A.A. and Religion Today

A.A. and Religion Today

Dick B.

© 2011. Anonymous. All rights reserved

A.A. is a religion. But that’s not the point to be made.

I think it fair to say that those who claim A.A. is not  a religion are probably those who do not want A.A. to be a religion. Also those who don’t realize that it doesn’t matter a whit whether A.A. is or isn’t a religion. Days, months, and many recent years have been fruitlessly devoted to arguing that A.A. is not a religion.

What A.A. literature says: Take a look first at the Third Edition of A.A.’s basic text and personal stories, which contain these statements:

            “They had told of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action” (3^rd ed., p. 9)

            “It began to look as though religious people were right after all” (3^rd ed., p. 11)

“Of necessity there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious” (3^rd  ed., p. 19)

“Not all of us join religious bodies, but most of us favor such memberships” (3^rd ed., p. 28)

“Is it possible that all the religious people I have known are wrong?” (3^rd ed., p. 56)

“If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also” (3^rd ed., p. 87)

“If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing (3^rd ed., p. 87)

“Be quick to see where religious people are right” (3^rd ed., p. 87)

“The big A.A. book had not been written and there was no literature except various religious pamphlets” (3^rd ed., p. 291)

“Dr. Bob always emphasized the religious angle very strongly, and I think it helped” (3^rd ed., p. 292).

“Our more religious members call it ‘God-consciousness’.” (3^rd ed., p. 570)

These quotes are thoroughly discussed and documented in Dr. Bob and His Library, 3^rd ed.; Anne Smith’s Journal, 3^rd ed.; The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed.; The Good Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible; 2d ed,; The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials; Real Twelve Step Fellowship History, God and Alcoholism, and The Conversion of Bill W.  

There you will find hundreds of documented statements about early A.A. and the Bible, its old fashioned prayer meetings, required conversions to Jesus Christ, its Biblical references, and even the very name (“James Club”—from the Book of James in the Bible) that AAs favored as the name for their Society. See our new website which is growing in information about Dr. Bob’s religious training as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. There, from his family, his church, his Sunday school, his Christian Endeavor participation, the YMCA influences, the revival and conversions, and the widely known contemporary work of the Salvation Army and Christian rescue missions, Dr. Bob furthered his Christian upbringing at St. Johnsbury with its daily chapel and required Bible study and church attendance.

Put these facts and quotes together, and it becomes apparent that the original A.A. program’s required conversion to Christ, its old fashioned prayer meetings, its emphasis on Bible study, its use of Christian literature and devotionals, and its witnessing outreach. All these factors justified the members in calling it a Christian Fellowship. That’s what Dr. Bob called it.

Not a sect. Not a denomination. Not a church. Not even a church building—Christian, yes; religion, yes; effective, yes. And still Christian today? No! But available to Christians and those of many and no beliefs? Yes.

Co-founder Dr. Bob’s own personal story set the frame and religious challenge:

“If you think you are an atheist, an agnostic, a skeptic, or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book, I feel sorry for you. . . . Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (3^rd ed., p. 181)

Co-founder Bill Wilson explained in the following words his own cure by the power of God:

“Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people” (3^rd ed., p. 191)

The point is not whether A.A. is a religion. It is. Nor is the point that A.A. is allied with some particular sect or denomination. It isn’t. The point is that its own Bible roots, its own religious practices, its own history of religious conversions, and the words of its own founders show that this “unique” religion was and is in fact a religion—whatever importance that fact may have in helping the still suffering alcoholic to be cured. In fact, early members called themselves a “Christian Fellowship.” Likened to the meetings described in the Book of Acts, the organization could hardly escape the religious label. And like the activities of the Apostles in the Book of Acts, the Society was originally, and widely, known and called “First Century Christianity.”

The “religion” findings and rulings in six court decisions: The United States Court of Appeals

for the Ninth Circuit has now joined four other courts in ruling that Alcoholics Anonymous is a

religion.and therefore that government compulsion of A.A. attendance violates the First

Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Recently, Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., and Charles Bufe with Archie Brodsky published their title Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in AA, NA, or 12-Step Treatment (Tucson, AZ: See Sharp Press, 2000). Summarizing the court decisions to that date, the authors wrote:

Griffin v. Coughlin (1996). New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, prohibited (in and 5-2 decision) the Corrections Department from making a prisoner’s participation in the Family Reunion Program conditional on his attendance in the prison’s Alcohol and Substance Abuse (ASAT) Program. The court ruled that such participation violated the Establishment Clause (pp. 110-11)

Kerr v. Farrey (1996). The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana), reversing a district court decision, unanimously held “that the sate . . .impermissibly coerced inmates to participate in a religious program, thus violating the Establishment Clause.” An inmate was threatened with being sent to a higher security prison and with rejection of his parole applications for refusing to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings (p. 114)

Warner v. Orange County Department of Probation (1999). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed 2-1 a district court ruling that recommending an inmate plaintiffs participation in Alcoholics Anonymous as a condition of probation violated the Establishment Clause (p. 118)

Evans v. Tennessee Board of Paroles (1997). The Supreme Court of Tennessee, responding to petitions from two inmates, regarding their failed parole hearings, found unanimously that the trial court erred in dismissing one of the inmates—Anthony Evans’—claim for injunctive relief as to the Board’s requirement that he participate in Alcoholics Anonymous. The court remanded the case to the trial court to determine  whether AA was religious in nature, while citing case evidence that this was indeed the case (p. 124)

            The four decisions do not stand alone on this matter of A.A.’s religious character.

