All Addicts Anonymous is an AA spin-off that aims to both cover all addictions and center God in their recovery program. To quote their website:
“The Program is about God, and there is no way around that, but it is concerned with God practically, and your religious or philosophical baggage does not have to be an obstacle, if you keep an open mind.”
They claim to be “simply old-fashioned AA, as adapted for all addicts and all addictions,” but the next sentence on the website reads “AAA members are distinctive in their acceptance of a suggested program of Four Absolutes, Twelve Steps, and Ten Points.” That threw me off until I looked at the Four Absolutes, and then I realized that “old-fashioned AA” actually means older than the 1939 version of AA.
The Four Absolutes are lifted from the Oxford Group, which William Wilson (Bill W.) credits for providing the spiritual principles behind AA. AAA calls the Oxford Group’s principles “the foundation of the moral and spiritual life of humankind in all ages and in all civilizations”:
- Absolute honesty
- Absolute purity
- Absolute unselfishness
- Absolute love
As for the Ten Points, “make no mistake about it, every person who adopts the rigor and intensity of the Ten Points will be rocketed into a new dimension of existence.” They are:
“Completely giving ourselves to this simple Program; Practicing rigorous honesty; Being willing to go to any lengths to recover; Realizing that there is no easier, softer way; Being fearless and thorough in our practice of the principles; Letting go of our old ideas absolutely; Recognizing that half measures will not work; Asking God’s protection and care with complete abandon; Being willing to grow along spiritual lines; Accepting the following pertinent ideas as proved by All Addicts Anonymous experience:
(A) That you cannot manage your own life; (B) That probably no human power can restore you to sanity; (C) That God can and will if sought.”
Despite the claims that atheists and agnostics can work this program so long as they keep an “open mind” or that the program is “spiritual”, I feel pretty comfortable categorizing the group as religious. The mention of the Oxford Group, which explicitly was about the worship of Jesus Christ, suggests that Christianity is the religion it’s inclined towards.