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what is ...really behind 12 step programs?? The Heresy of the Twelve Steps by A. Orange Christian churches would call the Twelve Steps heretical, if they would bother to read them carefully. Theologically, there are all kinds of things wrong with them. Possibly the greatest heresy in the A.A. dogma is this bit of idolatry: In the Alcoholics Anonymous program, you can use anything for your "God" or "Higher Power". A.A. has lots of stories of people using a bedpan, a teacup, a doorknob, a stone, a teddy bear, a mountain, a motorcycle, or "Good Orderly Direction" for their "Higher Power". You can pray to any Golden Calf, stone idol, or Higher-Powered item of Household Hardware that you like. You can even use your local A.A. group itself as your 'God' if you wish. One of the more ridiculous word redefinitions that A.A. offers us is, you can make the word "G.O.D." mean "Group Of Drunks". Another 12-Step organization, Cocaine Anonymous, even twists this into "G.O.D. = a Group Of Drug addicts".6 A.A. founder Bill Wilson wrote: "I must quickly assure you that A.A.'s tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith. ... You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough." Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 27. Most Christians are more accustomed to the idea of The Father, The , and The Holy Ghost. Not very many of them will enjoy praying to a group of drunkards, and Seeking and Doing the Will of Drunkards. And I can't imagine Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, or Native Americans being too happy with such a "Higher Power", either. In addition, the Twelve Steps talk about "God as we understood Him". Members are allegedly free to define God however they imagine or understand "Him" to be. Bill Wilson told A.A. recruiters to Stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles. The Big Book, William G. Wilson, Chapter 7, Working With Others, page 93. What is that deceptive double-talk? * Atheists, who do not believe in the existence of a God, don't have to agree with the recruiter's conception of God, but they must believe in a spiritual "Higher Power", which, by definition, atheists don't. * How could an atheist possibly have a "conception" of a God who will deliver miracles on demand when by definition he does not believe in the existence of any such thing? * And the atheists certainly won't be willing to believe in what they don't believe, so Bill's "main thing" isn't going to work for them. And what about, "He can choose any conception [of God or 'Higher Power' that] he likes, provided it makes sense to him." Oh really? * What if the prospective recruit is insane — a wet-brained nutcase who thinks that worshipping Satan as his Higher Power will solve all of his problems? Will the A.A. 12-Step program still work for him? * What if the newcomer is a pagan who wants to worship Wotan, Thor, and Loki? * What if the prospect is a Neo-Nazi who wants to use Adolf Hitler as his Higher Power? Such examples are of course absurd, but so is the statement that you can use any kind of a "God" or "Higher Power" you want, and that He will nevertheless perform a miracle for you — save you from death by alcoholism. Bill Wilson emphatically repeated that doctrine in the Big Book: Despite the living example of my friend [a sober Ebby Thacher] there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. ... My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last. It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would! Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view. Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story", Page 12. "It's only necessary that I believe whatever I wish to believe, to get what I want." (By the way, there was no "icy intellectual mountain" in Bill Wilson's life. That was just an act he put on to make his religious conversion seem more miraculous. All of Bill Wilson's stories about being an intellectual, or an atheist, or a scientist, were complete fabrications. Bill was really just a non-intellectual flunk-out.) The A.A. auxiliary for the other family members, Al-Anon, also teaches that we can choose any "God" we want. Al-Anon propaganda even goes so far as to say that we can hire and fire "Gods" as the mood strikes us: The concept of "God as we understood Him" was hard to grasp. My family believed there is only one way to view God. My parents used religion to keep me in line. ... I realized the God of my parents had come in a very small box, not expansive enough for me. I fired that God and hired a new one. My new Higher Power is much bigger than the old one. He doesn't live in a box. He lives in me and around me. He loves me, cares for me, and accepts me just as I am — a work of art in progress. Hope for Today, published by Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., page 297. But I an curious. When you "hire" a "God", what do you pay Him with? What wages do "gods" find acceptable? Gold? Silver? Souls? First-born sons? Who says that everybody is qualified to "hire" the God of their choice? Who says that everybody's understanding of God is correct? Who says that just anybody's crazy beliefs are okay? Considering how different various people's opinions of God and religion are, they cannot all be