There is nothing easier than finding the differences between the religious beliefs that we espouse and the beliefs of others. These differences in beliefs offer fertile ground for a variety of responses, ranging from amicably discussing them to intolerance to killing people who believe something different from ourselves.

When we are engaged in promoting the superiority of our beliefs, it's usually best to pay little or no attention to what our various faiths suggest that we do on a daily basis. The reason for studiously avoiding looking at what we are told to do is that -- no matter what our religion -- its recommendations about conduct are likely to be identical to those of any other faith we can name.

If, for example, we examine the New Testament for those verses which talk solely about what we should do (rather than what we should believe), we make several discoveries. The first is that there are relatively few verses dedicated to this topic. The second is that, more or less without exception, they recommend a way of life that is hugely impractical. "Turn the other cheek"; "take no thought for the morrow"; "don't worry about what you'll wear" -- these are clearly completely unusable as the basis for a way of life in the West. So most of us conveniently ignore these verses, and instead talk loudly about what we believe as Christians ....

The problem with this approach for those of us in recovery is that the recommendations for conduct in the Christian faith are almost identical to those in the AA Big Book treatment of Steps 10 and 11. "[We] continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone"; "As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action" -- really no more practical than the suggestions from the New Testament ....

And yet our on-going practice of the last three Steps confirms the wisdom of both the New Testament and the Big Book (as well as many other religions). As recovering addicts, we have no choice. Other people may be able to live their lives protesting their faith and doing very little about it. We discover -- through sad experience -- that that option is no longer available to us.