Seventh-day Adventists who are involved in addiction or in a process of recovery share certain problems. Recovery refers either to recovery from the actual addiction to a chemical or to recovery from the negative aspects of coping with a chemically dependent person.
One common denominator the addicted person and the family member share is their sense of guilt, shame, and despair. The addicted person feels shame that he has the addiction, guilt that he cannot control his addiction, and despair over his addiction. Family members feel shame for the addicted person, guilt be cause they cannot "fix" the addiction (they often feel responsible for it), and despair because they believe they cannot tell anyone about it.
The addict and the family members share similar coping mechanisms to avoid reality. The addict uses chemicals to avoid reality. Family members use food, work, intellectual pursuits, and of ten prescription medications to avoid reality.
Each tries desperately to avoid facing up to his true thoughts and feelings about the addiction. Within this desperate at tempt to avoid reality the addict and the family set up rules of avoidance. They are: Don't talk, think, or feel about the addiction. No one knows what to do about it, and no one wants to call it what it is. These symptoms are true of all addictions and are the same whether the person is an Adventist or not.
A great deal of controversy exists about where addiction comes from. Is it a disease ? Is it a moral issue? Is it a matter of willpower or self-control? We seem to think that if we can figure out what ad diction is, then we can find someone to blame. And if we can put,the blame on someone, then no one else has to take any responsibility for it.
Denial
An unspoken ideal within the Adventist community says that Adventists do not become addicted. This is a primary obstacle in treating the addicted Adventist. In the chemical dependency field this is called denial.
It is time to recognize that addiction does exist. Perhaps it is time for all of us to recognize that we share a responsibility to educate ourselves as to the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of addiction. If we are truly sincere in our desire to come to a greater understanding of addiction, we are going to have to risk stating how we feel about it. And most of us feel angry about it.
A major belief system among Adventists seems to be that anger is sinful. The core of the belief says, "If I feel angry, I am sinful; I am not Christian; I am wrong and bad."
To take it a step further, the majority of Adventist addicts have established a belief system that says, "I am sin." These people truly believe that because they are addicted or involved with an addict, and because they feel angry, they are sin it self.
So what can be done to help the Adventist addicted person and his family members? The usual manner of counseling is to listen, develop trust, offer feed back, confront, and educate. This type of therapy works for Adventists just as it does for anyone else. But when the re covering addict leaves therapy and re turns to Adventist society, problems of ten begin to recur. For many, remaining abstinent becomes impossible because finding adequate support among Adventists is difficult. Returning to a culture whose members believe willpower can overcome anything including ad diction, or sin, if you will exposes the addict to an environment in which the reaction to addiction is the exact opposite of that experienced in treatment.
The message offered in treatment is that you must admit the addiction with a conversion to the idea that says, "I am powerless over this condition. I need a power greater than myself to restore me."
Because as human beings we all need acceptance, approval, and love from those around us, we are likely to fail when our culture, our religion, or our loved ones shun us. The chemically dependent person's plea to Adventist society is: You have not been able to accept me in my struggle, and I need you. I need you to accept me as I am and leave the business of judging me to God.
The Adventist ideal
In my endeavor to gain a clearer understanding of Adventism for my own enlightenment and to provide better care to those I serve, I have read several books about Adventism. In The Ministry of Healing the message repeated over arid over again is "Judge not, lest ye be judged." Over and over Ellen White urges us to accept and love the tempted. "With a sense of our own infirmities, we shall have compassion for the infirmities of others."1
It is apparent that Ellen White recognized that the victims of intemperance have a physical disease. Speaking of the intemperate, she wrote, "With these self-indulgence is not only a moral sin, but a physical disease." In the same passage she further stated, "Men speak of these erring ones as hopeless; but not so does God regard them. He understands all the circumstances that have made them what they are, and He looks upon them with pity. This is a class that demand help. Never give them occasion to say,'No man cares for my soul.'" 3
It appears that many consider these statements to apply only to non- Adventists. We must realize, however, that these statements need to include Adventists as well.
The most recent edition of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual states that "the Christian's life is not a slight modification or improvement, but a complete transformation of his nature. This means a death to self and sin and a resurrection to a new life as a new man in Christ Jesus." 4
This sounds very similar to step 1 in the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) pro gram. Both agree to a need for complete transformation of nature as a process of recovery. A death to self is necessary be fore a resurrection to a new life can be gin.
Step 2 of AA states, "We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Step 3 states, "We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
The Church Manual concurs with these steps also: "The heart of the Christian becomes the dwelling place of Christ by faith. This is brought about by 'the contemplation of Christ, beholding Christ, ever cherishing the dear Saviour as our very best and honored friend, so that we would not in any action grieve and offend Him.' Thus it is that Christians 'have the companionship of the divine presence,' and it is only as we realize that presence that 'our thoughts are brought into captivity to Jesus Christ' and our habits of life made to conform to the divine standard (Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 387, 388)." 5
When Adventists are willing to accept the fact that addiction exists in the church, and are willing to acknowledge openly how they feel about it, then and only then will they be able to embrace fully the standards of Christian living set forth in the Church Manual and be of help to the addict and his family.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that the church is the body of Christ. If this is true, then each individual within the church represents a segment of the body, and each segment of the body represents Christ. Since Christ represents love, mercy, and forgiveness, so should the church and its individual members.
