Stepping Outside – Step Twelve (Part 2)

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In the last episode we spoke about a spiritual experience versus a spiritual awakening as well as the change, really inconsequential, in the 12th step where it says as a result of these steps versus as a result of this course of action. In this episode I will be speaking about the next phrase in the 12th step which says in the original, first edition 12 steps, I tried to carry this message to others.

I believe the main reason for this use of the word others was because the 12 steps were originally adapted from some of the tenets of the Oxford Group. The Oxford group was a spiritual movement for all people. They certainly would not have limited carrying this message of hope to alcoholics only. But this is the way Bill Wilson penned the 12 steps for the first edition of the Big Book and they were left that way until the second edition. I can understand how the people that were benefiting from this miraculous program, (pretty much all alcoholics), would have wanted the 12th-step to say, carry this message to alcoholics!

However, the cat was soon to be out of the bag. As the 12 steps became known around the world there was no stopping the realization that they would be helpful for anyone. One did not need to be an alcoholic for their lives to be unmanageable. They did not need to be an alcoholic in order to be restored to sanity. We certainly did not need to suffer any particular ailment or condition in order to discover our need to be loved by and depend on, a higher power.

These truths and ideas are really the crux of our willingness and desire to spread this program wherever in order  to share its ideas with all those we can.