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comment by someguyfromcanada
someguyfromcanada  ·  2789 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 5, 2017

There is a group of truly agnostic AA meetings in my area.

AA was initially welcoming but delisted them from their meetings directory 3 years ago, apparently making them much harder to find.

So "AAA" sued AA under the Human Rights Act claiming that they were discriminated against on the basis of creed. AA's defence was, get this, that they were exempt as a religious group who could restrict participation to the faithful.

A court did not decide on the merits of whether AA is a religious group as a settlement was mediated, but in the end AAA is listed again.





tacocat  ·  2789 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think the US courts ruled them to be a religious group so if you're sentenced to meetings you can go to Smart or any other recovery group. Which almost always means all AA or mostly AA. Tricky little loophole that ruling.

someguyfromcanada  ·  2789 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You are right but IIRC AA argued in those cases that it was not a religious group because the modern drafting a the 12 Statements (?) had moved away from the original wording to be inclusive to atheists. In the Toronto case they didn't even bother to pretend that was the case.