and And that's really what I found out later is why I drink. Not so much as I like the effect produced by alcohol, what I like is the effect it does on my emotions. I like how it takes care of the way I feel. But I don't have my medicine anymore. I don t have my solution anymore. My solution is not working anymore. And that s when I met Brian and Brian read The Doctor s Opinion to me and he described my life in one paragraph you pat you are restless irritable and discontent full of torment anxious anxiety ridden fear driven unless you can find that ease and comfort it comes once from a couple of drinks three or four yeah and then boom you're off to the races and you come out of that run i am so sorry i am so sorry honey i mean it this time your honor your honor listen i know what i said i know you said you'd never see me here again this time i mean and i think i shared with you guys last week That felony that I was framed for, I was at that arraignment and I swore on my mother. I was in my Travolta outfit in lockup, in population at the Allegheny County Jail in downtown Pittsburgh. I've never been so scared in my life. I mean, literally, I wasn't afraid of anything. I was right in front of that judge with tears coming down. I mean I was scared. And I meant it. I sware on my mom he would never see me again. and the real alcoholics in this room will understand that I was drunk before I got home. I was drunk before I got home. The pressure was just too much. Cars impounded. I don't have the money to get it out. I need an attorney. I'm on a court date. I'm facing felony charges allegedly. I just need to take the edge off this is repeated over and over and over again and a big part of the next couple of chapters is trying to explain to me what it means to be absolutely powerless and that there is no human power that's going to keep a guy like me stopped. And the book distinguishes that with the description of different types of alcoholics, right? It says, and I'm thinking more about alcohol, it says whether a person can quit on a non-spiritual basis depends on the extent they've lost the power to choose whether they will drink or not. To choose whether they will drink or not, which implies that some people have a choice as to whether they're going to drink or no. And do I have a choic? Do I believe that I have a choice, as to wether I will drink of not? And then it describes my brother, I have a brother and two sisters. I have sister who is 2 years less sober than me. I've a brother that's a normie it skipped him and then my sister died of an overtoast about 17 years ago so three out of four of us caught the bullet but my brother is that moderate temperate drinker that they describe in the book he thinks about our childhood which was tragic was tragic he thinks about it and he gets a little bit depressed and he has a couple of drinks and he goes and watches TV or goes to bed because he's got to get up early in the morning. I have, thinking about my childhood, I get a little depressed. I have a couple of drinks to take the edge off. I get an eight ball. And then I'm off to the races. I have two sisters that were the same way. but then it talks about the guy that looks just like us that drank with us but hasn't lost the power of choice my buddy jimmy d him and i got drunk and high together for years up in pittsburgh i moved to south florida he moved to South Florida we hooked up again in South Florida We started running together again. We were cooking, man. Jimmy was with me side by side, drinking and doing some other non-conference approved substances right along with me. And we were at this biker bar in Margate. I'm not sure why neither one of us had a bike. With this bicher bar in Margate. I don't know, maybe looking to get our asses kicked. You ever just want to have some fun? Get into some trouble. And Jimmy's wife called him while we were sitting in that bar and said, if you don't come home now, I'm getting a divorce. Jimmy went home. I never saw him again. That was like 38 years ago. Jimmy's still married to the same lady. He has three, I think he had two, maybe three kids at that time. And I guarantee you that Jimmy detoxed when he got home. I guarantee it. He shook, rattled and rolled. I don't know if he went into treatment, but that guy ran like I ran. But he was given sufficient reason to stop or moderate. And I don' t know if stopped or moderates, but he's not on a run anymore. And he kept his life together. He didn't blow up his life. He was given a reason he went home. I'm on my third marriage because nobody tells me what to do I'm a grown ass man what about the real alcohol what about the real alcoholic that person that sacrifices everything that person that says I'm not going to do it F it You know, I don't even go by the fact that we believe a lie. I don�t even think that's always true. I think we can drink on the truth. How many have knowing what the consequence is going to be picked up anyway? Right? Right? And even if you have your friends right beside you telling you, �Don't do it! Don't! They're testing you Friday. You know? You're going to probation Friday. It's Wednesday. not going to be clean. What? She's leaving. She said, she's gone. Effort. There's a paragraph more about alcoholism. I call it the effort paragraph. Right? I got it marked in my book. Effort, right? It says what about when we deliberately go out and get drunk knowing what the consequences are going to be and we do it anyway you anyway dude don't buy it you got rent tomorrow I'm in there now we act like that's a new concept right we're living in the now it's about them now forget about rent tomorrow let's party now we'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow I've been living one day at a time my whole life this is not a new concept yeah how about this you ever say this I don't care no you're going to jail okay