The love, mercy, and forgiveness that the church's individual members feel is based on their external judgment of one another. Apparently, though, many church members have moved from the position of exemplifying Christ's position of "Love thy neighbor as thyself to judging their neighbors.
The Church Manual does not support them in this. " 'Christ came, to this earth with a message of mercy and forgiveness. He laid the foundation for a religion by which Jew and Gentile, Black and White, free and bond, are linked together in one common brotherhood, recognized as equal in the sight of God. The Saviour has a boundless love for every human being' (Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 225).
"'No distinction on account of nationality, race, or caste, is recognized by God. He is the Maker of all mankind. All men are of one family by creation, and all are one through redemption. Christ came to demolish every wall of partition, to throw open every compartment of the temple, that every soul may have free access to God. ... In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. All are brought nigh by His precious blood' (Christ's Object Lessons, . p. 386)." 6
Everyone--including a chemically dependent person--has free access to God. Since the church represents God and is made up of each individual within the church, it appears that each individual within the church who is not chemically dependent needs to broaden his view of what the church stands for.
If the body of the church is the individual members of the congregation and the greater percentage of the congregation believes chemical dependency is sin, has judgment not been rendered? Which is the greater sin, chemical dependency among Adventists or judgmentalism among Adventists? Are not chemical dependency and judgmentalism equally giving energy to Satan's cause?
If we are to move beyond the nature of Satan, we will need to move beyond our small selves. We will need to move into an area of acceptance of our brothers and sisters regardless of their infirmities. Is that not what Jesus taught us when He said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," and "Judge not, lest ye be judged"?
Perhaps most Adventists believe that if the chemically dependent person would move beyond the chemical to God, in one fell swoop all would be cured. To expect that the majority of chemically dependent people could move from a tangible source of comfort to what they perceive as an intangible source of comfort is unrealistic.
Alcoholics Anonymous works as a spiritual path toward recovery primarily because of its nonjudgmental posture. AA is willing to accept the whole person as he is - If the body of people who are the members of AA were to move into a judgmental posture, few, if any, chemically dependent people would be able to remain abstinent with any sense of intrinsic peace. The nature of the illness moves from intrinsic to extrinsic, and recovery involves a movement from the extrinsic to the intrinsic.
Belief and practice
The basic teachings of Adventism pro fess the same thing AA does--acceptance of the lost as they are. It is time now to renew faith in the basic foundation of Christ's message and practice the principles of Adventism in all our affairs, as does AA.
If we agree that this is true, we will be compelled to move beyond judgment to acceptance of the whole person. When the majority of the members of the body of Christ move beyond a judgmental attitude toward chemical dependency, Satan's force in this regard will no longer be an energy among us. Perhaps then the light of Jesus Christ will shine in our hearts as we learn to love our brothers and sisters as we are loved by our Saviour.
To live within a community that fosters the belief that chemical dependency is a sin or a moral weakness and to set aside the judgments of others and humble oneself to reach out for help requires a tremendous amount of courage. Pain brings Adventist chemically dependent people to treatment; courage keeps them in treatment.
Courage comes from within. It is the seed of the still small voice that whispers, "I am with you, even till the end of the world." It is upon this foundation that many therapists build a relationship with the person they are counseling.
"The Saviour's example is to be the standard of our service for the tempted and erring. The same interest and tenderness and long-suffering that He manifested toward us, we are to manifest to ward others. 'As I have loved you,' He says, 'that ye also love one another' (John 13:34). If Christ dwells in us, we shall reveal His unselfish love toward all with whom we have to do. As we see men and women in need of sympathy and help, we shall not ask, 'Are they worthy?' but 'How can I benefit them?'
"Rich and poor, high and low, free and bond, are God's heritage. He who gave His life to redeem man sees in every human being a value that exceeds finite computation. By the mystery and glory of the cross we are to discern His estimate of the value of the soul. When we do this, we shall feel that human beings, however degraded, have cost too much to be treated with coldness or contempt. We shall realize the importance of working for our fellow men, that they may be exalted to the throne of God."7
If the body of the church intends to practice all of the principles that it has set forth, a clear message needs to be given to all segments of the body that the church recognizes the need for treatment and refuses to enhance further the dis ease through denial of its existence and judgment of the individuals suffering from it.
1 The Ministry of Healing, p. 166.
2 Ibid., p. 172.
3 Ibid., pp. 171,172.
4 Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, p. 141.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., p. 20.
7 The Ministry of Healing, pp. 162, 163.
