In the age of Big Data, I am beginning to believe we’ve discovered our own version of Sacred Scripture. It’s not written by “sages” in the traditional sense but by expert social scientists, whose polling and demographic research uncover the attitudes and trends that shape us. In this most bizarre election year, who among us hasn’t been riveted to oracular pollsters with new insights about whether we will be “Stronger Together” or we will “Make America Great Again” on Election Day?
For America readers, this fixation most likely applies to research on religious affiliation and practice. A recent Public Religion Research Institute study, “Exodus: Why Americans are Leaving Religion—and Why They’re Unlikely to Come Back,” contains grim statistics about the ever-growing religiously unaffiliated population. These so-called nones constitute the single largest “religious group” in the country (25 percent); among those 18 to 29, they number nearly 40 percent.
The study included interviews about why respondents left their childhood religion. The top three reasons were: no longer believing in their religion’s teachings (60 percent), lack of family religious practice as children (32 percent) and negative religious teachings about gays and lesbians (29 percent).
This data can be disheartening, and some may even wonder, “How can we reverse this trend?” While those are understandable reactions, perhaps we are asking the wrong questions.
The truth is that institutional affiliation has been in decline across the board for decades. This affects not simply religion; people are also not affiliating with political parties, civic organizations and societal institutions like marriage.
Are these institutions doomed? Is our communal life irrevocably dead? Has postmodern man/woman transcended the needs once met by these institutions in favor of an atomized existence? I would argue that the relationship to these communities is not dead but changed and that there is insight to be found here by looking at what I believe is our nation’s greatest contribution to religious thought: the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Skeptical readers—not to mention A.A. members—will counter that A.A. is expressly not a religion, and they would be correct. The genius of A.A. is that it is a proto-religious fellowship in which people in desperate need somehow rediscover the fire of a foundational miracle.
A.A.’s meeting rooms are where postmodern men/women gather regularly, not because they are “supposed to” but because it is a matter of survival. The miracle they rediscover there is that by telling their own story of brokenness and listening to others’ stories they are somehow moved toward healing. It is a communion of people who recognize that in moving beyond themselves and serving others they find greater peace and wholeness. Sounds a lot like church to me.
Core to that experience is the fundamental insight underpinning the 12 steps that I believe is best summed up by the realization, “I am not God.” This is the urtext of any authentic adult religious journey because it compels us to ask the questions: Who is God? Where is God? What is God? Is there a God?
One of the co-founders of A.A., Bill Wilson, put it starkly: “We must find some spiritual basis for living, else we die.” His co-founding partner, Dr. Bob, framed it in terms of mutual sharing. “The spiritual approach was as useless as any other if you soaked it up like a sponge and kept it to yourself.”
In other words, you don’t do God alone. The program these two self-described “drunks” founded began with their meeting in Akron, Ohio, one day in May 1935. Since then their fellowship has grown from two active members to 2.1 million today in 181 countries around the world.
In the A.A.-inspired The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning, Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum frame it this way: “Those wrestling with spiritual dilemmas do not need answers but presence—permission to confront the dilemma and struggle with it aloud.”
Sounds a lot like Pope Francis’ vision of “the church as a field hospital after battle.”
Thanks for your thoughtful comments Bruce. While I agree that the Catholic faith is "tangible, something edible, smellable, touchable, like the Incarnation" that unfortunately doesn't speak to the huge number of people who aren't even searching for faith...which these recent studies have indicated. Huge numbers of people who don't practice, aren't angry at religion...they just don't care. My point is that meeting people where they are suffering is the powerful attraction of an approach like AA.
In AA's Big Book there is a powerful line: "Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps" It resonates to me with the way the early Christians discussed "The Way" they were living. The Catholic faith only makes sense to those outside it by how it speaks to their broken-ness. Of course, people first need to understand that they are in fact broken before they can take that next step.
Hey Bruce...I really like your idea of “tillers of the soil”. A very helpful image for the points you raise. Thank you again for your thoughtful reflections here. They are definitely much appreciated.
Bill
Bruce & Anne, I want to thank both of you for such a civil--not to mention thoughtful--discourse. It has generated so much food for thought that I confess that I have not yet digested your comments completely.
Anne, you have referenced some very big and important issues here and I won't pretend to have adequate answers but I would like to comment on a few lines...
"Christians never seem to reflect on what kind of God would create hundreds of millions of people who will never read a word of the western bible, which you believe would lead people to faith."
I can't speak for ALL Catholics, much less all Christians, but I certainly have contemplated this very question. What's more, I will go one better...God has created billions (not just hundreds of millions) of people who not only will never read a word of the "western Bible" they won't even know the name 'Jesus.' I've even had the opportunity to briefly visit a some of these places in the world and, while I'll admit that it is overwhelming at times to experience and attempt to contemplate the enormity and diversity of humanity, I don't find it confounding my faith in the way that you describe. Instead, I find it strangely deepening. Through those experiences, my belief in the fierceness and uniquely personal nature of God's love ('I have carved your name into the palm of my hand' 'counted the hairs on your head' etc) isn't strained; quite the opposite, it pushes me to comtemplate the ultimate mystery of God. I am shaken out of any false, parochial, subconscious fantasies that God is somehow a Catholic.
"Yet tens of millions of Christians ... have chosen to leave their particular denominations - not because they don't recognize that they are on a spiritual journey, not that they don't believe in God, but because they don't believe how these matters of "faith" are taught."
I don't necessarily disagree...though I might argue that people leave for reasons far less complex than not believing "how these matters of 'faith' are taught." I think people often "leave" for reasons as simple as they have busy lives--kids have Sunday soccer games, work has them exhausted, I don't 'get anything out of it' etc. The point I was trying to make was that so many of the people I've met who have been in AA are often people with a wisdom borne out of intense suffering. They are cracked open in ways that has allowed something beyond their own wills take root. Some sense of faith is allowed to grow.
Not all of us suffer from addiction...but, make no mistake, all of us suffer--even if we don't yet recognize it as such. This is where Francis' image of a field hospital after battle is so profound...the question for us then is, how well do our faith communities address the wounded (ie: all of us).
Many thanks again for the great conversation you've helped create here.
Bill
Hey Bruce and Anne. Posted a comment in response but somehow it's gotten lost...sorry I will try to rewrite and repost asap. Bill
Thanks Anne. That is well put.