Is AA Religious Or Spiritual

• Individuals and families seeking recovery should know that the evidence for AA's success is compelling. Although AA is a spiritual program, it operates in a variety of ways. As a result, regardless of one's spiritual beliefs, AA involvement may be beneficial.
• For scientists: The models explaining AA's behavior change processes deserve further detail. More research is needed on the underlying mediators that influence AA's effectiveness, as well as who it works best for and under what conditions. Greater understanding in this area could help to better understand the nature of recovery processes in general and improve recovery management strategies.
• For policymakers: AA provides persons with alcohol and other substance use disorders with effective, free, and widely accessible recovery help. In the face of rising healthcare expenditures, AA provides the closest thing to a free meal. Furthermore, AA appears to transfer its advantages through mechanisms similar to therapeutic interventions, despite the fact that it is free and non-professional. Supporting the distribution of resources that connect people to AA is likely to be beneficial to public health. More study, particularly on the applicability of 12-step therapies for drugs other than alcohol, is also required.
• Professionals in the field of treatment and treatment systems should be aware of the following: The effectiveness of AA is now supported by a vast body of evidence. Evidence suggests that AA can enhance and extend the advantages of clinical therapy while also lowering health-care expenses. Even if patients do not identify with the spiritual parts of AA, they may benefit from participation.

Is AA considered a religion?

“I thought it was nutty stuff when my head doctor, Silkworth, started telling me about the idea of using spirituality to treat drunks, but I've changed my mind.” Your gang of ex-drunks is going to flood Madison Square Garden one day.” (3)

Clinicians today might be forgiven for initially viewing the idea of helping individuals recover from life-threatening and debilitating alcohol and drug use disorders using an ostensibly spiritual program directed by peers with no professional clinical training with skepticism and concern, as this addiction treatment hospital administrator did in the 1930s. Clinically linking patients to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) “meetings,” which are held primarily in rented church basements and emphasize work on a set of explicitly religiously-worded “steps” that include turning one's life and will over to God and engaging in prayer and meditation, does not seem in line with our modern sophisticated scientific era of genome wide association studies (GWAS), once-a-month injectable anti-relapse medications (e.g., depot naltrexone Perhaps the only “steps” these addicts should be taking are those that lead them up and out of the church basement and into the bright light of clinical science?

However, the administrator mentioned above witnessed something that caused him to reconsider his position. He began to see significant improvements after originally dismissing this budding predecessor to what would eventually become AA as “crazy crap.” As a result, he expected explosive development, enough to fill a major arena in New York City. He appears to have had the appropriate insight, but he misjudged the organization's expansion; AA went from two members to over two million worldwide, laying the groundwork for a slew of similar huge multinational recovery organizations (e.g., Narcotics Anonymous). It has also been well regarded. The American Public Health Association awarded AA the Lasker Award in 1951, which is considered America's equivalent of the Nobel Prize; US former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called it “America's gift to the world,” and AA's original text, Alcoholics Anonymous (1), is one of only 88 books listed in the US Library of Congress that “have shaped America.” Popularity does not always imply efficacy, but if AA's reach across communities and nations is a barometer of success, the organization appears to have done something well. But what about clinical and public health impact that has been empirically validated? Is it truly true that “spirituality” is the way to go when it comes to recovering from a genetically affected brain disease like addiction (4–5)?

“The great fact is just this and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life…”; “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps…”(6)). AA itself believes that spirituality is the answer, explicitly stating that recovery is achieved through a “spiritual awakening” from working through its 12-step program (“The great fact is just this and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life…” At least, it was the belief when AA first published its original text (the “Big Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous) in 1939, and it has remained intact despite the release of three further versions since then (except for the personal stories at the back of the book). Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and other studies investigating the efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of AA have been published, with significant advantages, but this research has been plagued by self-selection and other biases until recently (7). Furthermore, controversy has surrounded AA, in part because of its quasi-religious/spiritual language and orientation, including legal rulings by the United States Supreme Court that it is a religion and thus individuals cannot be forced to attend under the US constitution (separation of church and state) (8). So, when tested to the greatest scientific standards, does AA actually deliver clinically substantial benefits? Is it true, if so, that it works via growing spirituality or by other, more earthy means?

