How do you justify calling alcoholism an
illness, and not a moral responsibility?
Answer
Early
in A.A.'s history, very natural questions arose
among theologians. There was a Mr. Henry Link who
had written "The Return to Religion (Macmillan Co.,
1937). One day I received a call from him. He stated
that he strongly objected to the A.A. position that
alcoholism was an illness. This concept, he felt,
removed moral responsibility from alcoholics. He had
been voicing this complaint about psychiatrists in
the American Mercury. And now, he stated, he was
about to lambaste A.A. too. Of course, I made haste
to point out that we A. A.'s did not use the concept
of sickness to absolve our members from moral
responsibility. On the contrary, we used the fact of
fatal illness to clamp the heaviest kind of moral
responsibility on to the sufferer. The further point
was made that in his early days of drinking the
alcoholic often was no doubt guilty of
irresponsibility and gluttony. But once the time of
compulsive drinking, veritable lunacy had arrived
and he couldn't very well be held accountable for
his conduct. He then had a lunacy which condemned
him to drink, in spite of all he could do; he had
developed a bodily sensitivity to alcohol that
guaranteed his final madness and death. When this
state of affairs was pointed out to him, he was
placed immediately under the heaviest kind of
pressure to accept A.A.'s moral and spiritual
program of regeneration - namely, our Twelve Steps.
Fortunately, Mr. Link was satisfied with this view
of the use that we were making of the alcoholic's
illness. I am glad to report that nearly all
theologians who have since thought about this matter
have also agreed with that early position. While it
is most obvious that free will in the matter of
alcohol has virtually disappeared in most cases, we
A.A. 's do point out that plenty of free will is
left in other areas, It certainly takes a large
amount of willingness, and a great exertion of the
will to accept and practice the A.A. program. It is
by this very exertion of the will that the alcoholic
corresponds with the grace by which his drinking
obsession can be expelled. (N.C.C.A. 'Blue Book',
Vol.12, 1960)
