People should ask.

Personally, I went to the basement of a church for meetings.

I never called a sponsor on Shabbos.

I never missed a chavrusah or minyan because of a meeting; I missed them for other reasons.

Of the things that I thank God for is the people in my group (non Jews) respected my religion. I am saddened that the groups in the east coast, consisting mainly of Jews, do not possess the same level of respect.

Do I sound like a broken record? Too bad.

I also probably sound like a broken record. But I don't think it's fair to blame the Atlantic Northeast. There are large numbers of Orthodox  addicts here, as there are a lot more Orthodox Jews here, and in my experience, the majority remain Orthodox, even if they aren't as "chumradik" as they were before. In my fellowship, Judaism is respected but if someone talks religiously in meetings (ex: saying the word Shabbos repeatedly or giving a Torah insight) he probably will be told that he should alter his speech as meetings are supposed to be places where everyone can relate, and he may be excluding people. I have never heard someone bash religion. That's not necessarily true for all, but again, and here's my broken record, the Atlantic Northeast shouldn't be blamed as a whole. Additionally, I just went to an AA meeting this morning where someone shared that many Christians in recovery also have similar qualms. Based on that, I'm not sure it's even a Jewish problem.

I'm not blaming.
I am warning.
When the meetings are made up of a majority of orthodox Jews, prepare to daven less, learn less, become less Shabbos observant and have a general yeridah.

Will some become better Jews? Yes.
Some will take a while and some will see a quick improvement.

Will there be people who see their frumkeit take a dip? Yes. Will it be worth it? Ask someone.

At the recent workshop Harvey went off a little into religious yiddishkiet talk, at the beginning of the following session he asked  that the  previous session's recording should not be posted on any official SA website because it's against SA principals to talk about religion.... point is that Harvey himself after being in SA over 32 years was way stronger in his yiddishkiet than many of us in the room, so SA definitely doesn't have to weaken yiddishkiet.....

I do agree though that unfortunately some people take the idea in a way that does not fit with yiddishkiet, but in my opinion many of these frum people weren't comfortable in their frumkiet all along and now they finally got the courage to speak out about it.

My feeling on this topic is as follows; a fellow SA member once told me that when he first joined the meetings he was paranoid about people seeing him enter the office building where the meeting took place because he's pretty famous and he couldn't afford people knowing about his addiction, till he thought to himself that he had no issue going into strip clubs and porn stores where he was definitely recorded on camera and that still didn't stop him, so why suddenly here when going into an SA meeting he's so paranoid that someone will see him.... my point is that this same phenomenon takes place when it comes to SA and yiddishkiet, I myself had no issue texting other women on shabbos to feed my addiction and I didn't daven if it interfered with my affairs, where was my care for yiddishkiet then? Why suddenly now in recovery yiddishkiet becomes an issue?

I'm not telling anyone to take any sides here, but one really needs to be brutally honest with oneself before deciding on this topic either way.

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 20:40:

who are you to say if they weren't comfortable with their frumkeit beforehand?

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 20:40:

And regarding the comment about texting,  ask your Rav. Rav, I used to text sexy stuff to women on Shabbos; may I text my partner in recovery on Shabbos?

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 20:40:

Regarding your first paragraph and your conclusion from Harvey, it has no logic at all. Nobody said that sa must weaken your yiddishkeit. What was said was that many do drop.

Wow one slap wasn't enough, you had to give me 3 separate ones lol

cordnoy wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:03:

3 people told this to me out right and my assumption is that many others are like that as well

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 20:40:

I never understood this mentality.

Who keeps us sober?

The G-d of my understanding wouldn't punish me with a relapse for listening to what He told me to do.

When I feel the need to check in with an SA member on Shabbos, I walk to one.

cordnoy wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:06:

You're missing the point dear Cord, if yiddishkiet didn't bother me then why does yiddishkiet suddenly become an issue when it comes to recovery ? 

cordnoy wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:10:

That's true, and I'm pointing out that not necessarily does it come as a result from SA.... that's all I'm sayin

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:51:

Sorry but that is utter stupidity.
yiddishkeit did bother me,  but my desires were stronger.

cordnoy wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:03:

I can confirm that I have heard many addicts tell me that, certainly at one point in their recovery at least. 

In all respect Cordnoy, what right do you have to make assumptions about our (Me and YFM) region? Have you ever attended meetings here for a significant amount of time?

YidFromMonsey wrote on 24 Nov 2016 21:54:

The people that are in sa are telling me that it comes from the others in sa. That Harvey or others remain steadfast doesn't disprove anything.

And again this is from certain groups. I am sure that there are groups where this doesn't happen.