What about the alcoholic
who says that he cannot possibly believe in God?
Answer
A great many of them come
to A.A. and they say that they are trapped. By
this they mean that we have convinced them that
they are fatally ill, yet they cannot accept a
belief in God and His grace as a means of
recovery. Happily this does not prove to be an
impossible dilemma at all. We simply suggest
that the newcomers take an easy stance and an
open mind; that he proceeds to practice those
parts of the Twelve Steps that anyone's common
sense would readily recommend. He can certainly
admit that he is an alcoholic; that he ought to
make a moral inventory; that he ought to discuss
his defects with another person; that he should
make restitution for harms done; and that he can
be helpful to other alcoholics.
We emphasize the 'open mind,'
that at least he should admit that there might
be a 'Higher Power.' He can certainly admit that
he is not God, nor is mankind in general. If he
wishes he could place his own dependence upon
his own A.A. group. That group is certainly a
"Higher Power," so far as recovery from
alcoholism is concerned. If these reasonable
conditions are met, he then finds himself
released from the compulsion to drink; he
discovers that his motivations have been changed
far out of proportion to anything that could
have been achieved by a simple association with
us or by any practice of a little more honesty,
humility, tolerance, and helpfulness. Little by
little he becomes aware that a "Higher Power" is
indeed at work. In a matter of months, or at
least in a year or two, he is talking freely
about God as he understands Him. He has received
the gift of God's grace - and he knows it.
(N.C.C.A., Blue Book, Vol.12, 1960)
