« PREV NEXT »

The Difference Between 12 Step Programs and Fundamentalist Christianity

By Kenneth Anderson on
For me, alcohol was a way of expressing rebelling against the psychotic fundamentalist religion that I grew up with. It is no wonder that Alcoholics Anonymous drove me to drink, since the difference between 12 step programs and fundamentalist Christianity is almost non-existent.

The only difference between the fundamentalist protestant horror religion that I grew up in and AA is that AA changes the word "Hell" to "jails, institutions and death" and the word "sin" to "disease' or "relapse'. Otherwise it is identical. One drink and you will go to hell becomes one drink and you will die. Instead of saying that you have sinned AA says that you have RELAPSED!!

Much like the fundamentalist Christianity that I grew up with--if a thing is pleasurable you can be certain that there is a 12 step program to stop you from doing it. There are 12 step programs against sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food and everything else that makes life worth living. All you are left with is a monomaniacal obsession with God and hard work.

The healthy way to overcome an addiction to something like alcohol is not to substitute a new addiction to a psychotic and fundamentalist religion like AA in its place. The healthy thing to do is to either quit drinking or reduce to non-problematic levels and concentrate on getting a life. If you have to go to an AA meeting on Christmas day because you are afraid that if you do not go then you will drink and die--this means that you have no life and are addicted to AA. How about giving a toy to a child or feeding the homeless instead?

If you are interested in rational approaches to alcohol or other addiction problems, please visit our web site: HAMS - Harm Reduction for Alcohol or purchase our book, How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol.

Related Articles:
« PREV NEXT »
Advertisements
more from Zimbio »
Making Faces with Robert Pattinson
Celebrity Tweets of the Week
The Week In Pictures: May 25, 2012
Stars on Yachts - Cannes Edition
more from StyleBistro »
Why it Works: AnnaLynne McCord
Poll: Who Wins Best Dressed of the Week?
Style Crush: Florence Welch
Look of the Day: Milla Jovovich's Futuristic Space Gown
Home Terms & Policies For Bloggers Advertise Sitemap Contentmap About Us
Zimbio Entertainment
Copyright © 2012 - Zimbio, Inc. Some rights reserved. Coming soon: Livingly
Share
Tweet
Pin it
. . .
Follow
. . .