Part Eight: The Option We Strongly Suggest for Those Who are
Christians or Who Believe They Need God’s help for healing and salvation and
A.A.’s Support for Sobriety.
The Mix in
the Recovery Scene Today:
(1) Alcoholism,
addiction, and the harm to society therefrom are increasing in cost,
destruction, numbers, and recidivism.
(2) Criminals,
patients, mentally ill, the afflicted, and the affected are frequently dumped
on 12 Step programs by compulsion – neither by attraction nor promotion.
(3) Money fuels
the growth of grants, “research,” publications, and government agencies for
health; of new treatment “models,” of government-controlled certification
qualifications, of secular-oriented professionals, of varied religious and
humanist approaches, and of “poly addiction” facilities that receive insurance
and public money for their programs.
(4) The very
shift away from Christianity, the Bible, and God today by government; by
religious organizations; by atheists and agnostics; by former 12-Step failures;
and by AAs themselves bodes ill for reliance on God as a remedy even though the
early experiences with “medical incurability,” the inadequacy of personal
efforts, and the ineffectiveness of human institutions birthed the self-help
ideas that themselves sprang from reliance on God and the Christian helpers of
the 1800’s.
(5) The
continued mis-labeling, misquoting of Scripture, and anti-A.A. bias of some
Christians looms larger and larger in the efforts to paint A.A. as a threat to
Christians, as heretical, and as being “not of the Lord.” This by writers who
themselves give little more than a nod to the destructiveness of addiction, to
the dearth of compassionate and understanding human help, to the Christian
ideals and ideas from which A.A. sprang, and to the opportunities for born
again Christians to go to A.A., N.A., and other anonymous fellowships for
sobriety and becoming drug-free; receiving free and altruistic help from others
who have recovered; and doing so without the stigma that often permeates church
views, society’s ideas of alcoholism and addiction, and the destruction and
condemnation that the afflictions cause families, society, and the economy.
(6) The
self-righteous souls who somehow think that there is no provision in the Bible
for pardon and forgiveness of the born again repeater who falls, sins, and
wants to attain righteousness again as provided in1 John 1.
The Need to see A.A.’s present-day diversity and composition
of believers, non-believers, and unbelievers as the very social challenge any
and every Christian meets in the government, business, military, in the job
scene, in educational institutions, in service groups, in sports, in youth
groups, and on the streets.
(1) Compassionate
comfort, assistance, and tolerance of the faults of others such as these does
not constitute sin. It should not be prohibited, controlled, criticized, or
condemned any more than walking down a crowded hall and bumping into others
constitutes sin.
(2) Such conduct
often fits the description of pure and undefiled religion found in the first
chapter of the Book of James.
(3) The idea
that an elderly crippled Christian who accepts help from a Jewish Boy Scout in
crossing the street is sinning by association with a non-Christian is just as
absurd as the castigation of a Christian who comes to A.A. to get sober and
change but helps others along the way and yet is somehow a sinner. And quoting
a Bible verse or two to condemn that Christian does not make the accuser right
or holier than the Christian helper.
The recommended, appropriate application of old school A.A.
principles and practices in today’s anonymous groups is just as much expected
in Bill’s new version as it was in 1935.
i. Quit
permanently;
ii. Turn to
God;
iii. Obey His
will;
iv. Grow in
understanding of God and His word;
v. Serve God
and others;
vi. Fellowship
together;
vii. Choose to
utilize or to ignore religious observances and associations;
viii. Believe:
1. The angel
told Mary: “for with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37)
2. The LORD
told Abraham: “Is anything too hard for the LORD” (Gen 18:14)
3. Jesus told
his disciples: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are
possible” (Matt 19:26)
4. Jesus
responded to the report that the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter was dead:
“Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.” (Luke 8:50)
