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The Idolatry of Addiction:
A Caring Christian Response
What others have said about,
"The Idolatry of Addiction"
…I’m certain that blending addiction education and Christian teachings is a tough task. You have done it very well. I have been doing this for a few years but I learned a lot from your book.
…The content of the book “grabs” me… You have done well with your
diagrams. These paint the picture in a way that helps the reader
to remember your points.
Again, you have done an excellent job. My hat’s off to you. Don’t stop with this one. You truly have a gift in your writing. Use it for “His Highest”.
Tim Naugher, Executive Director The Bridge, Inc. Gadsden, AL. The Bridge, Inc. serves troubled adolescents in both Alabama and Mississippi and is the Southeast’s largest private non-profit treatment center.
I enjoyed reading your manuscript… My overall impression is that you have done an awful lot of study / research in this area along with a lot of interesting clinical work. I found your diagrams most helpful in getting a handle on understanding how addiction works. I think sharing your personal struggles with addiction strengthens your presentation with the reader…. I applaud your efforts to help all of us to be more like HIM. You are pointing us in the right direction.
Dr. Donnie Hilliard is the Director for the Cloverdale Center for Family Strengths at Faulkner University. The Cloverdale Center educates students, family life professionals, counselors, and ministers. The Cloverdale Center is a leading research arm in the field of family strengths.
READ AN EXCERPT
1. THE IDOLATRY OF ADDICTION
Evan Imber-Black is a master family therapist. She holds a Ph.D. and is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Dr. Imber-Black has my greatest respect for her work in the areas of “family secrets” and “family rituals.” Her work and writings have influenced my own thought on more than one occasion.
In Dr. Imber-Black’s book entitled The Secret Life of Families, she recounts the story of Gisela, a young Austrian girl born in 1948 who had been fascinated with America and things American from her earliest days. Gisela’s attraction to the American lifestyle was met with “stony silence and anger,” by her parents according to Imber-Black. This Austrian girl longed for a connection with her mother which she could not make and ultimately she rebelled by invoking her love for America over and over, enjoying the anger she provoked in her parents.
As an adult, Gisela made good on her lifelong promise to come to the United States. It was only then that she discovered a carefully kept family secret. During World War II her father had been taken prisoner by the Americans. At some point in his captivity Gisela’s mother had a brief affair with an American soldier. Upon his return home, Gisela’s father learned of the affair and two years later as the couple struggled to restore their marriage Gisela was born. Unbeknownst to Gisela she had organized her entire life in response to this central family secret.
My hope is that you will understand the paradox contained in this story after reading this book. There is grace, not only for the chemically dependent person, but for a host of oth¬ers in his or her life. Family members will find principles that will en¬able them to sever the bonds that have inhibited them and experience health and fullness in the midst of their painful times of crises. Additionally, they will discover the unhealthy ways in which they have reacted to the dependency of their loved one. Car¬ing church members will learn about the powerful, yet practical, re¬sources available to members of Christ's body. Shepherds, ministers, counselors, and other servants will gain an understanding of the dy¬namics of the dependency process and how it rules individuals and families. This will enable them to channel the most help in the most helpful direction. Anyone who is concerned about healthy families will discover relationship concepts that will be instrumental in pre¬venting harmful dependencies in loved ones.
The Barna Research group conducted a survey in the mid 1990’s revealing that one-fourth of the respondents admitted that alcohol use had negatively affected their family life. One out of four! You think that sounds overwhelming, more recent research has noted that every family in America is negatively impacted by addiction today. At the same time, only 8 percent of all surveyed said they would turn for help to the church or its trained personnel if they or a family member had a drinking problem.
In churches where drinking is approached very conservatively (as a sin), half as many people drink as in those that hold a more liberal view (a matter of personal choice). Yet in the conservative churches, of those who choose to drink anyway, twice as many develop alcohol-related problems. That means that the percentage of problem drinkers is the same regardless of particular doctrinal stance that is professed.
