Twelve Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
(Notice 6 of the 12 Steps use the word God.)
Steps related to God: 2,3,5,6,7,11
What do you think? Tell us below!
repentance is hard and God is one of the few people who is always there for you when you need him.
none!!!!! none at all!!!!!!!
A.A. is a cult. I would highly recommend watching the Penn and Teller expose on it. Very enlightening.
-SD-
No a HIGHER POWER!
Have you ever been an alcoholic? it’s not necessarily God, it’s a higher power of your choosing, whether it’s Ronald McDonald, or Jesus Christ. And it works. The program works if you do it right.
I don’t understand your question. It looks like the answer is right there. It also looks like you answered the question yourself.
When you see “God” listed in the 12 steps, it is shorthand for the “higher power” referenced in step 2. The founders of AA understood the importance of faith in something outside of ourselves if those with an Alcohol addiction would have any hope of truly getting past their problem, because nobody can beat an addiction on their own. I have heard AA’ers talk about believing in a doorknob if that’s what you choose to believe in, as long as it is something outside of yourself.
God as you understand him is the AA philosophy. Bill Wilson the founder came from a Christian backround, but believed the drunk needed an easier way of accepting the God concept. Higher power is more often used. A person who is agnostic could simply embrace a chair as something greater then him. Study the roots and you will find some amazing stories and spiritual roads.
It could almost make for a decent religion.
It works the way a Christian church should work!
If there were no Christians I sure wish I would be a member of AA
That’s because AA has very little to do with actual recovery from alcoholism & everything to do with religious conversion.
The founders of AA believed that alcoholism was a “character defect” (read: “sin”) that could only be cured through finding God.
They’re all about God or getting right with God.
The First Step may not appear so, but it is the setup for all that follow: If you admit that you’re powerless without a “higher power” to rescue you, your powerlessness will prevent you from ever getting sober. You have to just accept your alcoholism and drink yourself to death. As an atheist, that’s the way I felt before I wised up and found my power.