Christianity and Alcoholics Anonymous: Competing or Compatible?

A Letter to My A.A. Friends

                                Dear friends of A.A., I pray this letter finds you and your families well.  I will never forget all that I have shared with you: the years of laughter, sadness, and heartbreak and the hours of sharing and caring. I must confess that the information within this book has been quite burdensome over the last couple of years, and I debated whether to share it or keep it to myself; to live and let live. However, I remember someone once saying, “Your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth.” How true this statement is! Every day in A.A. sponsees call their sponsors, tell them their problems, and the sponsors respond, “What part did you play?”  The sponsors seek out truth, hopefully in love, and share it with the sponsee even if the truth stings a little. I hope to do the same in this book.

                Please keep in mind that you cannot make an accurate assessment of this book unless you read all of it and get the whole picture. It would not be fair to judge A.A. as a whole by looking at only a few of its members, and it would not be fair to judge this book as a whole by reading only a couple of chapters.

The Living Word- Food for the Living Soul             

With some apprehension I have distanced myself from some of my closest A.A. friends. I believe sitting down with you and having a conversation about the contents of this book would be difficult. It would take many hours to thoroughly cover what I’ve written here. However, after you have finished reading this book, I will gladly sit down and have such a discussion with you. 

                The undying compassion and love I have for the hundreds of people I’ve met in A.A.—and the millions I haven’t—have given me a desire to share the truths I’ve learned, by God’s grace, laid out in Scripture. I’m not talking about some new revelation, nor am I talking about an audible voice I heard from God. I’m talking about basic truths laid out in Scripture that are easily understood if read plainly. Please do not gloss over this point. It is important that you understand I’m not talking about some special gift I have, in which I hear God speaking to me in some type of vision. I’m talking about plainly understood passages of Scripture.

Chapter 1

Who am I?

                This book is not about me. However, laying down a foundational knowledge of nearly ten years spent in A.A. and giving you a brief account of my experiences will be valuable to you as a reader. Starting with this account should assure you that my time in A.A. was genuine and my knowledge of A.A.’s core beliefs is accurate.

                The working definition of what an alcoholic is will be taken from the A.A. literature: “We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.”1 Some will question whether I was ever an alcoholic. A.A. teaches you should not pronounce someone else an alcoholic: “We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic…”2 with that same line of reasoning, you should not conclude that someone was never an alcoholic. According to A.A. it is up to the individual to decide for him or herself, as the BB says, “You can quickly diagnose yourself.”3 Well, I’ve completed my diagnosis. I was an alcoholic, in the sense that I could not control my drinking once I started. I do not intend to prove that I was an alcoholic, as my being an alcoholic or not isn’t the object of this book. I would simply ask you, “Can you prove you’re an alcoholic?” You could tell me your story and get some of your old drinking friends and family members to tell me even more stories. Yet that won’t be sufficient enough evidence because I lived those same stories and had all the same mental obsessions. So let’s not waste any more time asking, “Was he or wasn’t he?” That line of questioning is completely irrelevant.

In 1980, I was sitting in my fourth grade classroom with all the other kids and my favorite teacher, Miss C. In fact, I liked her so much, I stayed in her fourth grade class for two years!

                As we were sitting in class the principal announced on the intercom, “Anyone interested in trying out for the soccer team, meet in the cafeteria.”  I had never played soccer, but this was a chance to get out of my seat for a couple of hours.

                James, a classmate of mine, convinced me to sign up to play. Within a few short months, I found out that God had gifted me with an athletic ability, although at that age (and for many years to come)I would not have admitted that God was the origin of anything. Although I can’t put my finger on one particular event, I seemed to have a resentment against God at a very early age—even though I grew up going to church several times a week.

                There was only one place I felt comfortable while I was growing up and that was the soccer field.  Playing sports came easily to me, and on the soccer field, I felt a confidence I had never known before. Soccer had become my safe haven. I played year-round, either for school or travel teams, going to several different cities. Oh, how I loved to play soccer!