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If you are a person who has been through opioid addiction treatment in Florida, or any alcohol or meth treatment program anywhere, you are probably familiar with 12 step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and its offshoot programs, including Narcotics Anonymous. If you are searching for the best drug and alcohol rehabs in the Southeast USA, including the best drug and alcohol rehab in Florida, visit us today. Whether you enter a halfway house, inpatient treatment at a rehabilitation facility, intensive outpatient care, partial hospitalization, or any other substance abuse treatment protocol, you have probably heard about 12-step programs and met people who participate in them. The 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous arguably remain the core concepts behind the American recovery and sobriety movement. Because of the importance of the 12-steps in substance use disorder treatment nationally, the second step, the step which most directly references God, is a common source of spirituality discussion.
The 2nd step reads, “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
People who have been “in the rooms” and have attended many meetings, will be familiar with the historical discussions regarding the 2nd step. Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the founders of AA, were Christians. Despite the Christian faith of the founders, the phrasing of the 2nd step seems more all-encompassing than if Bill W. had simply said “Jesus” or even “God”. “A Higher Power” is much more open to interpretation. There are some AA members who take a dim view of atheists and agnostics working the 12-steps, but most AA members understand the value of maintaining a welcoming disposition towards all faiths, including people who come to AA without any spirituality to speak of.
Religion in Early AA
There are many views and opinions about the role of God and religion in AA, but the majority view seems to be that Bill W. intended for spirituality, in some form, to be a large factor in 12-step recovery. Understanding a bit of Bill W.’s own personal story can be valuable when parsing his reasoning for writing the Big Book the way he did. “The Big Book” is a common shorthand for “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism” by Bill W., the original 1939 book which lays out the 12-steps and core concepts of AA and 12-step recovery today. It remains one of the most widely read books in the world, and is standard reading amongst AA members, especially as they work through the 12-steps. As the book was written in 1939, there are many cultural elements of the book that would not be acceptable today. The most glaring example probably being the role of women in the book (Wives). Women are instructed about how to best support the recovery of their husbands, rather than having an equal role in recovery for their own well-being. Despite how dated the Big Book can seem on certain issues, it is possible to argue the book was ahead of its time regarding its openness to different types of spirituality, possibly because of Bill W.’s own reluctance with religion when he was first approached by a group of Christian sobriety advocates.
Research on God and Recovery Work
Bill W., for those that don’t know, was a successful businessman and stock trader in the booming markets of the 1920s. Daily drinking during and after work was normal in those days on wall street. Bill W. had developed a serious drinking problem while also being successful in business, but when the stock market crashed in 1929, he spiraled towards the worst “bottom” one can imagine. Bill was institutionalized on multiple occasions, his marriage and family life were crumbling despite his wife’s supportive demeanor, and his vital organs were beginning to shut down. He was approached by a member of “The Oxford Group”, protestant Christian men who had stopped drinking using their faith and by supporting one another. Bill was hesitant, unwilling even, but eventually this message began to get through to him, as he was sure to die soon if he didn’t put down the liquor bottle. This chance meeting is well dramatized in the film “My Name is Bill W.” starring James Woods and Gary Sinise. After Bill began talking to friends from the Oxford group, and started his own organization with his family physician Dr. Bob (a fellow problem drinker), the AA organization was ready to be founded. 12-step recovery would sweep the world, offering new hope to people with addiction, which had seemed completely hopeless for many to recover from previously.
Now, all these years later, a group of researchers is looking at the role God and religion play in all forms of treatment that we see in this country. For most people who have been around addiction treatment, the results and conclusions might not be shocking. As I briefly mentioned, The Oxford Group was a Christian organization who sparked the idea of AA for Bill W., and they intended to use the bible to keep people sober and build their congregation. Bill W. went in a different direction with his brand-new step by step program, he saw fit to make Alcoholics Anonymous more welcoming for people of all faiths, but he did want the idea of a “higher power” to be included in the program, and he was still Christian himself at that point. Those early decisions went on to shape the culture of sobriety in America for decades to come, whether people realized it or not. If you started going to 12-step programs last week, or a few decades ago, chances are you have heard members argue over, or just discuss, the question of the “higher power” that Bill chose to refer to.
