bleeding deacon
n.— «“If anything is going to destroy A.A.,” says Dr. John Norris, a nonalcoholic physician, friend of Bill Wilson’s and for many years chairman of A.A.‘s board of trustees, “it will be what I call the ‘tradition lawyers.’ They find it easier to live with black and white than they do with gray. These ‘bleeding deacons’—these fundamentalists—are afraid of and fight any change.”» —“The Changing World of Alcoholics Anonymous” New York Times Feb. 21, 1988. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
While compiling the Oxford English Dictionary, lexicographer James Murray exchanged hundreds of letters a week with authors, advisors, and volunteer researchers. A new collection online lets you eavesdrop on discussions about which words should be...