12 Step Programs

My 40-year anniversary in Alcoholics Anonymous is coming up on November 7 . . .

Dear John:

I am drifting away from 12-Step programs because over the years they talk less and less about God. You are often asked to use the word Higher Power and people are encouraged to see GOD as "group of drunks," or "good orderly direction." That may be an aspect of God, but it is not God. In other programs like Adult Children of Alcoholics they do not talk about God or Higher Power at all. It is all about psychology. I am taking what I can use and leaving the rest. I have been in 12-Step programs for 40 years, and I am grateful for them, but I am also very happy to have found my way home to Berkeley Friends Church.