Why I Loathe Alcoholics Anonymous

 

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

For years, I was stepped in this terrible cult called Alcoholics Anonymous.

My mother was a recovering alcoholic, according to her statements, testimony, blah. She worked "the steps" every day of her life, so she claimed. She got sober in 1978, having had a spiritual revelation after drinking a morning mimosa. Something in her spirit told her "You don't have to do this anymore."

And that was the last time she drank alcohol. For the record, I feel compelled to point out that she received a spiritual revelation from God, not help or support from working Twelve Steps. However, the evil genius of Alcoholics Anonymous is to teach people that "It works if you work it" and the Big Book offers this guarantee that people who follow the Twelve Steps rarely fail.

The truth is, my Mom got sober without AA, but she still believed that she had to work the Twelve Steps every day of her life just to get through the day.

On another note, my mother quit smoking when she prayed, when she asked the LORD for help and stopped relying on her own efforts to quit. "I have no faith in me, and I have very little faith in you."

But God can use our little faith to do great things, and my mother was set free from smoking.

Sadly, she was still addicted to AA, and she worked that awful program, until it worked her to death.

Why do I loathe AA? It's not just that that legalistic, self-loathing cult damaged my mother, it's not just that that awful cult turned my mother into an abusive therapy who put her own "recovery" ahead of the needs of her children, her family, and anyone else--even Christ Himself!

I loathe AA because it teaches people to identify with a lie.

At every meeting, every member of the club in the "rewms" will say: "Hi, my name is ... , and I am an alcoholic."

Now, tell me ... how can we really expect anyone to break free of a damaging perversion if we teach people to identify with it? If you are "born" an alcoholic, then you should just drink and drink until you pass out or die.

BUT ... people are NOT born alcoholic. Just as there is no evidence that people are born gay, there is no gene for alcoholic. Granted, patterns of alcoholism do ensue in families, but it has to do with the abuse and trauma which children suffer from their parents, and there is this uncanny tendency for children to replicate the bad behaviors of their parents based on the imprinting and the wrong believing that comes with identifying with one's parents--no matter how bad they may be,

To sum up: no, people are not born "alcoholic." What's more, many people get over alcoholism without taking those ridiculous Twelve Steps.

The AA cult teaches lies to its members. It purports to not be a religious program, and yet members are instructed to turn their will and their life over to a "Higher Power" as they understand Him. Going beyond that, however, this Higher Power is still subject to the Twelve Steps--which have no pattern or value in the Old or New Testaments. In effect, the higher power for everyone in AA is not the Lord God as revealed in the Scriptures.

It's the creepy God of Bill W.'s insidious creation. (For those who don't know, Bill Wilson--or Bill W.--founded Alcoholics Anonymous.) Bill W. is treated with almost divine reverence in the meeting rewms of AA. It's really sickening. Let's state this fact plaintly once more: this "Higher Power" is an invention of Bill W.

It is total idolatry. Christians, Muslims, Jews, anyone who belongs to any faith community should reject AA out of hand. 

But for those who believe in Jesus, who recognize the Bible as God's Word, AA is all the more fully incompatible.

This terrible cult teaches people to identify with a sin, with an addiction, a moral failing.

What does the Bible say about our new identity in Christ?

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We receive a new standing before our Loving Father. God is no more some distant deity, but our Loving Father!

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

and

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:17)

Yes, AA's Big Book makes one reference that "He is our Father. We are His children," but then goes back to leveling adherents with religious demands. The truth is, the AA program does not reveal anything about the Higher Power, aside from what is in the book. This notion of "God as I understand Him" is absolutely ludicrous. If I could understand God, He would not be God anymore, now, would He?

But I digress.

The biggest fraud about the AA cult is that it teaches people to identify with their sins, with their failures, with their faults.

At the top of this post, I quote Romans 6:11, in which Paul clearly declares to the Christian believers in Roman: "Reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ."

