Is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous ?

Is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous?


It seems like a very strange question really. Those that are familiar with the history of Alcoholics Anonymous will know it grew out of the Oxford Group or First Century Christian Fellowship. The following is true story which happened recently and shows what is happening in AA today.


I picked up a newspaper one day and there was front page article about a lady who was having a series of meetings based on the 12 steps. Since it was only a few blocks from my home I decided I would go. The lady was “facilitating” the meeting at a local Catholic Church and was using the 12 and 12. The meeting was not listed in the local AA directory.



One day one of the so-called "oldtimers" who is involved in all the local AA politics showed up at the meeting. I showed her the letter I have from the General Services Offices of Alcoholics Anonymous saying that reading from the Book of James is acceptable if the AA group has taken a group conscience on the matter(although I showed her the letter the group had never read out of anything but the 12&12 and the Big Book of AA,)

I asked her if she had ever read the First Edition and she said yes. I pointed out to her that most of the Christian Testimonies had been deleted by Bill Wilson in the Second Edition. Her response:

"Yes, they took them out. And she said they stopped reading the Bible in early AA because it "didnt work".

When I pressed the point a little, she kind of got in a huff about the whole matter, said she wasn’t comfortable at the meeting and ran out the door. She was the former secretary at the local AA central office and she made sure that they refused to list the meeting in the AA directory when we submitted it.

Since the area I live in is kind of overlapped by 2 central offices I suggested to the lady who started the meeting we submit it to the other AA central office. We did and they accepted it.

However, this is what happened today when I went to pick up meeting lists. I got the meeting lists and the volunteer asked me if they were for my personal use or a meeting. I said a meeting. She asked which one, and I told her. Then she told me that she had just put in the newsletter that was a “dead meeting”. I informed her that the meeting wasn’t dead and we had 3 people regularly attending it. Hold on she told me, and got someone on the phone. Here is part of the conversation I had with the lady on the phone.

“ Is this that Christian meeting?,” She asked.

I thought about it for a moment. Although I believe in Christ and one other lady does, Im not sure if the third lady does or not. And we have had a lady come to the meeting who had no belief in God at all and thought it was “weakness” to depend on God. But she wanted to stop drinking and we didn’t tell her she had to believe in anything or that she wasn’t welcome.

So I said “No”. However for the sake of honesty, I explained to her that I believe in Christ and that if I worked with anyone I would certainly encourage that.She was ok with that but said the following.

“Well,” she said, “Ive been sober since 1966. And we don’t want people talking about Jesus Christ in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings “

I explained to her the history of the meeting and that I had been attending meetings since 1976, and that anyone was welcome if they had a desire to stop drinking.

“Well,” she said “ This is a spiritual program not a religious one ( as if a religious person could somehow not be spiritual)

I went on to explain to the woman on the phone that I knew where the steps came from (The Bible) and nobody could tell me what I could say at an AA meeting.

She backpedaled a little and allowed that ,”Jesus Christ could be mentioned but not very much. After alL,” she said, “You wouldn’t want people talking about Buddha would you?”

I explained to her that I have been to thousands of meetingsand have heard people talk about Buddha and that I didn’t have a problem with that if they wanted to.

Finally, I suggested to her that she send someone to investigate our meeting to see if it met her standards.

“Good idea,” she said, “Ill send somebody from the General service structure to investigate”

As it stands now, the meeting is listed in the AA directory but the AA “Thought police” will be investigating to see if we say Jesus Christ too many times.

Im quite sure Dr. Bob is turning over in his grave. So is Jesus Christ welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous?

Not very.





©2005 Christianrecovery.blogspot.com

Is this site affiliated with AA?

No, its not.

I have a background in AA as well as NA (as well as other addiction recovery programs), but this is not an AA site. I still attend an AA meeting from time to time.

I believe in the general principles of AA (The 12 steps), but I am afraid modern AA has become something that AA founder Dr. Bob would not recognize.

I believe you can find some stuff on this site that will enhance your recovery if you are addicted to alcohol or drugs.

God Bless

And if you want more insight into how I feel about AA, read the article entitled "Thoghts on AA"
on this site.

Hating God

I wrote this about 7 years ago. I post it here



Ive had some shocking realizations about resentment over the last 6 months I would like to share. Although I did a fourth step years ago and was as honest as I could be, there were several important resentments I missed that I wasnt even aware of.I want to share these on this
weblog for whatever benefit they may be towards you. I assure I went through great pain to find these truths.