correct. The Golden Calf, the stone idol, the bedpan, Doorknob Almighty, the Higher-Powered motorcycle as God, or "G.O.D. = Group Of Drunks" or "G.O.D. = Group Of Drug addicts" -- those "conceptions" of God cannot all be correct. That is the heresy that the Catholic Church calls "indifferentism" — the declaration that all religions and Gods are just as good, and it doesn't matter which one you choose.7 (Yes, Doorknob Almighty, Baal Bedpan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan, or Jesus; it doesn't matter which "Higher Power" you choose, just as long as you believe in one, right?) But who decides which versions of God are acceptable to an A.A. 12-Step program? The sponsors? Where did they get their theological training? Bill Wilson's goal was ostensibly to be ecumenical, universal and all-embracing, to avoid religious conflict, but his solution to the problem was hardly sound theology. Something that tries to be everything to everybody ends up being nothing to anybody. And that is the error that the Catholic Church calls "syncretism" — uniting conflicting religious beliefs so as to reduce them to a common denominator that is acceptable to all.8 In addition, Bill soon contradicted himself. Just any old conception of "God" or "Higher Power" will not do at all. The A.A. God cannot be just any spiritual "Power greater than yourself". The Alcoholics Anonymous "God" must be a meddling, micro-managing, order-dictating, prayer-answering, message-sending, wish-granting, miracle-delivering authoritarian power, or else the Twelve Steps will not work. If your personal version of "God" or "Higher Power" doesn't meddle and deliver miracles on demand, then * You won't get any power over alcohol, and your unmanageable life won't get managed in Step One, and * you won't get restored to sanity in Step Two, and * God won't take care of your will and your life for you in Step Three, and * your many "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings" won't get removed in Step Seven, and * "God" or "Higher Power" won't talk to you in Step Eleven, and give you secret messages and work orders and the "sure power" to carry them out... I talked to a friend last night who has struggled with the God thing for years and doesn't get it, but can't get out of their spell. Someone suggested that he get a cat and make the cat his higher power. I can't make this stuff up. == "sobeyondthat", May 14 2006 The A.A. story about your relationship with God is also rather curious. The way that Bill Wilson tells the story, you must surrender yourself utterly to your Higher Power (Who is supposed to be God, but Who might be a bedpan, or a Group Of Drunks, or something else), and be His slave, and do His bidding every day forever after. In return, He will do some magic tricks for you and take away your desire to drink alcohol, and also grant a few other wishes, starting with restoring you to "sanity" and taking care of your will and your life for you, and then removing all of your "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings". We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!" We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him. A.A. Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 63. Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances! The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 100. I can't help but notice that the last time I heard about that particular bargain, the Higher Power's name was not spelled "G-O-D", it was spelled "S-A-T-A-N" or "D-E-V-I-L". You were supposed to sell your soul to the Big Horned Creature with the cloven feet in a Faustian trade for getting your list of wishes granted, and then you ended up being a sycophant slave of that Scaly Creature, doing His Will forever after, and living in His "new and wonderful world" that features faulty air conditioning... "Yes, Satan, I will surrender myself to you utterly. I will worship you and love you and give you my soul, and be your grovelling servant for all of eternity, in trade for you granting me this list of wishes right now — starting with the wish that you make me quit drinking. ...And then you have to take care of my mind, my will, and my life for me, and restore me to sanity, and remove all of my 'defects of character'..." One thing that the preachers told me about that Evil One is that he is very clever and lies a lot. They say that Old Beelzebub, the Lord of the Netherworld, isn't above claiming to be, and appearing to be, God or the Angel of Light or some other Higher Power, while he bargains with you... And a church that starts off by instructing you to lie and deceive — "Fake it 'till you make it" — "Act as if" — "Don't tell the newcomers..." — "...lure the reader in..." — "Don't raise such issues, no matter what your own convictions are." — "Dole out the Buchmanism 'by teaspoons, not buckets'..." — is highly suspect. Did Jesus tell you to lie to the newcomers, and tell them that the program never fails, to get them to join the church? Was it Jesus or Satan who was called "The Great Deceiver"? "Yes Higher Power, I will lie for you, and practice deceptive recruiting for you, and tell the newcomers that God is 'a Group Of Drunks'... So I can't help but wonder, if you sell your soul to — "turn your will and your life over to" — Bill