Alcoholics Anonymous: The Perverting of Christianity

As an atheist I am in a unique position that affords me some clarity since I am unencumbered by spiritual thinking. For this reason I can point out the dangers of many organizations that are otherwise overlooked. This is very much that case of Alcoholics Anonymous and its perversion of the Christian religion. There are many churches and religious organizations that support Alcoholics Anonymous by indirect means such as allowing them to rent space for meetings at inexpensive rates or in some cases for free. Most churches believe that they are doing something good by helping Alcoholics Anonymous groups; however, this is because they have not examined the Alcoholics Anonymous program critically. I don't blame clergy or church members as they are fooled the same as many counselors, healthcare professionals, and just about everyone else. This happens quite easily since Alcoholics Anonymous members seem well meaning when you meet them and for many clergy who deal with them they seem like spiritual well-meaning people. Alcoholic's Anonymous members talk about God, gratitude, and living a sober lifestyle. Most people would never think to investigate a group that claims to be helping alcoholics achieve sobriety. But the problem lies in what AA's spiritual rhetoric really means.

The reality is that Alcoholics Anonymous preaches some really strange twisted ideas that have been derived from Christianity. Such as when AA's discuss God, most people think of the Judeo/Christian form of God and assume that AA's are referring to this belief. However, in the context of AA's warped spirituality these people could be referring to any number of things including ideas such as the spirit of the universe, aliens, or even Satan. Typically, most of these individuals are really referring to a generic form of the Christian god but there is no way to know this since the AA doctrine allows for members to create their own concept of God. People in Alcoholics Anonymous routinely preach to newcomers and believe in what most churches would consider either heretical or just bad theology. Here are some examples of how Alcoholics Anonymous members define God;

God = Get Out Devil
God = Gift Of Desperation
God = Gifts Offered Daily
God = Give Others Dignity
God = Giver Of Desires
God = Go On Dreaming
God = Good Orderly Direction
God = Group Of Drunks

(http://www.all-acronyms.com/tag/alcoholics_anonymous/4 )

And although these acronyms seem innocuous, they are contradictory to the Christian theology. Alcoholics Anonymous members have no problem teaching this form of defining God. Here is what the founder of AA wrote in regards to this:

"I must quickly assure you that A.A.'s tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith. ... You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough."
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 27.

Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA is stating that you can make Alcoholics Anonymous your God. God=Group of Drunks. I am pretty sure that any faithful Christian would have a problem with defining God in this manner. This is an affront to Christianity and many other religions since Alcoholics Anonymous is telling a newcomer that they can pray to a group of drunks and that they care turn their life and will over to the care of this group of drunks. This is evidenced in Step three of the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Yet this blurring and warping of Christian ideology continues to worsen as you delve deeper in to the Alcoholics Anonymous program. If it was not enough that AA allows for God to be recreated by the member, AA teaches that you can dismiss accepted religious values and concepts. Basically, if you don't like the God that your parents taught you or that you learned in Sunday school you can just fire him and get a new God.

"The concept of "God as we understood Him" was hard to grasp. My family believed there is only one way to view God. My parents used religion to keep me in line...
I realized the God of my parents had come in a very small box, not expansive enough for me. I fired that God and hired a new one. My new Higher Power is much bigger than the old one. He doesn't live in a box."
Hope for Today, published by Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., page 297.

Hey if you don't like your God get rid of him! This is the worst form of theology that can be conceived. First by getting rid of one idea of God and adopting another concept of God is completely heretical since it assumes that God is open for interpretation. The Christian God, the Father is not open for interpretation, the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit is not open for interpretation, and neither is the concept of Jesus Christ. When Alcoholics Anonymous assumes that God is open for interpretation this denies God as a reality. This would be like me interpreting the reality of President Obama. The President cannot be interpreted since he exists. This is where Alcoholics Anonymous concepts take a turn for the really weird. Members will sit around discussing God and prayer but will get upset when somebody mentions that there Higher Power is Jesus Christ. This type of talk is shunned by AA as a group because the mention of Christ has religious implication. So on the one hand Alcoholics Anonymous wants members to choose their own concept of God, yet on the other hand, the AA group does not want you to talk about it. Members will refer to God as 'Higher Power' during meetings and will admonish any form of religious talk. However, they use the Lord's Prayer at almost every meeting. AA has essentially watered down Christianity into a more palatable form, but as a result they have created hypocrisy of Christian values, and then rolled them inside contradictions.

If you attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting you will hear this kind of spiritual rhetoric espoused constantly. At first, it sounds nice but the implications are far reaching. If a Christian church allows groups like AA to use their church, the church is helping to foster a belief system that is contradictory and dangerous to Christianity. The simple fact is that Alcoholics Anonymous could never have grown to the size that it has without churches providing meeting space.

References

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous 4^th tradition.

"The Grapevine" taken from www.orange-papers.org