Are Alcoholics Anonymous a religious group or a charity?
AA is a thinly disguised religious group, quitting drinking is seen as a byproduct of getting right with God. They try to downplay it, claiming they are “spiritual not religious”, then use the words interchangeably. Their own words explain it: “To some people we need not, and probably should not emphasize the spiritual feature on our first approach. We might prejudice them. At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us. It is seldom wise to approach an individual, who still smarts from our injustice to him, and announce that we have gone religious.” Big Book, pg 76-77. AA evolved out of the Oxford Group (also known as the “First Century Christian Fellowship”), a religious sect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Grou… AA is designed to attract lapsed Christians, yet they are not Ch
