The cult of AA is built on lies, distortions, and contradictions.
It's inevitable, especially when the founder thinks that he's a guru and the next incarnation of Christ.
One of the most glaring contradictions in the AA cult is that the adherents need to be free of selfishness and self-centeredness.
The program never explains what this means. Does self-care count as self-centeredness? Does providing a boundary, refusing to take a painful phone call, or walking away from a destructive relationship count as selfishness?
The phrase "self-will run riot" gets bandied about in the rewmz, too.
Again, what does this even mean?
Does that mean we cannot have goals, initiatives, dreams?
Does that mean that we just settle in for a long, empty life of "working a program"?
Worst of all, so many of the AA Steppers will tell you that working the Twelve Steps is a "selfish program."
One of the worst things about cults is that they contain a little kernel of truth.
They rely on that little tidbit of truth so that they can push the rest of their lies onto unsuspecting victims.
Alcoholics Anonymous falls precisely into that column of cults.
Every human being needs power, and we don't have that power.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians to see the power in them, through Christ:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye
may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places," (Ephesians 1:18-20)
and
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20)
More than that, we need life, and that more abundantly (John 10:10).
We need to reach out to someone to help us live this life, because we cannot do so in our strength:
"Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us,
and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." (Psalm 100:3)
For the longest time, I kept trying to turn my will and life over to God as I understood Him.
The god offered by Bill W. was his own sick thinking, in which he planned and plotted to promote himself as another Christ-figure:
Instead of a "Christ figure," let's believe and receive Christ Himself!
In the last two months, I have received a consummate revelation of how great my Living Savior is. He does not depend on my thinking or feeling. He does not come or go in our lives depending on what we are doing.
His presence in our lives is not contingent on our heads, in our minds, or through our thoughts.
Where did I get these pernicious, destructive, mind-virus nonsense ideas from?
The AA cult, and the craziness that was foisted on me by having a "Stepper Mom" who believe that whatever thoughts or ideas were going through her head, must have been "The Lord" talking to her.
This cult of AA teaches you to go along with your own conception of God.
Does anyone realize how stupid that sounds? How can anyone of us conceive God, comprehend Him, let alone understand Him?
A god whom I can understand quickly becomes me making myself a god. That's precisely what happened to Pam, my mother, who was a "Stepper Mom" until the end, when she took her own life. The presence and power of God seemed tied up in her, and what she thought, and what she told me to do.
That is child abuse.
That is a false conception of God.
Who do we think we are, conceiving of Him?
He conceived us, He made us, He gives us power.
Most importantly, He sent His Son to die for us, that by His power we might live through Him.
We do indeed need to turn our everything over to someone else. That Someone else is God, as revealed in His sacred Scriptures.
God is not revealed to us through some crappy blue book filled with cult-like stories of people lying about their supposed recovery.
This Living, Loving Savior has been watching out for me, for every one of us who believe on Him--and even before we believed in Him--long before we were born.
That is the kind of caring I need. That is the kind of presence and power that I am looking for.
He ministers to every need, and He satisfies us with His grace--early, every morning!
"O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and
be glad all our days." (Psalm 90:14)
and
"22It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
"23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
"24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I
hope in him." (Lamentations 3:22-24)
This is the Savior whom I need, whom I seek.
Yes, I need a real God who can care for me. Not whatever some arrogant wannabe guru or fake parent who couldn't make sense of life.
The Cross of Jesus Christ, His perfect sacrifice for all of mankind, provides all the power we need. We have a hard time understanding this gift, and that's why Paul made it his priority prayer that we would all receive greater revelation of His goodness, grace, and greatness in our lives.
AA took that one revelation- that we need God to do anything- and then distorted it into turning Bill W.'s selfish desire for self-aggrandizement into a cult to make himself rich and powerful in his own eyes.
For years, I grew up thinking that the cult of AA was normal.
I was taught that the "Big Book" was an addendum that made the Bible practical, which made the Gospel applicable in my daily life.
No one told me that all the sin debt had been paid. What I learned, when I was force-fed AA, was that I had to keep taking my inventory every day.
What?
What is this?
This is not good news at all.
There is no hope in a cult which tells you that you are a sick, crazy person who will never get better, thatn all you have is a daily reprieve, that the best you can hope for is that you do not drink for that one day.
That is not life, and that more abundantly.
There is no end to the work. There is always this fearful looking after (Hebrews 10:27) that we are going to get punished, struck down, and ruined for not being perfectly obedient.
What is the truth of the Gospel?
Check out this hymn, which spells out everything:
How great the
chasm that lay between us
How high the
mountain I could not climb
In desperation,
I turned to heaven
And spoke Your
name into the night
Then through
the darkness
Your loving
kindness
Tore through
the shadows of my soul
The work is
finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Who could
imagine so great a mercy?
What heart
could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages
stepped down from glory
To wear my sin
and bear my shame
The cross has
spoken, I am forgiven
The king of
kings calls me His own
Beautiful
savior, I'm Yours forever
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Hallelujah,
praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah,
death has lost its grip on me
You have broken
every chain
There's
salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Hallelujah,
praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah,
death has lost its grip on me
You have broken
every chain
There's
salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Then came the
morning that sealed the promise
Your buried
body began to breathe
Out of the
silence, the roaring lion
Declared the
grave has no claim on me
Then came the
morning that sealed the promise
Your buried
body began to breathe
Out of the
silence, the roaring lion
Declared the
grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is
the victory, whoa!
Hallelujah,
praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah,
death has lost its grip on me
You have broken
every chain
There's
salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Hallelujah,
praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah,
death has lost its grip on me
You have broken
every chain
There's
salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Jesus Christ,
my living hope
Oh God, You are
my living hope
Jesus is our living HOPE!
He cares for us now. He is invested in every aspect of our lives, caring for us every step of the way, even if we don't see what He is doing, even if we don't understand everything that is happening.
He says that we will cross over to the other side; let's believe Him that He will get us over to the other side.
For years, for decades even, this revelation was occluded for me. I was taught for so long that I had to work my inventory, that I had to say, do, initiate, anything to get God to move in my life.
Yet all this time, it is Christ who IS my life (Colossians 3:4)