Why is AA a cult?

Well, an attacking dog isn't 'actually' safe just because
a guidebook tells you it 'is,' and AA is not a lovey-dovey
Godly program for helping and healing just because they
promote themselves as such (annnnnd have enough pull
and power and prominence to scare most folks from
standing up against them.)

But here's a good piece posted by "Raysny" on the
Yahoo! Question noards, in response to the 'question'
of whether or not AA qualifies.

***************************************

When they told me that if I left I would die, I had my first

doubts about the program.

*George Vaillant, member of AA's Board of Trustees, calls AA a

 cult in his book, "The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited" on

page 266:
"AA certainly functions as a cult and indoctrinates its members in
ways common to cults the world over."

*AA historian, Dick B calls AA a cult.

*AA critic, Orange, calls AA cult:
The Cult Test:
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult.html

I call it cult-like or cult-lite. Mainly because if I call it

a cult, people stop listening.

Whether it is a cult or not is irrelevant. Is it a destructive cult?

It does seem to meet the criteria set by Lipton for a a destructive cult:
-Milieu Control
-Mystical Manipulation
-Demand for Purity
-The Cult of Confession
-The "Sacred Science"
-Loading the Language
-Doctrine Over Person
-Dispensing of Existence
http://www.freeminds.org/psych/lifton.htm

Here's what others think:

The Cult Called A.A.
http://www.moonmac.com/Cult_Called_AA.html


The Twelve Step Cult:
http://www.bee.net/cardigan/attic/guest09.htm

Alcoholics Anonymous: Of Course It’s a Cult!:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/rw/ofcourse.htm


The copyright on the Big Book lapsed, a person can copy

it to their heart's content, even publish their own copy of it.

Source(s):

owner of the Yahoo group "without_aa":
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/without_aa/