Post by tiddles on May 28, 2012 13:06:50 GMT 1
inverclydenow.com/news/local/7180-ex-addict-david-hopes-to-make-a-difference-as-youth-worker
First of all, I am absolutely delighted to read this, David is one life at least, returned.
His story is a tragedy that we all too often see around us in Inverclyde and across the world. VERY few junkies, and I use the word, 'junkies' deliberately, ever kick the habit. There is a tendency to attempt to understand them and to plead for them. In the end however, despite the world and its granny knowing that taking the stuff is a bad move, they still still take it.
I am often remonstrated for using the word, 'junkie', "It's not nice", they tell me, "you have to understand them". Well yes of course I understand them and my understanding of them is NOT favourable. For every one junkie, there is a whole family behind them, broken in pieces and we seldom hear about the mother's, father's, brothers, sisters AND offspring who have to deal with this. There's precious little understanding for them and precious little help.
Now David has, "found God" and that's fine for him and generally speaking, having Jesus as your chum is harmless. I do wonder though whether the evangelising nature of the outreach bus is just a little more than it appears to be.
It is a very, a VERY fine line between jettisoning one addiction and picking up another.
That statement gives me the creeps for it reminds me so very much of the same kind of programme used to, 'cure' homosexuals.
What do they do there? Just what is a, " Christian rehabilitation programme"? Sounds ominously like the brainwashing of vulnerable people. And it seems that they are not content with, 'rehabilitation' they want disciples and I am REALLY not too comfortable with that either. As far as I can see, it's a religious pyramid scheme. "I'll indoctrinate and you and you can indoctrinate two and so on......"
If David simply found a faith in God and went to church or did good works I'd be very pleased but popping off to some, "school of ministry run by Teen Challenge in Wales where he learned how to work in Christian outreach and rehab" is scary and worrying. Take a look at this site....you'll be worried too:
www.teenchallengeexposed.com/
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_objectid=14538849&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=charity-s-funds-cut-over-religious-links-name_page.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ATeen_Challenge
However, I mustn't be churlish, David has certainly been through a dark tunnel and is now on the outside. However, in my view, there is another dark, perhaps darker tunnel the entrance of which he is hovering about. I hope, I truly hope that he will stay, 'clean' and that he will prosper with a long a happy life. I'm just uncertain that being caught up in a web of 'Christian' fundamentalists is the way forward. Until David can fully interact with mainstream society, independent of his Brooks-ite pals, we'll never know whether he has really shaken off the drug addiction or simply wandering about in some bomb happy, religion fuelled nether world with seriously scary undertones.
For the 'Christian Rehabilitators', they have to face up to the fact that having a blind faith in some bounteous God is not the be all and end all, the rest of us have to deal with the real world. Drug addiction is first and foremost a medical condition, not some fall from Grace that requires round the clock praying and chanting. An 18 month residential course is NOT in my submission terribly constructive. All that does is create an alternate world and the junkie doesn't need yet another hidey hole. To be TRULY rehabilitated, he needs to be part of society and society needs to be part of him. Having shiny eyes is not the way forward.
Sin didn't make David a junkie, David did it to himself, aided and abetted by his peers and of course, our friendly, neighbourhood drug dealers. Medical treatment can help to help him (NOT methadone) but in the end, only the junkie himself can truly shake it off. David should understand that he is not a sinner repentant, he is simply a fool who should have known better and if we were all wise, there'd be no fools.
First of all, I am absolutely delighted to read this, David is one life at least, returned.
His story is a tragedy that we all too often see around us in Inverclyde and across the world. VERY few junkies, and I use the word, 'junkies' deliberately, ever kick the habit. There is a tendency to attempt to understand them and to plead for them. In the end however, despite the world and its granny knowing that taking the stuff is a bad move, they still still take it.
I am often remonstrated for using the word, 'junkie', "It's not nice", they tell me, "you have to understand them". Well yes of course I understand them and my understanding of them is NOT favourable. For every one junkie, there is a whole family behind them, broken in pieces and we seldom hear about the mother's, father's, brothers, sisters AND offspring who have to deal with this. There's precious little understanding for them and precious little help.
Now David has, "found God" and that's fine for him and generally speaking, having Jesus as your chum is harmless. I do wonder though whether the evangelising nature of the outreach bus is just a little more than it appears to be.
The volunteers on the bus spoke hope into me, showed me it didn't have to be this way. There were people who were saying they had been like me and changed. The bus was a bit of light in an otherwise dark town."
He added: “I saw qualities in them that I know now were the fruit of God's Spirit. They weren't just good people. They believed God called them to do what they were doing. They were qualities I had never seen before; people using their lives to help others.”
He added: “I saw qualities in them that I know now were the fruit of God's Spirit. They weren't just good people. They believed God called them to do what they were doing. They were qualities I had never seen before; people using their lives to help others.”
It is a very, a VERY fine line between jettisoning one addiction and picking up another.
David went to the Haven in 2009, for an 18 -month residential Christian rehabilitation programme. "I was completely broken,” he recalled. “Outside of heroin addiction I didn't know who I was. I was controlled by addiction. I used to sit and think 'What happened to me? How did this come about.’”
That statement gives me the creeps for it reminds me so very much of the same kind of programme used to, 'cure' homosexuals.
What do they do there? Just what is a, " Christian rehabilitation programme"? Sounds ominously like the brainwashing of vulnerable people. And it seems that they are not content with, 'rehabilitation' they want disciples and I am REALLY not too comfortable with that either. As far as I can see, it's a religious pyramid scheme. "I'll indoctrinate and you and you can indoctrinate two and so on......"
If David simply found a faith in God and went to church or did good works I'd be very pleased but popping off to some, "school of ministry run by Teen Challenge in Wales where he learned how to work in Christian outreach and rehab" is scary and worrying. Take a look at this site....you'll be worried too:
www.teenchallengeexposed.com/
www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_objectid=14538849&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=charity-s-funds-cut-over-religious-links-name_page.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ATeen_Challenge
However, I mustn't be churlish, David has certainly been through a dark tunnel and is now on the outside. However, in my view, there is another dark, perhaps darker tunnel the entrance of which he is hovering about. I hope, I truly hope that he will stay, 'clean' and that he will prosper with a long a happy life. I'm just uncertain that being caught up in a web of 'Christian' fundamentalists is the way forward. Until David can fully interact with mainstream society, independent of his Brooks-ite pals, we'll never know whether he has really shaken off the drug addiction or simply wandering about in some bomb happy, religion fuelled nether world with seriously scary undertones.
For the 'Christian Rehabilitators', they have to face up to the fact that having a blind faith in some bounteous God is not the be all and end all, the rest of us have to deal with the real world. Drug addiction is first and foremost a medical condition, not some fall from Grace that requires round the clock praying and chanting. An 18 month residential course is NOT in my submission terribly constructive. All that does is create an alternate world and the junkie doesn't need yet another hidey hole. To be TRULY rehabilitated, he needs to be part of society and society needs to be part of him. Having shiny eyes is not the way forward.
Sin didn't make David a junkie, David did it to himself, aided and abetted by his peers and of course, our friendly, neighbourhood drug dealers. Medical treatment can help to help him (NOT methadone) but in the end, only the junkie himself can truly shake it off. David should understand that he is not a sinner repentant, he is simply a fool who should have known better and if we were all wise, there'd be no fools.
