Mar 15, 2009 -- 7:51PM, sixth step phobia wrote:

Well, monday morning welcome, what kind of weekend did you have stuck in your own mind??

Agnostic Spirit this abuse of AA must stop it goes against everything this internet site is supposed to stand for (love, support, comfort, empathy humility, there is nothing but snidiness, cruelty, malice and disdain in kitties posts about AA)

Sure talk about smart recovery, or rational, secular, emotive techniques all you want but stop trashing AA because you have a greivance

Heres a novel idea use REBT to get over the "greivance" or isnt it working for you

SSP,

What works for me is actually reading some of the criticisms. Orange papers is one of them. He makes some valid points but for the most part is over the top.

Here is a quote from a guy named Burney that makes sense.

"Unfortunately there is still wide misunderstanding about the 12 step programs - including people who claim it is a cult.  I received a hate e-mail last week (October 2008) from someone who said I should be taken out and shot for misleading people - and included a link to a site that claims Alcoholics Anonymous is cult.  It is sad that someone has been so wounded in their experience of AA that they would send this kind of profanity laced threat.  Unfortunately the way the 12 steps are practiced in AA - and sometimes in other 12 step programs - can manifest in ways that are not aligned with the Spiritual Principles that are the True foundation the 12 step process."

What that statement tells me is that there is some kind of a severe dislike on the part of some people with the notion of a higher power. Personally I refuse to get into any ego battles or pissing contests as to how to deal with addiction.

Mar 15, 2009 -- 7:51PM, sixth step phobia wrote:

Well, monday morning welcome, what kind of weekend did you have stuck in your own mind??

Agnostic Spirit this abuse of AA must stop it goes against everything this internet site is supposed to stand for (love, support, comfort, empathy humility, there is nothing but snidiness, cruelty, malice and disdain in kitties posts about AA)

Sure talk about smart recovery, or rational, secular, emotive techniques all you want but stop trashing AA because you have a greivance

Heres a novel idea use REBT to get over the "greivance" or isnt it working for you

Hey ssp --- wow, Monday morning already? Still Sunday night here....

I'm curious... How does one go about "abusing" AA? :) How does one go about abusing the Catholic church or any other organization? Organizations can't be abused... members WITHIN the organizations can be abused. I don't see how an organization can be "hurt" by critique, and I certainly see the potential for REAL abuse when any institution is ABOVE critique. Nothing and no one should be above question, comment, disagreement, debate, or second guessing.

This forum isn't and shouldn't be limited to platitudes. Comfort isn't always "nice" --- we try to be kind, however. And kindness isn't always telling another what they want to hear, but what they NEED to hear.

Some who critique AA may very well have a grievance and they may have good reasons for those. No need to attribute anyone who doesn't agree with the AA approach with intentional malice.... dissent and disagreement, but malice seems an exaggeration in this case. As Kappha's post points out, however, some people have a severe dislike of AA, just as some who really like AA appear to have a severe distaste for those who DON'T like AA... :)

We human beings..... always gonna find something to argue about....

Regardless, this thread is now locked. We already have the "AA cult?"  thread  for critics to poke holes into AA, NA ---  no reason for another.

With the new forum tools, I can't move posts at this time....grrr..... if anyone who's participated in this thread would like to copy their post from this one and paste it into the Cult thread, you're more than welcome to do so.

Kind regards and hugs for all,

--- AS