Not saying, it should be forbidden. I just don't like to see people leave because it is brought into a meeting and people leave. It may mean they aren't ready yet, but it also make the feel excluded and they go back out and die.
For me my belief is personal, how can you really explain Him/Her/It. People have to find out for themselves. A lot of people are lead back to the church, and yet so many people have left the church because they want more.
It is amazing how many professionals have never heard of the 12 Steps and Traditions, let alone the Big Book. Al-Anon was an unknown, and took literature to my Doctor to see and put in his waiting room or office.
When I went for counselling at 6 years sober, all the counsellors knew nothing and I introduced them to the 12 Steps. One counsellor said, "JoAnne, I have never seen anyone, come to my office and talk for an hour, come back the next week and everything is processed and you have new issues to address." That is because I used my AA, NA, and Al-Anon programs.
When I went to church, I took the pastor's message and changed it into an AA message, and what the Big Book had to say. When I did that, I could identify.
There are rules, but I try not to bring something into my message that will keep someone from coming back. Keep coming so you don't have to come back because you just might not make it.
Don't let God get in your way. Don't let old tapes keep you from healing and change. God was an old tape for me. As a woman on another site said, "G-d" is because He is so big, we can only see what is revealed to us in today. Like I say, they put the dash in Step One, because my addictions, obsession, and thinking was so numerous, I couldn't list it all, I am more than my addiction, I have more than one addiction.
My first Big Book was a paperback issue of the 3rd Edition. In the front of it is the forward to the first, second, and third Editions (xii-xxii). That is what I base my belief on. I was told to read the book forward and backward, every page is a message of recovery. I came to believe the program would work for me.
I still have that book. An ex-boyfriend gave me a 4th Edition and I passed it on to an ex-sponsee who expressed a desire to have a copy. There is also the religious view of AA on p. 574. At a group anniversary, the first AA group in Hamilton, the minister of the church got up to share at a Gratitude Meeting. He said, "I wish the people upstairs had what you people have downstairs."
I realize this was the original, but it was changed by Bill, Dr. Bob, and the first 100.
http://www.hazelden.org/web/public/101001pr.page
Growth is good. Yet in today, AA has changed and not for the good. They tend to be soft, gloss over things, segregate, and doesn't have the same spirit that I found 22 years ago. Even when I went to the AA Autumn Leaf Roundup this past year, I didn't feel the wholeness and spiritual fulfilling I use to get. The message is deluted, they talk about being drunks instead of how recovery works for them. We all know how to drink and do drugs, what do you do to not drink and drug. Drug that something outside of myself that I use to make me feel better. My recovery had to come from within and begin with me. Maybe I had too many old-timers on my path who showed me the way, they didn't fill in the pot holes, paint a rosy picture, excavated the next bend in the road so it wouldn't be so steep. If I am not willing to make the effort and think I needed it done for me, I am not ready and willing to find sobriety.
Having said that, I would not have stayed sober but for my God. First things first is my sobriety, and to do that, I needed to connect with my God and make Him personal. My God is the Holy Spirit, that resides within me and shows me the way. When I surrendered and said enough! I recognized that He was my only hope and He had been there all along, I had blocked Him from my life. He didn't go away, I did.
I know people don't like these words, but in the Bible it says, "Jesus said, "Ask in my name and I will intercede for you." To me, that means, He too has to go to the Source. As they say, God the father, Jesus the son of God, and the Holy Spirit. For me, that is the light that is within me, which I kept in the dark all of my life and only brought it out when it was convenient.
I gave my life to God at 10 in Bible Camp, does that mean because of my addiction, I was unsaved. I dedicated my life to God many times in my life. I am not saying, that religion is wrong, but if you are going to bring religion into the circle, it has to be ALL religions.
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