When you are born again, you are no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You are a child of God. Yes, there is training, there is the process of sanctification, which the Holy Spirit works on and in us as we see more of Jesus in the Word (cf 2 Corinthians 3:18)

You don't need to take steps to be one with your Heavenly Father.

In fact, even in the Old Testament, taking steps to God's altar was expressly forbidden:

"Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20:26)

If we try in our own efforts to get right with God, we merely expose our nakedness, our sin, our shame:

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

But in Christ, we have the fullness of His work. He declared "It is Finished" (John 19:30)

But you are no longer a sinner, and you are called to no longer identify with sin or any sins in your life.

Alcoholics Anonymous urges people to keep identifying with their sins, to keep rehashing their failures, to keep going to the joyless AA meeting, to keep repeating the empty mantras, to fall in line with the mob mentality, the mob identity.

My mother worked the program all right ... until she ended up taking her own life in 2012. This is the first time I have made this revelation public, but it needs to be said. Anyone who learns that he has to keep looking at his own sins and failures, that he must keep "taking his inventory" to stay one step ahead of an alcohol relapse, is looking at an empty life full of shame, hurt, and loss.

The number of people who have committed suicide while going to the AA "rewms" is pretty staggering, as well. But is anyone really surprised? A relentless program of self-loathing and self-abnegation is not going to produce happiness, joy, or freedom. 

Did I forget to mention that AA members often tout that their program is a "selfish" program, as if that is something to be proud of ...?

At any rate, I hope I have explained fully why I loathe Alcoholics Anonymous. The blood of Jesus cleanses everyone of us from all sins (1 John 1:9), and Jesus rests as the propitiation (full payment) for our sins and the sins of the entire world. If He has paid for all the sins of all the world, then there is no reason for people to rehash their sins or rest in their failures. It's time to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on Christ Jesus! Forget the false god of Alcoholics Anonymous and believe in Christ and Him Crucified:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:8)

If you find that you are still struggling with certain behaviors or bad habits, you just need to receive more favor, a greater revelation of Christ Jesus, and who you are in Christ:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

and

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 

5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Colossians 3:1-5)

and

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)

We don't need AA. Let us have grace, which we receive through Christ Jesus!

The Bleeding Deacons: Why Political Movements Suffer

There is a lot of division within movements.

The mainstream media likes to play up the divisions about Republicans, since they are so liberal, so committed to the regressive Left and their destructive agenda.

They attack free-market innovations like Uber and Lyft. They also cover bad stories related to AirBnb. The anti-capitalist bent of my newspapers and editorial pages should alarm anyone looking for something close to objectivity.

The truth is, however, that the Democratic Party is so riven with division, one has to wonder if they will survive after the next election cycle. Will there even be a viable candidate running for President in 2020? Remember that the Democratic Party was so weak in Alabama in 2014 that former US Senator Jeff Sessions ran unopposed!

Now he is the Attorney General, and the contested primary run-off is so heated, that millions of campaign dollars have been pouring into the Yellowhammer State to fix not just the fate of the state, but the contour of the Republican Party.

So, what is it about political movements that divisions arise?

What I have discovered is that the Old Guard vs. the New Guard get into fights over pre-eminence.

There are activists who have been fighting on the front lines for an extended period of time, but then a new crop of activists and fighters show up. They want to strike out on their own or make a difference as they see fit. They chafe under the rules and expectations imposed by the Old Guard.

But something else is happening. In the Trump movement particularly, men and women new to the fight are getting more done. They have connections to social media, to Internet skill sets which the previous activists, especially those fighting illegal immigration, did not have before.

Instead of learning from the new to enhance their experience, the Old Guard get bitter.

We can find another way of looking at this establishment arrogance in an idea from the otherwise discredited cult of Alcoholics Anonymous. From the Urban Dictionary:

In the context of a 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous, a bleeding deacon is someone in the group who is overly preachy and considers themselves to be the lone voice of reason and source of wisdom. In the eyes of the bleeding deacon, the group would fall apart without them.