Was resentment of God on your fourth step list, or do you resent God? Well, it wasnt on mine either, but should have been. This last year I developed a deep resentment towards a "Christian" who ran off with my fiancee. I couldnt shake the resentment even though I am well schooled in how dangerous they are. It went on for months. What I came to realize was that the resentment had several components. Not only was I resenting the person for what he had done ,I was also resenting my Conscience for telling me I was wrong for resenting the person. It was kind of confusing to me and I experienced it all as big ball of resentment while it was happening and couldnt see that the resentment had 2 elements to it. A really good friend showed me that I was resenting my conscience as well as the person, and I was glad to see error (and I started getting better when I saw this).

Resenting ones conscience is tantamount to hating God, since our conscience is our link to him (The Great Reality is within as the Bible and the Big Book correctly state). I could also see other instances in my life where I had done the same thing.

Why would I resent my conscience? Isnt is because I want to play God by being a Judge and resent a power greater than me showing me the truth? Its humbling to realize what a damn fool youve been. I suggest that resentment of God ought to be on every fourth step of every alcoholic. Isnt that why we drank, because we hated the light within that was trying to show us ourselves? Pride or Ego (the desire to be #1- god) and resentment at the Spirit of Truth were surely at the root of my drinking and drug use.

Drug War Casualties

Here is a link to an interesting article by Radley Balko about abuse that occured at Drug
Treatment Facilities. Radley is a libertarian and probably pro-drug legilazaiton. He is wrong about that, drugs shouldnt be legalized for a variety of reasons, but he is right that abuse has gone on in drug treatment programs in the past and is probably going on now. Sometime in the future I will write something on why drugs shouldnt be legalized as more and more people are becoming confused about that, many of them otherwise sensible conservatives and libertarians.


The American people often hear about drug treatment and the need for drug treatment. But what is this treatment? And how effective is drug treatment? That is hardly ever talked about at least honestly.


I have said and here say again that most treatment programs are ineffective and dont really help people at all. Even the so-called best, like Alcoholics Anonymous, mere substitute addiction to meetings to the addiction to alcohol or drugs.

What we really need is personal repentance and turning to God. Real repentance.



http://www.webdiva.org/fox/

The Synanon Game

The Tarzana Family was a Synanon clone program. It was supported by taxpayer money. A Synanon Clone program is one modeled after the infamous Synanon program in Santa Monica.. Many people know a little about the Synanon program and certainly a large number of people went through it.

When I was in The TarzanaFamily (1972) synanon clone programs were still popular , but seem to be more replaced by 12 step programs these days. Tarzana itself still exists and now hosts 12 step programs at their facility .How their current program is run I do not know. Tarzana was run by former drug addicts who were graduates from the Camarillo Family program. Therapies were varied but it was basically confrontational group therapy. The Synanon Game which was developed at Synanon was used there and I believe it is still used as therapy in some drug treatment programs.

Briefly, the Synanon game is a combination group confrontation and group therapy. One person is placed on the “hot seat” or probe and verbally attacked by other people in the game. Much truth is said but since we are talking about corrupted drug addicts it is mostly or entirely without love (at least in my experience). Much non-truth is also said. There were certain theraupuetic rules regarding the game. No threats of violence were tolerated. What was said in the game was supposed to stay in the game (although sometimes it did not).No theruapuetic contracts were allowed which meant you could not have secret verbal contracts outside the game to not confront someone about their behaviour and secrets inside the game .We were taught techniques like engrossing a person problems (making them seem bigger than they actually were). Except for a staff member everyone playing the game was a drug addict and a drug addict fairly new in recovery at that. Of course if any of them had really had insight on how to overcome a drug problem they would not have been in Tarzana in the first place (with the possible exception of a senior paid staff member). So in a sense it was a case of the inmates running the asylum. One current website says “playing the Game can accomplish a unification and healing of the personality, an appreciation and acceptance of new and more constructive forms of behavior -- or so they say –". At any rate the purpose of the game was supposed to be therapeutic and in some mysterious way not understood by me to help us solve our drug problems. Of course, Synanon had become wildly popular and endorsed as effective in some mental health circles and thus its techniques had spread and become popular, and that’s why they existed at Tarzana. Despite Synanons popularity and noteriety I dont believe any studies were ever done on its efficacy. I have known a handful of people who were at Synanon and they were all pretty screwed up, some still on drugs, and none who really understood addiction.



