Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Drug Abuse
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Isaiah 1:5-6
The political landscape is marred because our society at large is sick, from top to bottom. Isaiah is not speaking, of course, of physical bruises and disease but of spiritual and thus of cultural decay at work. He sees the nation as a body made up of many individuals (much as Paul describes Christ's body, the church, in I Corinthians 12), but because so many of the individuals are spiritually weak and sick, the nation itself is diseased throughout. The head, which he describes as "sick," represents the leadership, while the heart represents the patriots, those who work for the good of the country—and even it is "faint" or weak and faltering. Beyond these two critical areas, every part of the body from sole to pate is unsound. The prophet describes a sorry, almost hopeless condition. So the old adage is true: "People get the leaders they deserve." While the politicians may be constantly in the public eye, and their indiscretions thus become front page news, they are not altogether unlike their constituents. Can we claim that no voter has ever had a homosexual tryst? Is it possible that no voter ever took some money under the table to smooth the way for a deal? Certainly, no voter has ever hired an illegal alien to sweeten his bottom line! Or evaded paying his taxes. Or smoked pot or snorted cocaine. Or voiced an ethnic slur. Or dumped some engine oil down the sewer, etc. No, even beyond the all-important issues, politicians reflect those who back them. Some are fond of another saying: "Think globally. Act locally." It is a common mantra of environmentalists, who urge individuals to clean up their own acts, their own properties, as the best place to start to reform the whole world. The saying contains a true principle: A person can only change himself, and if we desire a large-scale transformation of behavior for the better, many individuals will have to resolve to change. Right now, the momentum of societal behavior runs steeply downhill toward degeneration and immorality. To shift that momentum back toward morality and Christian values will take a massive effort, one that may be beyond America's ability to achieve. But it will certainly never even get started if Christians themselves do not live for all their worth according to God's standards (Matthew 19:17). We cannot rely on being joined by thousands of fellow citizens, let alone millions of conservative Americans, in a counter-cultural revolution. We cannot expect media pundits and political leaders to lead the charge back up the hill toward decency and civility. We cannot hope that the fight to return justice, honor, and true freedom to the American character will be swift and easy—in fact, it may well be hopeless. Yet, despite the lack of expectation for society in general, the effort itself is noble and worthwhile to each individual who undertakes it because of the personal transformation it effects (Romans 12:2; II Corinthians 3:18). Politics is dirty, and because it involves the quest for temporal power, it has always been a nasty business. A moral society can keep this distasteful institution in check by sheer weight of influence, but when society itself is rolling in the gutter, politics has free rein to run roughshod over anyone and anything in its way. As Solomon says, "By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked" (Proverbs 11:11).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
A Polluted National Landscape
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1 Corinthians 6:9-10
The homosexual community, with ample help from the media, is trying to convince Middle America that deviant sexual behavior is normal. Mary Eberstadt ("The Family: Discovering the Obvious," First Things, February 2004, p. 10) summarizes evidence that proves the contrary to be true. - Drug Abuse: The "propensity to addiction . . . is ubiquitously documented to be worse among lesbians and gays. Virtually every study one can find on the subject confirms it." A recent issue of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy dedicated an entire issue to the topic.
- Alcoholism: The Gay Community News points out, "The statistics do point to the gay community, particularly gay men, as being most at risk of becoming alcoholics." A website which focuses on gay and lesbian health issues claims that "alcohol, drug, and tobacco use all occur at significantly higher rates in the GLBT community than in the general population" (glbthealth.org). Eberstadt points out that gay Alcoholics Anonymous chapters flourish in "many localities—an interesting detail, given the numerically small proportion represented by the gay population."
- Depression: Depressions and phobias of a variety of types appear disproportionately in the homosexual world. Eberstadt quotes the Archives of Sexual Behavior, which she points out is "no socially conservative rag": "The levels of depression and anxiety in our homosexual subjects, whether HIV positive or HIV negative, are substantially higher than those found in representative general population samples."
- Attempted Suicide: The findings of a highly-respected 1978 study by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg contradict the authors' song of tolerance for homosexuals. They note that the incidence of attempted suicide by white homosexual males is no less than six times higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts. Newer evidence suggests that the attempted suicide rate of gay and lesbian teenagers is three times higher than that of their heterosexual peers.
- Educational Dropouts: Eberstadt points to evidence that "[n]early one-third of gay teens drop out of school annually, three times the national average."
Bottom line: Members of the homosexual community are not statistically normal. On a number of measures, they manifest behavioral problems in far greater numbers than the general (heterosexual) population. Homosexuality is not normal, any more than it is free. Rather, it is costly to the individual, who, even in these days of "tolerance" and legal protections, is racked by the guilt, fear, and disease his sin exacts from him. In addition, it is costly to society at large, which must fund disease-control centers, psychotherapy facilities, detoxification programs—all these and more to fill the gap left by an individual who is psychologically, educationally, and socially "wasted," not performing to his potential. Do not fall for the media's preachments. The homosexual "preference" is everything but normal. It is a highly self-destructive sin.
Charles Whitaker
How Normal Is Deviance?
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