You seem to believe my terminal degree was a BA in religious studies. It was not, but what it is -- or if I even have one -- ought not matter; it was not in religious studies, but the field continues to fascinate me and I have somewhat kept up. YOU are the one that saw fit to introduce insults to Greenwald for using "big words" like Manicheanism instead of "dualism" (a term he also heavily employs) and suggesting I might barely be a college sophomore -- and then to disparage my knowledge if I "merely" held a BA in religious studies! The credentialism issue -- and your need to introduce your involvement at Harvard Commencements -- is of your own making. I don't usually try to pass on my credentials, but to you they are apparently of ultimate import.

Whether Elaine Pagels or some other religious studies scholar wrote a definitive discussion of Manicheanism or not is of no import to the issue at hand, which is that Greenwald's use of the term is appropriate outside of convoluted, internecine academic disputes. I am confident I know enough to affirm the essential accuracy of the dictionary definition I cited.

Stuff like this: " Greenwald's assertion that Bush has "conquered" his alcoholism is a clearly misguided perception indicating that he has had little contact with alcoholics in his life.

Bush is by far not "cured" or in control of his alcoholism.

Really, how utterly presumptuous of you; you know nothing of Glenn's family and friends, or for that matter whether Glenn himself has ever had an addiction issue.

Glenn did not write that Bush quit drinking via a 12-Step program; what he correctly wrote is that Bush did so via religious conversion, which is true, and was identified as possible to do by William James decades before the founders of AA drew on James to launch that organization.

Bush stopped drinking, period. Whether AA's notions of the "dry drunk" are true or not, whether he fits their notions of "recovery," the fact remains that he stopped drinking by recourse to Evangelical Xianity. (And whether he has started again is not relevant; relapse is rampant in AA as well.)

AA works for some people, including some atheists. But personally, being told that your "higher power" can be anything from a doorknob to a Styrofoam cup strikes me as inane. And I really don't care if the drunks in my family are "dry" ones, I just wish they'd stop drinking. Whether they have gone trough the confessions and rituals of the Steppers mean far less to me, and yes, I am intimately familiar with alcoholics, Al-Anon & etc.

It is absolute heresy in AA to claim that one stops the addiction via one's own will; critical to the program is that one subordinate one's will to the care of a Higher Power. So For Glenn to say things about Bush "conquering" his addiction is going to run afoul of Steppers dogma. Notions of being "cured" is also a no-no.

AA and its offshoots are indeed a "cult" in the non-pejorative" academic sense of the word. The program is suffuse with confession rituals, and dependency on "God as you understand him." Supposedly secular rehabs have folks holding hands, heads bowed, reciting the AA "Serenity Prayer." And there is an entire lexicon of in-group vocabulary, tenets and slogans, some of which Glenn has unwittingly run afoul.

None of that makes AA bad -- it works for some -- but not all. Many actually do quit on their own. Bush did it via conversion to Evangelical Xianity, which is all the Glenn is arguing.

I myself know several once addicts that have, after a period of treatment, resumed normal drinking--one of whom actually went through the (court-mandated) AA program.

And further, every state and federal court of which I am aware that has addressed the issue, has held that it is a violation of the Establishment Clause to give persons convicted of, say, DUI, a choice solely of jail or AA. There must also be non-12-Step treatment option precisely because, the courts have held -- and all the notions of AA "as spiritual not religious" that abound notwithstanding -- a casual perusal of the 12 Steps and the Big Book show that AA is religious and replete with a very particular theology.

Bush just chose a different religious program, to wit: Evangelical Xianity.

And you are also correct that many studies have shown AA recovery rates are generally no better than other options, including just deciding to quit on one's own.