Atheists Can Recover Too

When they ‘come to believe’

In the fellowship there are “Haves” and there are “Have Nots” I know . . . I know. There is the kind of person who recovers and there is the kind that does not. (149:3)

It sounds divisive. It is divisive. I didn’t create the divide. I didn’t polarize the fellowship. lease don’t shoot the messenger. Those who have decided to re-write the AA Program and bring in their outside issues and new solutions from their counselors, shrinks and TV shows that are nothing more than Public Relations devices and promotional tools for high priced rehab centers – like VH1′s “Celebrity Rehab” or A&Es “Intervention” * – have — and those who blindly assumed that those people and program are correct have. I just observe it – and you have observed it too. I think it is just as suckey as you probably do but what is the point in pretending that it does not exist.

There is no “I am better than you” inherent in such observations – but I will tell you that it is infinitively better to recover from alcoholism than not to recover – and if you don’t believe that then your are some kind of nut.

Just because one does not drink anymore and gets to keep a paycheck does not mean everyone else gets to enjoy it too – not if I am still a miserable, restless bastard who could really use a drink.

I have lived as a “Still recovering” “Just don’t drink today and everything will be OK” – “If I didn’t drink today then I am a winner” kind of AA alcoholic for enough years to compare it well with being currently and fully recovered. For non-alcoholics who have merely a drinking problem to overcome that type of living might be just fine – but for the true alcoholic like me and maybe you – its is one of the crumbiest ways to live life imaginable.

Haven’t we lived in a fantasy world long enough during our drinking lives? I speak of course of those who have “had a spiritual awakening” as the result of these steps . . . . .

and . . . . . those who have not - especially those who have no intention of having one – aren’t doing squat to have one – and are telling newcomer alcoholics that that is perfectly fine.

That would include those who think that since they cannot recall having had a spiritual awakening then they must be having “spiritual awakenings of the educational variety”.

If you are not one hundred percent sure whether or not you have had the spiritual awakening of the type that we are promised the Big Book, “Alcoholics Anonymous” – the kind the co-authors and co-founders of AA had – one powerful enough to expel the desire to drink – to change the entire psyche of the human condition – then you haven’t had one!

Lots of interesting and curious question come up within the AA Fellowship as well as from outside that look in to AA membership for answers. The answers given to such questions usually only serve to confuse an already confused membership as well as the public about AA. Maybe that is good. The minute everyone figures us out we’ll probably be ‘taxed’ or regulated by the government and they will have finally figured out a way to have God Himself to file a 1040.

The question often comes up because as a fellowship AA has only a small percentage of its own “members” who have taken and who actually practice its own twelve step program and consequently recover from alcoholism.

To understand how sign significant this is one has to realize one important thing that many of us inside of AA’s membership have not been taught or even bothered to learn – that the one single reason to take the twelve steps is to have a spiritual awakening as the result. That’s it!

It isn’t to stop drinking. It isn’t to help others. It isn’t to find God. Hold on now – BUT the results of the spiritual awakening WILL BE ALL OF THOSE THINGS! and hundred more. You WILL stop drinking. You WILL help others and you WILL find God. We only get ONE result of the twelve steps – - but we get a shitload of promised results kept as the result of the awakening. Get it?

Those are the facts of the Twelve Steps that become crystal clear to any alcoholic one once they are diligently pursued.

I want to circulate a new “script” to be read at the beginning of AA meetings in place of “The Promises” We can call them “The Surprises”. Hey, we can start with the “Tenth Step “Surprises”. Think it will catch on? Nah. Probably not

Real alcoholics pursuing the steps to “stop drinking” or even more disappointing – ‘to have an intellectual awakening’ - are still doomed until such time as they pursue first the Sunlight of the Spirit. Sometimes they slip right into that place during the early stages of the process – and that is good – so I don’t judge motives when working with others – only that they ‘want to stop drinking forever’ and are willing to go to any length. Any length includes hiring me. You gotta be really bad-off to be willing to take the likes of me into your life, I’ll tell you.

Since “practicing the steps” is not a requirement for attending AA meetings there is mix of those who HAVE and those who HAVE NOT “had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps“ and consequently “recovered” from alcoholism – so when you ask a question like “Can atheists be in AA” you will get quite a mix of answers.

One real good question is regarding atheists in AA. There are AA groups which purport to be comprised of atheists. I am not kidding. Can they call themselves an AA Group? Hellyeah! As long as they are alkies.

I have never seen anyone get kicked out of the fellowship for being atheist. As long as they are alcoholic is all that matters for membership. To actually ‘recover’ well, that’s another story altogether – not altogether a negative one though.

You will get opinions about the twelve steps from those who haven’t actually experienced them, and opinions about God from those who have not actually developed nor maintain a communication with Him and then you will get real-life experiences with the steps from those who have actually experienced them and who have developed a flow of power and guidance from God and have become very “God conscious“.

My experience is that atheistic and agnostic alcoholics will not be prevented from recovery because the program does not allow them to remain atheist or agnostics and still recover from alcoholism.

Once they experience the miracle of recovery by simply “trying” the steps they embrace a God who reveals Himself to them they find that they have been wrong all along – that there is a God – and the proof they needed is right there now in their lives to develop and strengthen a faith in Him. It is truly a miraculous thing. I am privileged to be involved in such an avocation I must tell you. I have worked with many agnostics, and those claiming to be atheist and those who claim to be “the faithful” yet were really a agnostic – it’s a big mixed bag.

* Boy, those places and their owners/investors will never go broke now, will they?

Peace,

Danny S