Originally Posted by
avrtisian 
"To seek God while in the grip of addiction is absurd; addicted people cannot conceive of a power higher than their own addiction, which cements them to their seats for life".
I can't post the link to the above,(not enough posts) but it's in frequently asked questions on trimpey's site....
It's a shame that the only alternatives to a/a that i can see on the net are secular as there are lots of people who don't want to go to a/a who do believe in a god
I don't know exactly what Trimpey meant, as he does apparently believe in God himself, though I don't know his religion. If I look at the statement baldly, I'd have to disagree with him. I myself believe very much in God (Christian, church on Sundays, active in Church in several ways) and have been this way for the whole of my adult life. I was caught off guard by my later-in-life problems with alcohol, not that I'm not owning to it (as though it struck me by lightning or something). If you believe in God, you can't follow His will and abuse alcohol on a regular basis at the same time. However, I do believe that anyone can turn to Him at any time in repentance, can ask for His help at any time. I also believe that those who have an active faith ultimately do not want to bear the anguish of separating themselves from Him by choosing to continue their soul-destroying addiction. It's the task of the Christian to recognize and face his/her own sins and weaknesses and to turn away from them to Christ, who heals one of every infirmity and brings that person in union with Him. I'm not proselitizing--I'm just saying how AVRT works beautifully with believers. To turn away from the AV (which is our aninimal-like or worse-than-the-animals-like base brains of self-indulgence, our weaknesses, wrong habits, the evil one), turning to God, keeping God in the forefront and in our hearts as much as possible, as in "I can do all things in Christ who strenghthens me," with the goal of saying with St. Paul "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me." This may sound like AA and AVRT combined. I don't know about AA as I've never tried it, but I know that AVRT goes very well with my faith. I know we can't discuss AA in this thread, and there's no reason to. AVRT stands alone just fine. I can't agree with Trimpey about taunting or testing the AV, because that runs counter to my faith if I see that as taunting the devil, whom I believe could shred us to pieces if God allowed it. Again, I'm just explaining how AVRT works for me, how it can work for believers.
We have to follow that which helps us to defeat drug and alcohol addiction, and I've lived most of my life already to realize we don't have to follow a method down to the last iota if one or more aspects of it doesn't work for us. There's self-knowledge, balance, growth, the dynamic aspect of maturity and time in each of our lives. We can follow the method that works for us now, whatever it is. And whatever the method or tools that do work for us, we ultimately follow these according to our conscience, reasoning, free will, and beliefs or paradigms. It may mean that whatever the preferred method is, there may be some aspects of it which you don't agree with or doesn't work for you, and that's OK, as long as you proceed honestly with what does work for you.