Alcoholics Anonymous, being «spiritual, not religious,» doesn't use the Bible at all; rather it uses another sacred text, the inspired Word of God as expressed through Bill Wilson, the Big Book... Unlike the Oxford
Group, which claimed salvation and redemption by Jesus through the Oxford
Group,
AA proclaims «
recovery» by one s «Higher Power» through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (Ken Ragge, The Real AA: Behind the Myth of 12 - Step Recovery [AZ: Sharp Press, 1998], pp. 8
recovery» by one s «Higher Power» through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (Ken Ragge, The Real
AA: Behind the Myth of 12 - Step
Recovery [AZ: Sharp Press, 1998], pp. 8
Recovery [AZ: Sharp Press, 1998], pp. 82 - 83).
Speakers from
AA, Al - Anon, and Alateens often make an unforgettable impact on church
groups by personalizing the problems and the
recovery from alcoholism.
In doing so, I had joined two of the key features of
AA that account for its dismal failure to arrive at prompt, full
recovery, (1) the
group format that allows fellowships of addiction to emerge as surrogate families, and (2) the clinical mindset of the psychological disease concept of addiction that views self - intoxication by problem drinkers and drug addicts as an innocent act committed by innocent individuals.