http://www.sedonamagoretreat.org/beyond-belief/ Bring a friend or loved one. This is an all inclusive weekend retreat at Sedona Mago Retreat in Arizona. We will be a small group, talking about 12 Steps & Traditions with a contemporary perspective. Today, atheists and agnostics get sober, just like we always have. Others, who hold an abstract view of a power greater than ourselves, don't feel authentic speaking of a male prayer answering, sobriety granting God of early 12-Step literature.

Our Traditions are part of history but AA (and other 12-Step) history is not something that happened way back when. Our history is unfolding around us, now. We owe it to ourselves to revisit this wisdom of the ages as it applies to our smart-phone/internet/millennial world.

Today, recovery is possible, the 12-Steps are accessible without accepting someone else's believes nor having to deny our own.

To working with today's newcomer is to work with alcoholics and addicts who come to us with a complex of worldviews and being able to converse in an agnostic language about Steps Two, Three, Five, Seven and Eleven allow us to do our share in "widening the gateway."

This won't be an atheist only echo-chamber of complaining about theism-dominated literature and meetings. Everyone is welcome, regardless of what we believe or do not believe. It's a no dogma, no right, no wrong discussion about our own journey. Believes and nonbelievers speak a slightly different language. Everyone ought to be encouraged to authentically apply 12-Step principles; we'll learn a few keys to meeting today's humanist, atheist, freethinker AA members where they live. One goal will be to leave Sedona better prepared to guide others through the process, regardless of what they do or do not believe.

This weekend is part of the Sednoa Mago Retreat Recovery Series devoted to renewal, relapse prevention, community and learning for those of us in the recovery community.

Joe C will moderate Beyond Belief: An agnostic journey through the 12 Steps & 12 Traditions which will combine prepared material, exercises and group discussion. Clean and sober 40 years, Joe wrote the first secular daily reflection book for addicts/alcoholics, Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life.