De Stefano v. Emergency Housing Corp (2002). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that A.A. is a religious activity and accordingly OASAS funding of providers who mandate patient participation in A.A. and, by extension, other government funding of providers who mandate participation in A.A. is a violation of the principle of separation of Church and State (This is a summary taken from Volume 8 of Visions, July, 2002, published by NAATP).

“Appeals court says requirement to attend AA unconstitutional” Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer [San Francisco Chronicle, September 8, 2007]

“Saturday, September 8, 2007

“Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

“In fact, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the constitutional dividing line between church and state in such cases is so clear that a parole officer can be sued for damages for ordering a parolee to go through rehabilitation at Alcoholics Anonymous or an affiliated program for drug addicts.

“Rulings from across the nation since 1996 have established that ‘requiring a parolee to attend religion-based treatment programs violates the First Amendment,’ the court said. ’While we in no way denigrate the fine work of (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous), attendance in their programs may not be coerced by the state’."

The authoritative status of these six decisions has yet to be decided by the United States Supreme Court as far as the First Amendment aspect is concerned. But the factual determinations are persuasive on the question of whether or not A.A. is a religion.

Tribunal after tribunal has taken a look at the Big Book and its 400 references to God; a look at the Twelve Steps and their unmistakable references to God and the Biblical phrase
“Father of light,” the prayers in A.A. meetings; and the language which puts the steps on a path to a relationship with God. And, though there has been sympathy for the A.A. cause by various courts in various jurisdictions, the majority see A.A. as a religion; and so do I. In fact, when I was practicing law, a distinguished California court ruled that a humanist organization was a religion. The dictionary places A.A. in the religion category by very definition. But newer A.A. literature keeps pumping out irrelevant and illogical statements that A.A. is “spiritual but not religious,” that you may need a “higher power” as part of the program, and that this “higher power” can be Something or Somebody. Even a rock. Or nothing at all.

A.A.’s basic text provides a conclusive answer to the reasoning mind: Compared to the ruling that a humanist organization is religious, even these obfuscations do not remove A.A. from the religion category. In fact, I have found no significant writing between 1935 and 1939 that alters the Big Book declarations. They explicitly speak of “that Power, which is God” (3^rd ed., p. 46), saying, (1) “Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language and from his own point of view the way he established his relationship with God” (3^rd ed., p. 29), (2) “many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives” (3^rd ed., p. 51), (3) “Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us” (3^rd ed., p. 77), and (4) “How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done” (3^rd ed., p. 85). The explicit call concerning the steps is: There is One who has all Power. That One is God. May you find Him now. At the conclusion of suggestions for “taking the Steps,” the Big Book asserts that although the alcoholic cannot relieve himself and probably no human power can. “God could and would if He were sought.”

 In fact, many an AA goes into a church and kneels to say his “Third Step Prayer.” Bill adds: “We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness. . . The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust their God. We never apologize for God’ (3^rd ed., p. 68).

And how much more time will be spent by good-hearted people denying the obvious. The real question is not what A.A. is or what it isn’t. The real point posed by Hebrews 11:6 and by Rev. Sam Shoemaker and by Bill Wilson in the Big Book is: that God either is, or He isn’t. Bill added, “We had to have God’s help” (p. 62). The alcoholic has a choice. According to A.A.’s basic text, he can choose to believe that God is, and rewards those who diligently seek Him; or he can go on to the disaster, destruction, and even death yielding to temptation and resuming self-destruction. 

A Probable Suffering Newcomer Viewpoint

My own experience: I didn’t come into A.A. looking for a religion. I already had one—the Christian religion. I didn’t come into A.A. thinking I was joining a church. I already belonged to one—a community church in Marin County, California. I didn’t come into A.A. to get born-again of the spirit of God. I had already accepted Jesus as my Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). I didn’t come into A.A. to “find God.” God was not lost, but I sure thought I was. I came into A.A. because I was thoroughly licked—just as many do, whether suffering from alcohol or other drug addictions. I think that an understanding of alcoholism was the farthest thing from my mind or my mission. I had had a week’s blackout. I had undergone nine months of incredible depression and excessive drinking. I was inundated with all kinds of legal problems—professional, domestic, business, tax, and criminal. Confusion, fear, anxiety, bewilderment, and loneliness dominated my every thought.

