A.A. threatens to fire God, demands more benefits and less participation

By Joseph on November 24, 2012 | Edit

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Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer. They may not all be right, but try to see where anyone may be right, a statement of humility and another such statement.” We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us”

It’s been rumored that Clancy I. has made the observation that in some areas of the country A.A. has been slowly and deliberately elbowing God out of the rooms of recovery.  I do not believe that this phenomenon is unique to A.A.  for I find  this to be a common and progressively  deleterious  attitude and that A.A.’s are but a reflection of those declining social mores , we are but a microcosm of societies’ ills as a whole.

The decline of a God consciousness has been very gradual and almost imperceptible viewed in the short term. A Hollywood movie that would have been rated   R for restricted, in as little as 10 years ago has slowly crept into the social unconscious and is now perfectly acceptable as a PG 13 (Parental guidance for ages 13 and under)

2,000 years of Christianity jettisoned for politically correct ‘Common Era’ has replaced the familiar Anno Domino AD (the year of Our Lord) and BC Before Christ with the obscure terms Common Era and Before Common Era.

No one knew there they were being offended until someone explained it  to us.  Why we should take an exception to the fact how Christ so changed the world in which we live that we would mark time by his comings and goings is an acknowledgement of both awe and respect.

Society is slowly being desensitized by the constant  sensationalism of media arousal while being anesthetized with drugs, alcohol and pornography and now readily accepts “what once was evil is now good, and what once was good is now made evil”. The fabric of society is slowly being torn apart. The recovery community once a beacon of hope, love, tolerance and service has now in ever widening circles have become but a mirror of the attitudes and corrupt customs of  our society as a whole.

 ”Must a Christ be crucified in every generation for the benefit of those who have no imagination?    George Bernard Shaw

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?                                   Hamlet 

All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.  Burke

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even alcohol.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good, and that is by hope, kindness tolerance and love unfeigned. To be continuously engaged in good works and in the service of others, for this is the proper use of the will.

For when we are in the service of our fellow beings are we not in the service of our God? And when we are in that service and in that moment are we not divorced from self dilution, self-seeking and self-pity? and in that service and in that moment is that not when we make our conscious contact without creator who lives from moment to moment, eternity to eternity, life everlasting. The magic word in A.A. is Action and more Action for faith without works is dead.

 There are opposing forces at play, one is rational recovery with its complete disavowment of God, and the other is Celebrate recovery that Acknowledges  Jesus as the Christ and Heavenly Father as the only Higher power.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”  Abe L.

A.A. has no requirement as such, and is a kin more to a spiritual kindergarten, in that everyone is free to come to their own understanding and spiritual growth or not at their own will and pace.

I ask my church,  if the Twelve Steps are not a gift from God why have you adopted them? And if they are a gift from God why do you feel compelled to change them?

The question is why  are so many threatened by the concept of God or have the need to coerce their own beliefs on others, and  prefer to lean towards the outer fringes  and not take comfort from the center of love , tolerance, and service?

The good news is that it is not required by the program to believe in God, and its not required by God to believe in him either, for it is agreed “Chose you this day whom you will serve” as this puts all men on equal ground and choice remains the cornerstone of the program of recovery as well as all spiritual growth. “If a person wants to be atheist, it’s his God-given right to be an atheist.” Michael Patton

PLEASE  STEP AWAY FROM THE ROCK

My answer would be:  We don’t fight against flesh and blood, but principalities, dominions and wickedness in High (and low) places.

We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness and democracy pervade the vessel from steerage to the captain’s table.

Pride: The disavowment of God or of the need thereof.

Natural man has been an enemy to God and has been so since the fall, (and the winter does not look much better, but but the spring will come with the promise of the resurrection of renewal and by the summer time the cotton will be high and the cat fish they be a jump’in)

Thus pride will always go before the fall.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Me is all I need!

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.                  Invictus

Ridicule is death to the ego and the ego will sacrifice the body on the altar of pride in a vain attempt to stay alive, the preacher said vanities of vanities all is vanity.

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Joseph