A while back one of us Kosmonauts posted a diary that those of us familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous would call a drunkalog. This was my favorite diary since I've been here. Why? Because it gave another reason to feel at home here. And I learned that some of my favorite people here have sobriety dates. And because the people that don't have or need sobriety dates were quite solicitous of the others. It was beautiful man!
Now I'm thinking that maybe there's some value in AA's odd stance on religion. More??
The Preamble of AA states that the organization is "not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution." In my twenty years as a member I've found this to be true. Of course I have come across people who sought to break this rule but on the whole AAs honor it. Now it's true that AA describes itself as a spiritual program and might appear to some as a surrogate religion but I think that is just an appearance. Each member is at liberty to define the whole program for themselves.
"But doesn't every meeting break down into interdenominational warfare" you might ask? And the answer is no. The rule is "Live and Let Live." So around a table at a meeting you can have a totally committed Christian who feels compelled to give his higher power the name of Jesus Christ and the very next person who shares will admit to having no higher power. And yet they each help the other to stay sober.
My own story has me coming into AA as an angry, militant atheist. I didn't want any part of any of the spirituality but I wanted to get sober, I wanted to get straight, so I tried some things and I got sober. I did what we call an inventory and realized that I was incredibly angry at the Catholic Church which I had left 15 years earlier. And the sick thing was the Church couldn't care less what I thought of it yet here I was giving whole suites in my brain rent-free. I did the only thing I could do -- I forgave the Catholic Church, I granted THEM absolution. Yes they burned Giordano Bruno at the stake - I forgave them, forgave them for all the crap. Why did I do this? To get me off the hook. This was one of the most liberating things I've ever done for myself. At the time, 1983, it allowed to go back to the Catholic Church to see if that was for me. Turns out it wasn't.
I moved on to a non-demoninational Pentacostal church in Brooklyn. This was under the influence of a Jewish friend who was moving towards Xtianity. It was very exciting for a while, a period of months but then too this was just not for me.
When I got over that I moved slowly back into a non-theistic place but this time without the rancor towards the church or any church. When I go to meetings I hear people mention all kinds of paths and it never bothers me unless they start pushing. But there's really nothing I can do but move to a different table or meeting or whatever. But it's really not meant as a place to prosletyze.
For me the god of my understanding is an idea that other people believe in. I don't know if I have a higher power but I'm sober. And I find that at meetings of AA that it's best if I talk about my drinking. That's what seems to help other people the best. So I don't mention hardly ever all the great things that have happened to me in sobriety because that would just nausiate that militant atheist who just crawled in three days ago and doesn't think he can get sober.
So it seems like some simple rules: Keep most of the metaphysics to oneself. Acceptance of the fact that most people believe and you'll make yourself crazy trying to change that. Keep prosletyzing activities out of the meeting rooms.