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I know I am somewhat new to all of this but there are certain things I do not understand.. Our program seems to me to be set up and formated by the acknowledgement of a HIGER POWER and in alot of our steps they use the termanology Let go and let GOD...Turn our will and our life over to the power of GOD..admitted to GOD and ourselves ...entirely ready to have GOD remove all these defects... and improve our conscious contact with GOD as we understood him..I have been in sooo many meetings where when someone speaks of their Higher Power and they refer to him as GOD... people start getting offended and making comments to the person whom has found alot of comfort with GOD... It is just my opinion but with GOD being mentioned in all of our steps I am offended by those who take offense to someone acknowledging their Higher Power as GOD.... and I feel they take away the power of the program by taking away a persons right to believe whom they want to believe is thier Higher Power... for GOD can be obviously different from one person to anothers belief... so when a person mentions their Higher power or refers to them as GOD, I just dont think it is right to shoot a person down for their beliefs... As long as that person is not mentioning exactley who they believe their GOD to be, I dont understand the upset when GOD is mentioned... I am Glad and ver GRATEFUL to GOD for being here in these meetings and rooms and working with all of us silently to help us through this difficult disease... without him I dont believe this program would even exist..But I guess that is MY OPINION...It just confuses me when people get upset...thanks for any feedback
I agree with you. Whomever or whatever we choose to be our Higher Power is our business. I have not personally witnessed anyone mentioning a problem with someone talking about their HP as being God. I do believe there have been times when the subject of a particular religion might come up and this might be a source of some controversy for some folks and this is understandable.
It can be a factor which might limit someones ability to give or recieve help due to personal bias against a particular faith. Alanon needs to be seperated from those potential barriers to someone's recovery. If I didnt want to listen to someone's words of experience, strength and hope just because I didnt "like" them because I knew that they were a supporter of a particular religious denomination that I am against what a shame a potentially harmful thing that would be!
However we all, each of us have the right to choose and not be ashamed of our own HP, and feel comfortable with naming that power should we so choose! And I will go one step further and tell you that there is nothing wrong (in my opinion) with my identifying my HP (God) as Jesus Christ, any more than one of my alanon friends who refers to her HP (God) as The Great Understanding.
Be you Buddist, Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, Catholic, Jewish, etc.. etc.. Welcome to Alanon!
I think you're probably right David . My Hindu a went to a few aa meetings and abadoned the pursuit of sobriety. Later he talked about "Christian AA". I thought at the time, oh he's found a reason not to attend.
People will stick around for themselves, for what they need.
First, others do not make you upset. Getting upset is your reactions to what others say or do… you choose to be upset. However, others getting upset because still others refer to the higher power as God… well those folks believe they, themselves are omnipotent to where they believe they can name / color God and they ought to be able enforce that naming or coloring on others… be an aggressive higher power themselves. You think?
Being that human structured language cannot come a million miles close to naming / coloring God… without name what is there to argue or even discuss for that matter? If I were not trying to communicate Love, I would not even use the word “God”.
Thanks Richard what you said makes alot of sense and you are correct... they do choose to be upset...I too feel that GOD is Love.. and that knowone should get upset when referring to HP as GOD...however a friend of mine was rudely booted from room for expressing how much his GOD has meant to him in his life and mentioning "his" HP being GOD .... I was shocked to say the least...I have not seen him in meetings since..sorry to say...thank you for comment
Thanks for posting and for being so honest. Your post brought out good feedback too. I am sorry about your friend getting booted or banned :( I get a little concerned about my getting the boot too from giving my opinon lately too. That is why I may take a break from the chatroom or here. I mean just replying and not posting. You keep on posting. I enjoy your posts. cdb
