Has AA become a religious sect...?

Question

a) inspite of or
b) because of

the 12 traditions?

I apologize for the catagorization on this one. I clicked "mental health", but it came up in here...

hun, if I wanted to ask about the steps or the promisess or the world concepts I would have. I asked specifically about the twelve traditions of AA for a reason.

Sorry but I am well versed so don't bother trying to confuse me.

Answer 1

It always has been. AA's roots were in the Oxford group, once called the "First Century Christians": http://www.blamedenial.co.uk/orange/orange-rroot150.html

In recent years, some members have felt that the 5% success rate AA has comes from being watered down by treatment center graduates and people mandated to attend by courts, employee assistance programs, and government agencies. They feel this violates the the Eleventh Tradition which talks about "attraction rather than promotion" and the Third that states "You are an A.A. member if you say so", if you are saying so under coercion.

They would like to believe that it's all the fault of the courts, but AA has a long history of petitioning the courts for new members, going back all the way to the very beginnings of the program. The GSO even publishes a pamphlet on how to achieve this: http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/en_pdfs/mg-05_coopwithcourt.pdf

AA has never had a very good success rate, Bill Wilson admitted in a speech made at the funeral of Dr. Bob Smith that they had "cherry-picked" their findings, but recent admissions (such as the Triennial Survey) have led some to believe that the "old AA" was better, with better success rates, resulting in "Back to Basics" and other AA schisms demanding a more dogmatic approach, with more emphasis on the religious nature of the program.

Answer 2

Because of.....and they are steps, not traditions