View Single Post
Old 01-13-2007, 04:43 PM
  # 185 (permalink)  
Abbadun
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 97
Hi Sugah

I do not think that there is no comparison between the language and attitude of the BB in regards to Wives and Atheists.

The BB has a dated but positive message to Women and regardless of what era of the BB message to Atheists, it is negative. Starting with the inevitable Alcoholic death Atheist will experience to how low the Founders found the the nature and character of Atheists to be.

There is no spin anyone can put on this, the words are written in black and white.

I still say that Atheists can benefit from AA, but understand that a lot of the Foundations are not positive toward or made to help Atheists. Some of the Founders attitudes are simply prejudiced toward Atheists.

AB

Originally Posted by Sugah View Post
I truly believe that the founders, and most specifically Bill W., intended the program to be as inclusive to all those who suffer from alcoholism, not just those of Christian origins in the Oxford Group who initially helped them (yes, from the bible) develop a plan of action that put alcoholism into remission.

I also believe that though the language of the Big Book is a bit dated, the message is timeless and the interpretation over the years since its writing has kept up with the changing times in all but the most fundamentalist areas of its practice. Yes, I'm an alcoholic, but I'm also most definitely a drug addict, and I'm clean and sober in Alcoholics Anonymous. I don't think dated language is a reason to rewrite the book. I don't see any need to touch the first hundred sixty-four pages, which have come under fire for it's language regarding atheists and its somewhat sexist skew. I can read "To Wives" and know that it applies just as much to my husband as Bill W's Lois. The program, religiously tinged or not, should remain as it is, and we, the new generation of sober alcoholics, should interpret it, with love and tolerance, to others to show that it works, it really does, and this is how it works for us. Experience, strength and hope. I try every day to relate that in one form or another on several blogs that I maintain.

So, finally, I think of the day that my father announced he was no longer listening to John Denver because "that hippy freak thinks that he's god." Well, there is a school of spiritual thought (many, actually) that many label "atheist" (anti theist) because it does not personify god. It does not characterize humanness as a lower condition, but rather one that can attain a higher state of consciousness and can, like John Denver seemed to believe, become one with a connected, collective cosmic consciousness. It is purpose, and it meaning meaning, and it is alive and well in Alcoholics Anonymous. The atheists posting on this thread may not believe in even that much "god," but if they hold any belief in a reason for existence, for even getting sober in the first place (love, good, desire, anything), then that's enough "belief" to find spirituality (whether or not you choose to call it that) and stay sober in Alcoholics Anonymous.

For the record, my sponsor is Christian and all of my sponsees are Christian as well. They don't consider me a heathen or a sinner because I don't elevate Christ's existence as more significant than my own.

Peace & Love,
Sugah
Abbadun is offline