Replacing Addictions with Sheep

Long ago (5 years or so), when my friend got sober, I remember saying, "Well, isn't she just replacing one addiction with another?," in response to her attendance at AA meetings.

Good God, how asinine. Maybe I feared her addiction and wanted to write her solution off as trivial. Or maybe I was just shooting off bullshit, as I am wont to do on occasion. But going to meetings on a daily basis does not qualify as an "addiction." And AA doesn't disconnect your synapses the way that chronic drinking does.

But, I do have to admit that, at points, I have been afraid that AA would make me dumb. I mean, what if I start speaking in platitudes and declaring that everything is "God's will." Or, God forbid, I just quote directly from the Big Book all the time. But I figure if Christianity hasn't killed my free will or my ability to think for myself, then AA doesn't stand a chance at making me into a sheep.

And, while some of the AA slogans can get on my last nerve, the 12 Steps require real thought and effort. It is a struggle to constantly be accountable, to be led by unselfish desires, to look at my motivations for every action and reaction. This is not for the faint of heart.

Neither is real Christianity, but most folks would rather be sheep.