Two Worlds, who are we, and who do they say we are?

I was having a conversation with one of my family. The topic turned out to be about their struggle with being friends with people who seemed to have lost their minds. So I want to talk about the spectrum of stuff under each tent.

Recovery has an advantage. They can claim that out of necessity they stay vague. The rationale is any improvement from where they came from is a plus. So a pimp is progressing if they are clean and live like a domesticated barn animal. Recovery is better than an active criminal. I am being harsh, but I have worked with the spectrum of recovery people. The bar is pretty low. In any group of recovery people, you will find the genuine and the marginal. But basically, stay clean and don’t die is the goal. Change and moral living is an elective option. In this regime, there is a Darwinian principle at play. Success in a lot of cases is related to the quality of the program supporting it. One thing that is consistent is the need to keep real faith on the down-low. People of faith migrate to programs of faith like CR. This is a loss for the Secular community and foolish. The recovery community is and has been intimidated by the vocal minority. In practice, many members of AA are members of faith communities and keep that quiet. The argument is that the fellowship gains by encouraging tolerance which can turn out to be a centure of faith.

On the other side, Faith shoots itself in the foot without fail. Why do faith people gravitate to the most fringy political causes? These days Faith and truth seem to find themselves at odds with each other. Faith people have a historic vulnerability to the most fringy and least scientific fringe ideas. Radical faith and science have always been uneasy allies.

So for now Secular needs a dose of morality. And faith needs a dose of common sense. More tomorrow.