I found myself projecting my faults onto others in the Synanon
Game. I remember verbably attacking one fellow after he said he
loved his girlfriend. “ If you loved her , then why did you give her
drugs,” I screamed. It turned out he never had given his girlfriend
drugs. I was the one who had given my girlfriend, paulette, drugs.
Another time I told the group there was a lot of “underground
hostility” in the room; it was not until many,many years later that I
realized the full extent of that particular projection. The purpose of
the game is therapeutic but how effective is it to have of sick
criminal,drug addicts acting like psychiatrists to one another?



The point is that the throughout the '50's, 60's, and 70's the "experts" in charge of the "treatment" of drug addicts didnt have the foggiest idea of what to do about addiction. It was true then and its true now. Its just easier to see with a lttle hindsight.
The people back then swore up and down their program worked.
Some of these techiniques still being used. The Straight program made liberal use of Synanon methods I believe




©2005 Christianrecovery.blogspot.com

Exercise in Recovery

All the spiritual stuff in recovery is important no doubt. Without that you are not going to get very far. However, lets not forget the practical. The scripture says our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and we need to take care of them. In times past I have sometimes neglected this area but its important.

Just like I set aside Quiet time every day in the morning and evening. I try and set aside some regular time for exercise.

At the current time I am suffering from a heel spur so I cant really run, so I bike ride 5-10 miles a day. There are other things you can do to. Weightlifting. Karate. Those things have a pracitcal value too. You might need them in case you have to punch somebody in the nose with Christian Love.

Go for the Gusto

Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire. Pope John Paul II


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pope_john_paul_ii.html

Childhood Abuse Linked to Alcoholism

Abused Native Americans Twice as Likely to Drink.Link to article below.

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/abuse/a/blcah030917.htm


If you are interested in the connection,you might also read the articles

"The Newly Recognized, Shattering Effects of Child Abuse " and "Hate: The Root of Addictions".

Both are on this site.

New injection could help curb alcoholism?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/health/news-article.aspx?storyid=35120


No need for self examination. No need to "know thyself". No need for Faith. No need for prayer. No need for Repentenance.


This article reminds me I should post something about the stupidity of methadone treatment.

What is Judgement ?

What is Judgement?


Luke 6:37Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:


How often have you told somebody that they are wrong and they turn throw up the scripture in your face telling you that you are judging them?

Here is a post on the subject I pulled from a website which is pretty typical:

“im sorry, but that seems pretty hypocritical to me. you are judging homosexuals. you are saying that they are wrong, and gay marriage is wrong. but who are you to judge?”

See what I mean. They say you are wrong for seeing that they are wrong.The other thing frequently said is that you cant see a fault in something in someone else unless it is also in you. Under this philosophy if you say a person snatcher is a wrong person,then you yourself are a purse snatcher. Ridiculous.


I have had some conversations on-line with Christians and they often seem to be as much in the dark as anybody else.


So what then is this Judgement that the Christ warned us about. I believe I understand it to some degree. Lets see if I can explain it.

Has anyone ever done something wrong to you (either cruel or selfish) and you found feelings of resentment inside you? I have experienced that. And at the same time I was resenting I also experienced something else: guilt and depression. It was as if I was violating some unseen Spiritual Law. And I was.


Judgement is when you tinge the observation of the wrong or sin of another with hostility or resentment. That changes innocent discernment into the sin of Judgement.


Some of the other scriptures shed additional light on this.


43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[b] and pray for those who persecute you,(Matthew 5:43-44)


In your patience possess ye your souls.-Luke 21:19



12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.- Matthew 6:12


I have a minister friend who says he thinks the translation resist not evil is incorrect and that it should be resent not evi. And that makes a lot of sense to me.


Matthew 5:39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also


And there is one other scripture that needs consideration:



24Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment._John 7-24
I think you can see from the above scripture that there is a righteous judgement that is acceptable to God. Some people call it discernment.

So if we see people the way they are without resentment or hostility that is innocent and acceptable to God. And it is a damnable trick when they try and convince you that you are judging when you are not.


©2005 Christianrecovery.blogspot.com

Big Book on-line search

Here is a site where you can search the Big Book on line. Ill put a link on the side bar. If you are interested in Recovery and Alcoholism, there is some good stuff in that book. In my opinion it is much better than the 12 and 12, and books used in other fellowships. But dont believe everything in it. Especially, dont believe Alcoholism is a disease. I think Ill also put a link up to the first edition of the Big Book which is the best one. Most AA's have not read it.




http://www.nokama.com/bigbook