Guest guest Posted July 16, 1998 Report Share Posted July 16, 1998 after a debate in other places, I came up reasons for why the *A groups might possibly not be considered religions. One is the " any Higher Power " argument. the laxity was partly not to put off Catholics and other rather closeknit faiths that would be wary of another religious group, and partly to work as a " bait and switch " to get atheists and agnostics on board. I think it's at Step 6 that the text in the T & T talks abt ppl " still clinging on to AA as their Higher Power " . The main one is simply specialism: Most religions have either a hereditary status or allow anyone to convert. with its " desire to stop * " *A is unusual in this respect. This is why I would classify AA mostly as a World-Accepting Sect. The Oxford Group fits that characterisation exactly, and AA could be said to be a second order sect, a sect off another sect. of course, now the link with christianity is almost entirely broken, with only vestiges such as the Lord's Prayer remaining occasionally, this characterisation does not fit exactly, and *A groups might be called a World-Affirming Sect, like Scientology. However, cults like Scientology are usually interested in making money, and apart from selling you a couple of books that many would probably lend or give you anyway, that doesnt happen in *A. Hence, *A groups are a kind of hybrid of the two kinds of sect. however, that too is not unusual - every religion is unique with it's own properties - rather like schizophrenia, there is no core symptom (even belief in God ) that must be present for the diagnosis, but there is a cluster of phenomena that tend to appear together, and the dx is made if sufficient of them show up, and no characterisation would describe everything perfectly. Perhaps sociolgists ought to create a new category of religion, twelve step programs, in recognition of the number and size of them. To say whether AA is religious or not is as meaningful as it is to say whether someone has schizophrenia or not. No-one can ever know if youre " right " or not - in a sense the term has no essential meaning either. but its a useful construct that ppl use, hopefully to help ppl, all the time. Fo me, I think it's a darned sight easier to say *A are religions, than it to say Buddhism is - anyone here think Buddhism *isnt* a religion? that's who isnt Buddhist that is. The only ppl who want to be called religious are the Scientologists. Pete ---------------------- Cool Briton My Vesta dents your Porsche PERSONALITY-DISORDERS LIST: http://rdz.acor.org/athenaeum/lists.phtml?personality-disorders _____________________ ----------------------------------------------------------- Post your messages to addict-l@... ----------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe put- unsubscribe addict-L -in the body of a message to: listserv@... ----------------------------------------------------------- List archives are at http://listserv.kent.edu/archives/addict-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------- Send requests for help to addict-l-request@... ----------------------------------------------------------- --- End Forwarded Message --- Pete ---------------------- Cool Briton My Vesta dents your Porsche PERSONALITY-DISORDERS LIST: http://rdz.acor.org/athenaeum/lists.phtml?personality-disorders _____________________ ---- Read this list on the Web at http://www.FindMail.com/list/12-step-free/ To unsubscribe, email to 12-step-free-unsubscribe@... To subscribe, email to 12-step-free-subscribe@... -- Start a FREE E-Mail List at http://makelist.com ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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