<strong>By Peter Jessen</strong>
The opiate of the people, Marx said, is religion. The Daily Journal has had an informative, important series of articles inviting us to listen to those who struggle with opiate addiction and those who struggle with them. In none of those articles have I read anyone call religion an opiate, nor blamed religious faith for a person’s addiction.
There are many contributing factors to opiate addiction, and problems which make recovery difficult. But perhaps a major factor for both has been a marked drop in religious practice among those who become addicted and those who seek to recover.
The Judeo-Christian faith has been under assault by the cultural and political left for some time. The fastest growing religious preference among millennials is none, as in none of the above, when given religious choices. This is the age group suffering the most in this epidemic. Is there some kind of meaningful correlation between our culture’s growing rejection of religious practice and the rise of opiate addiction?
I’m not suggesting that if one practices Jewish or Christian or Muslim faith they will not have an addiction problem. What I am pondering is if there is a better chance a person might avoid addiction or have a better chance of success in recovering from addiction if they adhere to a religious faith seriously. My Twelve-Step friends believe that a gracious, helpful higher power is one of the steps to their recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol.
I am led to understand that several pharmaceutical manufacturers have flooded us with opioids and convinced doctors to (over) prescribe them, in addition to plentiful illicit sources. I wonder how many of the decision-makers in those corporations are actively practicing a religious faith. Does the correlation of low religious involvement hold among them? Is there a meaningful correlation between immoral predation and lack of religious commitment?
In chess, the most powerful piece on the board is the queen, whose powers combine those of the bishop (church) and rook (home). I wonder if those suffering from addiction had other factors which might correlate more strongly, such as parents with some form of addiction (alcohol, nicotine, food or other kind of drugs). Does this correlate with their level of religious involvement? Likewise, I wonder if more addicts come from single-parent homes.
I have seen the spectrum of addicts: kids from great homes, where for at least part of their life they had their two parents under the same roof, and attending church at least somewhat regularly, and homes with unstable relationships and only one parent and other behavioral issues on display. I’m openly and honestly wondering how much of a difference it makes to have a unified home with non-addicted parents whose religious practice is regular and sincere, versus the other options we often see in our community.
Marx did not come to his assertion in the complete absence of evidence. I am painfully aware that many terrible things have been done and are done in the name of religion, and that others have hijacked religion to endorse or justify irreligious behaviors. This includes, among other things, support of slavery, oppression of women and children, 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. These were not Marx’s concern as he believed religion numbed people from struggling against class oppression and limited prosperity. (The communist cure, however, has only made more people more equally poor and more equally oppressed.)
Opiate addiction has driven people quickly to a dependent, poor, sometimes homeless class, frequently leading them into criminal activities to support their addiction. It numbs people from emotional and intellectual maturity, and from spiritual and moral maturity as well, pushing and keeping many at the bottom of the economic ladder. So, I openly ask the question: Is religion a positive factor or a negative “opiate” in our community? I have bet my life that personally and corporately, the answer is for the positive. If I am correct, might this be a factor that can help heal us?
<em>Peter F. Jessen is a Franklin resident. Send comments to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</em>
