Forgive the analogy! Faith and Recovery are very religious. Horrors!
Let me explain! If you have an issue leave a comment! A conversation is a good thing.
First, here are some concepts to think about. ‘ Wages of sin is death’ Google it! ‘The gift of God is eternal life.’ ‘The devil came. to seek, kill, and destroy.’ Obviously bible concepts.
Recovery folk would say we have nothing like that. Really!!! The drink is cunning, baffling, and powerful.
Often concepts are similar. Similar, but not the same.
Let’s look at themes. In AA the evil is the first drink. The first drink and the disease of alcoholism are diabolical. Only a power greater than ourselves can deal with this evil. The foundation at the beginning was a spiritual awakening that could break the cycle of terminal addiction. This was their only hope. AA stayed focused on the main thing. As times have moved on the AA program is more about suggestions and their practice to give the power to stay sober. Growing resistance to religious ideas has an effect. God stuff is done more and more on the down-low. In a bit of a retro move, some in AA have returned to the original manuscript the Big Book Chapter 5. Word for Word adherence to the original text is taken almost religiously. Interesting it is.
I believe this hesitancy to God-talk which is framed as a courtesy to the newcomer creates a vacuum, Growing intolerance of God-talk or specifically Jesus talk has driven Faith folk in recovery to faith-based recovery groups like Celebrate Recovery. Everyone is poorer for this allowed intolerance. Generally, other forms of spirituality are tolerated with more grace. I have often said at the time of my early sobriety AA spiritually was like the Star Wars Bar scene. Every creature in the universe was there. Some close friends were Jewish, agnostic, and Christian. Now it is the same except often Jesus stuff meets higher pushback.
Now for recovery people what is most offensive in the Christian faith talk? The top two are Hell and the Status of the homosexual lifestyle. To be fair Secular recovery people have to realize positions on these issues depend on the flavor of the church we are talking about. Today denominations are dividing over these issues. So it is a bit bigoted to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Trust me you can find any flavor you want in a Christian Church.
To my recovery brother and sisters, you tell me if you have conversations all night long on the quality of the recovery of certain groups and individuals. I know you group people and their ideas on how good their recovery is. Churches do the same thing for the same reasons. Bad ‘program’ in recovery groups and bad theology in faith groups are similar ideas in different places.
What I am trying to get across is things are different but a lot alike.
Next time: Nonnegotiables.
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