Abstract
In this meticulously researched book, Why Can’t Church Be More Like an AA Meeting: and Other Questions Christians Ask About Recovery, Haynes writes from the experience of a person who sought 12-step recovery for his marriage and his addiction and continues to be an active participant in 12-step meetings. Haynes is also a highly regarded professor of religious studies at Rhodes College, adjunct professor of recovery ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary, and a theologian in residence at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis. Haynes is trying to answer the question many of us in recovery have been asking for a long time, why can’t church be more like AA?
Haynes wants church to be a place where “people come together in humility and brokenness,” and just as he knows the Spirit shows up in 12-step meetings, under the condition of coming together at church in honesty, openness, and willingness, the Spirit will show up there, too. He writes, “I want to recover church, that is, make it more like AA by reclaiming what the fellowship borrowed from American Christianity nearly a century ago (p. 9). He wants to have the same vital spiritual experience in church that he has in his 12-step recovery meetings.
Haynes covers competing theological perspectives from the ultra-conservative Evangelicals to ultra-progressive protestants and those in between. All have differing opinions about the spirituality of AA and the 12 steps. He writes about biblical validity of 12-step spirituality, the nature of a Higher Power in AA, and the God as God is known in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus according to Christians. Just as you would guess, the opinions of conservative evangelical pastors that Haynes points to in his book don’t consider the 12 steps contain a theology of God that is sufficient for Christians. Moreover, some evangelicals continue to view addiction as a moral failing and sin rather than embracing the disease model of addiction introduced to the public through the writing of Dr. William Silkworth in his chapter, “The Doctor’s Opinion,” published in The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. Evangelicals think the suffering addict should be able give up their bad behavior with the help from Jesus if they have a strong-enough relationship with Christ. Hard to be like an AA meeting when the very church you are seeking help and solace from blame you for your addiction.
Progressive theologians like Richard Rohr believe there is a commonality between the gospel message of Jesus and the message of the 12 steps as written by AA’s co-founder Bill Wilson. Haynes, quoting from Rohr’s book, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Cincinnati: Franciscan Media, 2011), writes, “each communicates the paradoxical truth that ‘we suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. We give it away to keep it” (p. 119). There is a universal wisdom in the 12 steps and the teaching of inclusion and love of Jesus that resonates with people, and according to Haynes, there is room for both in the church.
Other topics Haynes explores in the book are “Do Christians Need Recovery (not until they do)?,” “Are AA and the Church Allies or Competitors (maybe both)?,” and “What does the Church Bring to Recovery (namely Theology)?” to name a few of his chapter titles.
In the book’s final chapter, Haynes writes of his experience of integrating his recovery life with his professional and church life. He came out as an addict when teaching a course on addiction, recovery, and spirituality at Rhodes College, to connect on a deeper level with his students. When he became willing to break his anonymity among those he worked with, he says opportunities to claim his identity as a person in recovery began presenting themselves. In the wider community of his professional colleagues at the American Academy of Religion, he was able to attend a recovery meeting held at the conference in 2016. He and his wife came out as a couple in recovery at their church and designed a multi-week program for couples based on the 12-step principles. The group was successful, and there was demand for a repeat performance. Whether or not the church can ever be like AA, a place where people can admit the truth of who they are without reprisal or shame; a place where everyone is included because what binds us is the truth of our humanity, our brokenness, and our need for love and acceptance; a place where hierarchy, dogma, and institutionalism are pushed aside for equality, freedom to doubt and seek the authentic community, has yet to be answered; however, Haynes gives it his best shot. And as we continue to practice the principles of recovery in church and everywhere else in our lives, Haynes and I agree, it’s progress not perfection.