Alcoholics Anonymous Group Disciplined for Praying at Meetings By Tré Goins-Phillips for Faith Wire
GNN Note – We pray a Christian prayer – the Serenity Prayer and the “Lords Prayer” at every AA meeting I have ever attended. This is not going to change as the entire foundation of AA is built upon the Holy Bible and nothing else. It is a way of introducing people to Jesus Christ with a “soft-sell” method that has proven highly effective since 1928, when Bill W and Dr. Bob began talking with Ebby, Pastor Sam Shoemaker and Pastor Frank Bachman. / END
An Alcoholics Anonymous group is facing internal scrutiny after being caught reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the start of their meetings.
Higher-ups in AA reportedly told the leaders of the group in Yeovil, Somerset, their meetings were becoming too Christian-focused and, as a result, the group was removed from the organization’s online directory of AA locations, according to the Daily Mail.
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John Palmer, treasurer for the Somerset AA group condemned the organization’s decision as “shocking” and “ridiculous,” per a press release from the U.K.-based Christian Concern.
“AA was founded by Christians to save and transform lives,” said the 69-year-old Palmer, who attended his first meeting in the 1980s, when he was an “addicted wreck” who’d spent years struggling with alcoholism. “Over the years, I have seen Christianity being eroded and marginalized from the organization as a whole. It is sad to see, and I think AA is having less of an impact on people’s lives as a result.”
Like many AA groups in the U.S. and around the world, the Somerset group held its meetings in a church.
“Of course you don’t have to be a Christian to be part of an AA group, but if you cannot say the Lord’s Prayer in a church without being treated like this, what are we coming to?” Palmer asked. “We were shocked when we found out about the action being taken against us, but we are determined to carry on.”
The Daily Mail reported concerns about the group in question were raised during a meeting between AA administrators in Somerset. Critics described the group as “lovely but not [run] along AA guidelines,” with some allegedly voicing their disapproval after someone supposedly claimed the “only way to recovery is through Jesus.”