I simply came into A.A. at the suggestion of my former wife and figured it was the last house on the block. The words “God,” “religious,” “higher power,” “spirituality,” and “church” were not part of the picture I saw and heard, whatever those words meant to courts or to other AAs.. I did see the word “God” in the Twelve Steps hanging on the wall and decided I was on the right track. I was surrounded at every meeting by people who greeted me, welcomed me, gave me their phone numbers, and offered help.

What were my objectives? To learn what an alcoholic is? No! To learn who God is? No. To join and follow some new religion? No. To achieve a new social status? No.

I simply had one objective at the beginning—to get out of the mess I had made, to feel better than I did, and to have my life restored to one of honor, good health, and some kind of prosperity. And, like many, I wanted it to happen at once—now! Quickly I got the point that alcohol and sleeping pills might possibly be at the heart of my troubles, and that quitting these was part of the game. My understanding of the miseries of alcoholism was hastened when I had three grand mal seizures in the first week, was taken to ICU in an ambulance, and wound up in a 28 day treatment program—but only after I had met and grabbed a sponsor who insisted that I was to attend an A.A. meeting every day. That’s something I did before I had the seizures. And that’s something I did for many years after I left the treatment center.

Turning to God later became a necessity. At first to whip the overwhelming fear, the depression, the anxiety, and the seemingly insuperable problems. But that reliance on my Creator grew from a weakling’s abstention from alcohol to a realization that I could and should turn to God for

answers to all my problems, for the peace that passes understanding, and a complete healing

of the urge to drink and rely on sedatives.

Yet, as I relied on Good more and more and found myself recovering more and more, I did so with my sponsor and his sponsor battling my religious inclinations at every opportunity. That was 25 years ago. I am fully enthusiastic about A.A. I am fully recovered, and I have been healed of alcoholism—this despite the fact that modern A.A. literature says you can’t be cured. And to make a long story short, I wasn’t cured by quitting drinking. I wasn’t cured by going to meetings. I wasn’t cured by studying the Big Book and taking the Twelve Steps. I wasn’t cured by finding some absurd “higher power,” or by attaining “spirituality,” or by relying on a light bulb or a tree or a group or “something” or “somebody.” Or Santa Claus. No. I was cured by Almighty God; and so were the early A.A. pioneers between 1935 and 1938. And they said so. Plainly!

The earliest message in pioneer A.A. and the optional message today: Early AAs had to be told about and renounce alcohol as their nemesis, their temptation, their poison. Most had to be hospitalized to avoid the seizures that I had naively walked into with no warning or detox. Most had to be introduced to God at the earliest possible moment. Dr. Bob’s most significant question at the close of brief early hospitalization was: “Do you believe in God?” And there was only one satisfactory answer. Next came the required confession by mouth and the belief in the heart that God had raised Jesus from the dead. That said the Scriptures is what I needed to do to become one of God’s kids, be saved and made whole, and start on the path to a righteous relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

When Ebby Thacher witnessed to Bill Wilson and said “I’ve got religion,” Bill noticed what had happened. Ebby declared to Bill that God had done for him what he hadn’t been able to do for himself. Just as his friend Ebby had done, Bill went to Calvary Rescue Mission, knelt at the altar, accepted Christ, wrote “I’ve got religion,” and also wrote “For sure I had been “born again.” At Towns Hospital, Bill reached out to Jesus Christ as the Great Physician, had a “white light” experience, and never drank again. But he couldn’t get anybody sober. At Akron, he met Bob who believed in God, was a Christian, was a Bible student, was a man of prayer, and who recognized the importance of Bill’s concept of “service.” Taking the Bible of his youthful activities in Christian Endeavor, Bob worked with Bill in the summer of 1935 and developed a simple program—abstinence, reliance on God, obedience to God’s will, growing in fellowship with God through Bible study, prayer, guidance, and helping others get straightened out. “Love and service”—the slogan of Christian Endeavor—was the essence of the program described by Bob.

Bob wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down.” And to those who believed it, their Heavenly Father healed them. Fifty years later, I grasped the same message. I quit drinking and sedatives forever! I turned to God. I used the Twelve Steps to turn me to a life of obedience to God’s will. I returned to Bible study, prayer, and asking God for guidance. And I plunged into A.A. That meant doing everything AAs did—meetings, sponsoring, Big Book study, taking the Twelve Steps, participating in every kind of A.A. activity, serving as a leader and helper in groups, and trying to apply the Steps in all my affairs. To the more than 100 men I have sponsored, I tried to carry that message.

Many who did these things—many only 21 years of age when I started sponsoring them—are enjoying the abundant life today that God provides to those who believe in Him, love Him and others, and serve. It worked in 1935. It works today. And the Bible is filled with the promises and instructions that establish exactly how it works. Moreover, it can work in A.A.

You don’t have to leave A.A. or consider it a religion or look at it as a church or get swallowed up in secularism and universalism to make our Creator the number one item in your life. Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!

END

Gloria Deo

Dickb@dickb.com