georgehach

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Giovanni Baglione. Sacred Love Versus Profane ...

Image via Wikipedia Introduction

Read Ephesians 2:1-10 where the goal of the Twelve Step program is well expressed. This is where Paul describes how reconciliation takes place between God and people. At the root of our addictive behavior is the fact that we have allowed other "gods" to assume primacy in our lives. Dr. Gerald May, the noted psychiatrist, puts it this way:

Addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry. The objects of our addictions become our false gods. These are what we worship, instead of love Addiction, then, displaces and supplants God's love as the source and object of our deepest true desire.

A "god" is that which guides and determines our behavior. So alcohol, or materialism, or people-pleasing (or any other addictive behavior) can function as our "god." In order to be free from the power of these lesser, destructive gods, we need to be reconciled to the one true God (as Step Three shows us). In the passage we are studying, Paul describes how we are freed from the power of these principalities and make alive again by the free and wonderful gift of God. This is exactly what we want to happen to us in regard to our addictive behavior.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Understanding the Twelve Steps

Image via WikipediaUnderstanding the Twelve Steps

There is a progression to the Twelve Steps. Each must be acted upon in turn. Each builds on the previous step or steps. Yet no step is ever fully mastered. The aim is to continue deepening one's understanding of each step and how it applies to one's life. No one ever "finishes" the Twelve Steps; however, the aim is to make these a reflexive part of one's life. There is no hurry to "get through" these steps; the focus is on one day at a time. Speed, competitiveness, or perfection are not the aim; personal and spiritual wholeness is. This comes in different ways for different people at different paces.

The Twelve Step program is not magic. It is not automatic. It does not come with a 100% guarantee. It is not always easy to follow. It is not fun to undertake. It requires ongoing effort, utter honesty, and continual vigilance. But it does bring recovery; that is, one develops a pattern of living that makes it possible, with continued effort, to remain free of the addictive behavior. The testimony of hundreds of thousands of "recovering addicts" indicates that this is so. And so it should be, because at the heart of the Twelve Step program are sound spiritual principles that describe how transformation takes place:

Will power is not enough. We need an outside power (God) to enable us to do what we have been unable to do ourselves.
We won't open ourselves to that power until we run out of excuses, rationalizations, and "give-me-one-more-chance's." In AA, they used to call this "hitting the bottom."
Recovery requires utter honesty: with ourselves, with others, and with God.
We are never fully free of the addiction. We will always be "recovering addicts," not "recovered addicts" - just as we are never free of "sin," but are always "recovering sinners." Thus we must continue to live out the principles that freed us from the addiction in the first place.
To be healthy, we have to get outside ourselves and help others who are struggling.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Origin of the Twelve Steps

Origin of the Twelve Steps

The Twelve Step movement can be traced back to Alcoholics Anonymous. It all began with a stockbroker and a doctor - both "drunks" by their own admission, but alcoholics who had stopped drinking and who were "in recovery." (Of course, they didn't talk that way in the early days. The jargon of addition recovery would come many years later.) All they knew was that once they had been victims of alcohol (slaves really), but now they were free (though each new day was a challenge). What Bill W. and Dr. Bob tried to do was to start groups that would help others to stop drinking. Eventually Bill Wilson put down in writing how they (and others they knew) were able to overcome alcoholism, and thus the Twelve Steps came into being.

The rehabilitation process in AA is based on the Twelve Steps. It is this same Twelve Step program that is also being used today in groups such as Overeaters Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous (as well as in less organized programs of recovery dealing with scores of addictive issues).

Most of these programs are self-consciously secular in their orientation (since they want to remain open to all people regardless of religion). Nevertheless - and this is the thesis of this study subject - at its heart the Twelve Step program is profoundly spiritual. It is based directly on the teaching of the New Testament. Each of the Twelve Steps has its origin in a basic biblical concept. In this study subject, the aim is to get behind some of the secular language of the Twelve Steps to these foundational biblical principles. These are not new or mysterious ideas. In fact, what the Twelve Steps do is define the essence of the Christian life: how to begin it and how to live it. When we know this, the Twelve Steps no longer seem strange and unfamiliar.

Monday, April 4, 2011

But, we are beginning, as a nation, to do something about our addictions:

Brunswick Church (Presbyterian), known locally...

Image via WikipediaBut, we are beginning, as a nation, to do something about our addictions:

Between 14 and 16 million Americans attend one of 500,000 different self-help groups that meet weekly around the country. The number of groups is expected to double in the years to come. It is estimated that over 60 million Americans will be in self-help groups.
Self-help groups exist for a mind-boggling array of issues; compulsive shopping, obesity (National Association to Aid Fat Americans), grief and loss, gambling (Gamblers Anonymous), adult children of alcoholics, parents of teens in trouble (Tough love), co-survivors of incest, cocaine addicts, chronic pain. There are even esoteric groups for women whose daughters won't talk to them, and for people addicted to caffeinated soft drinks.
Many self-help groups are loosely structured: people meet together to share their stories. There is no leader, no agenda, and no therapist. Yet these groups help people greatly, as the enthusiastic testimony of members indicate. Just being with others who understand what you are going through is help enough.
The most common meeting place for these groups is in churches. However, they generally do not meet on Sundays, nor are they run by the church. In fact, they often avoid any connection with a particular church, because they want to be open to people of all religions. Therefore, the majority of these groups are secular in orientation.
A number of these groups are based on the Twelve Step program. These are the "anonymous" groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous. These are the most structured of the self-help groups, in that they have a format for the meetings and are often linked to a national organization.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Purpose:

Image via WikipediaPurpose:
To understand the origins and nature of the Twelve Step program and how it can be adapted by the Christian faith.
To examine a passage from Ephesians that describes well the goal of the Twelve Steps.
Introduction:
We are a nation of addicts and we are just waking up to the fact. Consider the following statistics:

There are 10 million alcoholics and 50 million nicotine addicts. Together these two drugs kill some 450,000 people a year.
There are 40 to 80 million compulsive overeaters in the United States. The weight-loss industry is a $20 billion a year business.
There are 12 million compulsive gamblers.
There are some 11 million workaholics
Untold millions of addicted users of credit cards.
Uncounted numbers of people are addicted to television, to exercise, to shopping, and to sports.
Addictions. They come in many shapes and forms. Some have at their heart a substance that enslaves us. Others focus on a behavior over which we seem powerless. All are characterized by compulsion. Addicts cant stop thinking about it or doing it despite the fact that it is hurting them. Oh, they may not indulge every day; they may go through periods of control. But in the end they come back to it:

Her boss yells at her and she goes home, where she eats a gallon of ice cream and a box of Oreo cookies - thus her latest diet comes to a crashing end.
He just happens to run into the "boys" and before he knows it he's using the drug again.
It's okay as long as he is not depressed, but when he is, he starts to prowl. Prostitutes are easy to find.
She stopped drinking, but she has become obsessed about her weight. She starves herself; she exercises endlessly.
Addictions get inside us and turn us into people we don't want to be. At their heart, addictions are any self-defeating behavior which we cannot stop despite their negative effect on us. And the problem with addictions is that we deny we have them.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Doctrine of Redemption

Image via WikipediaThe Doctrine of Redemption
Personal worth is affirmed in the Incarnation. To reveal himself more fully, God chose human personality as the means to express himself in history. Because human existence was not beneath the dignity of our Lord, he chose to identify with the lowly and the poor and thereby elevated all human life.

In his act of suffering, forgiving love upon the cross, God has accepted each person. Persons have ultimate worth because the Son of God laid down his life to affirm the value of the lost coin, the lost sheep, the lost son (or the straying daughter). In Christ, God has broken the tyranny of the destructive power of sin upon life and has liberated the human spirit to new, life-affirming relationship with him.

Christ not only became part of humanity and accepted each person, but he is doing a positive work now. Those who welcome his caring love are the New Creation (II Corinthians 5:17). They are no longer captives of sin and its devaluing power, for in Christ they are accepted and forgiven. The Holy Spirit is working in them to renew and restore the human value that has been undercut by the debilitating effects of sin. The Spirit's empowering makes these new creatures fully human, fully alive, in Christ.

Friday, April 1, 2011

The Doctrine of God

Image via WikipediaThe Doctrine of God

For some Christians the idea of self-esteem, especially the valuing of high self-esteem, is offensive. They find it difficult to square this concept with Jesus, call for self-denial and his condemnation of pride and the sinfulness of persons. Frank Stagg has pointed out that embedded deeply within the Old and New Testaments are two primary truths that appear to be contradictory: denial of self and affirmation of self. "Within this polarity alone is there salvation, authentic existence, fulfillment as a human being."

What are the theological touchstones for self-esteem? The discussion that follows can be only suggestive, given the limitations of space. The Christian community awaits some creative scholar to explicate a theology of self-esteem.

The Doctrine of God
The most important benchmark for a theology of self-esteem is the very existence and nature of God. He is the great valuer of each person. Personal worth is ultimately rooted in the God of creation and redemption. Self-esteem apart from God can be shattered by the harsh realities of life - severe illness, unemployment, old age, failure, and rejection. The eternal validation for humanity's worth is the caring God of the universe.

The Doctrine of Creation
When God made humans, he created them as worthy beings. Indeed, according to the writers of Genesis (1;26-27), humankind is made in the "image of God." Claus Westermann states that to be human is to bear the image of God. Since God created humanity in his own image, each person is endowed with personal worth and dignity.

Of all God's creatures, humans have a unique position. Genesis tells us that God's intention, when he created humankind in his own image, was that they should rule over the earth and the animals. The human community is responsible for the stewardship of the world. Human worth and value are found in the kingly responsibility that persons have before God and over creation.

A person is born into human community through the procreative act of a man and a woman. The image of God belongs to man and woman as human community rather than to each separately. As husband and wife love each other, and as father and mother care for a child, self-esteem takes shape and is nurtured in personal life. Self-esteem is not an act of the will; it is the product of nurturing, caring relationships. God created human beings as social creatures, and through social existence the quality of human life is shaped.

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Thursday, April 7, 2011