“No one in our fellowship is under obligation to anyone else.” (ODAT, 20 December)
The author appears to be denying obligation and thus the core of morality and God’s will: the set of duties concomitant with my place in creation. By contrast, I would affirm that there are indeed obligations—including and especially towards others in recovery, that morality is real, and that God’s will involves the moral faculty and the embracing of obligations.
For example, I believe I am under obligation to respect other’s decisions, to allow them to follow their own path without comment unless they request it, to show courtesy and kindness to people at my homegroup and at fellowship, and to offer help where it is needed, wanted, and asked for and I can offer it.
I tried living for myself, disregarding others, leaving them to founder, riding roughshod over them and their wishes. That didn’t work. The programme woke up me up to obligations to others and to God, and peace and joy lies in the due discharge of these obligations.