Does religion belong at AA meetings?

As a dry Alcoholic, I'm very much for groups like AA. I strongly feel that while I was able to stop drinking with the support of my friends and family, not everyone has the will or strength to do the same. I've heard nothing but good things about AA and it has saved many people's lives. 

That being said, I was always turned off AA because of the Christian component. I know nowadays most AA groups are flexible enough to understand "God" has many faces, it could be Yahweh, it could be Allah it could be under other names. But for some this isn't good enough. They want to go through AA without religion being pushed on them. 

In Toronto two groups were catering to those who want AA without the religious component. "Beyond Belief" and "We Agnostics".  One of the groups changed some of the steps of the 12 steps to remove the "God" component.  That seemed to anger the AA movement and the 2 groups that have removed God from their steps have found themselves removed from the GTA AA listings. 

I think the people who removed the 2 non-religious groups from the listings are missing the point. If some people need a non God based AA to recover, why not have it available? Not everyone has the same needs when in recovery. Personally having God pushed on me would make me run for a drink!!! I'm one of those people who strongly feel I follow my own will, not God's will.  God would not have been helpful at all in stopping me from drinking. 

One woman in the article I read suggests that since it's "us" who's doing the drinking, "us" isn't enough to stop. I beg to differ.  I was raised Catholic. I was also raised to have common sense. My grandma was fond of the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves".  I helped myself to stop drinking. God wasn't there. It wasn't my faith in God that helped me stop, it was my faith in myself.  I decided at the age of 19, that I wanted a life, not one that involved me passed out in some gutter somewhere.

Of course there are some who can say that after close to 30 years of sobriety, what do I know? Well I know that I still hear alcohol calling my name. Especially beer. I used to love beer, and some days it talks to me.  I also miss Southern Comfort, it sings my name on some days as well.  I know the song very  well and I can usually ignore it.

Good luck to "Beyond Belief" and "We Agnostics" and here's hoping these AA groups gets listed again under the AA umbrella, where they will do the most good!