Crime in Church and Alcoholics Anonymous. Could you be a member despite the abuse and crime problem?

It has always been my understanding that this forum is for those who despise, loathe, abhor, execrate, revile and condemn Alcoholics Anonymous and all related 12-step programs. Its purpose is not to make things better, set it right, clean house, improve on its treatment of members, or any other positive act in relation to AA. The people who currently attend AA are those who either a) feel they are getting something out of it, or b) have been mandated to go. Those who are mandated will eventually fall away once their terms are up; they are not particularly inspired to bring improvements to the program, unless it means booze in the coffee pot and chicks in the men's room. Of those who are currently voluntarily attending, most will fall away as well. Who does that leave to give a shit to try to fix anything about AA? The oldtimers are happy. The newcomers don't have a clue. The mid-range participants are doing what you did, trying to make sense of the program, trying to not rock the boat, going along to get along. Not many people in any given AA meeting will enjoy lasting sobriety.

Anyone who comes to this forum and reads these posts will, if they have any sense at all, run fast and far to escape the mindfuck that is the Orange Papers Forum. It has every warped characteristic that has been assigned to AA by posters who manipulate, who lie, who club the truth with hyperbole, who exude self-satisfaction in their ignorance and intolerance. For my money, you would find more satisfaction in the Catholic Church, and that's saying something coming from me, a disenfranchised Catholic who is revolted by the audacity of the Vatican and every infected tentacle it wraps around its victims. Because at least God, in some form, can be found there. In a church you can turn off the noise and the utter bullshit. In a meeting you cannot. On this forum you cannot. Sometimes in your head you probably cannot. Peace comes at a price. What you have experienced is loss: loss of certainty, of faith in something good, of sanctuary. One of the rudest lessons we must learn in our middle age is sanctuary is made, it is not a gift, and it a demanding mistress that requires constant, painstaking maintenance.

I have compassion for anyone currently attending AA because the odds are against them in spades these days. It is no longer a program that can be helpful to anyone and no one is of a frame of mind to try to fix it. [Insert rude AA-hater comments here.] I don't understand why people don't just start rogue meetings. It never mattered to me whether the meeting itself was sanctioned by the big shots at AA. It mattered whether I was getting something I needed from the people in the meetings. Changes could certainly be made but they won't. One primary reason is that there is so much rage about being victimized by AA that no one wants to listen to it. The only way to present AA's deficiencies to any body of people who could make changes is with absolute cold dispassion. And that cannot be found here or anywhere else. People here stoke each other into a frenzy until after a while no one knows what the fight is about or who's on which side or whether they twisted that conversation today the same way they did yesterday because they need to maintain continuity in their zeal to defile AA. It is mind-boggling and desperately pathetic.

There is no one to make it right. There seems to be no unity among those who feel they were victimized or betrayed by AA or, more specifically, by AA members. Each person who is raging is a stand-alone, go-it-alone lamenter. Some have almost abandoned their cause in favor of the thrill of twisting the knife in the gut of those who disagree with them. But the one thing they do have in common is that they have all been convinced that to try to amend or correct or improve AA is forbidden. AA is only to be scorned, never repaired. And like the good dogs that they are, they follow their master down the road of anger and hatred, even if it means their undoing. Love and common sense have both left the building.

"You are calling the reporting of these incidents as "hating" and trying your hardest to suppress this information so no baseline can be obtained thereby making change impossible. The establishing of a "baseline" is standard business practice and the only way to cause change in broken processes."

Who? Who is trying to suppress information? Do you really think you're dealing with a "business process" here? This is classic JR Harris misinterpretive, manipulative crap.

to limit stories about AA.

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POLSON — A sex offender violated his treatment agreement by having sexual relations with several women who he met in an alcoholic treatment program, and was sentenced back to jail for 10 years in Lake County District Court, Thursday, March 22.

According to court documents, Sean Calahan was serving a six-year deferred sentence for sexual assault after rubbing the back, breasts and buttocks of a 12-year-old victim. However, probation violations, including the many relationships, possessing a weapon and alcohol, means that the 34-year-old Polson man will be headed back to jail.

While his probation officer reported that Calahan demonstrated the ability to maintain self-employment for a substantial period of time, attended AA meetings and participated in sex offender counseling, “behind the scenes the defendant was living a much different lifestyle.”

The probation officer’s report said that on Jan. 10, 2012 several empty beer bottles were discovered in a trash can in the defendant’s kitchen. On Jan. 11, Calahan was found to be in possession of a compound bow, a 12-gauge shotgun, a canister of bear spray, two live .22 rounds, one live 20 gauge shotgun round and a seven and a half inch buck knife. The probation officer said that Calahan lied about possession of these items. Calahan said that he had used the weapons for protection of his children, even though they were in a building separate from the house, and that the buck knife was given to him by a friend, also for protection.

His cell phone contained a virtual female stripper, which is also a violation of his probation.

Also in the probation officer’s report, Calahan wasn’t supposed to have contact with other felons, but he did have a close, intimate relationship with a female who was on probation for forgery. In addition, he was close with multiple females who were in an alcohol treatment program.

“The defendant has been preying on women in the AA program,” the officer wrote in the court report. “He has admittedly had ongoing sexual relationships with multiple women, leading them to believe he’s not seeing anyone else. This behavior violated his sex offender treatment agreement and raises significant concerns from a supervision standpoint.”

The officer added that Calahan was manipulative and dishonest with them and his sex offender program therapist, saying that he appears to be a “soft spoken, sincere man” but that his actions indicate he is “sneaky” and driven by his sexual needs.

“He admitted he was a ‘player’ and recounted the recent drama he caused when two of his girlfriends met in a bar and proceeded to fight,” the officer wrote in his report. “The defendant said one of the intoxicated women ended up at his house where she reportedly scratched and hit him. The other girlfriend reportedly went home, but continued to call him throughout the night.”

The officer noted that when Calahan talked about this, he had no grasp of the seriousness of the situation. A folder labeled “Sean’s Dark Side, and Ugly truths, nasty defects” was found at Calahan’s house. The document included his hand-written journal entries.

The officer attached an entry made in October 2011, which included his thoughts of his behavior toward women.

“I feeds self. Its all about me. Feed the need to control another human being. Feeds Pride. Ego feeds it. Just want more and more. And I want it right now. And expect her to also. Will take sex where I can get it. Who ever I can trick or use. Usually women early in sobriety cause they are the most vunerable. They have the most insecuritys so just a few words and a little care and they fall rite in to my trap. Its not there falt but I make them think it is there falt and tell them I love them and everything will be okay.”

The defendant concluded his entry with “This is very sick and I want to get rid of this thought process and action.”

The probation officer said that Calahan is currently under investigation for allegations of sexual intercourse without consent by at least one woman in Lake County.

“The defendant is no longer considered appropriate for community supervision due in part to his dishonesty and possession of a firearm and weapons, his predatory behavior towards women and the fact that he was discharged non-compliant from community sex offender treatment,” the officer said in his report.

Calahan was sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections with 10 years suspended. He also has to successfully complete Phase 1 of the sex offender treatment program.
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'Nuff said!