Faith within drug rehabilitation?

[Saurencaerthai]

Coming out of the supermarket today, there were two guys with a table, fliers, and a donation box collecting for a teen's drug rehabilitation program. I started to converse with one of the two guys (both of whom cleaned up from various addictions through the program) and found out that the program was Christian Faith based. Now, I know a good majority are not particularly fond of the religion (to say the least), but it seems a number of people have been able to clean up through religion. I'm curious what your thoughts on this are.

[Alyrium Denryle]

You can also clean up WITHOUT religion as well. religion itself has nothing to do with it.

[RedImperator]

There was a little bit of a debate here the other night about this. If somebody is already religious, and so long as religion itself doesn't get to be a dangerous obsession (as has happened), there's nothing wrong with using a person's faith to help them get clean. In fact, I'd go so far as to say in some cases, the problem is so serious it's a serious mistake not to use every tool in the box. You can deconvert them later--being a dead drug addict is worse than being a living fundie.

[AdmiralKanos]

Religion thrives on misery and despair.

This is no exception; they invariably use tragedy and hopelessness as selling points for their belief systems, which will supposedly take all of that away (only to replace it with a different crutch). Perhaps the cure is not worse than the disease so it's arguably an improvement in this case, but it's not a benign cure either.

[LadyTevar]

Religion thrives on misery and despair.

This is no exception; they invariably use tragedy and hopelessness as selling points for their belief systems, which will supposedly take all of that away (only to replace it with a different crutch). Perhaps the cure is not worse than the disease so it's arguably an improvement in this case, but it's not a benign cure either.

In most cases, the addicts were taking the drugs because they were looking for a crutch, something to help them escape their situation. While they may be, indeed, trading one crutch for another, Christianity has always offered two things people crave: Forgiveness and Hope.

[Kitsune]

In most cases, the addicts were taking the drugs because they were looking for a crutch, something to help them escape their situation. While they may be, indeed, trading one crutch for another, Christianity has always offered two things people crave: Forgiveness and Hope.

The same can be clearly found in jail with the inmates finding Jesus and they have been forgiven, therefore they shoudl be spared death and/or set free. If I was on a parole board, in most cases I would have to say that they really have not accepted their guilt.

[Durandal]

Coming out of the supermarket today, there were two guys with a table, fliers, and a donation box collecting for a teen's drug rehabilitation program. I started to converse with one of the two guys (both of whom cleaned up from various addictions through the program) and found out that the program was Christian Faith based. Now, I know a good majority are not particularly fond of the religion (to say the least), but it seems a number of people have been able to clean up through religion. I'm curious what your thoughts on this are.

Well good for them. If they take in drug addicts who want to "find Jesus" or whatever, great. I have no problem with this kind of use of religion. In many cases, Jesus keeps kids away from the really hard drugs in harsh environments.

The problem begins when a judge sentences an alcoholic to an Alcoholics Anonymous rehabilitation program. AA is a religious organization, and a judge has absolutely no place forcing someone to join it.