AA Isnt Religious !!TOP!!
AA Morality is promoted, and people who find spiritual elements like prayers and acknowledging a higher power intimidating and inefficient are encouraged to join AA for atheists. There are many nonreligious, or secular, AA-type groups to choose from, fortunate. These rehabilitation service organizations are made up of agnostics, atheists, humanists, and freethinkers. According to the New York Times, up to 150 of them are employed in the United States today.
AA Isn’t Religious
Ultimately, AA approaches to recovery from alcohol addiction are rooted in spirituality and faith. These can act as massive obstacles to those who want to get sober, but do not hold religious views. Another pitfall is that while the group does not endorse any one religious ideology, the overwhelming context for its 12-steps is Christianity, which might make people outside that faith hesitant to attend and in search of a secular alternative to AA.
With 12-step groups getting most of the attention, those seeking alternative to AA or non-religious addiction meetings might have difficulty finding one, especially a non 12-step recovery program that is effective. To that latter point, a 2018 study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment compared the effectiveness of non-12-step programs to the AA framework.6
The court cannot force people to attend religious events as part of punishment or parole requirements. They can, however, mandate that a secular activity take its place. That might mean formal rehab, therapy counseling, or an alternative to AA.
4. He must have devotions every morning -- a "quiet time" of prayer and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature. Unless this is faithfully followed, there is grave danger of backsliding.
A.A. is not a religious society since it requires no definite religious belief as a condition of membership. Although it has been endorsed and approved by many religious leaders, it is not allied with any organization or sect. Included in its membership are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, members of other religious bodies and atheists.
Regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs, you need to have faith in a higher power, which can help restore your sanity. You have to let your faith infiltrate every aspect of your life. You must replace negative thinking with positive thinking. You have to let go of self-righteousness and embrace humility.
The Supreme Court decided that it is the specicifoty of the prayer that is unconstitutional. This Country was built upon the freedom of religion and the freedom from religion. Our great Country decided a Christian prayer had no place in a public setting made up of many believers and non believers. I am proud of living in freedom. I would suggest ending the practice of using the lords prayer or any specific religious prayer within any of the A programs. It is by definition unconstitutional and not who we are as a American.
You brainwashed clowns think that AA is the only way, well guess what, the numbers are declining. Modernize the program, get rid of any reference to God, stop using religious prayers and for all that is wholly, rewrite the basic text.
We must throw the baby out with the bath water to make up for our previous errors and follow each and every dictate of the pissed off minority mind. Minds that may have been damaged in childhood by an abuser, a white male, or a religious person so that now all white men and their God must be diminished weakend and hopefully someday at some point totally relegated to the bigoted racist neo nazi outsiders class they deserve. Who are unwelcome now in the very group that they created as they saw fit to benefit everyone. But it is not possible to please everyone.
Maybe, but there are some definite prerequisites. Service members are sometimes referred to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). This can be problematic as the 12 steps revolve around the idea of a higher power. This higher power often refers to god, and reference to earlier foundational documents show a strong bias toward Christianity. We are encouraged that MAAF members and other atheists have been successful with AA. In addition, there are statements from AA officially recognizing the opportunity for a secular interpretation of the religious statements. We do want to make sure that those who need help have a comfortable and welcoming environment.
AA has been described as, basically, a spiritual program. To be sure, it does not offer any material help, as a welfare department would. But AA is certainly not a religious organization. It does not ask its members to hold to any formal creed or perform any ritual or even to believe in God. Its members belong to all kinds of churches. Many belong to none. AA asks only that newcomers keep an open mind and respect the beliefs of others.
TODAY is Good Friday, the day my Saviour went to the cross to die for my sins. That's my religious faith and it's as sacred and personal as my own private life. But religion isn't AA and AA isn't religion. I've had the same religious belief for as long as I can remember but I didn't stay sober. In fact, Easter was one of the times I was certain to drink. It's a long holiday weekend, and it called for a celebration. Getting drunk was my way of celebrating anything.
