Blog entry for:

i use to maintain freedom from addiction and to ensure my ongoing recovery.
i said it yesterday, and i will once again say it today, i am not a very big GOD kind of guy. in fact i see MOST of the trouble in the world and society caused by those who acclaim to be **GOD** people of various religious stripes. the intolerance, self-righteousness and down-right nastiness they treat all who are not of their religious calling and particular belief system is so abhorrent to me, that i can and often blame GOD for that pestilence in my life. with an attitude like that, i ended up in the wrong fellowship, that speaks of a HIGHER POWER but certainly preaches the GOD as Christians understand HIM. i tried to put away my prejudices and biases in that regard, and for a year swallowed my objections, until i could no longer what i needed and made the jump to the fellowship that is my home today. there were many other reasons i needed to leave that particular brand of recovery behind, but finding a place that actually practices freedom from religion, at least on a macro scale, was certainly a strong draw for someone like me. and that is the concept that zealots of various religious stripes do not get, freedom of religion IS freedom FROM religion, and i am certainly glad that as those zealots age AND DIE, THEY ARE NOT BEING REPLACED BY THE SAME INTOLERANT BIGOTS THAT THEY WERE CULTURED INTO BECOMING. ah enough of that soapbox for today.
there certainly have been times in my recovery where i could opt even say GOD, and most of the time, i choose not to say GOD, when referring to the POWER that fuels my recovery, just because it is so inadequate at expressing that concept, my concept, that once freed of the constraints i once placed upon IT, in order to define IT, has become a driving force in my life. yes that is correct, the POWER that fuels my recovery is gender free, and IT is far more comfortable for me to use rather than a gender based pronoun. for me, that POWER no matter what the words i use to describe it, is what keeps me clean and provides for my needs, or at least provides me the opportunity to have my needs and even some of my desires met. i am not entitled to squat, save the opportunity to get what i need. this fellowship has given me much more, and when i see a newcomer cringing because one of my peers of a particular religious bent, keeps going on about the narrow view of how that POWER works in their life, i want reach and hug them, and remind them, that there certainly is FREEDOM FROM RELIGION here. just because a member is too ignorant to shut-up when they go too far into their dogma, does not mean that is the norm, nor even appropriate here. someone, once reminded me of that very notion, when i was struggling in the early days in this fellowship and everyone seemed to be of a very particular religious sect and all i wanted to do is fit in. today i am happy to report, i may have strong feelings about the use of GOD in our meetings, but understand and tolerate it. today, i am quite content, NOT to be this or that, when speaking of how i see the spiritual world and the so-called divinity. today i am happy to report that i do the next right thing, just because and not in a distant hope of eternal reward after i draw my last breath. and that i see as real and genuine courage, to walk through today, without the hope of never dying. as cynical as it sounds, i believe that makes me a better person, because i take my reward in the here and now, by making the world a bit quieter, a bit kinder and certainly a little less cruel, and i do need a religion to guide me down that path.
anyhow, time to make the doughnuts, have a great day and do what you can to make the world a better place, regardless of what framework you choose to use.

∞ DT ∞