This article presents the most recent scientific studies on AA and its mechanisms of behavior modification in an attempt to answer these problems. This article begins by briefly describing the studies exploring if AA involvement is causally related to improved outcomes in order to determine whether there is an actual beneficial effect of AA participation to explain through mechanisms study. A review and analysis on the mechanisms of behavior change research undertaken on AA during the past 25 years follows. While allegedly religious/spiritual in theory, AA's effects appear to be communicated through its ability to enable simultaneous access to and active mobilization of multiple helpful therapeutic elements, which for some may include increases in “spirituality.” Furthermore, it is argued that the way AA has been shown to work empirically is more aligned with the experiences reported by its larger and more diverse membership as detailed in its later social, cognitive, and behaviorally-oriented publications (e.g., Living Sober, 1975)(2) written when AA membership numbered more than a million men and women (about half of whom had 5 or more years of continuous sobriety) than with its quasi-religious/spiritually oriented or religious

Can you do AA If you don't believe in God?

Yes, however you may have to go through some internal mental acrobatics to accept it.

We acknowledged that we had lost control of our addiction and that our lives had become unmanageable.

We began to believe that we may be restored to sanity by a Power bigger than ourselves.

We decided to entrust our wills and lives to God's care, as we understood Him.

The term God appears in a few other levels as well. Because the steps are taken from the “Big Book,” this is the case (Alcoholics Anonymous, the guidebook). AA, like any movements, has changed over time.

Many individuals use the phrase “Higher Power” instead of “God” to highlight that this isn't about the capital-G Christian God. A greater power could be someone you respect, nature, the universe's balance, or science.

Some people, particularly staunch atheists or agnostics, have a hard time accepting this concept. That's OK. AA isn't the only option available. SMART Recovery or S.O.S. are two alternative options for receiving treatment with drinking or substance abuse problems.

Does AA make you believe in God?

There are two types of AA meetings: open and closed meetings. Anyone who wishes to attend an open meeting is welcome to do so. Only persons who believe they have an alcohol or drug dependency problem are invited to the secret meeting. Neither of these gatherings necessitates a faith in God. Although the twelve steps refer to a higher power or God “as you understand him,” AA meetings and publications use the term “God.”

Why is AA not a religion?

The belief that Alcoholics Anonymous is a religious organization is one of the most widespread misconceptions about the group. When confronted with A.A.'s emphasis on spiritual means of recovery, new members often misinterpret “spiritual” as “religious” and leave meetings to escape what they perceive as a new and terrifying set of beliefs. Many alcoholics have lost whatever faith they previously had by the time they walk into their first meeting; others have tried religion to stop drinking and failed; and still others simply don't want anything to do with it. With few exceptions, once A.A. members have maintained any level of sobriety for a period of time, they have discovered a source of strength outside of themselves — a Higher Power, by whatever name — and the stumbling block has vanished.

A Program of Action

The Twelve Steps, which make up A.A.'s recovery program, are not a confession of faith; rather, they reflect what the founding members did to get sober and stay clean. Surrender, self-inventory, confession to someone outside of ourselves, and some kind of prayer and meditation are all notions that have been found in spiritual movements around the world for thousands of years. The Steps help the suffering alcoholic — sick, afraid, defiant, and grimly determined not to be told what to do, think, or believe — to put these principles into context.

The Steps provide a detailed action plan that includes admitting that alcohol has beaten you, cleaning up your own life, admitting your flaws and doing whatever it takes to change them, maintaining a relationship with whatever or whoever outside of yourself can help you stay sober, and working with other alcoholics.

God As We Understood Him

The fundamental concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous were developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, during what co-founder Bill W. described to as the Fellowship's formative years “Try it and see what happens.” The founding members had been following six stages that they had learned from the Oxford Groups, where many of them had begun their careers. Bill thought that more precise directions would be better, so he enlarged them to twelve while drafting A.A.'s main text, Alcoholics Anonymous. However, he was dealing with a group of recently sober drunks, so his new version was met with fierce criticism. Despite the fact that the founding members were in many ways a homogeneous group (white, middle-class, nearly entirely male, and predominantly Christian), they represented the complete range of opinion and belief. In Alcoholic Anonymous Comes of Age, a history of the Fellowship's early years, Bill informs us that “The heated argument over the Twelve Steps and the content of the book was amplified and amplified again. Conservative, liberal, and radical opinions were all present.” (paragraph 162) Some thought the novel should be Christian, while others were fine with it “They were in favor of “God,” but rejected any other theological premise. Atheists and agnostics, on the other hand, wished to eliminate all allusions to God in favor of a psychological approach.

