AA has its origins in the evangelical Christian Oxford Group. In fact, AA co-founder Bill Wilson credits the Oxford Group for the methodology of AA: “their large emphasis upon the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution, and the giving of oneself in service to others.”
Even before the Oxford Group was the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Wilson wrote to Jung in 1961 to express his “great appreciation” for his efforts. “A certain conversation you once had with one of your patients, a Mr. Rowland H. back in the early 1930’s,” Wilson wrote, “did play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship.”
I didn’t know Jesus was a drunk.
AA has gone the way of the YMCA and YWCA.
They dropped the Christian Association from their organizations years ago. They now just go by “The Y”.
Interesting. My sister was in AA for years, met her terrific husband there. I was in Adult Children of Alcoholics. I attended a few AA meetings when my sister was the speaker, and I don’t remember anyone saying the Lord’s Prayer,. But that was many years ago and I may have just forgotten,.
if at some point, Alcoholics Anonymous mandates that the chapters abandon the Lord's Prayer, it will go on the trophy racks of the enemies of God and country, just like the Boy Scouts, the mainline Protestant churches, the YMCA, the U.S. military, etc.
All true but interestingly Bill was incapable of meaningful intervention for others while he employed the Oxford methodology. It took the addition of "God of your own understanding" as discussed with Ebby T. in Bill Wilson's kitchen, as described in the Big Book, before Bill had right formula. This is the innovation that made the AA program universal and effective.
As I see it, if the active alcoholic perceives you as prosthelitizing, the response will be to drink more to spite you. So if the spiritual foundation of the AA program is unity of purpose, why would your group want to appear to be prostheletizing? If even one person does not want to come back for the next meeting, and they continue on their path to the jailhouse, institutions or the graveyard, the group has failed in putting its primary purpose first. AA traditions should steer groups away from any organized religion. Otherwise AA might go the way if the Washingtonians. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonian_movement