Wilson's vague Higher Power, or his "God as we understood Him", who can be anything from a doorknob to a bedpan to a "Group Of Drunks" to a "god", well, just who or what are you really dealing with and giving your soul to? "Come on, hurry up. Sign the contract. Abandon yourself to me utterly. And would you quit looking at my feet?" Just a thought... Come to think of it, if "God" can be a "Group Of Drunks" in Alcoholics Anonymous, and "God" can be a "Group Of Drug addicts" in Cocaine Anonymous, why can't "God" can be a "Group Of Devils"? Speaking of dealing, some of the early A.A. members seem to have thought that the "spiritual" program was a business deal, too. A.A. number three, Bill Dotson, is quoted in the Big Book chapter A Vision For You as saying this to Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob: "The way you fellows put this spiritual stuff makes sense. I'm ready to do business. I guess the old folks were right after all." The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, chapter 11, A Vision For You, page 159. "Yes, I'll do business with you, Higher Power. I'll sell you my soul, and surrender to you utterly, and be your grovelling servant for all of Eternity, in trade for you making me quit drinking right now. It makes sense to me..." Bill Wilson repeated the "deal" description of the A.A. program again while reminiscing about how he wrote the Big Book and the Twelve Steps: Well, we finally got to the point where we really had to say what this book was all about and how this deal works. As I told you this had been a six-step program then. ... The idea came to me, well, we need a definite statement of concrete principles that these drunks can't wiggle out of. There can't be any wiggling out of this deal at all and this six-step program had two big gaps which people wiggled out of. -- Bill Wilson, Transcribed from tape, Fort Worth, 1954. Was on http://bigchurch.com%2012steps.htm "Yeh, don't you just hate it when they manage to wiggle out of the contract after you've made a deal for their souls? I mean, there you are, you've got a signed contract, you bought the guy's soul fair and square, it's a done deal, and then the damned fool manages to wiggle out of the contract at the last minute, just because of some darned nitpicking little legal technicality. It's really enough to frost your ass, even in Hell. Damn that Daniel Webster anyhow... And damn those Yankees, too, especially that floozy Lola..." Faust, 1926 Faust, 1960 Faust, 1994 Faust, 2001 If you sell your soul to the Devil, do you have to get a receipt for tax purposes? == Mark Russell (Special on PBS, 28 April 2004) Speaking of selling your soul to the Devil, Bill Wilson also wrote this about his belladonna experience in Towns' Hospital in December of 1934: At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens. ... My schoolmate [Ebby Thacher] visited me, and I fully acquainted him with my problems and deficiencies. We made a list of people whom I had hurt or toward whom I felt resentment. [i.e., Bill confessed his sins to Ebby. Then Ebby told Bill Wilson about the Oxford Group cult religion practices.] My friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. ... Simple, but not easy; a price has to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Lights who presides over us all. The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William Wilson, Chapter 1, Bill's Story, pages 13-14. That sounds okay, and even spiritual, until you remember that the Angel of Light is Lucifer. An Al-Anon book of daily meditations even teaches the wives and of alcoholics how to surrender and live lives that are "truly powerless": Steps One, Two and Three opened doors to profound and meaningful changes. The effects of being raised in an alcoholic family seemed as fixed in me as my eye color. Two traits come to mind — turning to emotionally unavailable people for support, and engaging in self-doubt and self-hate. With the help of my sponsor, I now see that these and other traits, not other people, are the source of my anguish. That insight, however, was only the beginning. The real freedom came when I finally admitted I couldn't get better on my own, which lifted my denial. My powerlessness filled my lungs, brushed my skin, beat in tandem with my heart. I stood at the edge of acceptance, took a step, and free-fell into Step One. I realized that if only I could remember I was truly powerless over these effects and not try to pretend otherwise, I would be fine. Why? Because of Step Two. A Power greater than myself can help me. What that Power is and how it can help me doesn't matter. It is only important that I can place my restless hope in this Power. In Step Three I then surrender my thoughts, feelings, actions, needs — my whole life — to the care of this Power. ... "The more I feel my smallness and powerlessness, the more I grow in spirituality." Having Had A Spiritual Awakening..., p. 159 quote from Hope for Today, page 233, published by Al-Anon Family Groups. Isn't it rather odd how that authoress claims that it doesn't matter who or what your "Higher Power" or "God" is, or how it might help you: "What that Power is and how it can help me doesn't matter." Talk about intensely anti-intellectual stupidity -- "Don't bother your pretty little head with worrying