Bill sums up: “We finally got around to discussing the possibilities of a compromise… We choose to depict God as a ‘Power bigger than ourselves' in Step Two. We inserted the words ‘God as we understood Him' in Steps Three and Eleven. We removed the words ‘on our knees' from Step 7. ‘Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a recovery program,' we wrote as a lead-in sentence to all of the steps. The Twelve Steps of A.A. were merely meant to be suggestions.” (See ibid., p. 167).

Those crucial compromises, articulated after weeks of heated debate, have enabled alcoholics of all faiths, or no faith at all, to embrace the A.A. program of recovery and find lasting sobriety.

What About This Spiritual Awakening Thing?

Despite this, the phrase “Many newcomers find the phrase “spiritual awakening,” which appears in the Twelfth Step and throughout A.A. literature, to be intimidating. It conjures up a dramatic image for some “An alcoholic fresh off a binge is unlikely to be interested in a “conversion” experience. Others, who have been battered down by years of constant drinking, believe it is absolutely out of reach. But for those who stick it out, continued sobriety nearly always leads to the awareness that they have undergone a spiritual transformation in some amazing and unexpected way.

Spirituality in the A.A. tradition is a byproduct of activity. Step 12 starts now “As a result of these Steps, I've had a spiritual awakening…” (italics added), and Bill W. discusses what happens on page 106 of his book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: “Spiritual awakening may have as many definitions as those who have experienced it. But each authentic one, without a doubt, has something in common with the others… The most significant meaning of a spiritual awakening for a man or woman is that he is now able to do, feel, and believe things that he could not do before on his own strength and resources. He has been given a gift that entails a shift in consciousness and existence. He has been placed on a route that indicates that he is on the right track, that life is not a dead end, and that it is not something to be endured or mastered. He has been altered in a very real sense, since he has grasped a source of strength that he had previously denied himself in some way.”

Groups and Their Customs

The A.A. group is where alcoholics learn to live the program and practice it “in all their affairs,” if the Steps are the program of recovery. The A.A. Preamble, a concise summary of what the Fellowship is and is not, is recited at nearly every group meeting in the United States and Canada. “A.A. is not affiliated with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution; does not seek to engage in any debate; neither endorses nor opposes any causes,” the last two sections of the statement state. Our main goal is to stay sober and to assist other alcoholics do the same.”

Group traditions that appear to be religious can deter newcomers from returning. Professionals who suggest someone to A.A. may be able to assist them by advising them to attend a variety of meetings, especially in the first year of sobriety, and to establish a comfortable home group. Each group is autonomous, according to A.A.'s Fourth Tradition, which means that each group is distinct and has its own flavor. Even if a shaky alcoholic finds himself in a meeting where the participants are comfortable with traditional religious terminology one night, he or she can try again the next night and discover a group where even the most questioning or cynical person will feel right at home.

Similarly, A.A. members typically address the issue of a Higher Power by telling newcomers that they are free to discover their own. Even if they avoid the “God part,” as it is known in A.A. parlance, men and women can find a much-needed source of support outside of themselves. For others, it's their A.A. group; for others, it's a traditional concept of God; and for still others, it's a completely different sense of a higher power. In 1973, the booklet Came to Believe was released to demonstrate the diversity of spiritual quests in A.A. It is a compilation of a wide spectrum of members' spiritual experiences, ranging from traditional religious devotees to atheists and agnostics, with all points in between.

But Don't A.A. Groups Use the Lord's Prayer?

The practice of concluding meetings with the Lord's Prayer, which was previously nearly universal, is still practiced in many places. Where it still exists, the leader usually only invites people to participate if they want to. Today's North American groups have come up with a variety of strategies to wrap off their gatherings. The Lord's Prayer is rarely used in Spanish-speaking congregations in the United States and abroad. Many people say the Serenity Prayer or the A.A. Responsibility Statement; others say something else, or simply take a minute of silence. And, regardless of the particular phrasing, the decision is made by the group conscience.

Many of the Fellowship's initial members found support in meetings of the Oxford Groups, thus groups that continue to close with the Lord's Prayer are following a tradition established in the Fellowship's early days. The habit of ending meetings with the Lord's Prayer is very likely a result of those gatherings. Because there was no A.A. literature at the time, the founders relied mainly on Bible readings for guidance and inspiration. They most likely ended with the Lord's Prayer, as Bill W. pointed out “It did not subject speakers to the humiliating job of creating their own prayers.” As A.A. grew across North America and then the rest of the world, meeting formats became more inclusive, and it became clear that the recovery program could transcend all borders of creed, race, and religion.

The Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, one of the nonalcoholic friends who was helpful in developing the Fellowship from the beginning, remarks on the founders' fundamental decision not to define a set of principles in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. On pages 263-64, he says: “I believe A.A. has been extremely sensible in emphasizing the actuality of the experience and accepting that it originated from a greater Power than human, and in leaving the interpretation to the individual. ………………………… Some people would have wanted A.A.s to say a lot more and describe God in a way that was acceptable and pleasant to them if they had talked more. It would have only taken two or three groups like these, each disagreeing from the other, to derail the entire enterprise. As a result, they stuck to the unavoidable experiences and advised others to entrust their wills and lives to God as they understood Him. Theology and theory were left to the churches to which people belonged. If they didn't belong to a religion and couldn't hold a consistent theory, they had no choice but to surrender to the God they saw in others. That's not a bad approach to start the process of having a spiritual encounter.”

What are the spiritual principles of AA?

The 12 steps are strongly linked to AA's spiritual beliefs. Many rehabilitation programs, not just Alcoholics Anonymous, use these 12 steps. There are many principles to learn and adopt during a person's road to sobriety, ranging from courage to self-discipline.

Acceptance

The first step and concept for a recovering addict is to admit that he or she has no control over alcohol. Only by comprehending the gravity of the situation and the grip it has on you will you be able to overcome it.

Hope

For people who have reached rock bottom, finding hope can be difficult, but it is necessary. You will have a much simpler time getting there if you can discover optimism and hope for a better tomorrow.

Faith

Acceptance of a higher power does not need acceptance of the Christian God. It can refer to a belief in the universe's power of good or positive. Finding your spirituality via meditation and self-reflection is a beautiful thing to do.

Courage

If you've ever heard the serenity prayer, you're aware that one of AA's main principles is bravery. It's not easy to get the guts to face your addiction and the necessary steps to recovery.

Honesty

Addicts can soon become dishonest with their loved ones and with themselves. Breaking that habit and being honest with everyone is critical to maintaining sobriety.

Willingness

It will be a long and difficult path to recovery. You will not succeed unless you are willing to perform the heavy lifting and confront the obstacles ahead. You must not be frightened to act in accordance with the law.

Brotherly-love

Consider the people you've hurt in your life and make atonement. Reaching out to individuals and apologizing for what you've done and attempting to mend your connection can be intimidating, but the end result is very healing.

Self-Discipline

Even with assistance and support, only you can genuinely hold yourself accountable at the end of the day. Practicing resisting the urge to revert to previous habits is a good idea.

Is there an AA that isn't religious?

Over 115,000 AA groups work in approximately 170 countries, with over two million present members, according to the A.A. General Service Office (G.S.O.). According to a study published in Addiction, those who attended and engaged in A.A. or N.A. meetings more frequently after completing a residential opioid recovery program were more likely to stay abstinent from opiates and alcohol for five years than those who attended less frequently or not at all.

People of all ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and economic, social, and professional backgrounds are welcome to join AA and NA organizations (aa for atheists). Attendance is open to people from all walks of life. Because the essential parts of AA and NA are divine, those who refuse to surrender to a higher force or God may be alienated.

AA Morality is stressed, and atheists are invited to join AA for atheists if they find spiritual elements like prayers and acknowledging a higher power scary and ineffective. It's great that there are so many nonreligious, or secular, AA-type groups to select from. Agnostics, atheists, humanists, and freethinkers make up these rehabilitation service organizations. According to the New York Times, there are up to 150 of them working in the US today.

What AA says about God?

An alcoholic is considered as a misfit in social situations. Medicine sees him as a difficult patient who is frequently underpaid. He is treated as a criminal by the law, and he is sentenced to prison. Psychiatry labels him a mental patient and commits him to a mental institution. He is told by the church that he is a sinner who must repent. His family has persuaded him that there is no hope for him. Against this backdrop of hopelessness, Alcoholics Anonymous comes along and tells him that God is in him, that God can be in him just as much as God can be anyplace, and that if God isn't in him, God can't be everywhere and hence can't be God. Life is pumped into his soul by the witness of another alcoholic who is now sober. The body is nothing more than a shell without soul and spirit. Some even go so far as to argue that their fidelity may provide God with critical vigor and an increase in being. If this is the case, they, each of them, may play an important role in the overall scheme of things. They believe that a surrendered life can be useful to God.