Many nonreligious alcoholics in recovery disagree. They find the AA program rife with religiosity and note that some local meetings begin and end with prayer and have a default Christian cast to them. They say that being forced to take part in a spiritual program by court order is a violation of their rights.
Many individuals have found comfort and support in A.A., but it seems that the kind of moral community it offers is only accessible to those with a religious bent and predisposition to the treatment plan. For those who drink to escape crushing poverty, racial inequality, or the drudgery of capitalism, A.A. often offers pseudoscience instead of results, moralizing condemnation instead of medical treatment and genuine understanding.
AA is generally better for spiritual and religious people. NA is better for people who put trust in psychology and the existential philosophy of personal responsibility. No one option is better than any other; to some, it might be best to give themselves over to the grace of God; to others, the only way out is in.
If that doesn't sound like a solid fit, there are a bunch of other secular recovery alternatives to AA. LifeRing is a group geared towards personal empowerment (think Tony Robbins style positivity). SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety) is a network of local autonomous secular recovery groups, and they provide a loose connection between unaffiliated local secular groups. There's even AA Agnostica, an organization explicitly formed to counteract the negative experiences that some non-religious folks had in AA.
In Alabama and Mississippi, 77% of residents are highly religious by this definition. In both states, for instance, 82% believe in God with absolute certainty. In addition, three-quarters of Mississippians say they pray at least once a day and 77% of Alabama residents say religion is very important in their lives.
No. We are not religious and want to avoid any conflict on this topic. We consider ourselves a spiritual and moral program, and our steps are broad and open to anyone who is not steadfastly closed to spiritual principles.
DeJong makes another breathtaking claim, in contrast to Taylor, that AA is not a religious fellowship because it does not require subscription to a specific set of doctrines for membership. He also contradicts reality. The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions are in fact a catechism and confession. AA is a confessional religion. There is not any non-religious or neutral confession of a god. Either one confesses the God of the Bible or he is an unbeliever.40
There are programs outside of the 12-step programs of AA and NA that offer hope to people who object to religious overtones. One of the most well-known of these is SMART recovery, which is science-based and uses concepts of self-help to empower the individual to learn to abstain without reliance on religious concepts.
The increased spirituality aspect or religious practices from AA meetings helped improve depression. The study shows it plays an essential role in long-term sobriety for those who completed inpatient treatment for addiction.
When artist AA Bronson enrolled in Union Theological Seminary, a historically Protestant Christian seminary that is interreligious in scope, he discovered a place where the world of religion and the world of art dovetail: the activity of social justice. Encouraged by members of the art world including Marina Abramović and Jeffrey Deitch and eminent theologians, Bronson went to work exploring this area of overlap, and soon founded the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice.
This is another example where religion should not butt its way into business affairs. UA should provide non-religious alternatives to Alcoholic Anonymous meetings such as private counseling and treatment. Or the pilot should seek an AA chapter (not the airline) that is not religious at all.
The Associate in Arts (AA), Emphasis in Religious Studies contains the first two years of a four-year curriculum for students who wish to specialize in religious studies. Students will learn about theology and world religions, as well as the historical significance and sociocultural contexts of people`s faiths. With a bachelor`s degree, students may pursue positions including human and social services assistant, director of religious or educational programs, museum technician, funeral attendant, tour guide, or clergy. With a graduate degree, students may pursue positions such as reporter, correspondent, social and community service manager, teacher, or college professors in areas such as religious studies or cultural studies.
Wilson at first declined Thacher's invitation to sobriety, and continued to drink in a more restrained way for a short while. After talking with William D. Silkworth, however, he went to Calvary Rescue Mission and underwent a religious conversion; he was then admitted to the Charles B. Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addiction in New York City on December 11, 1934. Thacher visited him there on December 14 and essentially helped Wilson take what would become Steps Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight.