AA’s program for dealing with addictions is explicitly moralistic. The steps start with a recognition of one’s “powerlessness” over the addiction and move on to “surrendering” to a “Higher Power” to address the problem. They also include a full confession of all of the sins of addiction (in 12-step terms, a “moral inventory”), attempts to reform one’s “defects of character,” and making amends to people who have been harmed. While 12 steppers (including me at one time; about which, more later) vociferously claim that addiction is a disease, they don’t treat it like one.