Alcoholic 1: "Randy really droned on for a while about the eighth step -- I get it, we're supposed to make direct amends. Sheesh."

Alcoholic 2: "Yeah, he's a real bleeding deacon."

A Biblical example of this sad human failing appears in 1 Kings 19, when Elijah becomes self-righteous and despairing, then complains to God that he is the only one fighting for Him in the midst of an evil, perverse nation given over to idol worship and Satanic lawlessness.

God rebukes Elijah:

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." (1 Kings 19:18)

In short order, God then instructs Elijah to complete three tasks, but he only finishes one: the anointing of his successor Elisha. This second prophet is  picture of the New Covenant. Never once does Elisha trust in his own efforts, but rather depends on the double portion of God's grace and blessing.

He brings dead children back to life and helps feed thousands. He has a posture of rest and refreshment, whereas Elijah ministered condemnation and death.

The point of this account in relation to this post? The moment that any man thinks that he is indispensable to a movement, he brings conflict then inadvertently ushers in his own replacement.

This arrogance is stifling among the Old Guard. They are absolutely convinced that everything good that has happened before, during, and after in any conservative movement is all due to their efforts.

Such thinking, however, is simply untrue. 

I think of the 2010 Tea Party compared to the Trump Movement of today. I even attended a few Tea Party rallies leading up to the 2010 election. They spent a lot of time rallying votes and holding parades. That was great.

But the veneer of political correctness still hung heavy over the country. The need for confrontation with bad politicians at the local as well as the state and federal offices had not begun.

Then came President Trump, and before that the terrible, arrogant, anti-constitutional agenda of Barack Obama. Not just Obamacare, but the steady drum-beat demands to undermine life, family, the Second Amendment, and worst of all immigration--all of these incursions against our country and our culture pushed people to get off their butts and fight, not just rally on sidewalks and street corners.

Marc Langsam, a photographer in Ventura County, has said that people like me, Harim Uzziel, and Robin Hvidston are "The New Tea Party", because we are taking the Trump fight and agenda to historically Democratic communities. If Donald Trump could do it--and win--why can't we?

The Bleeding Deacons of the conservative establishment want all the name recognition and power. They want to rest on their laurels, too (another phrase from Alcoholics Anonymous). We need people who are more interesting accomplishing major wins, not just hanging onto previous victories!

Because of the uncalled for rancor from one Bleeding Deacon, I wrote out the following letter, letting him know how disappointing he had become, and how the movement to Make America Great Again exceeds the efforts of anyone person.

With this letter, these will be my final comments:

To R---- O-----:

I am saddened at your bitter hatred. Now you choose to lie about me. I have been an activist and freelance journalist for the past two years -- and people have provided me funding to continue to do what I do. I do not engage with wicked people and push against illegal immigration, LGBT perversities, etc. in order to get paid. This is just what I do. I fight against this anti-American corruption, and people provide me resources so that I can continue to do this. Would you call Joseph Turner, Robin Hvidston, or anyone else paid protesters, too? Shame on you.. You have chosen to lie, and now I confront you. This is to your shame. The narcissism falls on you. Reminder - I was not wearing political colors and I was recording the event for the world to see -- my Facebook Live video provided the first record of what happened at Chicano Park -- WE set the narrative, not the corrupt media, and the Brown Supremacists have the black eye now. They had to play defense for the indefensible, hateful behavior of the Chicano mob which threatened to kill us!

By the way -- I can go to any national park I wish to R---- O----- You have neither right nor authority to tell me NOT to go somewhere or anywhere. Once again -- who is the narcissist?

I am not surprised that everyone has walked away from you. You are a selfish man who is easily hurt--and you even cursed at me, saying "F--k you!", when I had shared with others that you helped expose Huntington Park. I am half your age, R------, yet you act like such a child. I am saddened at your moral decline, R-----.

With these remarks, I let you go, as I maintain God's gracious promise in the face of your unjust slander (Isaiah 54:17).

Sincerely,

Arthur Schaper