Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Christians in AA - The Anti-AA Straw Men


A Handful of Anti-A.A. Devotees Try to Crowd Christians out of A.A.

A.A. History—Bible Roots—Diversity—Dozens of Christian Denominations

 

A handful of today’s anti-A.A. writers are adept at the rhetorical straw man arguments they summon from the Bible. But that doesn’t make their arguments valid, truthful, or useful. We call at least one of them the master of obfuscation and queer reasoning.

 

Take the queer reasoning of just one “reformed” writer who talks about his word like fire. Let him find that someone in A.A. once sniffed glue, once smoked pot, once swore like a trooper, once read a book by Emmet Fox, once investigated spiritualism, once used LSD, once joined the Boy Scouts, once belonged to the American Legion, once attended Saddleback Church, once was an altar boy, once helped a drunk get sober through prayer-Bible-study-Christian churches, once was a Rotarian, once  went to a military academy, once took a four year Bible-study course in his Vermont high school, once was president of the YMCA, once voted for Herbert Hoover, once showed an addict how to become clean and sober through belief in God and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and once peeped inside of a canary’s nest and saw nestlings there. Then, out come half a dozen or less Bible verses which are supposed to paste such a one as the anti-Christ and as hell-bound for destruction. Never mind that Christ died to save sinners. Never mind that Yahweh is the Lord that heals. Never mind that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Never mind that there is now no condemnation in those who walk by the spirit, and not after the flesh. Never mind that the faithful know who is the captain of their salvation. Never mind that we don’t fight against flesh and blood—but against principalities and powers and wickedness in high places (all propelled by that old Dragon—the accuser, the beast, the prince of darkness.

 

If paramedics, firemen, policemen, therapists, counselors, pastors, Sunday school teachers, nurses, medical technicians, psychiatrists, doctors of medicine and optometry and dentistry, soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, Coast Guard personnel, governors, senators, assemblymen, mechanics, laborers, secretaries, computer geeks, steel workers, automobile workers, coal miners, railroad engineers, airplane pilots and attendants, accountants, bookkeepers, writers, professors, scientists, elementary school teachers, kindergarten teachers, high school teachers, college lecturers, and others who regularly serve us were to adopt the queer reasoning of the self-anointed seer of his own word like fire. Who would be left to help anyone with their daily needs!

 

Any fool can quote a Bible verse like “there is no God. . . .” Any fool can take that portion of the verse and claim it IS the word of God. And any fool can claim biblical authority from the verse for atheism. And any fool can take any verse out of context and omit the part that declares the whole truth that the “fool hath said there is no God.” The same slimy half-quotes can be applied to Psalm 115. And there’s a good example of how to corrupt understanding of the one true living God or simply accepting that He is Almighty God, the Creator, the Father of Jesus Christ.

 

If those employing such queer reasoning—be they “reformed” or not---hope to apply a litmus test to anyone serving and loving God and anyone serving and loving his neighbor, then they might as well climb into a spider hole like that prepared for Saddam Hussein and claim they are virtuous and innocent of harming others because they can’t see the world around them any more.

My Bible says Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

 

The thousands of Christians and other believers who help alcoholics and addicts do swallow a bit of the queer gospel from time to time. But if the Red Cross, the United Way, the Salvation Army, the Peace Corps, the Lions Club members, and the radiologists did, pity those who find themselves in a fix like the students facing guns, the residents facing hurricanes, the hostages being seized, the millions who are hungry, and the hordes facing cholera. I’d rather hang with the helpers—not the hurters, no matter what type of book they claim as sacred. Especially when they quote them out of context and then devote reams of copy to trying to destroy others. Particularly if they regard the Bible as the Word of God—all of it, not just some snippet that is irrelevant to the point at hand.

 

When one of their targets has published forty-six acclaimed history books and more than 1250 historical articles and they can’t even quote one correctly, then it’s time for them to put the slings and arrows away and see where they too might be able to serve and glorify God and His Son Jesus Christ if they reject their carnal Christian accusations. Let’s watch and see if they ever do.

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