Maybe Bill and Lois were right all along

Merriam-Webster defines the word "religion" as the following:

1 a : the state of a religious b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
 ----------
You have all these people who believe in different higher powers, different "beings" that guide their daily principles.  Of course, when considering religion, people might think of God, G-d, Jesus Christ, or Allah (or a number of others), but when it comes down to it, can't any "cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" be considered a religion?

In the last ten years, I have attended two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings -- both times for a school project.  Once was in high school and the second time was a few months ago.  At the most recent meeting, I picked up a four-page wallet-sized pamphlet detailing the mission, steps, and traditions of A.A. I'd like to share it with you here, so allow me to reproduce the text for you, followed by my own ruminations...

Page 1: A.A.: Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.  Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Page 2: The 12 Steps of A.A.:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Page 3: The 12 Traditions of A.A.:
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority -- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.  Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Page 4: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

----------
When I think about religion, what comes to mind is people spanning the spectra of their respective faiths, from reform to orthodox, from observant to extremist and the overarching controversies that take place both within and across religions.  Each one possesses its own set of beliefs, which are often laid out in books much larger than a four-page wallet-size pamphlet.  From what I can tell (and I never studied religion religiously...pun not really intended), every commonly acknowledged religion has experienced controversy in some form or another.  They have these hundred-page manifestos of the tenets of their philosophy, and they still end up fighting.  Meanwhile, in four pages, this A.A. pamphlet identifies 24 principles (summed up in 2 pages), among them avoidance of public controversy and maintenance of anonymity.  And have you ever heard of a major conflict having to do with A.A.?  I mean, it's not like Overeaters Anonymous and A.A. have ever had a dispute over territory resulting in security checkpoints going from one zone to the other.  What, then, makes these groups so successful?  According to that last definition of religion, I would venture to say that these and other like groups serve as religions.  After all, if their members live according to the respective principles of their group and do so with ardor and faith, isn't that the definition of religion?  Subsequently, can't a person have more than one religion if they subscribe to beliefs of more than one system?  Perhaps it is the anonymity itself -- the act of deliberately *not* preaching one's own values to others in an attempt to convert them -- that allows the members to focus on the mission they strive to achieve.

Does that mean that religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. should dissolve in favor of sects like A.A.?  No, not necessarily, but perhaps people need to take a second look at their reasons for claiming membership of a religious group.  Is it because that's what their ancestors were?  What the spouse is?  (Why do we even talk about religion as being something that someone is, rather than something the person believes in?)  The point of a religion should be the union of people who believe in common principles.  They should not force their mission on others who express no desire to participate but they should instead be made up of people who have the same -- productive -- aspirations.  Of course, everything is relative (no pun intended on this one, either).  That is, who makes up the jury that decides what's productive and what isn't?  Why should any group believe its members are in a position to claim superiority over another?  People could belong to multiple "religions" based on the ideas supported -- but not overtly promoted -- by that faith.  Anonymity wouldn't *need* to be a requirement, though probably there would emerge a greater sense of group unity if the roster of the in-group is known only by the in-group itself.  Kind of along the same lines as, "The first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club."

On cruises, a daily list of activities is distributed to passengers to make them aware of the goings-on on the ship.  A couple of months ago, I saw that every day at 5:00, there was an activity called "Friends of Bill and Lois."  Being that there were lots of older people on the ship, I thought to myself, "How come Bill and Lois get their own slot in the announcements?  Why don't other people get to advertise for their friends? Is this some special family reunion or something?"  I promptly found out, however, that it stands for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, meetings that would cease to be anonymous if advertised so directly on a ship in open seas, with no place for people to go in search of anonymity.  I was confused as to how the names Bill and Lois were chosen and, furthermore, how everyone who wanted to participate would know what that meant.  Was there someone on the ship named Lois who might see that and think that someone was throwing a surprise party in her (and Bill's, whoever that is) honor?  It turned out, though, that Bill and Lois were actually real people (not on the ship).  Bill W. was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and Lois was his wife, who founded Al-Anon, an organization that offers support to friends and family of alcoholics.  I did not attend any of these meetings on the ship, so unfortunately, I cannot comment on the nature of them.  Nor would I even if I had -- not in detail, anyway -- because that would defeat the purpose of the anonymity.  At the same time, maybe it is this "don't ask, don't tell" approach that preserves the sanctity and the goals -- both individual and collective -- of the group and its members, people who actively try to better themselves and improve the lives of those around them.  Why can't everyone live by the same principles, striving to achieve goodness in the world and in themselves?  Maybe then, we might all get along?