I found this article very interesting, but I have always struggled about whether AA is an appropriate place to refer my members if they need help. All the talk of Higher Power seems better than a completely secular approach. and yet at the same time, I am always suspicious of nondescript gods floating around as the answer to sin.
This new manuscript that is being released as a book is revealing in the sense that it make clear that any dogmatic religious talk was removed in favor of loosey goosey spirituality talk. In this sense, it is no wonder that the organization flourished in a country that loves talk of a nondescript god helping us do what we desire. It is the god most mentioned in the public square in this country. People love a god they can mold.
I am still not sure if a faithful Christian can bring true religion into the twelve steps and come out with the same religion. But I am also not sure what a better option is. I would love to hear from those with experience direct or indirect with AA about this question. Is AA a good place for God’s people struggling with this sin? Or should I simply exhort to confession and absolution alone?
12-step manuscript rare glimpse into early AA
In 1939, about 5,000 copies of a book offering hopeless drunks a spiritual path to recovery through 12 steps were released by a fledgling fellowship of alcoholics.
They called it “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism.”
Some of the edits made it into print, especially in early chapters for fragile readers. Many others were rejected as the still-anonymous personalities behind the notes fretted over how to handle God and religion, a Higher Power “bigger than ourselves” and the influence of the Oxford Group, a religious movement embraced by Wilson and his fellow founder, Ohio physician Bob Smith, but later considered a preachy hindrance in working with problem drinkers.
“The spirituality side is what enabled the movement to grow very rapidly. Had this been about religion, I have doubts it would have succeeded as it had.”
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