"Saint Bill W."
"Saint Bill W."
Saint Bill W.? Consider the spiritual fruit that his “Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous” is now bearing throughout the world. In 1939 Bill Wilson codified his program for recovery from alcoholism. It has been so successful that it is now used by overeaters, gamblers, neurotics and those addicted to religion, drugs, sex, money, shopping, relationships and worry. Beneficiaries of these programs are some of the most spiritually open and religiously mature people you will meet.
While denominations haggle over metaphysics and belief systems, argue about who is saved and righteous with God, defend their sacramental and scriptural turf, Bill Wilson and his followers have moved forward with a humble realism that is both rare and convincing. They begin at an honest place and end at the same without arguing, proving, defending or spouting religious jargon. They come together not as a gathering of the saved but wearing their “scarlet letter” for all to see. They don’t have to be talked into a salvation theory or a need for God out there.
Their broken and powerless humanity is all that they are sure of – like parched and weary earth waiting for rain. God is a felt need, no Sugar-Daddy-Answer-Giver but the very ground of their being. To be redeemed – “brought back” – is a daily gut and heart experience, not a liberal or conservative theology.
People in Twelve-Step programs, without knowing or intending it, have every likelihood of renewing the meaning of gospel in our time. The very word “Christian” has been so cheapened that probably the only way God could re-found the Churches was from the outside. But as Scripture says, “Who can know the mind of God or who can teach the Lord?” (Wisdom 9:13).
from Radical Grace, “The Twelve Steps: An Amazing Gift of the Spirit”
Saint Bill W.? Consider the spiritual fruit that his “Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous” is now bearing throughout the world. In 1939 Bill Wilson codified his program for recovery from alcoholism. It has been so successful that it is now used by overeaters, gamblers, neurotics and those addicted to religion, drugs, sex, money, shopping, relationships and worry. Beneficiaries of these programs are some of the most spiritually open and religiously mature people you will meet.
While denominations haggle over metaphysics and belief systems, argue about who is saved and righteous with God, defend their sacramental and scriptural turf, Bill Wilson and his followers have moved forward with a humble realism that is both rare and convincing. They begin at an honest place and end at the same without arguing, proving, defending or spouting religious jargon. They come together not as a gathering of the saved but wearing their “scarlet letter” for all to see. They don’t have to be talked into a salvation theory or a need for God out there.
Their broken and powerless humanity is all that they are sure of – like parched and weary earth waiting for rain. God is a felt need, no Sugar-Daddy-Answer-Giver but the very ground of their being. To be redeemed – “brought back” – is a daily gut and heart experience, not a liberal or conservative theology.
People in Twelve-Step programs, without knowing or intending it, have every likelihood of renewing the meaning of gospel in our time. The very word “Christian” has been so cheapened that probably the only way God could re-found the Churches was from the outside. But as Scripture says, “Who can know the mind of God or who can teach the Lord?” (Wisdom 9:13).
from Radical Grace, “The Twelve Steps: An Amazing Gift of the Spirit”
posted by LuisVelasco @ 9:23 AM
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