oh you do care once you're there but in that moment what is it that drives that obsession what is the drives that need for me it's emotional it's emotional it's here i can't get a deep breath i just can't i just can't and after that third drink or whatever man if i could just stop there i could just stop there and he says this is over and over and over again unless we can have some kind of psychic change Something can change. There's little hope for our recovery. We're doomed to an alcoholic death. I mean, a book tells me right at the beginning of there is a solution, which really should say there is problem, right? That should be the name of that chapter at the end. At the beginning, there is no problem. you know there's a problem here the solution comes later in the chapter but at the beginning they're saying there's no problem you have placed yourself beyond human aid it was obvious to me i don't know where you're at and if you're new here i don'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE AT but i want to tell you something there's nobody and i know there'S other people sitting in this room nobody that loves anything more than my children no those two boys are the most important thing in my life you know i gave them up for a drink i lost custody of my oldest son for a effing drink because nobody tells me what to do i gave up another marriage forget about the properties and all that crap children how do you do that it was obvious when you guys set this laid this out to me that those children, which were the most important thing in my life, were not enough to keep me stopped. And I know there's other people in this room that were in that same boat. Well, how many parents begged you? What's it say? Frothy emotional peels seldom suffices. Please, my mother, you're killing me. You're killing my mother. You're doing me. Please do it for her. Do it for those kids. Can't you do it für mich? no i couldn't i would tell her i would my poor mother when i was looking at amends on my on my night step my mother got a good night's sleep when i was in jail that's when she rested my uncle so i'm gonna go bail him out no leave him there for a couple days you know just leave let me get some sleep that's powerlessness that's lack of power that was my dilemma, that's my dilemma lack of powerful where and how am I going to find that power that's exactly what this book is about help me to find a power greater than myself that will solve my problem and it says it will solve my problem I am not going to solve my problems I love that at the first line and there is a solution thousands of men and women who have solved their problem no they haven't that's a lie that was just to get us to read on oh they solved their problems wonder how they did it yeah they found a power that solved the problem that's how they do and we're gonna talk about God if that makes you uncomfortable I'm sorry I'm sorry but that's our solution here there's a spiritual solution a AA has a spiritual solution if you have another option have at it my hats off to you our hats are off to you you can do this some other way if you can will yourself sober my hat's off you could do it at church go for it please go for it warns us in we agnostics that if a better code of morals or a better philosophy on life was sufficient a lot of us who go to church and our believers wouldn't be here today But there's a lot of believers who go to church every Sunday who can't stay stopped. Now, it may have something to do with what Bill says three times. Faith without words is dead. It may have some to do that. It wasn't enough for me. I can't bring into my consciousness with sufficient force the pain and suffering. The book says a week or a month ago, bull crap. I can't bring into my consciousness the pain and suffering of this morning. I can'T remember what I promised this morning I can' t remember the hangover this morning I can´t remember the devastation that took place the night before the next day How many times do you get up and swear not tonight, not today, not tonight and then what, beer 30 arrives Right? Right around 4 or 5 o'clock. Okay, just a couple. I'll be home and have a start dinner. I'll Be Home. You know, tall boy for the ride home. Never make it home. I called. I said I was on my way and never made it home I had every intention of being there when I called I had ever intention of being at my son's football games on Friday night in his high school at every intention him being there i never saw one i never saw one my son used to say yeah you said that last week dad i'll believe it when i see it i meant to and every intention to it our solution is spiritual the salute the great fact is just this and nothing less that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences that revolutionize our whole outlook and attitude towards life. The central fact of our recovered lives today is that God has entered our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous and commences to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. And what was that? I couldn't stay stopped. And this book has done for me and over two million people what it promised, is that it connected us with a power greater than ourselves that solved our problem. but that's a tough sell when you're new here and you're young here and you haven't lost a career yet and you haven't been divorced yet and you haven' t seen the jail cell yet and I get it, you guys are coming in younger there's some crazy shit out there there's som e crazy stuff out there well let me tell you this too page 30 if you're an addict I'm going to break the 10th tradition where's my crack heads at IV users just skip page 30 you're never going to smoke crack like a normal person you're not going to control and enjoy your crack use or your IV use it's just not going happen that delusion, that illusion, that insanity