It's taken me a long time to understand why Alcoholics Anonymous has commanded, and continues to command, such a following even among Christians and in many churches.
I look back on all the abuse and trauma in my life, and I still cannot believe that my parents, especially my mother, fell all in for this cult.
Then I realize that the larger issue has been addressed in the Bible already, in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
The Galatian church was not wild and deviant like the Corinthian church. They had not been warmed up with God's love, only to get caught up in busyness like the Ephesian church. They also didn't struggle with the primary and supremacy of Christ, as Paul would address with the Colossians.
The Galatians were mixing Law and Grace. In fact, following the infiltration of Judaizers shaming and provoking the Galatians that their faith in Christ was not enough, the Galatians were going back under law, thinking that adherence to the Mosaic Law, to self-effort, would make them better Christians!
"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)
AA steals much of its verbiage from the Bible. Yes, the operative word is "Steal."
The AA cult's Blue Book talks about being reborn, talks about seeing God as our Father, and we are His children.
But then it adds in that same reference that we see God as our principal, and we are his agent. God goes from being our Father, who loves us no matter what, to someone whom we work for, who can fire us if we don't get the job done.
The Tenth Step madness, the whole thing about taking one's inventory all the time, every day, all of the busyness about "working with other alcoholics" to spread the AA Cult pyramid scheme, all of it is just bringing people back into works, under law, into this treadmill of "never good enough."
It's no wonder that so many people do not get sober in AA meetings, or if they do, they often have to take other medications to deal with the trauma, strain, and mental anguish.
AA corrupts Christianity and displaces the Gospel by removing the grace of God, and turning God's goodness in our lives into something conditional, based on how "hard" we work the steps.
If self-help could save us, then people wouldn't need to read all those self-help books in the first place, and we would not see such a broad, costly, growing industry in the first place!
When Paul scolded, even insulted, the Galatians, he was calling out every form of manmade religion that would work its way into the church:
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1)
And this is the crux of the matter: AA displaces Christ Jesus. His sacrifice means nothing. His Finished Work means nothing. The works that do matter, according to vile cult guru Bill W., is working that Twelve Step program, a cycle of self-centeredness and self-abegnation all rolled into one, a program in which flawed human beings look at their never-ending flaws, wondering why their lives never get better, but rather, with all their might working that program, they never seem to see their lives get better.
Reject AA. Go for the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
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