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rrmoderator
There are also atheists in AA.

I have known a few, and they say the higher power for them is not defined.

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Alcoholics Anonymous: A Religion In Denial?by Cliff Walker

[b:693690019f]In order to make AA appear more benign to the public, AA members differentiate between the words religious and spiritual[/b:693690019f]. This dance with semantics implies that religion is stuffy, hierarchical, or phony, whereas spirituality is spontaneous, personal, honest, and genuine.

The Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary does not support these shades of meaning. To a nonbeliever, however, religion and spirituality are the same thing; we really don't want any part of it -- if we can help it.

[b:693690019f]Using the ultimate form of coercion, Alcoholics Anonymous says you have two options: religion or death:[/b:693690019f]

"But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -- or else. Perhaps it is going to be that way with you. But cheer up, something like half of us thought we were atheists or agnostics." (page 44)

Note that atheism and agnosticism are forms of dishonesty here -- delusions (we thought we were atheists). AA is not ashamed to paint agnostics (and other nonbelievers) as being dishonest with themselves, implying that they "really do" believe -- deep down inside:

"But [the newcomer's] face falls when we speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have re-opened a subject which our man thought he had neatly evaded or entirely ignored. We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice. Some of us have been violently anti-religious." (page 45)

"...as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results..." (page 46)

"Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you..." (page 47)

[b:693690019f]Most of AA's allies will admit that AA does have its "religious trappings"[/b:693690019f] or that some components of the AA program are spiritual in nature; however, [b:693690019f]the Big Book places the religious conversion experience as Priority Number One[/b:693690019f].

But the public at large continues to assume that the best advice is to suggest going to AA.

But the authorities continue to mandate help other than self-recovery to thousands across America. To this day, self-recovery is not an option. This leads me to wonder if the authorities have abstinence as a goal, rather than simply herding them into "the system."

The U.S. Supreme Court may soon end this travesty. Let's hope!

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Alcoholics Anonymous: Encyclopedia II - Alcoholics Anonymous - A.A. religion and the law

Alcoholics Anonymous - A.A. religion and the law

[b:693690019f]U.S. judges continue to offer defendants the choice of attending A.A., or going to prison[/b:693690019f].

[b:693690019f]A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises Americans' constitutional right not to have religion dictated to them by government[/b:693690019f] - because A.A. suggests that a belief in a higher power (and making a decision to turn one's will and life over to the care of a God of one's understanding, per the third step) is necessary to achieve recovery.

The United States Supreme Court has let this decision stand.

[b:693690019f]A.A. World Services Inc. [the legal entity of the program as a whole] and A.A.'s General Service Office [the legal entity of A.A. in the U.S. and Canada] do not favor coercion regarding meeting attendance.[/b:693690019f]

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APRIL 2002
APRIL 2002 NA WORLD SERVICES CONFERENCE REPORT

Drug Courts and Narcotics Anonymous

Drug courts represent a relatively new kind of court system, building on the drug diversion programs already in place that court-order addicts to NA meetings. Many national and US state governments view
this model as highly successful, and as a result, these specialized courts have grown rapidly in numbers.

[b:693690019f]Over the past few years, NA has seen an increase in newcomers coming to NA meetings[/b:693690019f], primarily in the US but also in other countries, [b:693690019f]because of referrals from the drug court movement[/b:693690019f].

Also [b:693690019f]fueling this growth[/b:693690019f] in new members is the [b:693690019f]increased awareness and acceptance of Narcotics Anonymous as a preferred program of recovery for drug addicts[/b:693690019f], both among professionals and the [b:693690019f]general public[/b:693690019f].

[b:693690019f]Because of the importance of the drug court movement, we want to continue to build our relationship with these drug court professionals[/b:693690019f].
This past December, we met with representatives of the National Drug
Court Institute (NDCI), the Director of the Department of Justice’s Drug Court Policy Office (DCPO), the PI Coordinator from AA’s GSO, and the current Cooperation with Professionals Coordinator (CPC). Later in the meeting, we were joined by the Executive Director and CEO for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP)

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NA World Services, Inc.
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Marketing and Public Relations

Distributing NA literature and other products to as wide a base as possible puts us in a win/win situation. Our primary purpose and public relations efforts are being served when as many addicts and non-addicts as possible see our message, and the funds generated by widely distributing our literature helps us grow and continue to fund our services, reaching out to the addict who still suffers.[b:693690019f]Our Marketing Team has continued its efforts this year to further develop and expand our customer base throughout the treatment and correctional marketplaces.[/b:693690019f]

In 2001-02 we attended and exhibited at the summer American Correctional Association conferences. This year we had a series of meetings and exhibited at major drug-court conferences.

We plan to continue to cultivate new avenues to use in informing the correctional, treatment, and drug-court professionals about our literature and [b:693690019f]products[/b:693690019f]. We continue considering various packaging formats that will benefit the treatment and correctional professional. We have developed two distinctly different product update mailers for both of these [b:693690019f]markets[/b:693690019f].

Over the past year [b:693690019f]our correctional sales of literature have continued to increase[/b:693690019f]. We have also seen some upward movement in our [b:693690019f]sales to substance abuse treatment providers[/b:693690019f], and we anticipate that this field will continue to grow on a steep curve.

We now believe that we can probably look forward to [b:693690019f]increased sales[/b:693690019f] to the corrections, treatment, and drug-court sectors each year for the foreseeable future.

We believe that [b:693690019f]the market share being generated in the drug-court sector is growing.[/b:693690019f]

We have learned that once the treatment, correctional, and drug-court professionals become aware that they can [b:693690019f]buy Narcotics Anonymous literature straight from the WSO[/b:693690019f], they do so.

Of course, the value of these relationships to NA World Services is two-fold. [b:693690019f]Certainly we want to market and sell our literature. This is the way that we fund our services[/b:693690019f].

However, of equal importance is the fact that, as a result of selling this literature to these agencies that have huge numbers of suffering addicts as clientele, it is an incredibly efficient way to get the word of NA recovery to the still-suffering addict.

We have increased the total of our treatment and corrections database again in this [b:693690019f]fiscal year[/b:693690019f] for this reason.

Our increased presence in these markets has also helped us identify [b:693690019f]trends in the market[/b:693690019f], such as the [b:693690019f]continuing growth in the drug-court movement[/b:693690019f].