17 - Thoughts on Alcoholics Anonymous

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May 7, 2024

Attending A.A is a rejection of the Catholic faith. Here's why.

While the organization panders to Christianity, it preaches fundamentally unchristian ideas. To start off with, let's look at the 12 steps and 12 traditions.

Step 1

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable."

"we were powerless over alcohol"

This phrase is implicit. It leaves a lot to be inferred. The Christian will read it and think, "Oh, well they mean powerless without the grace of God". But that is not what they said. They said you are powerless. As in you have no free will or your free will makes no difference in your ability to resist sin. While it is possible for a Catholic to say so hypothetically that if God withheld his grace, a man cannot resist a particular sin in spite of his free will, A.A. says so with certainty, and without any clarification on free will or grace. And this is intentional. It gives them plausible deniability to the Christian, while pushing this idea that you need the religion of A.A. and excusing the individual for his addiction. For it is no sin to do something you couldn't prevent.

Everybody now-a-days wants to say well I'm addicted it's not a sin - or at least it's not a mortal sin. Well, perhaps the force of habit lessens the gravity of the sin, but you have no excuse for having the habit. And this argument is used for porn and masturbation as well. Keep committing the sin and keep going to communion because well, the devil made me do it. And if you love your vice so dear that you make no effort or minimal effort to avoid it's near occasion, where is your excuse? You want God to hand you the grace to not be tempted, but won't lift a finger to help yourself. Why did the saints mortify themselves and fast? Because as St. Thomas Aquinas says "When the devil tempts a person with gluttony, and is conquered, he ceases then from tempting him with impurity. If you watch porn on your phone but you still have a phone, what will you tell the supreme Judge on that terrible day. Staying hip with society was more important than eternal life. You had to have it for work. Then keep your paycheck and go to hell. There is a slight difference with the kind of sin which I'll get to later, but the premise still applies. It is better to go to heaven without an eye than with two eyes be cast into gehenna. Where does alcoholics anonymous say that?

What they do say in another place in their book is that their [members] "did not succeed because they could not make the admission of hopelessness." And again the Christian will say they meant hopelessness in salvation without God. Now show me where they said that. Don't twist their words to make them right. They make it clear in the next step they don't believe in God. They say this because only really desperate people will make A.A. their religion. And once a person gives up hope (a sin against the Holy Spirit) they are ready to be baptized into their cult.

Steps 2,3

"Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."

What is this the freemasons! The reason the freemasons are condemned is this exactly, that they accept salvation through "God as we understood Him". You must believe in a supreme being or Grand Architect of the Universe and that is enough. Would any God-fearing Christian say that "Moloch could restore us to sanity." But that is not precluded by this creed.

This is a kind of relativism that is rampant in modern protestantism. It seems every major protestant sect believes in salvation through other people's churches. Catholics do not. You are saved through the Catholic Church or you are damned. Your membership in her might be imperfect, but there is only ONE, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Steps 4,5

"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."

"Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

In these steps is taught the psychology of confession without the grace thereof. It does me no good to confess my sins to anyone but a priest who stands in persona Christi, who has the authority (the keys) to loose my sins. This is just a trick of the devil to reassure people that God will forgive their sins. He would forgive them if I would obey his Church. And if I will not obey his Church, telling someone else is a mockery of the sacrament.

Now there could be benefit from an accountability partner, but the Church never obliges us to reveal our sins to anyone else, so why should A.A? The reason: because once you've opened your heart to them, it will hurt more when you try to leave.

Steps 6,7

"Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."

"Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings."

Defects of character do not equate to sins. Therefore God does not necessarily remove them in confession. A defect of character would be a result of sin, actual or original. This idea comes back to God doing all the work for you and you doing none for yourself. In other words, when Christ says "You are my friends if you do what I command", let's just keep the first half of that sentence.

Shortcomings are just another euphamism for sins to displace guilt and numb your conscience.

Steps 8,9

"Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all."

"Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."

I have no objection.

Step 11

"Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."

They will only ever refer to "God as we understood Him." That a hint. And then here is a problem with their prayers. They don't pray like Christians. They pray "ONLY for knowledge... and the power". If you think back to your time in confirmation class, there was wisdom, understanding, council, piety and fear of the lord. But nah, just give me knowledge and power. Who needs faith or hope, no charity, no actual virtues, just the ability to have them.

It reminds me of that serenity prayer they teach

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.”

Accept the things I cannot change. The heck does that mean. This is some bullshit chinese proverb. How 'bout they tell you to pray a morning offering or something. No, just a wishy-washy prayer. The only thing I can think of that you couldn't change through prayer is the damnation of someone already in hell. But it's kind of a prayer saying prayer doesn't work.

Step 12

"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

Right on. A spiritual awakening from the freemason God, now I can go carry on the message of my cult. I am enlightened by A.A. No recovery organization should be the source of any spiritual awakening.

Now a quick look at their traditions.

Tradition 1

Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.

There's the sieg heil we've been waiting for. Deutschland uber alles. "A.A. must continue... or most of us will surely die." If that's not a religion... man some people.

"Hence our common welfare comes first"

By the way, socialism. Ideas so good, you have to mandate them.

Tradition 2

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.

Alright so this group conscience thing, like, is the pope or something.

It's a natural order of things that relativism begets tolerance. Once there is no truth, condemnation is opinion.

Now if you can somehow justify all these things as my misinterpretation, and I'm sure you can, you'll be glad to know they give themselves the get-out-of-jail-free card by saying somewhere in the middle of things that all of these things were all just suggestions and the only thing you had to do was want to stop drinking. Which is odd because they don't say whether you have to want to stop drinking entirely or just stop drinking excessively. It's like they're purposely vague.

It might be because our society has a very unhealthy attitude toward drugs in general. Half of us are full on puritans and the other half of us think it's Catholic to be a drunk. It's funny, I was looking at this Catholic AI they are making. You ask it if it's okay to sell to drugs: it says as a matter of morals - no. Then you ask it if its okay for doctors to prescribe drugs and it says - yes. Go figure. Doctors are above the moral law the rest of us are bound to.

In an ironic way, Catholics believe our Lord Jesus Christ demands alcohol present at the celebration of the mass. And then you start thinking of the wedding feast at Cana, and to me it doesn't sound like they were on their first glass. Yet Christ approved enough to make more.

You can take it from Wisdom "There is not a destructive drug among them". But also St. Paul says drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. So I guess you have to look at it from this moral principle, if it's good for you do it. If it's bad for you don't. Because feeling the effects of alcohol does not make one a drunkard. But when alcohol gets in the way of your duties: to God, to your family, to society, then you have made it your god.

Now the reason I've wrote this is because lately I've heard priests recommend A.A. to their parishioners, and I think it must be because they are ignorant to what the organization stands for, and it is a easy way to get you out of their hair. Reminds me of them referring you to psychologists (the great priest replacers), because taking care of you themselves would be too hard.

They see success stories, which there can be, because God does not allow the wickedness that is A.A. prevent him from healing people who genuinely seek him. And there is enough truth to their steps that some people will be inspired to serve the one true God in spite of the program.

But, if I might offer better advice than A.A.

Determine to what extent the addiction is a sin. You can't go cold turkey from alcohol, you'll die. But if you don't go cold turkey from porn, you'll die.

Frequent the sacraments, confession and communion in a state of grace.

Pray the rosary.

Avoid the near occasion of sin.

Get rid of the bad influences in your life.

Do penance. Mortify the flesh that you must control.