God As We Understand Him: A Film About Faith and the 12 Step Movement

The purpose of this project is to address religious and spiritual issues faced by persons in recovery. Many who enter the rooms of recovery have no faith in God, others are cynical about religion, and still others believe that A.A. and other 12 Step groups are, themselves, religious cults. God as we understand Him reveals how recovering alcoholics work the Twelve Steps, regardless of their particular faith or creed. Alcoholics with a wide variety of belief systems have the chance to discuss their experiences with A.A. Represented faiths include Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, Religious Science, Unitarian Universalism, Setianism, Atheism, and various forms of Agnosticism. Others reject organized religion but consider themselves spiritual in some sense, whether Pagan-Druid, Native American, or followers of various other spiritual teachings. What role do their personal understandings of God play in their recovery? How has the Twelve Step process transformed their lives and belief systems? What about A.A. members who are Agnostic or Atheist? Have they come to believe that God exists? Have they been able to work the Twelve Steps without any concept of God? If so, what concepts do they use to replace the “God” concept?  Note: To keep their anonymity, A.A. members are filmed from the neck down.

Adult            110 min.              2008     DVD-7325