What is agnostic AA?

Except for one thing, and that is our second problem: we agnostics in AA are frequently not allowed to be honest at meetings “We even mention that we don't believe in this God during “conventional” AA meetings. Alcoholics Anonymous appears to have an unofficial policy for non-believers attending AA meetings, which could be titled: “Please don't tell.”

If you express your doubts, you will almost always be met with a response or an outright attack. It's one of the places in an AA meeting where crosstalk can occur. Alternatively, you may be confronted after the meeting. I was taken aback when that happened to me for the first time. I hold a Master's degree in Religious Studies and spent years at McGill University working on my PhD. I used to teach ordinands (women and men studying to be church ministers). I was the one in charge “I was treated with genuine respect as a “resident atheist” in the Faculty of Religious Studies. In AA, not so much. Many agnostics and atheists in AA are greeted with scorn, if not outright hostility.

Finally, the final issue that many of us in AA face is meetings that close with the Lord's Prayer. To suggest that AA is a great program would be an understatement “That doesn't wash when you claim “spiritual not religious” and then repeat the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer appears in the New Testament in Matthew's Gospel (6:5-13), with a shorter form in Luke's Gospel (11:1-4). It is stated that Jesus taught it to his disciples and is regarded as the primary summary of the gospels and Christian faith.

The Lord's Prayer was removed from public schools in the United States in 1962 because it discriminates against persons with other religious beliefs or no religious beliefs at all. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in 1988 that the “Recitation of the Lord's Prayer, which is a Christian prayer, “imposes Christian observances on non-Christian pupils and religious observances on non-believers” and thus violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' provisions on freedom of conscience and religion. In Canadian public schools, the Lord's Prayer came to an end at that point.

The Lord's Prayer, according to agnostics and atheists, has no place at AA meetings. At a religious church meeting, it's great, but to suggest that AA isn't isn't “It's a real contradiction to declare “spiritual but not religious” and then end a meeting with the Lord's Prayer.

I went to a number of AA meetings once I got out of rehab. It got to the point where I couldn't bear them any longer. There's too much of it “God snatched.” I realized I couldn't go to them anymore, and I was frightened of resuming my drinking.

But, almost by chance, I attended my first ever agnostic AA meeting, Beyond Belief, in Toronto, on a Saturday. It was a fantastic meeting for me.

Since then, I've been attending secular AA meetings. When I went to Beyond Belief in the summer of 2010, there was only one AA meeting in Canada for non-believers. There are currently over twenty-five in five provinces. These secular gatherings are suddenly gaining a lot of traction.

Without a question, these secular AA meetings were the primary source of my sobriety. That is something I am aware of and believe in “I am not alone,” and I am free to share any doubts or disbeliefs I may have, as well as to be completely honest.

It's the fellowship that makes the difference for me, as it is for many other agnostics in AA. It's the common occurrence “I like to tell myself “remember when” stories to avoid myself from traveling back in time. It's actually learning a lot from other people about how they deal with their alcoholism and preserve their sobriety “One day at a time,” says the narrator. It's the individuals at these AA meetings who are understanding, kind, and supportive. When I was in rehab and in the early months of my recovery, the word “Gratitude” had no meaning for me.

AA is supposed to be there for anyone who asks for help. We are a group of people who want to help others “As Bill Wilson phrased it, “kinship of universal suffering,” and we need to make everyone who attends an AA meeting feel welcome, whatever of their beliefs or lack thereof.

How many times is God in the big book of AA?

The result is that the “The “official” AA program continues to place a strong emphasis on the divine, sacred, and holy. In the first 164 pages of the Big Book, the term “God” or a variant of “Him” appears 281 times. In four of the 12 steps, the divine is addressed explicitly as “God” and indirectly in two, as “Power” and “Wisdom.” “He.”

Additionally, group prayers, conducted by “Officials” are commonplace at all levels of meetings, from small groups to districts, areas, and AA World Service conventions and General Assembly Conferences.

‘The' “The “insistence” on God-laced recovery and steps, as well as the abundance of prayers in AA functions, clearly excludes non-theists and supports the claim that AA is religious.

What do you think Bill Wilson's reaction would be to all of this? What is the significance of this concentration on the divine and prayer? What's the catch? The focus of this paper is on who benefits from the status quo. Who gains from keeping the Big Book, often known as the Alcoholics Anonymous Bible?