The Shrine

This has been one of the funniest episodes this season. Stans dad shaving his head was go glorious.

My brother in law is in AA and a recovering alcholic, I so want to send my sister this episode but she would kill me. I never realized that AA was so religious, this would explain why he is Mr. Christian and my sister is now too....

catch it on sunday again

I didn't see it.

But I did go to AA meetings for awhile, and yes, many of them are nuts.

A lot of AA's are wonderfully principled people who maintain the ability to think secularly and use the program's broad definition of spirituality and higher powers to create strong yet flexible belief systems. But not all of them...oh my. Not by a long shot.

Anarky wrote:My brother in law is in AA and a recovering alcholic, I so want to send my sister this episode but she would kill me. I never realized that AA was so religious, this would explain why he is Mr. Christian and my sister is now too....

Just because it's on South Park doesn't exactly make it true. But it does ring true on some points. For example, alcoholism isn't a disease, just like being bipolar isn't a disease. It's a personality trait/mental disorder.

Of course, I've never seen AA meetings, so they could be religious. I'm just saying that I'm not going to totally believe South Park, unless they flash a "This is what Scientologists actually believe" banner on the front.

There are a lot of Christians in AA, but most of the super-strictness is a trait of twelve-step culture itself. I probably went to twenty or thirty meetings as an adjunct to my SAA stuff, and used to hang out after the meetings...made a few "program friends".

I'm afraid to talk to any of them anymore because I've abandoned the twelve-step lifestyle. Even though I'm much happier, I don't feel like risking being completely dismissed, or endure any attempts to "reconvert" me. This may tell you something about AA culture, Sine.

Again, not all of them are like this. But many, many, many twelve-steppers are very into their program. It's the only thing that has provided them stability, for a lot of them...so attempts to say it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread can be mindblowingly scary as fuck to them.

It can be frightening to think that the things that you are basing your life upon, that are providing you meaning when nothing else is, may not be the only way to live one's life, I suppose. However, I don't really feel like going back and attempting to explain to the people at the meetings I went to that there may be very different but equally valid ways to live one's life...it would require a lot of forethought as to the best way to present the concept, which is not something I really have right now. Someday, maybe.