San Francisco & Bay Area Freethinkers: Atheist, Agnostic & Others - Meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous

About San Francisco Freethinkers in Alcoholics Anonymous

This group of secular AA meetings have been held in San Francisco since at least the 1990s, according to personal accounts of long-time members, and possibly since the 1960s.

In March 2020, the meetings went online as a result of widespread lockdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of January 2024 most remain online.

Previously, The Women's Building on 18th Street was home for most of our meetings. And prior to that, meetings were held at a now-shuttered Alano Club on Market Street.

The meetings are referred to variously as agnostic, atheist, "Atheist, Agnostics and Others" as well as "Freethinkers" meetings. The latter is a reference to the "freethought" movement which arose during the Enlightenment. According to Wikipedia and other sources, a freethinker is defined as: "One who is mentally free from the conventional bonds of tradition or dogma, and thinks independently." Free thought is "strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems."

The earliest known secular version of the Steps from San Francisco is known as "The Forum AA Group, San Francisco 1965 interpretation: AA Steps", and is a ten step version. More about The Forum AA Group at: https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog/blog/musings-from-san-francisco-march-2019-rebellon-dogs-blog (PDF copy here).

History of Alcoholics Anonymous in San Francisco

The first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in San Francisco was held[1] in 1939 in the kitchen of a boarding house at 51 Potomac Street.

That meeting is said to have been organized by one of the first atheist members of A.A.: Ray W, a salesman visiting from the East Coast, according to the footnoted account.

This bit of Alcoholics Anonymous history is unverified and possibly apocryphal, but fun to think about nonetheless. The most important history in AA is our own experiences with the program, and how it has changed our lives for the better.

That secular meetings exist, proliferate and are tolerated by "mainstream" AA and central offices is an example of "widening the gateway," i.e. broadening the reach of Alcoholics Anonymous's message by making it accessible to people who do not necessarily believe in a deity as prescribed by The Big Book and The Twelve Steps.

Reminding us why secular meetings are necessary are the central precepts of AA-

• Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
• Third Tradition: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
• AA Declaration of Unity:
  

  This we owe to A.A.'s future:
  To place our common welfare first;
  To keep our fellowship united.
  For on A.A. unity depend our lives,
  And the lives of those to come.

Many accounts of the history of secular meetings in AA are available online-

• A History of Secularism in AA, by Roger C (PDF version)
• The ‘Secular AA’ Movement, by Zachary M

About This Website

This website was created to assist online and in-person meeting attendees by providing meeting schedules and materials.

For all enquiries please contact: sffreethinkers (at character) gmail etc. Note that this email account is not closely monitored. For best results, please visit one of our meetings.