Spirituality vs the "God" idea.

[NMDemDist2]

10. i'm sure you're not the only one. i stated that in my first response

it's been controversial IN and out of the rooms. Believe me when i tell you AA has had a lot of heartburn with court ordered attendees all over the country.

we aren't running out begging for new members, people come to AA hoping for an answer. court appointed people aren't there for an answer usually. some find one there anyway, some don't.

as for your "Kind of hard to endure the religious proselytization about a prayer-answering favor dispensing deity" statement, that's one way to see the fellowship of AA i suppose and an easy one to latch onto. I held onto the "only requirement is a desire to stop drinking" one instead. I didn't let people beat me over the head with God and thankfully most never tried that tactic.

They just told me not to drink one day at a time and to keep coming back. they asked me to be honest to the best of my ability and to find someone to talk to about how to live differently. I didn't need or want religion, i needed a way to stop drinking. i needed a way to live comfortably in my own skin. I didn't have those skills when I came into AA but i saw people in the rooms who seemed to be able to do it.

They asked me to be open-minded. they asked me to just listen and try a few actions. so i didn't drink one heartbeat, one minute, five minutes then one day at a time. they told me to clean up the wreckage of my past, to look at the things in my past that were haunting me and to talk to someone about them. then they suggested i stop doing those actions that made me feel bad about myself. to start acting in a manner that would allow me to respect myself and those around me.

I used an oak tree, a 6' tall invisible white rabbit and the old timer's God (and I quote "If you don't have a God, use mine" so whenever there was a prayer that was expected I said "Dear Neil B's God) as a HP over the first few years. I have a core of faith in the universal law today that works fine for me.

like I told someone in another thread,

don't let some bible thumper in the rooms deter you, just smile sweetly and say "And where is that in the Big Book?" and they can't show you because Bill was VERY careful not to put it in there.

so bottom line? if you hate AA don't go there. if you think every one's a hypocrite and trying to be a religious proselytizer, don't talk to them. not everyone in AA is trying to cram religion down your throat and be assured I spend quite a bit of time rescuing newcomers from those "the Other big book" thumpers. and i take a lot of lumps in the rooms because of it, but the joke's on them, I'll be celebrating 20 years sober February 28th.