Posted on 11/06/2011 7:50:54 PM PST by abigail2
Jesse Lee Peterson has an inspiring interview with a man who overcame a deep drug addiction. He says of the book...
"Up From Down offers real hope for those seeking to overcome the hell we are born into, live out, and harbor inside. I love this book. You will too."
Jesse Lee Peterson
Radio Talk Show Host
The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show
Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST.
He sells his ebook for $2.99 and you can get it free if you ask. Hardly money grubbing.
Here is from the Alcoholics Anonymous World Services website:
“We who are in A.A. came because we finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to admit that we could never drink safely. Then we heard from other A.A. members that we were sick. (We thought so for years!) We found out that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt and loneliness and hopelessness that we did. We found out that we had these feelings because we had the DISEASE of alcoholism.”
http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=12
Anybody who says AA does not currently teach that Alcoholism is a disease is being disingenuous (lacking in frankness and candor).
It is true that Dr. Bob , an AA co-founder, called it a spiritual or moral malady. But that was then in 1935 and this is now. AA used to be a much better program than it currently is. Nowadays AA is accepting of things like homosexuality and even has a story of a Gay Activist in their newly revised 4th edition. I don’t denigrate the program, but I do tell the truth about it. And the truth is AA ain’t what it used to be. It has lost its way.
BTW, I kind of liked Dr. Bob and probably would have agreed with him on most things.
AA also sells Big Books for $5 I believe. AA makes a ton of money off its literature sales which I will not go into here. But here is a link which deals with the money aspect of AA world services.
http://alcoholicsanonymous.9f.com/spirituality.htm#It’s_All_About
My book is available at Smashwords for #2.99 which is less than the price AA sells it for.
In addition, I will give my book in pdf format to any alcoholic or drug addict that wants it and cannot afford it.
Just send me an email at adamsonted@gmail.com or contact me thru my website www.upfromdown.info
If you want to discuss it furhter, have at it. I love a good fight, especially when I know Im right.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking, so yes, members of any group you can name are welcome, and rightly so. AA is about helping people find a way of life that works, not mandating every part of it.
And the truth is AA ain’t what it used to be. It has lost its way. Since you were never really a part of it, you have no basis to judge.
You can feel right all you want. It's really not my concern.
BTW, congratulations for putting 35 years of sobriety together!
It is implausible that this should always be so, or else we would have seen the Old Testament bump up drinking to the same level of wickedness as sorcery.
As C. S. Lewis put it, there is a certain kind of bad person who thinks that because it is useful for him to give up all manner of things such as drink or the theater, he wants everybody else to give it up too. All I have to say to Christians? of that sort is, are you nuts?
The New Testament says that Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom. Isn’t that enough for you?
Ted Adamson
No it is not, because it references a habit taken to harmful excess.
And — it probably is metaphorical in the usage. Alcoholism doesn’t carry over physically to hell.
Friend, I do not wish to furnish you with anything for an excuse to feed a habit which personally overwhelmed you. But setting up theologically dubious straw men does not serve even you well in the long run, let alone other sinners whom God has granted the grace not to react in the manner you did to ethanol. You don’t want your spiritual battle to rest upon straw men.
Consider that Jesus Christ himself got accused of being a “glutton and drunkard” especially since there is nothing to prove He insisted on getting Welch’s instead of the wine being served at the bawdy parties where He dared minister, not caring about what the rabbis would say. Jesus Christ represents, among other things, the capabilities of an unfallen human.
What makes you think I was never a part of AA? I attended meetings faithfully for years, both inside prison and out. I was both the secretary and the intergroup representative for over a year of the Saturday night Speakers meeting at the Friendship Club in Orange California. I was also the H&I Chair of the Siskiyou Region of Narcotics Anonymous. You can say a lot of things about me, but you can’t truthfully say I wasn’t an AA or NA member. Why would you say such a thing when you don’t even know me? Perhaps you don’t care about being truthful?
Any long time AA member will tell you that you can hardly go to a meeting of AA without someone talking about the “disease” of alcoholism. I am looking for my 12&12 which I have but cannot find right at the moment. It clearly says that Alcoholics are smitten by a physical allergy and a mental obsesseion when they drink. Off hand I cannot remember if the word “disease” is used but I think it maybe. I will look it up when I find the book. It is a PILLAR of the program.
At any rate, just not true that I was never an AA member.
Thanks for the ping/post, abigail2. I clicked on your link (Up From Down Website) in post #2 and read the sample chapter of Ted’s book. It was very good reading. Then I come back to the thread to read comments and see that Ted is here. WOW! WOOOOHOOOOO Ted! CONGRATULATIONS! Thanks for your book, your effort to help others and thanks for being here to answer any questions.
OUTSTANDING! HOORAY abigail2, Jesse & Ted! BTTT!
thank you pgalt Nice to know your still there. HOw is work?
Good. Different shifts alot with no regular days off. I'm just getting over some cold/congestion (rare) that I've had for the last 10 days (3 days bad...one day of work missed...but no doctor visit). I hope you (and all the posters here) are healthy. Often you don't realize how important it is until you start feeling crappy.
Great thread. Thanks for starting it.
From the book...
Outside the stall I looked in the mirror. I was shocked. It was as if I was looking at a stranger. His hair was disheveled and his shirt was rumpled. The face looked hard and there were dark bags under the eyes. That can’t be me, I thought. I peered closer at the image in the mirror; the skin on the face looked pale and clammy. I saw the scar under the left eye from the drunk-driving accident. Yes, it really was me.
For some reason an urge to curse at the reflection came over me. I raised my voice, “You son of a bitch, you’re the one that’s been after me.” The image in the mirror didn’t answer.
” Its a spiritual condition says author.’
Like it or not, most things ARE.
Why pick this passage out of the book to post?
Is something that happened 38 years ago somehow relevant to what we were discussing here?
I thought it was a great passage in the sample chapter.
“You son of a bitch, you’re the one that’s been after me.”
Tremendous insight into our individual problems.
Oh. Well, I guess so
Sorry for the offense. I absolutely do care about being truthful. I just didn’t bother to fully read your biography.
Good luck to you.
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