In spite of the strong emphasis in AA on spiritual beliefs and practices, findings are mixed about the importance of such beliefs in predicting AA affiliation. This study of the Project MATCH alcoholics tested three possibilities about the role of client God belief and subsequent AA attendance and benefit, taking into account that some individuals may, in fact, deny the existence of a God.
Analyses were conducted investigating client God beliefs, AA attendance, patterns of AA attendance and alcohol use. Assessments were conducted at first contact and in 3-month intervals.
Results
- 12-Step treatment was significantly more likely to promote shifts in alcoholic God beliefs.
- Atheist and agnostic alcoholics attended AA significantly less often than alcoholics self-labelled as spiritual and religious.
- AA attendance, however, was significantly associated with increased abstinence and reductions in drinking intensity regardless of God belief.
- No differences in percent of days abstinence and drinking intensity were found between atheist and agnostic versus spiritual and religious alcoholics,
- But alcoholics unsure about their God belief reported significantly higher drinking frequency relative to the other groups.
Conclusions: God belief appears to be relatively unimportant in deriving AA-related benefit, but atheist and agnostic alcoholics are less likely to initiate and sustain AA attendance relative to spiritual and religious alcoholics. This apparent reticence to affiliate with AA should be taken into account when encouraging AA participation.
Reference; Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63: 534-541, 2002.
- See also;
- 12 Spiritual Questions
- Developing Spirituality
- Maturity of Mind Through a Spiritual Awakening
- Spiritual Health Blockages
- Keep It Simple
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Fantastic publish. Incredibly refreshing given all the duplicate material out there. Thank you for doing something original.
Hi
Even in the most accepting AA meeting there is always the problem of AA Literature. The primary AA Literature labels secular people as having character defects for no other reason that that they are secular and then there is the AA prediction that they will meet a Alcoholic death.
As a sober agnostic who happens to believe in AA, I can emphatically tell you why atheists or agnostics don’t go to meetings – they are not welcomed. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of the God fearing AAers in that they push out the non-believers so the non-believers end up drinking. The evidence you cited shows that it is attendance not belief that gets people to stay sober. If we accept the non-believers and allow them the wide tent of inclusion, they will stay and stay sober. I was fortunate in that my home group was very welcoming of all types – religious Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc to non-believers like me. I got sober in NYC so maybe that was why I was fortunate. Now I live somewhere that is decidedly Christian and the rooms are very all-about-God. It is uncomfortable for me but I force myself because despite this, I feel better. I do know that if I got sober here I would probably still be drinking. I believe that with all my heart.
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