A brand, new godless recovery program hits the internet
Dick B.
© 2008 by Anonymous. All rights reserved
I’m not going to dignify the new idolatrous internet presentation by providing the URL. But I will tell you that it is becoming widely circulated. It represents the worst of revisionist recovery chatter. Boldly, it asserts that, while A.A. had Christian beginnings (and it erroneously describes them), someone agreed that it should be changed to admit people of all faiths and persuasions. True! It does, and that’s a settled situation. But it does not preclude believers from believing.
The problem is that it just shakes off totally our early A.A. program and successful history which, according to Dr. Bob, took its basic ideas from the Bible. The presentation doesn’t mention the decisions for Christ or the pioneer Christian Fellowship (as Dr. Bob called it), and the essential studies of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians. Nor does it mention Morning Quiet Time—a must in early A.A. Nor the prayer meetings. In short, it just doesn’t mention real A.A. See my title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History.
Now don’t get your hopes up about finding information from this new lecturing crowd. If you are a believer in God, a Christian, a Bible student, or one in search of a relationship with God, you will find little in this presentation that is accurate, and even less that is helpful. Oh sure. If you want to choose your own god, it will tell you that you can. If you don’t want to believe in anything, it will tell you that you can. If you prefer giving some higher power idol a name, why of course you can call it Ralph, Gertrude, a Coke bottle, a radiator, a tree, the Big Dipper, good orderly direction, or your A.A. group. And these days people won’t even laugh at you.
You’ve heard it all in meetings. You’ve read it all in recent literature. And the woods are full of therapists and learned teachers who don’t believe in God, who remind us of the First Amendment, and who know they won’t get their government grants or insurance payments if they tell the truth about A.A.’s being a religion—a fact that has been established by court after court in recent litigation. So, of course, they call it “spiritual, but not religious.” You may ask “what religion?” I would answer—the religion, denomination, church, and Bible of your choice. For in today’s A.A. you still have that religious choice. You’ve got the history to show that it always existed. And you’ve got the new research that shows it was the real position of the founders before Bill and Hank decided to form a corporation, sell stock, and revise the ideas so that stock could be sold, then books could be sold, and then members of all types could buy.
When confronted with erroneous truths and tempting but evil offers, Jesus took the position: Get thee behind me, Satan. The author of the Book of James wrote in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But remember, he will be back! And it’s OK accidentally to let him light in your hair, but be sure not to let him make a nest there. Perish the day when I will waste any more time listening to teachers or preachers talk about some unknown “higher power” or “spirituality” or “god of their understanding.” Anyone still has the right to believe in the God that the founders worshipped, prayed to, and asked for guidance. See James, Chapter One—a favorite of Bill’s and Bob’s/
What’s the bottom line? Don’t we have enough people already trying to move Americans, schools, churches, and even the poor AAs and addicts away from God? I think so, but I also suggest that the more you listen, the more you might begin to wonder if God has any place in your life. After all these dudes (there’s a man and a woman at the start) have college degrees and sincerity. But for those who rightly wish to choose the power of God, it is not only unpleasant but distracting to listen to the new, recover less recovery speakers tell us why we need to move ourselves completely out of the path to a relationship with God which the Big Book mentions so often. I submit my Heavenly Father is available at all times in all places and in all situations. Dr. Bob said it far better in the last line of his personal story: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (Big Book, p. 181).
Gloria Deo
Dickb@dickb.com
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