Here’s a question for you.
If alcoholism is not a disease, why does it seem to continue to progress even when alcoholics get sober? It is well-known that when alcoholics go out and start drinking again, their disease process does not start at the beginning again, no matter how many years they’ve been sober, but actually increases rapidly, as though the disease has been waiting for them all along, and the progress is easily observed. They can arrest the progress temporarily, but if they continue to drink, it really doesn’t take all that long until they start having life-threatening problems.
You can think of alcoholism as a disease, or an allergy to alcohol, but it is more than a character failing. It is a metabolic phenomenon that happens to some people and not to others. I think many people can develop the conditions but perhaps they don’t have the same metabolic addiction as true alcoholics. I don’t pretend to understand alcoholism but what I do know is that people who drink alcoholically are not in control of their actions. And I know that AA helps a lot of people get sober. Al-Anon also helps their families change so the alcoholic can stay sober. Maybe it’s a healthy addiction in trade for an unhealthy one.
It doesn’t replace church, that I do know. And it doesn’t conflict with church, either. If someone starts talking about being a “recovering Catholic” in a meeting, I just stop the meeting and remind them that we’re not supposed to be including our religious beliefs other than mentioning our Higher Power. It’s not a big deal. People talk bad about the Church everywhere.
I really don’t know why anyone here has a problem with AA. If it helps people, who are you to discourage people from going?