bump for later
Good luck.
Gilbert Chesterton in Heretics tells us:
Those who wish, rightly or wrongly, to step out of all this, do definitely wish to step into a narrower world. They are dismayed and terrified by the largeness and variety of the family. Sarah wishes to find a world wholly consisting of private theatricals; George wishes to think the Trocadero a cosmos. I do not say, for a moment, that the flight to this narrower life may not be the right thing for the individual, any more than I say the same thing about flight into a monastery. But I do say that anything is bad and artificial which tends to make these people succumb to the strange delusion that they are stepping into a world which is actually larger and more varied than their own. The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born.
"...what each of us did the day that he was born." We can't pick our family members (or our ship mates in a life boat) and yet, as Christians (or others believeing in an Enduring Moral Order) we have to treat them in as our neighbor to be enobled ourselves.
Read Heretics. Learn that to be an Orthodox thinker is bold and not backward. Have Joy in yourself.
You don't need to straighten out others to share healthy thinking in general.
Happiness in not being "right" or making yourself or others happy but is instead a by product of right living. Russel Kirk said that the first priciple for conservatives is the belief in an Enduring Moral Order. That means such for man and for the nation. I doubt that AA believes in situational ethics. Try to concentrate on living your sober life in harmony with right living and the concepts of sober living you have been taught and forget about staightening out the rest of the world until you have your life back together.
Please vote with conviction but you have to realize that other people don't establish your confort level inside your own skin -- instead something within you is leaving that maleadjusted during these times when you are so frustrated with those you meet after being dropped down the chimney.
The best thing you could possibly do every morning and any time you feel you could use the support. Come here, too, and people will support you. In your locale you may be stuck with Nobama supporters, but if you stick to the topic of alcohol and general coping skills, it will make things easier in meetings. That's what I tell my kids for liberal professors. Are there online or email or by-phone sponsorships? You can Skype or chat with anyone practically anywhere. Maybe finding a sponsor, even a long-distance one, with whom you have more in common spiritually, ethically, politically and fundamentally would be a good idea. Good luck, welcome, and post anytime. You are among FRiends here.
Good first post... congratulations!
How does it feel to breath actual air again?
Put your dependance upon God.
He only requires ONE step... of faith.
1. Knowingly or not, AA functions like a liberal
petrie dish. Self loathing is required as litmus for
“growth”. As long as you feel badly, there is a
certain amount of absolution and a huge amount of
sympathy. Who doesn’t want or need either? It’s your
new “monkey”. Self loathing serves the puppet master,
because in the end it leads to America loathing.
2. To be right or to be happy? What a stupid
pairing of concepts. To be right (correct) is a
virtue. To defend your position vigorously and
persuasively is required to be a functioning
INdependant (not dependant) adult. According to
AA’s self loathing subtext, to be happy would be
a selfish indulgence. So do they want you to loath
or love yourself? Which is it? Can’t have both.
3. Interesting that your AA group is saturated with
mindless liberals. Would anyone know if this is common?
The Twelve Step group that meets at our church is by far
liberal and enabling. Would it be safe to draw some
conclusions about addictions and liberalism? Is there
data regarding the number of people who see the conservative
light once they are sober?
4. Try Rich Warren’s “Celebrate Recovery” Twelve
Step Christian based program. Not saying you will
find only conservatives in a Christian program, but
it might be less rabbid than the one you came from.
http://www.meetup.com/Celebrate-Recovery-New-Jersey/
Try Promise Keepers or find a local conservative church or political club to get recommendations for some solid mens groups. There will be plenty of men with AA experience wherever you go. You just need some conservative associates - life will be much more relaxed and logical when you deal with other conservatives.
I went from liter a day to stone cold sober in three days and that was seven years ago. You can do the same if you try.
Regards,
GtG
PS Your "scary" thinking is a good indication that you will find RR a plan that you can work with, and which will work for you. Best of luck.
G
Congratulations and a healthy handshake for your successful jump into sobriety.
I suggest taking a picture of yourself after a shower and shave, posting the picture up on the wall and comparing yourself to it every day. Feeling like having a drink? Look at the picture and ask yourself if it’s okay with him to start drinking again.
Hang around FR and you’ll meet lots of great conservative Christians who you would be proud to meet. You never know, you might have one on your street or in your town.
Good Luck and God bless.
I have no experience with AA structure or meetings, so I'm of no value to you on that topic.
However, reading through your post, I get the impression that you are growing and emotionally maturing in many directions (and on many life issues) at the same time.
I also get the impression that you may be co-mingling issues that are making your struggle harder than perhaps it should be. Reading your post, it appears to me that these issues need to be dealt with separately:
1). It appears that your AA attendance should be re-focused on staying sober. You have received numerous feedback comments on that issue already. (It also sounds like you have been successful in controlling your alcohol dependency, and you should certainly be proud of that.)
Your success, your testimony, and sometimes just a warm welcome at AA meetings may be just the helping hand that someone newly joining the AA group needs to break free, and stay free from their drug dependency.
