Expert: Rebos - 3/2/2006

Question
I did a little googling Rational Recovery and found this about god and AA:

http://tinylink.com/?CuNIJefUii

Is this guy telling the truth? I was rather surprised by what I found out.
oh- RR is actually had nothing good to say about AA. But they are rather extreme in the opposite direction. I would like to use AA because there are so many meetings and they are free, but I don't like what I read about the God thing.

thanks,

Mack
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Followup To
Question -
I am recovering alcoholic, and I am an atheist. Can I go to AA and will it work?

Is there some other way?
Answer -
Good morning Mack:

Absolutely YES. AA will work whether you are an agnostic or an athiest. There is no requirement to believe in a Higher Power. Get a copy of the "Big Book" entitled Alcholics Anonymous and read the Chapter "To the Agnostic". You can be a member of AA no matter what, if anything, that you believe in. The program will work better for you, but none the less it can work if you use the group as your higher power or anything else. You just have to believe in some thing or anything else more powerful than booze is in your life now.

There used to be a group called Rational Recovery for non-believers in a higher power. It was fashioned after AA without God. You may want to try Google to see what yoiu can find on the internet.

You can contact me again if you so choose. Thank you Rebos.

Answer
Good afternoon Mack:

Thank you for your follow-up e-mail.

Maybe…just maybe you haven't yet hit your bottom. I know that if I was afflicted with a terminal disease (and alcoholism is a terminal disease if left un-treated) that I would go to the ends of the world, and do anything, listen to anyone, take the worst tasting medicine, believe in anything that I was told to… etc to get well. If you are as you say, an alcoholic, your track record when left to your own devices can't be very good. In AA they say that “If you can't believe, just believe that we believe”.

I don't know all that you have been reading about the God thing, but if you were in enough pain then you wouldn't be wasting your time on all that is written about God, both good and bad. What AA talks about is a “Power greater than the pain that you are going through”. They are NOT talking about a religion they talk about the need for spirituality. The spiritually they refer to is the loss of values, and settling for less and less as the disease progresses.

Why can't you resign from the debating society, go to AA meetings with an open mind, sit and listen and maybe you will get some benefit from it. Remember that their twelve steps of recovery are but suggestions, but they will be willing to accept you at their meetings without any question of whatever you do or don't believe in. I have NEVER heard of anyone, at an AA meeting, pressuring a person to believe in God. It is against the twelve traditions of AA to do such a thing. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. And at that… if it makes you more comfortable you don't even have to join to be in attendance at their meetings…even their closed meetings. If it makes you feel good to not have to pay for your recovery then so be it. There are no dues or fees to go to AA meetings or even to be a member if you so chose. They don't care who you are or what you are as long as you don't disturb their meetings. They will even let you stay at their meetings if you announce that you do not believe in God. They don't care if you are from Yale or Jail. They are as open-minded as no other group is or has been throughout history.

I would wish you good luck in you quest for sobriety, but recovery has nothing to do with good luck. It has to do with having an open mind, learning to listen so that you can listen to learn. Thank you Rebos