that obsession doesn't apply to you you might need a different book might need another book or at least rip that freaking page out go identify in the right fellowship and then come back to us you're welcome this will work for you but you've got to identify you may not identify in this fellowship I don't know what it's like to smoke crack I never smoked crack I love sponsoring crackheads. I got to say that. You guys get obsession and compulsion, man. You don't have to spend a lot of time on the doctor's opinion with you guys. Okay, we're going to talk about obsession. Yeah, I got it. I got It. I got Okay, let's talk about this physical compulsion. Yeah, yeah, I Got It. I Got I don't know why it had to be the 10th month to read that tradition, right? The whole chapter in we agnostics could be called get over it. Get over it, you know? We're talking about dying an alcoholic death or accepting spiritual help, right, go on to the bitter end, blotting out our intolerable situation or accept spiritual help. isn't that what it comes down to yeah i was so desperate when i walked in here as much as my religious beliefs were crazy off the wall and combative if you will you couldn't scare me out of here i didn't have any else to go where else am i going to go i'd rather be here than the back room at my mother's i'd better be at denny's well until it was no fun anymore when i asked you guys what do you do for fun and you said this is it we go to denny's ice cream thursdays yeah then for some anyway we're crazy aren't we i could just recall that i have this euphoric recall that that he that recalls that one great night that i had recently yeah like i used my life used to be good look at them in denny s and then somebody would have to remind me bat you're here because you blew up your life that's why you're here you couldn't scare me out but i wasn't on this religious page and neither is aaa neither is aa quote bill wilson this is not a religious program we cooperate with religion we cooperate with medicine but we're neither we're neat and some people might not lock it like it when i say this but we are a spiritual program of recovery not a religious program of recovering that's a fact and there's people out there that hate when i see it but that is what we are the miracle of aa in my opinion a miracle of aaa is emmy thatcher out of pure frustration Because Bill Wilson, what did he say? My drinking will last longer than his preaching. Ebi Thatcher is there selling the Oxford Group's message. It's a Jesus Christ message. Find Jesus or die, Bill. And Bill said, keep ranting. I'll just keep drinking. And out of pure frustration, Bill tells the story, out of purer frustration, Ebi says, damn it, Bill, why don't you just believe in your own conception of God? and boom there to me is the miracle of alcoholics anonymous right there a starting point a starting point for the non-believer or for the agnostic same thing same solution right the atheists and the agnostics have the same solutions us me just one's not sure and the other one's sure there isn't one convince no god there is no such thing and that book is like that chapter to me say hey man get over it you're dying you are dying it's almost he says i think he's right i think half the people that come to aaa are redirected or atheists at least have some bad experience with god right or with church with religion right i mean i did i mean i didn't get it here's what i heard here's i heard in church if you jump through the hoop and you follow the rules you're going to go to the gates of heaven but pat if you don't if you follow rules you're gone to the fire and then we had this purgatory thing do they still have purgatory it's a halfway house not bad enough to burn not good enough to make it through the gates halfway right and i don't remember the prayer that used to say we would say it and somebody gets shot up out of the halfway house unsure how that worked here here's the problem though i wasn't capable of following the rules I didn't know that nobody was. Didn't know. I had no idea that we were all broken. I didn' t know. I thought I was the only one lying in confession. I used to go to confession and lie. Because I want to be normal. So I would take a poll, like how many lies you got? How about you, Pete? How many you got, yeah? You do any stealing or anything like that? And I'd get a little poll going and I'd go in there and just be normal And then I'd leave confession with guilt. Like, I just lied to the priest, you know? I didn't get it. But here, and I don't even know if that's why I disconnected, but what I, I think the reason I disconnected is because their rules were not fun. And on this side of the island, they were having a blast violating all those rules. What a crazy time to grow up in the 60s and 70s, right? you're taught in church did it just for reproduction sex with one person and only if you're married and then it's a free sex world you're growing up in like anytime anywhere with anybody any position so there was a conflict yeah and i thought i think this side of the island's a lot more fun than that side so i'm going with this side and then anything i wanted to do alcohol and drugs justified it gave me permission came with permission in any area of my life financial social sex any area in my life i could get away with anything and then drink and the guilt and the shame and the remorse we don't have that luxury today do we it kind of becomes the deal, doesn't it? It kind of become the deal in the long run. I need to change. I need the change. It says, came to believe that a power greater than myself could, not would, could restore me to sanity. Could means there's some conditions that have to be met. There's some things we got to do. There's somethings we got a change if we want that to take place. I can't continue to be that deviant that walked into these