What did they change?

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Category: Tradition Changes
Published: Saturday, 12 October 2024 23:35
Written by Super User
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The essays for Tradition Four, and Tradition Nine, were changed, most importantly the phrase "all else is not NA" was removed, which paved the way for corporate governance, and non-addicts having a say in our fellowship.

Text that was removed is in Bold Italic.

From the essay on Tradition Four: "Are we truly autonomous? What about our service committees, our offices, activities, hot-lines, and all the other things that go on in N.A.? The answer is that these things are not N.A. They are services we utilize to help us in our recovery and to further the primary purpose of our groups. Narcotics Anonymous is a Fellowship of men and women, addicts meeting in groups and using a given set of spiritual principles to find freedom from addiction and a new way to live. All else is not N.A. Those things we mentioned are the result of members caring enough to reach out and offer their help and experience so that our road might be easier. Whether we choose to utilize these services is up to the group."


From the essay on Tradition Nine: ''The Ninth Tradition goes on to define the nature of the things that we can do to help N.A. It says that we may create service boards or committees to serve the needs of the Fellowship. None of them has the power to rule, censor, decide, or dictate. They exist solely to serve the Fellowship, but they are not a part of Narcotics Anonymous. This is the nature of our service structure as it has evolved and been defined in the N .A. service manual."

Who changed our 4th and 9th Traditions

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Category: Tradition Changes
Published: Monday, 17 April 2023 03:45
Written by Super User
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NAWS Claim: In 1984 the Fellowship voted to remove language from Traditions 4 and 9.

FACT:

  • In 1982 the language was removed by four individuals in World Service.
  • In 1983 the language was put back in at the fellowship's demand.
  • In 1984 the Board of Trustees called for an "emergency vote" because a group from Nebraska questioned the decision in the form of a letter. The letter from Nebraska was not a motion, and the "emergency vote" was out of order with procedure, and the Traditions. Some of the Regional Service Representatives in attendance, at the World Service Conference, protested taking a vote without the Groups deciding.

Why does this matter?

Because what is now known as "The Grey Book" went out as a manuscript, to 2500 NA Groups, and was approved to become our book in 1981.

What happened?

 A few selfish individuals did not get their way, so they made unauthorized changes to this approved draft, before it went to print. 

Why did they do that?

Because as it was originally written, and approved, only the NA Groups were considered to be NA. These changes allowed for services boards and committees to also be considered part of our fellowship.

 What happened next?

The fellowship was in an uproar, when the book came out in March of 1983, and demanded that the original essays be restored. The Second Edition came out in July of 1983, with the original essays restored, but those involved in the unauthorized changes protested, and the fellowship went back and forth, even printing a version of the Second Edition with "pasties" so you could decide which version of these paragraphs you wanted in your book. This brings us to 1984 and the "new & revised" Third Edition (not to be confused with the Third Edition Revised) brought about by the out of order "emergency vote" sparking the Tradition Wars, which still rage on today.

What are the Tradition Wars?

The Third Edition did not restore the original essays, and there were changes proposed to remove "substance-specific" language from our book, so another version was proposed. This would also remove any reference to being "recovered" or would be replaced with "recovering" or "in recovery". Third Edition Revised was voted on, and approved, to become our book "once and for all" but the original Tradition essays were not restored, so the Baby Blue was born. This is comprised of the Third Edition Revised, without stories, but with the original 4th and 9th Tradition essays.

Learn more

Read about each edition of our book, along with changes, and revisions, to learn why we had so many different printings, in such a short period of time.

Read more: Who changed our 4th and 9th Traditions