Posted by MG on July 28, 2011 at 16:56:32
In Reply to: Re: Lady Gaga and the "pray it away" approach posted by OT2 on July 28, 2011 at 14:53:18:
If you study the history of the Oxford Group it reveals that they did not have or use the 12 Steps of AA. They had 4 practices which served as a basis that Bill Wilson used for writing the 12 Steps, he adapted and developed them from what the Oxford Group's 4 Practices: "1. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God, and to use Sharing as Witness to help others, still unchanged, to recognize and acknowledge their sins.
2. Surrender our life past, present and future, into God's keeping and direction. 3. Restitution to all whom we have wronged directly or indirectly. 4. Listening for God's guidance, and carrying it out." (from the book: "What is the Oxford Group", page 9, written in 1933 by an anonymous member of the Oxford Group. The book is dedicated to Frank Buchmann the Oxford Group's founder.) They also had what they called 4 Ablsolutes: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. And they had the 5 C's: Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, Continuance.
I think for a practicing Christian who is an alcoholic or drug addict a Christian based 12 Step program is great.
But the majority of alcoholics and drug addicts in the world today are not Christian believers. Most probably don't believe in anything, or they're agnostic, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Jewish and etc. It's a fact that the 12 Step program which uses terms like "higher power", or "God as I/you understand him" makes recovery accessible to many more millions who'd don't respond to 12 Step programs that are purely Christian Bible based.
Last, many alcoholic born-again Christians stuggle with relapse after relapse as being a new creature in Christ Jesus isn't enough to help them stay stopped drinking. They discover they need a program like the 12 Steps.
It's great for the many people who have recovered from addiction through religion and faith in becoming a new creature. There's a lot of scientific evidence that shows that substance addiction is genetic, and the genetic nature of the disease means that a lot of people no matter how much they believe in becoming a new creature, aren't able to stay sober or clean longterm until they get in the program.