I am talking of course of AA. Which of course was founded by devout Christians and uses Biblical principles. So your observation about churches taking on too many outside issues really rings home to me. Thanks for making the connection.
Chazz, I find it so cool that AA still holds strongly to biblically-supported Christian principles ... in a world that expects the Church itself to compromise.
I belong to a splinter-group off of a church-sponsored support group. All of us are divorced or separated (I think I am the last one left whose D is not yet final, oddly) -- and most of us came out of the DivorceCare group at this church. It was the DivorceCare program that drew (the majority of) us together and got us to start healing, and got us to start looking out for one another as we struggled through our ordeals. Now that we've "graduated" we are meeting for bible studies outside of church every other week to maintain this fellowship. I can't tell you how much it has helped me -- to help others as much as to be helped myself.
In that, our group is very similar to AA -- we hold each other accountable without being too judgmental, because we've all been there.
So between my local support group and my church and my own personal time for prayer and study, I feel good at having all the key aspects of my spiritual life covered... all but one, that is. And you rightly alluded to it: the big M, but my W has ended that for me for the time being.