Chemical dependency is a problem that has reached epidemic pro¬portions in our society. There is no typical alcoholic or chemically dependent person. If it had the power to choose whom it would af¬fect, chemical dependency would not be very good at distinguishing between the rich or poor, young or old, black or white, male or fe¬male, white- or blue-collar worker. Holding a religious view that pro¬hibits alcohol use proves no more effective in the area of preventing chemical-related problems than holding a liberal view. Moving from Alabama to Arizona serves no purpose in overcoming the problem once it is present. Why not? Because alcohol and drugs are not the cause.
In Mark 7:15 Jesus said, “Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.” If Jesus is right in this passage, why are so many families and churches characterized by a “barriers” approach to preventing “defilement?” That is, telling people how bad it is for them to drink this, eat that, or go there, making a rule against it, and then trying to make them good rule-followers.
Granted, Galatians 6:7 reminds us of the Law of the Harvest. “A man reaps what he sows.” However, this healthy teaching can be quite unhealthy without the balanced approach that Scripture provides as a whole. Identifying the problems and ignoring education on healthy lifestyle decisions represents such an inadequate view of health. Just because a person avoids or stops using chemicals and goes out for football or band does not mean he or she is a healthy person. Attending a worship assembly instead of the local bar is not the same as health either. Yet so much of the effort put forth in families and churches is toward extinguishing one behavior and rewarding another.
Jesus’ statement confronts all of our efforts to solve or prevent problems by avoiding something that doesn’t have the power to cause the problem in the first place. What a waste of time! This approach urges us to define health in terms of outside behavior instead of inside fullness. It provides no help or support once a person has broken through the barrier. It simply does not address the cause of the prob¬lem.
So what is the cause? Environment? Environment can contribute to the problem, but it is not the cause. Poor choices? People’s poor choices contribute to the problem. So does lack of healthy past and present relationships. Shame contributes, as does ignorance, self-righteousness, dishonesty, and denial. But what is the cause?
At first glance, my answer to that question might seem so “reli¬gious” as to be of no use at all. This is hardly the case. The truth is that this concept, which we have too long seen as purely theological, has many very practical ramifications in our lives. I believe that at the heart of all harmful dependencies is the issue of idolatry. A grasp of this concept is essential as a foundation for understanding the processes of chemical dependency and codependency, or any un¬healthy dependencies.
Remember the account of the Garden of Eden in the book of Gen¬esis? It tells of God’s creation of Adam and Eve. God was their source and sustainer. He placed them in relationships (with Himself and each other) and in an environment in which all of their needs were met. This is much of what I believe God meant when He said, “This is very good.” There was a tree in the garden which was off-limits. Even to touch it meant death. Genesis 2:17 says, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” They ate and they died.
There have been volumes of books written and thousands of ser¬mons preached about what occurred that fateful moment when Adam and Eve ate from the tree. At a Christian Counselors’ conference I attended in Atlanta Drs. John Townsend and Henry Cloud summarized it well from their book, How People Grow. God’s original design included an unbroken relationship with Him and among men. When man colluded with Satan this design was turned upside down. No longer does man’s nature acquiesce to the God of heaven and earth. Now man’s nature says, “I will judge life. I’m the source. I’m independent.” This is idolatry. It is worshipping at the throne of self. What did man get when he disobeyed God? “You shall surely die,” warned God. And it was so. But getting death is not getting any¬thing; it is losing something. Death literally means separation. Man was separated from eternal life in the Garden of Eden.
Understanding death and life is not really so difficult. It is like darkness and light. Darkness is not the opposite of light; it is the ab¬sence of light. The way to be in the light is not by trying hard not to be dark. It is by coming into or turning on a light. Death is not the opposite of life; it is the absence of life. The way to have life is not by trying hard not to be dead. It is by coming to what can give life.
“I have come that they may have life” (John 10:10); “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48); “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); and “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Why did Jesus come offering life? Because we did not have it!! Romans 5:12 says that “death came to all men, because all sinned.” To argue whether we are dead because Adam sinned or because we sin misses the point. The point is that we lack life.
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