Alcohol Abuse Advice

Effective Recovery Service Today?A Simple Approach

Effective Recovery Service Today?A Simple Approach

 

By Dick B.

© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

After 20 years of travel, investigation, study, research, collecting materials, and then disseminating the results, I believe every person who wishes to quit permanently his or her self-destructive addictive, alcoholic, and at-risk behavior, can learn enormously from the origins, history, founding, original program, and astonishing successes of the early Alcoholics Anonymous Christian Fellowship founded in Akron, Ohio, in 1935 by Bill W. and Dr. Bob.

How to do it in Alcoholics Anonymous and Twelve Step Fellowships today?

Abandon the nonsense gods where people call their “higher power” a light bulb, a chair, a rock, Something, Santa Claus, and other absurd names. Abandon the misleading “higher power” language which is not used in the Twelve Steps. It is used only twice in the Big Book text—both times in the context of God—Almighty God, the Creator. Abandon the nonsense talk about a supposed difference in Alcoholics Anonymous between “spirituality” and “religion” where advocates try to tell newcomers Alcoholics Anonymous is “spiritual, but not religious” and leave them baffled as to the meaning of the expression and baffled as to what A.A. literature means when it talks about “establishing a relationship with God,” “Father of lights,” “Heavenly Father, “finding” God, “Thy will be done,” “faith without works is dead,” “Creator,” “Maker,”  and the royal law—”love thy neighbor as thyself.” “Abandon the idea that people in recovery cannot and should not turn to God for help, cannot and should not establish a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and cannot and should not read the Bible, Christian literature, or Christian devotionals—based on a belated injection of the idea that they may “choose their own conception” of a god. Abandon the idea that Christians are not welcome in Alcoholics Anonymous, should not seek help there, and are hell-bound if they do. Abandon the small, hard-core of writers today who devote themselves to trying to tear down Alcoholics Anonymous, drive Christians out of recovery fellowships, and misquote the Bible as “authority” for their promises of damnation for those who are seeking recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

These caveats do not advocate changing Alcoholics Anonymous as it is today. They advocate enabling Alcoholics Anonymous members and those in recovery to understand that A.A. lays no claim to doctrinal or theological expertise and authority. They affirm what Bill Wilson wrote in his Big Book when he said: “Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer” (page 87). They do not advocate expelling or criticizing or intimidating atheists, agnostics, unbelievers, and those who want to pursue other religious creeds flowing from Hindu, Buddhist, or New Thought ideas. They simply advocate recognizing the obvious—there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of Christians in recovery and in Alcoholics Anonymous today, who deserve accurate information about the religious freedom and historical origins that are a part of A.A. today—just as they were when Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, and Akron AAs were studying the Bible, while Bill Wilson and his wife Lois were advocating for a “universal” A.A. because “not all drunks are Christians.”

Find out the original program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Get the facts from our new class Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery www.dickb.com/IFCR-Class.shtml. Check out A.A.’s own description of the early program–five simple points that were required and are published in A.A.’s own DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.” Pick up your Big Book. Read the Twelve Steps. Learn how both differ from the original Alcoholics Anonymous program. See how a Christian in Alcoholics Anonymous or a Twelve Step Fellowship today can and should feel free to turn to God for help, share his relationship with Jesus Christ, document the fact that early AAs did just that, and ask people to study the “abc’s” on A.A.’s own Big Book, page 60.

A.A. today tells its readers that “God could and would if he were sought.” And He can and will if people stop making up absurd names for a god, trying to create self-made religion, and uttering half-baked prayers instead of following the guidance laid out by our Creator in the Word of God.

It’s all in the new class Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery. The class is short. It’s simple. It’s accurate and reliable. And it will point you toward effective recovery service today with a simple approach. See www.dickb.com/IFCR-Class.shtml