Not to pick on Christians, but as I mentioned previously, there are some Christians in the program that refuse to believe that the “higher power” of step 2 is meant to be anything other than Jesus. That is understandable in a country that is 80 or 90 percent Christian (Especially in the earlier days of AA). However, you will also hear many Christians in the program describing the higher power’s identity as a personal choice made by the individual. This is basically what the researchers found when looking at this question. They referred to the 12-step program as “the prototype for the place of God in recovery from drug addiction.” And despite all the differences in opinion and the vast amount of writing on this topic, the researchers came away believing that, “The diverse threads of literature examined can be integrated around the concept of higher power as an important factor in recovery from drug addiction.” Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center, the best drug and alcohol rehab in Florida, is located in the Florida Panhandle. We are very near Alabama, and undoubtedly, we lie in the heart of the bible belt. Many people who seek drug and alcohol rehabilitation at Florida Springs are Christian, but the best rehabs, like Florida Springs, make great efforts to be welcoming to all people. The Big Book of AA helps in those efforts by focusing on spirituality rather than a single stated religion. Many people who have gotten sober at Florida Springs found Jesus to be central in their efforts, but many people found other types of spirituality or belief systems, and all of that is valid and respected. A group of Psychologists at Eastern Kentucky University recently looked at how different young people are thinking about God and the 12-steps when choosing a program of recovery in 2023.
God and Sobriety in 2023
We have spoken at some length about the Christianity that guided the early history of AA. We also know from many studies that young people today have a much broader spectrum of religious beliefs than Americans of the 1930s. Several studies have found that young people, both Gen Z and Millennials, are more likely to drop out of a program of recovery because of differences of opinion with a Christianity-centered approach. The Eastern Kentucky study sought to examine if an alternative model of recovery and language use, designed to emphasize different religious beliefs and personal empowerment that does not mention a higher power with religious connotations, might be more successful at retaining younger program participants. I believe these results of this study could show future drug and alcohol rehab programs how alternative language can keep more people engaged with recovery and sobriety.
The underlying question for many rehab centers in Christian areas is this: If alternative language around God and Step 2 is more welcoming for many young people, does that mean it will be less welcoming for Christian young people and sober people of an earlier generation? According to the research at Eastern Kentucky University,
“A few Participants who identified as religious displayed a stronger preference for the wording of the traditional 12-step model when compared to the alternative 12-step model, however, all groups preferred the wording of the alternative 12-step model compared to the traditional 12-step wording. These findings suggest that millennial- and Generation Z-aged individuals may have a preference for language and treatment approaches that are less focused on faith and more focused on self-empowerment.”
These results could show that alternative language use that de-emphasizes Christianity-centered religious connotations might keep less religious participants more engaged, while also not hurting the participation levels of Christians. If this is the case in other studies and larger studies, it could show that drug and alcohol rehabs and treatment centers in Christian areas could benefit from some more emphasis on alternative language models. These models emphasize personal empowerment through spirituality of one’s own choosing, rather than empowerment through traditional Christian concepts. This could possibly be because Christians, like other religious groups, are able to connect their own personal religious beliefs to more general spiritual language, without the need for more traditional language that could alienate some non-Christians or unaffiliated young people. Certainly, this offers something to think about in a country where much of our overall substance abuse treatment capacity is in Christian programs. It should also be noted that many small capacity sober-living homes and halfway houses around the country are Christian in orientation and could possibly help a wider demographic with some emphasis on these alternative language models. This is an important topic to discuss openly and honestly, and we hope to return to it in the future on this blog. If you or a loved one needs the best drug and alcohol rehab in Florida or near Alabama, please visit our website today.
By T.A. Cannon
References
Mental Health, Religion, and Culture. Volume 20, Chapters 3-4. “The impact of religious affiliation on college students’ 12-step model preferences.”