You may be as important, if not more important, than anyone else there, in helping a new member, at any given point in time. For their own reasons, they may see you as someone (perhaps the only one) they can really talk to.
2). You are certainly on the right track with your move from a liberal world-view to a conservative world-view.
You are doing the right kinds of things in educating yourself, joining FR to meet and discuss things with other conservatives, etc. (see my tagline).
But you may have to assess how you are using/will use this newly found power generated from the knowledge you are gaining.
I assume that at AA meetings, individuals give testimony about where they were in dependency, where they are now, and what led/helped them get from there to here.
I also assume this "sharing" of your life experiences is primarily to help you, but also to show others that you are not there to judge any failures in their lives.
I believe that while not everyone will respond positively to your testimony about your liberal to conservative conversion, I do believe that every liberal will respond negatively (at least initially) to hearing the truth (because it doesn't fit their world-view).
However, presenting the truth in the same manner as an AA testimonial, I believe that it is possible that some liberals will be influenced by your testimony of the fact that you had a liberal world-view, that you don't now, and why.
But I don't think any liberal will ever tend to listen beyond the point that they think they are being attacked personally ("you're a hater/racist/etc." is their default response for rejecting all conservative inputs).
I believe that, as your conservative knowledge and credentials grow, so will your confidence, and ability, in presenting them in a way that doesn't need to be confrontational, (but it can certainly be done in a firm, confident way).
And you will, I believe, realize that some liberals can change (think of yourself when you need reassurance of that), and they will seek you out, (away from the loud-mouth pushy liberal types that they themselves don't want to confront directly) because you gave them a comfort zone in which to admit they might be wrong.
LOL, well, that's all my "free" feedback, take it for what it's worth, and again, welcome to FR.
It is my belief that you have discovered the KEY. Every human has done things that inspire feelings of guilt. Some are fortunate enough to be able to accept God's forgiveness; others are not.
Leftism specializes in pounding on people's guilt feelings, and then offering an escape: “If you will only follow the party line, you will magically become a good person, and your guilt will disappear.” It is much easier to do surface actions (wear the T-shirt, mouth the talking points, etc) than it is to engage in life changing work with God. These folks are already trying to do the very hard work of staying sober, and so, like most of us, take the path which SEEMS easier.
DG
Let's break down your post into manageable chunks and see if we can tackle them one at a time.
Congratulations on your 4 years of recent sobriety, and for sticking it out with attending meetings even though there are aspects of them that are rubbing you the wrong way. As with all things "AA", when dealing with a problem, the answers can often be found in the steps, traditions or promises, and ALWAYS found in the bible. Sometimes, they can be found in the common wisdom or platitudes you hear tossed around at meetings.
1) Lets start with these statements: "Disillusioned with AA" "Blue part of NJ" "people in the rooms are very liberal and very loud " "I know that politics isn't supposed to be a part of AA ".
The traditions say that "Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity ". It sounds like the meeting is fragmenting because politics is interfering with the primary purpose of the meeting - recovery from Alcoholism. Answer this question in your own thinking - who is distracted from the primary goal - them or you? If politics has become a main focus of the meeting, then you need to find another meeting. On the other hand, if you are allowing yourself to be distracted from the primary goal of sobriety, you need to refocus and stop taking other people's inventory.
2) I'm sure you are familiar with the "people, places and things" that each individual in AA must avoid in order to maintain their sobriety. They are different for each individual. It just might be that politics is one of those things that needs to be managed very carefully in your life, because it sounds like a trigger to build resentments. We are all interested in politics here on FR, but in your case (and in the case of some other FOB's on FR), politics has to be designated as a second level interest. Sobriety and maintenance of your spiritual condition must come first.
3) Your conversation with your sponsor seems to indicate that after the "usual pleasantries" the conversation immediately went to politics. Remember that your sponsor is your partner in sobriety - an objective mirror of your condition, if you will. He is not your political debating partner, and politics should have no place in your relationship. Sounds like you guys need to get together and perhaps pray together that your AA relationship can get back to the true matter at hand.
The business of life is fraught with distractions and that is very dangerous to FOB's, particularly when you've got some sobriety time under your belt. There are things of importance that surpass politics, and the maintenance of your spiritual condition is way up at the top of the list.
If you can honestly say that politics is not interfering with your serenity then I'm sure you can just deal with things as they are. But frankly, based on your post, it sounds to me like you're getting a bit distracted. Try refocusing. Make amends with your sponsor for getting off-track. Maybe take a breather from FR altogether - because FR is primarly a one-sided venue and it tends towards grandstanding the conservative side of things (not that there's anything wrong with that). However, this type of environment/pep-rally is not the place to find serenity.
Peace be with you, thanks for listening.
Welcome to Free Republic. Best of luck to you!
I even sponsor a fervent liberal without any problems.
Fortunately, politics rarely crops up into my home group, but I know who all the lefties are, and I just consider that they are still sick with another disease besides alcoholism, and it makes it easier for me to dismiss their liberal leanings.
Most importantly, stay sober. Any way you can. Continue to develop your spiritual growth and God will keep you safe.