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CAN THE GOVERNMENT COMPEL YOU TO ACCEPT A HIGHER POWER? Millions of Americans have turned their lives around through 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. The program helps the religious and secular alike. Yet as an atheist, I've always wondered how fellow non-believers dealt with steps 2 and 3 of the program:
2. [We] came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.A meth addict in Hawaii was returned to prison because he refused to attend A.A. meetings, saying the program conflicted with his Buddhist beliefs. Now the courts have backed him up. Over at Reason's blog, Jacob Sollum highlights a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling saying court-required A.A. attendance -- a common practice across the country -- violates First Amendment rights. What a no-brainer.--Dana Goldstein
3. [We] made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
