The Twelve Step programs need a least one more step to be complete. It is not enough to be free from drugs or alcohol. We must develop concern for human beings, animals and plants outside our immediate circle.

In 1963, I heard a priest say that people could go to church on Sunday and go to Hell for what they do on Monday. Many Nazis and Holocaust perpetrators were regular church goers. God-fearing Southern Christians could lynch black people on Sunday and not be bothered at all. European colonial powers would routinely massacre innocent men, women and children and not give this a second thought. In the First Crusade, Catholic soldiers killed every Muslim and Jewish person in Jerusalem. The Pope never issued a reprimand or an excommunication for this atrocity.

The message presented in the Bible, the Koran and other sacred scriptures tell us that all life is sacred, not just some. From reading atheists like Richard Dawkins and talking to some that I know, I gathered that belief in a Supreme Being is not a requirement for recognizing the universe’s wonder and majesty.

Adopting Step 13 would require the highest ethical and environmental standards for our society and the world. It would mean seeking non-violent solutions first, seeking an end to violence in families, neighborhoods, prisons and military conflict.

I read that there was an organization for recovering alcoholics a long time before AA started. The organization felt apart when members started seeking social and political reform. Considering this, Step 13 must be flexible and express a general attitude. Is there anyone who favors destroying the Amazon rainforest? Who favors mountain top removal to obtain coal? I think there is a general sentiment that people will like Step 13 and may stick to it if there is no specific legislation or action advocated.

The Twelve Step programs must be flexible enough to consider more steps. After all, Alcoholics Anonymous started with six steps. Six more steps came later.

Even if there is no formal adoption for Step 13, I am hoping that the self help people like Wayne Dyer and John Bradshaw include a wider agenda in their books and speeches. Now, their focus is narrow including only your family, neighbors, colleagues and friends. Except for Deepak Chopra, widely known self help gurus do not advocate steps to peace, such as nuclear weapons abolition.

In all my time in school, there was never any reference to social obligations. At Saint Thomas High School in Houston, Texas in 1960, I learned that robbing or cheating a person out of more than one day’s wages was a mortal sin. There was no reference to corporate responsibility. Tobacco companies and their public relations firms attempted, for decades, to convince the public that smoking was harmless. Detroit automobile manufacturers fought tooth and nail against passing the Automobile Safety Act in 1965. Manufacturers use toxins in carpeting, paint, cosmetics, makeup, soaps, lotions and sunscreens. Food processing includes 15,000 chemicals that do not have to put on the label. When Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, chemical companies contracted public relations to present her as a nutcase. In American history class, textbooks treated the holocaust of American Indians as a routine part of life as if they were talking about natural phenomena. There was not a specific book or event that made me see a wider responsibility for me or my country. Looking back, I realize when the first Earth Day occurred in 1970 that I had felt this way for a while.

I hope that the churches and the spirituality gurus will consider Step 13 for everyone.

Jane Goodall in her book Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey cited that a major obstacle to social improvement is the thought that any one person’s actions will not change anything. People are discouraged from the start. Actually, a few people can change the world. The famous sociologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Ed O’Rourke, formerly a Houston, Texas resident, now lives in Medellin, Colombia.