Extract from the aacultwatch forum (old)
“Firstly (and after a bit of digging around) let's look at the full quote that you refer to from the aacultwatch site:
Taken from the Area section (South West) and as follows:
16/02/09
The cult in Bristol
A recent email:
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"Greetings
I have just found your site and am finding it very informative. My experience of the Roads is mainly through listening to other members, but 15 months ago I did attend a funeral of an ex sponsee who had moved and started going to Roads and then phoned me all the time with his horror stories. …..... was a lovely man and he was totally screwed by the Roads crowd.
My own story isn’t a horror story but it did leave a nasty taste in the mouth all the same. I was secretary at a group in Bristol and one of the members was a sponsee of Wayne at Plymouth Roads. Wayne was invited to come and speak on step 8 and duly turned up with half a dozen in tow who must have had at least 18 months between them. These young roadies then proceeded to question me about my recovery and told me how great life was for them now that they had found ‘the way’.
One by one, before the Meeting started, they told me that I was going to drink and die as I had committed the terrible crime of turning up to chair an A.A. meeting without bothering to wear a tie.
Wayne must have been equally appalled because when it came time for him to talk, he forgot all about step 8 and lectured us all on how we were not true A.A.
This was a few years ago and I was probably 10 years sober at the time, and many of the other group members and visitors were 20 plus years sober and none of us were impressed. After the lecture we then listened to an orchestrated response from the other roadies who were kind enough to let us know what we were doing wrong.
I put it down to a bad experience and found much to laugh at (after all, misery is optional) and had almost forgotten about it until the next steering meeting. I was hauled over the coals by Wayne ’s sponsee for allowing a regular visitor to the meeting to ‘go off message’ when he spoke about something other than step 8 and I apparently had not said the correct things either.
I did not act as well as I might have, because during this lecture into my deficiencies as a chairman I decided that I had better things to do and went home.
Wayne’s sponsee soon after left the group and started a Roads to Recovery meeting in Bristol . I have since left Bristol but my understanding is that the Bristol Roads meeting is still going, but not attracting many visitors and only has a few members. There are about 80 meetings a week in Bristol and many of them have been going for 25/30 plus years and perhaps the Roads will find it difficult to get a toe in. Plus, the fact that the members that I know are such obvious bullies very few will be attracted to go back a second time.
May I wish you well in your endeavours to bring to our attention the dangers of the cult in our fellowship. Having said that, I go to very few meetings now unless I visit Bristol , as the other end of the spectrum is a fellowship where anything goes and that is equally unattractive. Perhaps one of the reasons the cult have managed to get so far is because some A.A. is so toxic. Someone said balance – I suspect that that is what we may need if A.A. is to continue to help save lives.
In fellowship
…....
Give me a "Jeremy Kyle" brand of meeting any day of the week - mind you from what I've heard Wayne would be a prime candidate as a participant in that show (that is following upon one of its usual themes....)”
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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