Twelve Steps & the Baha'i Faith: One Member's Perspective

The author has spent many years as part of both the twelve-step recovery community and the Bahá’í Faith. He believes that these two communities have a lot to offer each other. Most people think that the purpose of a twelve-step program is to overcome an addiction. It isn’t. That may be why people start a program, but what they soon realize is that the addiction is not the problem. The addiction is the symptom of their disconnection from their community, their Higher Power and their Higher Selves. The twelve steps are simply a powerful tool to help us reconnect. Most people think that the purpose of religion is to save our souls and get us into heaven. It isn’t. True spiritual seekers soon come to realize that “heaven” is really a metaphor for being connected to God—the Higher Power that created us out of love. We also realize that we strengthen that connection by finding God reflected in the faces of the people around us. This means that twelve-step programs and religion are, in many ways, two paths to the same goal—a healthy connection to the people around us, and a deeper connection with something transcendent—something greater than ourselves that can help us overcome our shortcomings and become our very best selves. The challenge for people in recovery is finding a religion whose description of God is in harmony with their understanding of a Higher Power, and a religious community that is accepting of imperfections. What the Bahá’í Writings have to offer is a description of that Higher Power that is in tune with the recovery process. The author believes that the Bahá’í teachings can offer people in recovery the possibility of a deeper connection to the Transcendent, and that the recovery community can demonstrate to the Bahá’í community a deeper understanding of what an intimate community can be.