AMERICAN PIONEERS 12 step fundamentalists

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I heard about a meeting of AA Big Book fundamentalists in the Toronto area, named "The Muckers" for the way they study the BB, marking up the pages as they pair up and guide one another through the BB text in a detailed, action oriented way--closely following the way of the first 100 to recover in AA. That was in June '96, and after covering the 1st 88 pages of the BB and another rigorous...

JOIN The Muckers Diocese of Middlesbrough Once dubbed the 'Hercules' of Britain's industrial empire, Middlesbrough has the culture and spirit of a revolutionary spiritual powerhouse.The Muckers say A.A. has lost its course. "Up there," says James, a slim, muscular Bay Street executive...

This is patently untrue. We attend meetings. We hold our own meetings. We have picnics. We go out for coffee. What we do say, however, is that fellowship alone didn't work. For us, we view the 12 steps as the essential foundation of recovery. Fellowship is encouraged in order to re-charge the battery, as it were, but if there is nothing to re-charge, the fellowship is insufficient. We...

For those of us who spent time in the rooms and did not recover, there is a tendency to criticize what did not work for us. We forget that what did not work for us may have worked for others. Still, we believe criticism can be healthy, as long as it is done in a constructive way and without malice. We must all be open to such criticism, so that we as individuals and as fellowships...

Again, we focus on the fact that, for us, time is not the issue. As a rule, we believe that, once a person has recovered, they are ready to guide someone else through the Book. It is the Book which contains the teaching, not the guide. We note that nowhere in the Book does it indicate a recovered alcoholic must wait a year before working with another alcoholic. In fact, in Bill's Story...

The Book states "We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem." (pg 17, A.A.) Having recovered, there is still the possibility the individual will slip. However, this depends on his/her effectiveness in continuing to work the program - to maintain and grow the spiritual...

For us, it is not how long an individual has been clean/sober. We know of many individuals with years of sobriety who have still not recovered. They are essentially unhappy, but have managed to stay clean. This is not something we aspire to. For us, time is not the issue. We focus on whether a person is recovered no...

This is true. We do not use sponsors. The recovered addict/alcoholic acts only as a guide during the booking process. Once that process is concluded, the two individuals may become good friends. Or the newly-recovered addict/alcoholic may become a friend of another person in the fellowship....

Step 12 is an integral part of our program. Some of us attend meetings of other fellowships. We tell people what happened to us. If someone is interested in trying our method, we offer to "book" them. We are not in competition with other fellowships. Getting booked is a short-term process. It can kick-start a long-term program. Many Muckers continue to be members of their original...

Muckers say that their way is the best way and the only true way to recover. When some of us first recovered, we were shocked at our own success stories. Previously hopeless, we found a method that worked for us where all else had failed. It was the last resort in a life-and-death situation, and it worked. Some of us promptly marched off and told anyone who would listen that this was...

Our focus is the Big Book, especially the first 89 pages. We use no other books. we try to follow the program of recovery as outlined those pages as closely as possible, not because we are fanatics but because it is what worked for thousands of the most hopeless alcoholics in the early days of A....

Our focus is the Big Book; we use no other text. The emphasis is on the first 89 pages of the Book, which have not been altered since originally published in 1939. The process of one addict/alcoholic guiding another through the Book takes between 24 and 30 hours, usually done in 2 - 3 hour sessions, typically over a period of 2 - 3 weeks. In the process, we write comments and notes,...

It has become obvious that the growth of The Muckers is being met with concern and, in some cases, hostility, from the organizations of other 12 step fellowships, particularly A.A. and C.A. In this letter, we would like to take the opportunity to speak to these issues directly. The Muckers are a group of men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of addiction...

The Middlesbrough Muckers are a group of men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of addiction and alcoholism, using the 12 step program as outlined in the book "Alcoholics Anonymous". Central to the Muckers methodology is the action of a single recovered addict or alcoholic, guiding another addict or alcoholic through the Big Book. We have discovered through...