So Who Gives a Damn? … Uh, Sorry ’bout That, God.
Read a story in the local newspaper today that just … well, made me wonder. And do some serious re-examination of my own thinking. The story was titled, “Mission to Succeed”* And this was the first passage that got to me:
“I once was lost but now I’m found.”
That’s how Samantha Keeler described her experience at a faith-based program in Oxnard (CA) that helps single women with substance abuse problems…
But advocates for the separation of church and state say there is a problem with the way some women are getting into the program They are given a choice of either going to jail or entering the faith-based program.”
My first reaction, usually, when I hear that some ”advocates” or “critics” have problems with other people ”having a choice” in how to run their own lives, is a big “So what? Like, what business is it of theirs?” Almost without exception it turns out that it is absolutely none of their business. Almost always these so-called advocates and critics are people pushing some selfish agenda of their own, and are really upset that other people are making choices that they themselves don’t want or like. They are troubled that the world isn’t marching along in lockstep with their own views and beliefs. That’s especially true in regard to religion and politics. Nothing brings out the fascism, nowadays, more than partisan politics or religion (or, more to the point, some sort of anti-religion). In this story, the so-called “concerned advocate” says,
“Imagine the outrage in Ventura County (CA) if women were given the choice between jail and a Muslim-based drug treatment program.”
OK, I had to stop and think about this. I imagined my feelings. Though I am a very dedicated Christian (and, I must admit, one who is strongly offended by the Islamist war on me and mine), I still had to conclude that I have no such outrage. None. If a Muslim program would fit the needs, would work for any or all of the substance abuse victims we read about here, who are currently facing jail, or even more to the point, would otherwise continue to destroy their own and their family’s lives - I really don’t care if its run by Muslims. I would be glad for it! Really, I shouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that some Muslim program is working , doing exceptionally well somewhere. Why? Because I suspect, the “faith” required, and rules of participation in a Muslim program would probably be even stronger and the teachings and disciplines even tougher than the program in this story! And truthfully, my first concern is the rescue and salvation of the addicted, not their recruitment into my own religious beliefs and opinions!
It sure looks to me that the reason these critics (”advocates for the separation of church and state”) assume I and everyone else would be outraged by a Muslim program, is that they themselves are bigots, closed-minded and intolerant, and think everyone is the same. They are so partisan, and intolerant, that they can’t understand that many - if not most - of the rest of the world aren’t. And it reveals the underlying theme of their objections to the program. Let me simply say that it’s not about the welfare of the ”substance abusers”.
“17 women are now going through a nine-month recovery plan that includes the traditional 12-step recovery program supplemented by religious classes….
Although they are not required (my emphasis) to participate….
Several local churches provide mentors … and strive to give them a new social environment.
Now anyone who knows much about drug abuse knows “recovery” is absolutely dependent on getting into a “New social environment”. So, if these critics care so much, why don’t they step up and volunteer, too, and provide another “new social environment”?
“Two other programs that helped female substance abusers have closed … because of funding difficulties.”
Or at the very least, donate some damn money?
“The Lighthouse program has an annual operating budget of $840,000 that comes entirely from private donations…”
Donate some damn money?
“Although a nine-month substance abuse program is expensive, its success rate is much higher…”
Donate some damn money?
“85 percent of those who stay until the end remain in recovery for at least five years.”
Isn’t that a choice well worth offering, and taking?
“The Ventura County Probation Agency does not contract with Lighthouse as a service provider. But Attorneys for women who have exhausted their Proposition 36 opportunities (Prop 36 allows for 3 chances to go into other “secular” rehab programs) sometimes propose … their clients be permitted to go to the Lighthouse program as an alternative to jail… the only free program of its kind and the only practical option for poor women…
But,
“Joe Cohn, a spokesman for … Americans United for Separation of Church and State, questioned what kind of choice was being offered…
The choice of a religious program or jail is coercion is wrong, he said.
”WRONG?” “COERCION?” Is he nuts?
First of all, it IS a CHOICE, one first proposed by the addict. Where’s the coercion in that? Even more, the choices are between three “opportunities” (1) at secular/non Christian programs (which rarely work, rarely cure the addictions), and (2) jail, or (3) a program that generally works! Let’s see: jail; a rehab that doesn’t rehab; a program that usually does rehab and gets one far away from a life of dismal failure, sickness, and even death in an alley somewhere. The best choice looks pretty obvious to me but… but, for our critics (uh, “advocates” for freedom from all that - because it also offers chance to “get religion” if you want) it’s really evil and should be banned! For whose benefit? For whose satisfaction?
Well, Samantha Keeler gives us her answer, speaking about her own ”viciously coerced” experience:
“What matters to Keeler, however, is that she is in a much better place than before. Now 29, she started doing drugs at age 14. By the time she was 16, she hadf dropped out of high school … got into an eight-year relationship centered on drugs and drinking. She had a daughter and ended up having to give her up….
She was not religious before she entered the program. But she thought, “Why not? Why not try a different way of life?”
And now,
“She’s going to college pat time and has reconnected with her daughter.
‘I have joy in my life now,’ she said…”
Yet apparantly, to keep the atheists of Americans United… happy, she (and the hundreds of other successful rehabs) should give this up? Go back into their “uncoerced” druggy lives? Is religion, or belief in God, so horrible that druggy lives are a better choice?
Give me, and them, a break from your paranoid, narcissitic, and tyranical attitudes and beliefs, Americans United…. Please.
* In the Ventura County Star, Aug 1, 2008. By Jose L. Sanchez Jr.
