cool video. Seriously.
Im being told by the courts to attend NA/AA meetings and while I will not deny that I drink alot (I seriously do not do drugs at all, at least since highschool), there are some SERIOUS religious undertones to these meetings and it makes me REALLY uncomfortable being a non-believer and having to participate or go to jail.
I would GLADLY go to a meeting that is similar but without all the "spiritual" stuff being forced upon me. As it stands now, I dont know of an alternative that would appease the court, therefore I am talking to my attourney that if the courts cannot provide me with a non-spiritual alternative it is against my cons utional rights to force me to go.
Im not looking for a "get out of jail free" card. I simply want something without the MAJOR religious undertones that permiate NA/AA meetings. I shouldnt be forced to accept a "higher power" if I dont believe in one.
Im sure people are going to jump on this like flies on but just look at it from my point of view for a minute before you respond.
Look up the 12 steps of AA/NA, specifically step 3, and tell me how that pertains to an "athiest" and how it does not affect their religious beliefs in accordance to the cons ution.
AA/NA is anonymous s by default... The courts cant call and ask if Im showing up. I could easily get my freaking bartender to sign his name on the sheet they give me and it wont matter one lick. Its ANONYMOUS!! they dont keep records of who shows up.
I dont want to do that.
but I also dont want to be forced into meetings where its a requirement to "believe in a higher power, however you might believe in that higher power".
I DONT believe in a higher power..... Where does that leave me?
seriously... read this as if you did not believe in any higher power, and tell me how Im supposed to react.
These are the 12 steps of AA/NA
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 (God) 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.