Ep 71 Why the Serenity Prayer Was Never Meant for AA – Cult Religion Part 6 of 6
Sobriety Bestie Podcast · Kirsten Johnson
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Show Notes
The Serenity Prayer wasn’t written for Alcoholics Anonymous — It was written to resist authoritarianism. And its author likely would’ve hated that AA uses it.
In Part 6 of the AA Cult Religion Origins series, we uncover how AA co-opted the Serenity Prayer from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr — a fierce critic of the Oxford Group and moral absolutism — and stripped it of its true meaning.
Inside this episode:
🔎 Who really wrote the Serenity Prayer
⚠️ Why he opposed the Oxford Group (AA’s cult roots)
🧠 How AA repurposed a resistance prayer into a tool for obedience
📿 The disturbing irony behind chanting it at meetings
The Serenity Prayer was never about passive acceptance — it was about moral courage. Yet AA uses it to reinforce powerlessness, surrender, and group control.
This isn’t just a borrowed prayer. It’s another layer of AA’s myth, appropriation, and dishonesty.
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