Thanks Raman,I KNEW I READ THAT SOMEWHERE...............

Well that said and done, we're forgetting that NA is supposed to be a WorldWide Fellowship, with a vision that any addict, anywhere in the world finds recovery in their own culture.......
Sadly,, many things in our Steps and Traditions are not supportive of that aim...

Take for example the addicts in India; here is a land of a billion people. And belive it or not, nearly 10 percent may be using drugs to destruction.
Logically speaking, they will find NA attractive and want to recover in it.
That, indeed, would be the dream come true, that all fellow brother/sister addicts all over the world, and in India, will recover in NA...

One thing that certainly isnt in line with NA World policy is the concept of God as enunciated in the Basic Text and our other literature..
The concept of God being only "Him" would be repressive, because many have as their primary diety a Female God,,, a Godess...

And moreover, thousands of Atheists would ceratinly reject wholly the notion that to recover "God" is necessary.... and Im referring not only to those atheists that do not have a religion, but also to those of a particular religion that do not have the same concept of God as has been conceptualised in the Judeo-Christian ethic....

Why is it, that from Bill. W onwards, the words of the Third Step didnt simply read "God as we understood" and simply stop there ?
At least, our oldtimers like Jim, Bob, etc. ( with their more expanded conciounessess)  could have done away with gender references and simply worded the Third Step as
"We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood".

The contradiction is clear.....
"the right to a God of your understanding is total and without any catches" ( but understand God to be Him,, is implied in the 3rd Step)
"The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using" says the Third Tradition. The "It Works; how and why" section on the Traditions in the Third has words, and I quote "our message is broad enough to attract addicts of any social class or nationality".
Addicts from different religious backgrounds do find it difficult to relate, especially with being of a specific gender and not open to interpretation, becuse were saying God is a "Him"....

Here in India especially, there is a very large following for the Female Higher Power.... Godess, their devotion is legion....

Another thing; NAWS has made it very difficult to translate literature into local languages, because of the long-winded process of glossary, approval etc...
Gosh, in my own city of Bangalore, the mass addict hasnt been reached yet with the NA message because theres no local literature which in turn is because NAWS has insisted that litareture translations follow the "official route"; that of getting a glossary going, then having a totally un-related stranger in mainland America approve of the wording, then sending it back to that area/region and finally getting Conference approval....

This rigmarole has been in the going for nigh on 15 years now in Bangalore,,, and in the meanwhile God ( gender ??) knows how many local addicts died without ever having had a chance to recover !!!

Please read without judging, without being critical; this is simply hard core reality witnessed and expericed by a addict NA member, me, these past nearly two dozen years... the most difficult thing has been keeping that Faith in the Female Diety,,,, no matter what I had to suffer for it !!