rooms and think that God is going to restore me to sanity and when I say God whatever you think that is that's what I'm talking about a power greater than human power call it what you want Jesus, Mohammed, Allah I don't care what you call nobody cares what you call it alright I just love kids. By the way, that does not bother me at all. Don't you ever use her as an excuse not to come here. Yeah. So the book starts out with talking about two powers. And it starts out talking about the power of this fellowship. And there is a power in this fellowship, I don't know about you, but even knew without having any connection with this God, this power greater than myself, as soon as I walked into these rooms, I felt a power. I felt relief. I had lawsuits and restraining orders and assault battery charges, all kind of crap going on with attorneys. and as soon as I came into these rooms and sat down I felt it and you guys are going to put your arm around me and say hey man, it's going to be okay and I would say when in God's time how long is that and then I think it was Father Bob that said to me well God don't have a watch I remember, I think, did I share with you guys last week? I think I talked about it. I didn't know you guys didn't drink when I got here. I looked at the old timer. I said, dude, is this forever? And he smiled and he said, nope, one day at a time, son. And I said... Fuck you. And I didn'T know how profound that was, right? I didn't know how profound that was because sometimes it is just about getting through the day, right? It's blowing up. It's falling apart. I feel like crap. Just got to get to this meeting tonight. That's all. I just got to Get to You. I got to gets to my people. You're my people, the people in this room I hang out with. I go to hockey games with them. I go concerts with them, and I hang on with you guys. We're everywhere. talking to Pierre earlier I go to the hockey game, it's like going to an AA meeting where it's, like, 20 of us get together while we're there you know, the concert, I see people hey, there's, oh how come you're not speaking at the meeting tonight you know it's just so much fun so there's a great power in this fellowship what binds us is that we all have this common problem Bill talks about the Titanic, right he gives that analogy with the Titanic we're all on the same sinking ship or a sinking ship some of you are on yachts and it's sinking and some of your own canoes in its thinking but we're also thinking yeah and that's what binds us together that's brings us together. That's that's the common bond our shared suffering you share in your story and me going yeah I did that that happened to me my god I felt just like that. And then there's this bond created, and you become my buddy. There's a power in that. I always remember going to – my son goes to a non-denominational church up in Jacksonville, and I love going up there with him, and we go to his church. And Pastor Rust, the one week I was there, it was their anniversary of their church. And Tony Battelli and Mark Brumell were there. They were two of the founders of the church, and football fans say no. Quarterback and linebacker for Jacksonville, right? And they were there, and they asked Tony Buscelli, what was the most important day in founding this church? And Tony Busselli said meeting Mark Brumell. He said, Mark and I are like this. He said man, we think alike. We feel the same. We have a lot of the same problems. I can call Mark any time, a day or night, and Mark picks up the phone. If I need to talk to Mark, he'll come. He'll leave no matter what he's doing. He'll drop it, and he'll come, and he'll meet me, and we can talk it out. Mark will look at me and say, okay, what's wrong? And they asked Mark the same question. He said, Tony, Tony's my guy. Tony, man, no matter what, Tony can read me like a book. Tony's there for me always no matter what. And I thought about that. Who's your Tony Buscelli? Who's your Mark Brumell? Who's your go-to i'm not necessarily talking about your sponsor i'm talking about your people who's that friend that roommate that you can go beat on the door and say dude i need to talk man let me tell you what's going on and you can talk it out with him who is that guy billy gowen was billy gee was that guy for me still is like i see billy at all the hockey games you know i was just with him he just spoke the other night at the central that billy was that guy i billy and i bonded billy had two years which was like god when i got here i mean i stayed away from guys that had 30 some years so you know they're lying you know two years that's me right there i need to get two years billy has something i wanted and billy i bonded he was going through a divorce i was going to a divorce he had two boys i had two boys, we knew we had this common problem other than just this. But we also were dealing with a common solution. And Billy was, Billy and I, we were talking the other night laughing about it. We used to stand out in front of the bottom line in Deerfield till two, three in the morning. He would stay there talking to me while I was trying to get through some crap that was going on in my life. And I'm telling you, there was a lot of crap going on. And then I would sit there and listen to him if he needed to talk. I could call him any time of day or night, and he would call me any time a day or now. Billy had what I wanted, and I followed Billy wherever he went. Where Billy was going, that's where I wanted to be. I didn't ask you where the closest meeting was. I asked you, where is Billy? Where's Billy? Because Billy was chasing guys like Pete, Like, like, like Garrett Like Ben Troxell Like Zeke He was chasing guys that were on fire With this thing And I got to be part of that I got the opportunity To be parted that Instead of going to these open disgusting meetings I mean these open