EMPATHETIC WITNESS
At every meeting there is a similar format. After prayers and brief readings from “Alcoholics Anonymous,” the basic text, one or more persons stand up and talks about what life was like before AA, how he or she happened to come to the program and how he or she lives without drugs and alcohol. But more than that, this quintessentially Protestant, holy-roller sort of ritual (albeit delivered with startling restraint considering the subject matter) struck me as key to how and why AA works. In fact an AA meeting is not unlike a revival meeting. The excitement and attention that were conferred by drugs and alcohol are now provided by bearing witness. And Roman Catholics, Jews and high-end Protestants averse to smiting their breasts in public are being “saved” — even applauded. From “Hollywood: God Is Nigh” by Benjamin J. Stein, Newsweek, December 12, 1988
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