Sunday 4 July 2010

Evangelical Christianity vs. Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Steps

First, here're the Twelve Steps:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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.
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.

 I think it's safe to say the evangelical Christian analogues (as practised by those I have met) too often are:

1. We admitted we were powerless over sin—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We claimed to believe that God, a Power greater than ourselves, could restore us to righteousness.
3.  Made a decision to daily try to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we felt we knew Him.
4. ________________________________________.
5. Daily admitted to God, to ourselves, and perhaps to another human being the exact nature of our characteristic, general wrongs as we became convicted of them.
6. Tried to use church attendance, daily bible study and prayer, and above all, the consistent application of our own willpower, to suppress these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings, but readied ourselves to strive against them daily, as we believed that is a Christian's lot in life.
8. Took some note of all Christians we harmed as we lived our Christian lives, and became willing to express regret about it to them all (unless we felt we were right.)
9. _________________________________________.
10. ________________________________________.
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.
12. Having built a religious program out of these steps, we tried to carry its message to sinners, and to practise these principles in all our affairs.

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