“Millions of Americans who in times of personal crisis and emotional and mental anguish once turned to priests, ministers, and rabbis for keys to the heavenly kingdom, now go to physicians and psychiatrists, who hold the keys to the kingdom of pharmaceutical relief, or to drug dealers and liquor stores as chemicals and alcohol replace the confessional as a source of solace and forgiveness.”

That’s a quote from Joseph Califano’s new book entitled High Society.  Have chemicals become the new religion for millions of Americans?  The numbers are truly staggering.  Americans make up only four percent of the world’s population but we consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs.  We have 61 million chronic smokers, 16 million alcoholics, and every day 100 million Americans are popping anti-depressants, tranquilizers or painkillers.

There can hardly be a person in this country that has not been affected by addiction.  Every one of the millions of addicts and alcoholics has families and neighbors.  As a pastor, I have spent countless hours counseling and praying with people suffering from various types of addictions.

One of our biggest struggles as a church and as a society is to know whether we should deal with addicts as offenders or victims.  For the most part, our society has chosen to see them as victims.  We have told them alcoholism is a disease and therefore they can’t help themselves.  That resonates well with a person who already feels controlled by the urges of the addiction.  But victimization rarely produces freedom.  It typically produces more bondage which leads to increased guilt and helplessness.

Dealing with alcoholics and drug addicts as offenders makes a little more sense because addiction is the primary contributor to most criminal behavior.  Any corrections officer will acknowledge that most inmates are in prison because of drugs or alcohol.  Indeed, getting tough on drug pushers and manufacturers has produced severe overcrowding in our prisons.

The Bible actually describes the problem in totally spiritual terms.  God calls this behavior sin.  Specifically, the Bible says drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10).  That sounds pretty harsh unless we look at it in light of the First Commandment which warns all of us not to have any other god before the true God.  When a person runs to a chemical for solace and comfort, it is idolatry.

From countless hours of counseling with addicts I have seen a few success stories.  They all follow this pattern.  First the addict admits he (or she) is a sinner and is totally controlled by his sin.  Next he asks Jesus Christ to come into his life and commits to serve Christ rather than self.  Finally, the addict submits himself to an accountability structure of other people who have permission to speak into his life.

Anything less than this kind of radical repentance and obedience ends in failure.  Chemical church doesn’t work.  The church that Jesus founded does work.