Jack:
As I told Gerard, I think his issues with AA are pretty similar to yours: He worries that people won't be led to depend on God but will depend on themselves; and you worry that they will depend on the wrong god. However, Gerard now has put me beyond the pale on BJ's board :^). O Well.
But here's my basic position:
SUMMARY
1) AA isn't a Church, it's a hospital open to all. 2) Meditation is not automatically channelling. 3) AA's teachings aren't unscriptural.
DETAILS
1)
AA isn't a Church, it's a field hospital. It treats all kinds and classes of people including nonChristians, former Christians, Christians, Muslims, Wiccans, and whoever else comes in to the meeting seeking life. Therefore it doesn't matter if AA allows people to depend on God as they understand him.
It's like a ball game: Everybody can go and everybody is made welcome; there isn't a religious test. If that includes people who don't believe in God that's OK. Or a highway: Anybody may drive on a highway and go where they want; some go to places they shouldn't, but that's not the highway's problem. A ball game, or a highway, have certain functions which don't have anything really to do with God; they are simply features of the world he created.
AA exists to save any and all alcoholics from alcoholism. Hospitals exist to cure all sick people. Grocery stores exist to sell foods to anybody who is hungry. They all have extremely important functions which could influence a person's perception of God, but none have the function of teaching about God. So AA isn't a Church, even though it does mention God.
I firmly believe the reason for 'God as we know him' is so that all alcoholics will feel welcome iin AA and God won't be a stumbling block for their recovery. He WOULD be a stumbling block to that recovery for nearly all the alcoholics who go there if AA were to require a certain understanding of God.
2)
I don't accept either that all meditative prayer is used for channeling. Some certainly is; anything can be used for a wrong purpose. And I don't agree that Bill W obtained his insights from demons. I say that because of those insights' fruits, and by their fruits shall you know them.
You're absolutely right that a meditative state can leave a person open to demonic communication; but it also can leave a person open to communication of the Holy Spirit. I didn't see any indication in the Big Book that the origins of AA were demonic, regardless of the charges made in the PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries tract. If you can point to a particular passage in the Big Book by page number, I'll look at it and tell you what I think.
And I owe them my life -- literally.
3)
Finally, I don't believe the teachings of AA are unscriptural. I gave
one example over on Kristy's but we didn't get to discuss it very well in all the noise and upset. You
partially responded here, emphasizing that AA teaches dependence on the wrong god. But the teaching itself wasn't, I believe, unscriptural. I feel like we could look at some others of the AA teachings cited in the tract you used and have similar results. If there's one you'd particularly like to point at, I'll look at it and give you my opinion.
Bottom line here is that I don't accept that AA's teachings are basically unscriptural, but that they use the same principles as are used in scripture.
The issue of whether AA teaches the right God is dealt with in 1).
OK, there it is for me. I'll look at what you offer in return.
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
dave@christos.cjb.net, dpeirce@christian.net
If man evolved from apes why do we still have apes?