about precisely which entity you just surrendered your mind, your life, and your soul to... It doesn't matter. One "Higher Power" is just as good as another. Just give up your mind and free-fall into Step One." Also notice the broken logic: "Why? Because of Step Two. A Power greater than myself can help me." That is just so much bull droppings. Step Two does not say that a "Higher Power" CAN help you and WILL help you. Step Two says: 2. [We] Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Just because you believe that some unnamed ghost or demon or miscellaneous "Higher Power" could make you sane doesn't guarantee that he really can do it and that he actually will do it. The authoress pulled a quick switch there, and substituted her own beliefs and wishful thinking for facts. She also switched the declared action of Step Two from "restore us to sanity" to "help me". Besides, Step Two is just a crazy piece of heretical nonsense that Frank Buchman made up and Bill Wilson copied. It doesn't prove anything, and it certainly doesn't obligate any spiritual being to do anything for anybody. One of the biggest heresies in the Twelve Steps is the demand for a miracle in Step Seven: [We] "Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings." No matter how humbly we ask for it, and no matter whether we do it on our knees, like the original version of Step Seven said, it is still a demand for a miracle, not just a polite request. We have made absolutely no preparations for taking care of ourselves and solving our own problems ourselves should God decide not to grant us that miracle. There is no Alcoholics Anonymous "Plan B." Bill Wilson became even more demanding in his so-called "Seventh Step Prayer" — Bill wanted every defect removed, and he wanted strength too, and Bill didn't even say please or thank you: When ready, we say something like this, "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen." We have then completed Step Seven. The Big Book, William G. Wilson, page 76. Well, Bill might have been done with Step 7, but was God done? Is God going to grant Bill's demands and make Bill into a strong, defect-free slave? God has to do it, or He will blow the whole 12-Step program. Step Seven is the heart of the entire A.A. self-improvement routine: You just wait for God to fix you. Literally. The rest of the steps involve making lists of all of your faults, wrongs, sins, defects of character, and moral shortcomings, and making more lists of all of the people you have harmed, and making amends, and wallowing in guilt, confessing your sins, and admitting that you are powerless and insane, but no other step actually deals with fixing yourself. What if God says, "No. You made your bed, now you lie in it..."? "Besides, what have you done for Me lately? Go fix yourself." If God doesn't fix you, then you are screwed. If God won't fulfill Bill Wilson's demands, and work Bill's Steps like Bill Wilson says, then your goose is cooked and you are in trouble. 'But let's not think about that. Let's all just "come to believe" that God will fix us and make us quit drinking just because we humbly "pray" that He do it.' And He will, Bill Wilson says: We will seldom be interested in liquor. ... We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. ... We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. The Big Book, William G. Wilson, pages 84-85. According to Bill Wilson, recovery from alcoholism is effortless. "It just comes." We don't have to do a thing. Our problems are magically solved "without any thought or effort on our part." That is obviously completely delusional nonsense. (No effort? Don't we have to go to a life-long series of A.A. meetings, and "Work The Steps" constantly, and "Seek And Do God's Will" every day? That's a lot of effort.) Remember, * we declared in Step One that we were powerless over alcohol, * and in Step Two, we declared that we were insane, * and in Step Three we gave away our wills, * so in Step Seven we demand a miracle — we demand that God actually change us, and take away the desire to drink, or else we will drink ourselves to death. That is very much like this temptation of Christ in Matthew 4.5: Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, and said to him, "If you are God's , throw yourself down, for the scripture says, 'God will give orders to his angels about you; they will hold you up with their hands, so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.'" Jesus answered, "But the scripture also says, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (Also see Luke 4.9.) You do not throw yourself off of a precipice, demanding that God save you before you hit bottom and go "splat!", and you don't demand that God keep you from drinking, or else you will kill yourself on booze. But the pro-A.A. literature still insists that we should do that. We find something very similar passed off as a wonderful "leap of faith" in the book Power Recovery, The Twelve Steps for a New Generation, by James Wiley: A Leap of Faith "I heard a noise in the kitchen, and turned to see my two-year-old on top of the kitchen counter, teetering at the edge," said Mike G. "My heart almost stopped. 