Anonymous Christians

Support by Clergy of Addiction Recovery through Twelve Step Programs

Hudson

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532634581
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

This book explores the relationship of clergy to Twelve Step programs. Field research of pastors in the Florida Keys found that they are unsure if addiction is a disease or a sin, and whether the Twelve Steps are based on Christianity. Lessons learned include the validity of both traditional Twelve Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Christ-centered programs such as Celebrate Recovery, the coherence of sin and disease explanations of addiction, and the significance of modern addiction theory. The specific outcome of this study is the development of a course syllabus for clergy on addiction recovery through Twelve Step philosophy.

Chapter 1

Introduction

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

—1 Cor 1:27 [All biblical citations are from NIV, unless otherwise noted]

The first recorded abuse of alcohol was by Noah, shortly after the Great Flood (Gen 9:20–23). Noah planted a vineyard and discovered the secret of wine-making. As is true of addiction, he was not content with simply tasting the wine and drinking in moderation. He apparently liked its effect and drank to excess, becoming drunk and passing out inside his tent where he lay naked. Moreover, Noah’s drunkenness deeply affected other family members. His son, Ham, found him and went outside and told his two brothers what he had seen. Displaying behavior typical of co-dependency, his brothers, Shem and Japheth, walked into the tent backward so they would not see their father unclothed, and laid a garment over him. The negative effect of excessive drinking on Noah’s family was immediately evident. When he awoke, doubtless with a hangover and learned what had happened, Noah flew into a rage against Ham, who had first come upon him and saw him naked. There were also transgenerational effects of Noah’s drunkenness. According to Scripture, he cursed Ham and his offspring, Canaan, declaring they would be the slaves of Shem and his descendants, the people of Israel.1

Culture and the Significance of Addiction

Our postmodern culture populated by Boomers, Gen Xers, and now by Gen Yers, has been variously described as relativistic and narcissistic (Ryken 2003, 18). “Superficiality is the curse of our age,” observes Richard J. Foster, “The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem” (Foster 2008, 1). Patrick J. Carnes, a seminal author on sex addiction, asserts that we have an “addictive culture” that is “convenience-oriented,” has “sophisticated technology,” pursues “entertainment and escapism,” and has been “experiencing massive paradigm shifts” (Carnes 1991, 75–76; italics his).

The use of alcohol and other drugs has increased to the point where addiction is arguably our nation’s number one public health problem (Schneider Institute for Health Policy 2001, accessed April 2015). David Sheff refers to this in the title of his book as America’s Greatest Tragedy (Sheff 2013). The financial cost of drug abuse in the United States alone is more than four hundred billion dollars a year in lost productivity, crime, and health expenses (Sheff 2013, xvii). In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan declared war on addiction and made law enforcement a priority. Of course, it was not addiction or drugs that were punished, but people. The war on drugs became, in effect, a war on the American people. The result is that we have now incarcerated two million four hundred thousand citizens, four times the number in prison in 1980. “85 percent of the U.S. jail and prison population is incarcerated because of crimes committed on or related to drugs” (Sheff 2013, 285). We have the highest incidence of imprisonment of any nation; Russia is in a distant second place. William L. White concludes: “The late twentieth century witnessed the wholesale movement of people with alcohol and other drug problems—particularly poor people of color—from treatment programs to the criminal justice system” (White 2014, 526). This mass incarceration is so serious that another writer has termed it “The New Jim Crow” (Alexander 2012, 178).

Interventions

Intervention on addiction in America dates to Benjamin Rush in the late eighteenth century. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Physician-General of the Continental Army, and a prolific writer. According to White, “No one writing on the subject of alcohol was more influential in early American history than Dr. Benjamin Rush” (White 2014, 2). Rush described the effects of excessive drinking and advocated abstinence from distilled alcohol in his unprecedented tract, An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind (Rush 2011). Since then, organized interventions have included the Temperance Movement, the Washingtonians, the Emmanuel Movement, the Oxford Group, and most recently Alcoholics Anonymous.

Temperance Movement

The Temperance Movement began in the early 1800s to substitute moderate for excessive drinking, as its name implies. White acknowledges, “a shift from this view of temperance-as-moderation to temperance-as-abstinence unfolded between 1800 and 1825” (White 2014, 6). The American Temperance Society originated in 1826, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union started shortly after the Civil War. Americans of Anglo-Saxon heritage and Puritan tradition had begun associating alcohol abuse with the growing number of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Europe. The Social Gospel element of evangelical Protestantism inspired the movement, which included Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Society of Friends, Universalists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Latter Day Saints. One of Temperance’s most colorful supporters, Carrie Nation, stormed barrooms and smashed whiskey bottles and furniture with her iconic hatchet. Two commentators remark on the significance of the Temperance Movement:

Temperance and related religious social movements produced social tributaries that permanently shaped the landscape of addiction recovery, treatment, and prevention programs in the United States. . . . Among the most important of these tributaries are spiritual and religious mutual help organizations. (Humphreys and Gifford 2006, 257)

The Temperance Movement created a cultural climate for addressing alcoholism and helping the alcoholic. “It was the failure of the temperance movement [however] that accounts for the emergence of A.A.” (Woolverton 1983, 157, accessed December 2015).

Washingtonian Society

The Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society of the mid-1800s was a short-lived but remarkable phenomenon. Abraham Lincoln, a lifetime abstainer, appeared as a speaker before the Springfield Washingtonians on February 22, 1842. He said in part, “In my judgment such of us who have never fallen victims [of alcoholism], have been spared more by the absence of appetite than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have” (White 2014, 15). As one historian declares, “It was the first widely available mass mutual-aid society organized by and for alcoholics in American history” (White 2014, 20). Katherine McCarthy elaborates:

The ideas of self-help and mutual support as alcoholism treatment were not original to the Emmanuel Movement [or A.A.]. The best-known historical antecedent was the Washingtonian Movement of the 1840s, a large group of abstinent alcoholics and nonalcoholic temperance advocates who achieved brief but spectacular success at “reforming” drunkards. (McCarthy 1984, 64)

The Washingtonians found that small groups enhanced personal recovery, but that relapse of publically known leaders could be harmful to the organization as a whole. Thus, Alcoholics Anonymous learned to place a premium on anonymity. A.A.’s Eleventh Tradition states, “We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films” (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services 2011, 180). Clearly, the Washingtonian Movement “laid a foundation of experience that guided alcoholism mutual-aid movements that followed” (White 2014, 20). The group was unsuccessful because of a multiplicity of causes, including failure to encourage the role of churches (White 2014, 19). They felt their fellowship alone was sufficient and that a spiritual component would be a turn-off for drunks. The group also failed because it became embroiled in political controversies, such as the abolition of slavery. Alcoholics Anonymous learned not to become involved in outside issues. A.A.’s Tenth Tradition affirms, “Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy” (Alcoholics...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Theological and Biblical Perspectives
• Chapter 3: Issues from Related Contemporary Literature
• Chapter 4: Narrative of Research Execution
• Chapter 5: Research Evaluation
• Chapter 6: Development of a Syllabus
• Chapter 7: Conclusion
• Appendix A: Behavioral Manifestations and Complications of Addiction
• Appendix B: Alcohol Use Disorder Diagnostic Criteria
• Appendix C: Gambling Disorder Diagnostic Criteria
• Appendix D: Questionnaire Including Statement of Informed Consent
• Appendix E: Informed Consent Statement for Interview
• Appendix F: Interview Questions
• Appendix G: Outline of the Syllabus
• Bibliography