Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A." or "AA") is a world-wide fellowship of alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and carry the message of recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps. A.A. is the original twelve-step program and has been the source and model for all subsequent and separate ones, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.

A.A., religion and the law

U.S. judges continue to offer defendants the choice of attending A.A., or going to prison. A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises Americans' constitutional right not to have religion dictated to them by government - because A.A. suggests that a belief in a higher power (and willingness to turn one's will and life over to it, per the third step) is necessary to achieve recovery. The United States Supreme Court has let this decision stand.

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A.A. World Services Inc. and A.A.'s General Service Office do not favor coercion regarding meeting attendance. A.A. experience long suggests that the program works best for people who seek sobriety of their own free will. The Third Tradition of A.A. states "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking." Those forced to attend meetings may not have any desire to stop drinking. Nevertheless, it is true that some members claim to owe their recovery to the fact they were ordered to go to A.A. by a judge or doctor. A.A. welcomes everyone at its meetings, including those who are there only because a court or other external authority compelled them.

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The A.A. program contains spiritual ideas, but it does not promote any particular religion over others, and it has worked for adherents of many faiths, including Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims as well as for many who identify with no religion. Nevertheless, since it suggests that the recovering alcoholic seeks help from a "Higher Power," some atheists find themselves unable to accept A.A.'s Twelve Steps and instead seek out secular alternatives. Many others have been able to adapt the concept of a "Higher Power" in a manner that works for them, and there is a chapter of the book Alcoholics Anonymous called "We Agnostics" that speaks directly to agnostics and agnosticism. It counsels that even those members who "thought we were atheists or agnostics" were able to "lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves ... even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God" and "had to stop doubting the power of God" because "deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God." (quotes from Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, p. 44, 46, 52, 55) Many alcoholics arrive at A.A. with a strong disbelief towards spiritual ideas. A.A. members usually counsel attendees with such beliefs to keep attending despite their percieved conflicting beliefs. The attitude towards these cases is usually the same as in the Alcholics Anonymous book, they believes that eventually athiests and agnostics will "come around" to believing in a "higher power." Many agnostics and athiests find this attitude offensive and condescending, because they interpret such statments as being tantamount to saying that athiest and agnostics have simply not thought about the implications enough to come to see what A.A. adherents see as a basic "truth."

Related Topics:
Religion - Atheists

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Many alcoholics who arrive at A.A. without belief in a god use the group itself as their "Higher Power." One such alcoholic defined "GOD" as "Group Of Drunks" until he was able to discover a spiritual concept of God which worked for him. Others may focus on the program itself, defining "GOD" as "Good Orderly Direction." On the other hand, newcomers are cautioned that it is unwise to use any one person, such as a sponsor, as their higher power in that all individual human beings are fallible and, in the case of another recovering alcoholic, no matter how long his or her sobriety, capable of relapse. The basic idea is that, in order to recover, the alcoholic must "surrender," meaning that he or she must admit his or her powerlessness over alcohol and unmanageability of life and must stop depending only on self, while beginning to rely on help from a "power greater than ," whatever the precise nature of that power. Many recovering alcoholics would agree with the statement: "I had done things my way long enough, and all it got me was drunk. I decided it was time to start following directions."

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Ironically, it has been the experience of some A.A. "old timers" (recovering alcoholics with many years of uninterrupted sobriety) that active alcoholics who seek recovery in A.A. without having a prior religious concept of God may have a better chance of lasting recovery than their more religious counterparts. This seems to be true because the former may find it easier to focus on working the program itself, instead of using previously-held religious beliefs as a rationalization for seeking an "easier softer way." However, as stated elsewhere, many people who come to A.A. with all sorts of religious beliefs, or the lack thereof, have found long-lasting recovery from alcoholism in A.A. "one day at a time."

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