'Daddy!' he called, and stretched out his arms and leaped into space. I lunged forward and caught him in my arms. Later I thought: 'He had no fear of falling. He never doubted for an instant that I would catch him. How wonderful!' I thought, 'A true leap of faith. If only I could make such a leap of faith to my God.'" You, like Mike's little boy, may have the courage to go ahead and make that leap of faith. But even if you still have doubts, go ahead and risk it. "If you don't believe it, do it anyway," said Bill T. Power Recovery, The Twelve Steps for a New Generation, by James Wiley, page 46. What insidious nonsense. The Bible just specifically told us not to play games like that. Worse yet, according to the standard A.A. dogma, we can have any God or home-made "god" we wish. Our "Higher Power" can be any "Power greater than ourselves", or any "God as we understood Him". Our new God can even be a bedpan or a Golden Calf or our new "Group Of Drunks". Then, according to Mr. Wiley, we are supposed to believe that our personal made-up version of God is totally real and correct and all-powerful, and we are supposed to believe it so fervently that we will make a "Leap of Faith" and jump off of a spiritual cliff, betting our lives and our souls that our home-made god will catch us before we hit bottom and die. And then they pass off that suicidally moronic behavior as wonderful "faith". Faith in what? * Faith in our own imagination? * Faith in our own delusions of grandeur? * Faith in our superstitions? * Faith in a Golden Calf? How is any of that compatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ? (Or compatible with the teachings of Mohammed, or Buddha, or Seneca, or Confucius, or Soloman or Moses?) Just because we wish something were true doesn't make it true. Just because we make ourselves believe that something is true doesn't make it true. Note how similar that demand for a "Leap of Faith" is to Bill Wilson's demand that we abandon reason, human intelligence, and logic, and just have faith in his religious proclamations. See Bill Wilson's delusional trip to La-La-Land in the web page on religious faith for more on that subject. Also remember the Al-Anon propaganda that teaches wives and of alcoholics to be "powerless" and "stand at the edge of acceptance, and take a step, and free-fall into Step One", which they claim will be just fine because some vague "Higher Power" might help you: "What that Power is and how it can help me doesn't matter..." Speaking of demanding miracles, if we get nit-picking about it, six of the twelve steps actually demand miracles from God: * Step One says that we are powerless over alcohol, so God must control our drinking for us, or else we will die. And Step One also says that our lives are unmanageable (meaning: we cannot manage our own lives), so by implication, God must manage our lives for us. * Step Two says that we are insane, and that only God can restore us to sanity, so we are demanding that God do that for us, too. * Step Three says that we are turning our wills and our lives over to the care of God, so God has to work for us and take care of us from then on, or it blows the whole 12-Step game. * Step Seven demands that God remove all of our "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings". And Bill Wilson also wrote in the Big Book that God will also remove our desire for drink — "That is the miracle of it. ... We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us." * Then, in Step Eleven, we pray for God to make us understand Him better, and to give us our work orders for the day, and then to give us the power to carry out those orders. One of the fundamental beliefs of both Buchmanism and A.A. is that God will reveal himself to us if we truly seek Him, so He had better do it. * And finally, in Step Twelve God is supposed to give us a "spiritual experience" or a "spiritual awakening" as our reward for having done the preceding eleven steps. And should God refuse to do any of those tasks for us, then it sort of ruins the whole Twelve-Step program. If God won't play along, and Work The Steps, and do what we wish, then how can the Twelve-Step program possibly work? The simple undeniable answer is, "It can't." The whole Alcoholics Anonymous program depends on God micro-managing both our lives and the world around us, and granting our wishes and making everything turn out okay just the way that Frank Buchman and Bill Wilson said that He would if we followed their instructions. And we are supposed to believe that we are incapable of doing any of that stuff for ourselves, and God must do all of it for us. We are supposed to believe that we are completely powerless, helpless, insane, and unable to manage our own lives, and that only by having God make good little robots or puppets out of us can we live good lives. The A.A. slogan is: "I pray to God every day that I never get the idea that I can run my own life." And the other slogan is, "Let Go and Let God." The very idea that you can give up on your life and become a puppet who is controlled by God and taken care of by God is heretical. There is nothing in standard Christianity or in the Bible that says that you can do that. Nor is there any such doctrine in Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, or any of the world's other great religions. It is also heretical to declare that the ideal Christian life consists of being a mindless slave of