Atheists & Agnostics

Last edited Wed Sep 16, 2015, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

order people to A.A. directly or indirectly (see below), or it sure as hell is very prevalent.

[font color = blue]>>Someone commented on being Court Ordered to the AA and I pointed out the AA OPPOSES such Court orders<<[/font]

A.A. OPPOSES such court orders? Really? See:

A.A.® Guidelines
Cooperating with Court, D.W.I. and Similar Programs
from G.S.O., Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163
http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/mg-05_coopwithcourt.pdf
[font color = red]On Edit fixed above URL--^^[/font]

where it is suggested that A.A. members create local Cooperation With the Professional Community (C.P.C.) committees and provide the courts with a list of open A.A. meetings. And suggesting ways that A.A. groups and members can help enforce court-ordered attendance, by signing attendance slips for example, and even suggesting other schemes for verifying coercee attendance for groups that don't want to sign attendance slips (See section "E. Proof of attendance at A.A. meetings.&quot . In other words, enrolling A.A. members to act as agents of government.

[font color = blue]>>AND the AA had strong religious attributes<<[/font]

Good for you for recognizing that. A lot of people don't, that's why I had to write http://www.democraticunderground.com/1144174#post32

[font color = blue]>> (Which most Courts know of and thus will NOT ORDER someone to go to AA, but it is strongly encouraged for it does help some people ... then pointed out most courts will NOT order someone to go to AA. ). <<[/font]

(bold and underlining added by me in the above). The key word is "most", and even that is dubious, as it is the default to order people into A.A., and most people who have never been around A.A. or 12 step programs don't know about its religiosity, and the A.A. group will insist they aren't religious because you can substitute a lightbulb or a tree for "God" etc. etc. So most newbies will go along with this for awhile anyway.

My and our experience is they either order people to AA/NA, or they pull a cootie-wootie-woo, like order people into a treatment program for evaluation and treatment and require that one follow all of the treatment facility's suggestions. Included in the suggestions of the treatment program was attending a weekly A.A. meeting for a year and to get a 12 step sponsor. Even though I made my atheism clear, as well as my objection to A.A.

If somebody has lots of money (lawyers don't do this kind of thing for free) and determination, and can upend their lives while dealing with the other conditions (like not having a car) and problems and requirements, while maintaining their job and family, then yes they can object and risk getting crapped on even more and even sent to jail. It happens, I can assure you.

All this depressing stuff is discussed at 12 Step Coercion Watch: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12-Step_Coercion_Watch (sorry, registration is required to view it)

Lot of other stories at aaAgnostica.org

[font color = blue]>> How did we get on the AA? <<[/font]

I don't know. Some others brought it up first. But it certainly is a prime example of religious coercion by the courts.