depression I mean open discussion meetings The who's got a problem meetings You know, isn't that ridiculous you're going through a divorce and you dump your divorce into a room full of divorces right and ask for advice I want to talk to somebody's got like 30 years married never divorced you know I want get advice from that but I became who I hung out with you know what I'm saying I became like Billy I was chasing those same, and I still do that. I don't want to know where the close meeting is. I want to know who's speaking at that meeting or what kind of meeting is it? That's what I want to be able to do. What I want you to know, is it a big book meeting? Is it a step meeting? Pete speak it? Russell speak it? That's where I'm going. You'll become who you hang out with. You hang out with the predators, that's what you'll become. You'll hang out with the people who are chasing this recovery, you You'll find it. You'll fine recovery if you want. If you want it. Jesus. So, like I said, we agnostics, when I rewrite the book, I'm going to put we agnostic before chapter two. Because it really opens up the gateway, right? It really tells me, it tells Pat, lay aside everything you think you know, Pat. Everything you think you know about God and religion, lay aside all of that prejudice. They use that word a lot, right? Old ideas. Lay aside all those old ideas that you think, you know, because everything, you know, Pat is killing you. And what we show you here might save your life. It just might save you life. What do you got to lose? What do you got to lose? So what do you want God to be, Pat? Choose your conception of God. What would God be if you could choose your conception? By the way, it doesn't say create. It says choose. That means a tree is not going to do it. I can chop a tree down. That ain't more powerful than me. My dog, I love my dog, but I could kick that dog's ass. I need something powerful, something intangible. What would it be? Well, it would be this force. I really wrote this down. It would be the force that is forgiving and loving. And that's what I want, a God of forgiveness, and I want a God who loves me. I want God of love. Go with that. Go withthat. Start there. what's it saying and the book is telling you take one step off of where you're at right if you're an atheist take one step off no and say okay maybe okay maybe then as soon as you say maybe and you start doing some work you'll start getting results and guess what that equals faith that equals faith So be willing to believe. Just say, maybe there is something out there that I can't see that might save my life. Maybe there is. And that's where I start. That's where i started. That's the formula, by the way, in AA, right? Maybe I'm willing to belief. I'm going to make a decision. I'm gonna take some action. Then I'm gunna get some results and then I'm ganna have faith. then it was like damn there's something to say anything now i was it was the god of my misunderstanding for many years but we yeah i love i love bill's analogy he's i mean he's genius when he writes this thing like you know he talks about the electrons and neutron you know the makeup of a steel girder you know i mean that's just so cool you know that we take everybody's word for you know this is solid and this isn't this is wood and this is air and then they some zachary and this other dude make create this microscope and they see these freaking molecules a bunch of molecules moving around in there they're they're separate they're like so it's really not solid it's a bunch of molecules they're whirling around and we just go okay okay I believe it can't see it but I believe it then you get a little more powerful one and they go wait a minute these molecules will make up of atoms there's a lot of atoms making up these molecules and we just take their word for it so yeah okay cool oh wait a minute there's these protons and these neutrons these electrons making up these atoms to make up these molecules and that's what this really is it's really not solid and guess what everything on the planet is made up of the same thing and there's no beginning we call it energy and there is no beginning to it there's end to it you can't create it you can't destroy it and everything is pure energy including us and we just say cool it's fact but when somebody says there's this invisible power we're gonna we're gonna label it God the lack of a better term and it's gonna save your life we You go, wait a minute. Wait a minute Show me Why? Why would we need to be shown? How about we just make a decision We do the work and see what happens Die the alcoholic death Or take a leap of faith See what happens What do you got to lose? What do I got to loose? I'm almost out of time I'm going to read something real quick. I'll end with this. This was a fairly new pamphlet that came out not too many years ago, in 2018. And it has a quote from Bill Wilson in it, and I love it. This is from our co-founder. He wrote this in 1965. We have atheists and agnostics. We have people of nearly every race, culture, and religion in AA. We are supposed to be bound together in the kinship of common suffering. Consequently, the full individual liberty to practice any creed or principle or therapy or whatever should be the first consideration for us all. Let us not, therefore, pressure anyone with our individual or even our collective views. Let us instead accord each other the respect and love that is due every human being as he tries to make his way towards the light. Let us always try to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Let us remember that each alcoholic among us is a member of AA so long as he or she declares. Whatever you do, please don't let someone else's religious beliefs prevent you from finding the solution that's available to you through Alcoholics Anonymous. Thanks for letting me be here today.