God. I am reminded of a criticism of Frank Buchman's doctrine of "Guidance by God" that Marjorie Harrison wrote. This is where the Alcoholics Anonymous theology came from: The Bishop of London, speaking on the Group some time ago, said: "God has given us intelligence and reason to be the lamps to guide us." The Group by its interpretation of Divine Guidance advocates the dowsing of these lamps. To return to the simile of a father and his . The Group teaches the to regard his father not as a guide and defence generally and a ready help in time of trouble, but someone to whom the turns for actual direction in everything he does. Father, shall I play with my train or my bricks? Father, shall I build a house or a bridge? Father, shall I use red bricks or blue? Father, shall I knock it down? Father, shall I build it up? Father this and father that, until a father might well wonder whether his is a half-wit, instead of a reasonable being. Why should we storm the courts of Heaven to know whether we shall buy cigarettes or take the 10.45 or the 11 o'clock train to town, or as a critic has said: "render God responsible for our neckties or whether we choose to eat beef or mutton at luncheon." Believe me, these instances are no exaggeration. Dr. Buchman acknowledges that he asks for guidance for the expenditure on postage. Saints Run Mad; A Criticism of the "Oxford" Group Movement, Marjorie Harrison (1934), page 55. Frank Buchman's and Bill Wilson's teachings directly conflicted with St. Paul's teachings in his letter to the Romans: All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, but you have received the spirit of sonship. The Reader's Digest Bible, page 668. Also see Romans 8:14-15. It's interesting to see how cleverly both Buchmanism and Alcoholics Anonymous hide their demanding nature. The A.A. true believer will insist that he doesn't make demands of God, that in fact he does just the opposite — that he devotes his whole life seeking and doing the will of God. He says that he wants to be a perfect servant of God. But the entire A.A. program makes constant demands of God, interrupted only by Step Eleven's offer to do some work for God in return. The A.A. program is entirely based on the superstitious idea that God will become our servant and take care of us and give us what we want: I have no other explanation for the many good things that have happened to me since I have been in A.A. — they came to me from a Greater Power. The Big Book, 3rd Edition, Rum, Radio, and Rebellion, page 367. That reminds me of a criticism of Frank Buchman's doctrines before World War II: "I count it blasphemy for Dr. Buchman, or anybody else, to pretend to testify to what God has done for him while humanity is at this moment perishing." Rev. John Haynes Holmes, quoted in The New York Times, July 16, 1934, page 9. In fact, A.A. has it exactly backwards: Many Christian believers will do something like give up drinking alcohol for Lent. They do not say, "God: you must take away my desire to drink or else I will drink myself into a stupor every night of Lent." No, they say, "I can control my actions. I will voluntarily give up the pleasure of drinking alcohol for Lent, to show my devotion to God." And to say that ordinary people can control their drinking, and give it up for Lent, but alcoholics cannot, is baloney, and a cop-out. It is just spiritual laziness, demanding that God fix what the alcoholic could fix by himself. And the alcoholics most assuredly can fix their problems themselves — there are millions of them doing it, including me, and doing it without the insanity of the A.A. Twelve Steps. (Admittedly, it's hard. Nobody said it would be easy. But there is an infinite di 
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12 step programs always keep a person a victim. I know this was a lot to read but there is nothing christian about 12 step programs. There are no "Christian" versions. It is a man made concept which is steeped in Humanism. The Author shows just why it is wrong.
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the concept of 12 step is wrong and has zero to do with Christianity. It is a program... one that keeps a person as a Victim. In Christ we are Victorious and not a Victim. Jesus is not a program. He is not one to emulate or scratch ones Do? Christianity is being forgiven. Then allowing him to live through us. There are a hundred programs in fellowships and 99% of them are usually a distraction. We remove the old folk from the young folk and that is wrong, wisdom lost. Jesus never spoke of a 12 step. His step is come unto me. Thats the huge problem. Christians take the garbage of the world, which is technically Satan and implement it in the body of Christ. It started at most in Constantine.
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Growth? I dont think so. Hindrance is a better word. I knooooooooooooooow this was a long article but i also know that real spirit lead Christianity deals with two things. Ones quiet time with the Holy Spirit and abiding in Jesus. I do not see any programs in the original new covenant church. They got together and sang, prayed, shared and in some cases taught. But to follow the steps of a pagan progrom would be called idolatry by God
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