Bush Wants Drug Addicts to Pray

[Guest Low Roller]

Bush Wants Drug Addicts to Pray

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has long preached of the power of prayer to aid drug addicts. Now he's putting dollars behind the rhetoric, asking Congress for $600 million for a new, three-year drug treatment program that would welcome the participation of religious groups.

The proposal sparked conflict even before Bush touted it before Congress. Opponents fear government will pay for programs that replace professional counselors with prayer and Bible study.

"The president wants to fund untested, unproven programs that seek to pray away addiction," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "People with addiction problems need medical help, not Sunday school."

Bush and his supporters argue that faith can accomplish what secular programs cannot.

"Let us bring to all Americans who struggle with drug addiction this message of hope: The miracle of recovery is possible, and it could be you," Bush said in his State of the Union address.

Many federally funded programs combine medical models with religious faith, sometimes employing the 12-step program made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous. But others are permeated with religion and eschew licensed counselors altogether.

Take Teen Challenge, which uses Christian teachings to tackle drug addiction and encourages participants to convert to Christianity. "Christianity is a big part of our therapy," executive director John Castellani said in 2001 during the debate over government funding for religious groups.

Opponents say funding Teen Challenge would amount to unconstitutional, taxpayer-funded conversion. But supporters hold it out as a model, and the White House invited Henry Lozano of Teen Challenge in California to sit in the first lady's box during Tuesday's State of the Union address.

The drug treatment proposal is the latest round in a two-year battle over the role of religion in delivering social services.

Bush first tried to pass sweeping legislation opening existing programs to churches, synagogues and other "faith-based organizations." When that failed, his administration began rewriting regulations to relax rules that have prevented government from funding religious groups.

Now, as he submits his budget plan for 2004, Bush is proposing a $200 million drug treatment program specifically designed so that religious programs can qualify. Over three years, Bush said, the program would cost $600 million.

The new program would give people vouchers to seek drug treatment at the center of their choice, including religious programs. About 25 states, territories or Indian tribes would get grants of $5 million to $10 million per year. Employing vouchers makes it easier to constitutionally justify paying for a program that is infused with religion.

Still, civil libertarians who oppose the overall "faith-based initiative" and people who work in traditional drug treatment programs worry about who might get money. They cite Victory Fellowship, a San Antonio, Texas, program. Under then-Gov. Bush, Victory Fellowship and other religious drug programs won permission to skirt all state health and safety laws, including rules requiring licensed counselors. There is one hitch: Programs exempted from state laws can't get state money.

The program rehabilitates drug addicts and alcoholics through Christian teachings. Its leader, Pastor Freddie Garcia, has been quoted as saying, "Sin is the problem. Jesus Christ is the solution." And he's said traditional treatments don't work. "If you treat an addict with a drug rehab program, all you have is a reformed junkie. If he meets Christ, he is transformed. He's a whole new person," he said.

A Garcia aide confirmed Tuesday that these quotes represent his views.

It wasn't clear whether the administration would allow funding for programs like Victory Fellowship, which do not use licensed counselors. But a regulation published last month seemed to lay the groundwork for this budget proposal. It made it clear that drug treatment programs funded with vouchers do not have to separate the religious and secular elements of their programs.

Bush has many supporters on Capitol Hill.

"Faith is an integral part of recovery for most recovering people," said Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), a recovering alcoholic who has been sober since 1981. "I've seen firsthand their positive treatment outcomes."

But others suspect Bush is simply out to appease religious conservatives by funding their pet programs.

"An exclusively religious approach may work for some people, but there's no evidence that it works," said Samantha Smoot, executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, which has tracked this issue for years. "Furthermore, Americans shouldn't be required to fund out of their own pocketbooks someone's religious practice."

[wired.com]

[MarcO]

Oh, I just hate him! I can't wait for this nightmare to be over.

[Irie Guy]

It makes me go Ugh!!! Unfortunately there is a lot of chatter about how Bush has already won 2004. The electronic voting machines that are being mandated throughout the US are manufactured by a company with big ties to the religious right. The company that handles these machines supposedly doesn't have to give any accountability for the results that they produce. ie. here's the voting results that our machines gave us and that's how it is. I wouldn't be surpirsed if there are some half truths to these rumours seeing as how the Bush administration is doing all kinds of dirty handed tricks outside of the public eye. The good ole US of A is a pretty freakin scary place right now.

[boogieknight]

The only person who should be praying is Bush. He's got alot of praying to do if he wants save his soul

[SaggyBalls]

I'm a relatively spiritual guy, although i'm not practicing or studying. What really gets to meis that so many religious people claim that their way is right. if it really was they wouldn't have to argue it.

I've heard of countless people who claim that 'god saved me from drugs' - well y'know what?? they were junkies - drug addicts. drugs fuck with your brain. didja ever think that maybe your spiritual judgement might be just a bit skewed?

I take an analogical approach. I always remind myself of the first time I went to frontiertown. I get there and hit the stage for jomomma - mark wilson's playing sings i've heard on the radio before and even though I kinda resented that, it was alright (junkie: it's better than sucking dick for crack) and i relaxed a bit. then JoMo hit the stage and I got moving a bit...hanging at the fence. The weekend would open up and everyone there would be friendlyandhelpful and interested and interesting...VERY different from the previous lifestyle I'd just come from (people being wound up about traffic or human traffic or social protocol or fashion or stupid bullshit...like how to get your next hit or who to rob or who to look out for). I felt a new feeling that I hadn't felt in a long time and I pegged it on either the drugs or the magic, but really it'sjust a bunch of nice people trying to help everyone have a good time.

now honestly...that's very much like church. helping, listening(to various degrees depending on the curch, but more listening than a hooker that wants to hook you up with a needle and a blowjob for some crank.)

I understand that setting junkies out into phish tour would be a bit redundant and counter productive, but I hope you understand what I'm getting at. It's not god that saves those people, it's a glimpse at life - existence. something these people likely hadn't seen in a very long time and it took someone else to show them.

for me, that liquid that I had on sunday night that lasted through the drive back to London was a REAL eye opener. they were bugged out trying to concentrate on the road ahead while when i was relaxed at frontiertown i got to see the world around me.

realization to actualization.

maybe it should be ME that helps these addicts. i'll make em great food and we'll jam all day and run around the forest in the summer all flipped out on hallucinogens while i gt a hold of some of that yummy uncle seth brew...i'm sure those folks would use the word love a lot more (kudos to bremaster J) and be a lot more entertaining than just a bump in the corner saying and doing nothing.

these people need to give'r!

they're just takers.

[AdamH]

I read that article and couldn't stop wondering what the hell this would accomplish?! Particularly the following mandate:

"the White House invited Henry Lozano of Teen Challenge in California to sit in the first lady's box during Tuesday's State of the Union address"

I mean, personally I think that's disgusting, and secondly how could he hear the address in there?

[larry jr.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ahess6488:

I read that article and couldn't stop wondering what the hell this would accomplish?! Particularly the following mandate:

"the White House invited Henry Lozano of Teen Challenge in California to sit in the first lady's box during Tuesday's State of the Union address"

I mean, personally I think that's disgusting, and secondly how could he hear the address in there?

---

Oh man, that was the goods.

[Vermontdave]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MarcO:

Oh, I just hate him!

I can't wait for this nightmare to be over.

---

Amen to that brother!

ahess6488: That box line made beer come out of my nose.

[Guest Low Roller]

Well if she's anything like her daughters, her box is big enough to confortably fit a full grown human. Kinda like a kangaroo.

[onthejourney]

i am truly sickened by Bush. got to love how he uses christianity to try to make himself look good to the unsuspecting, non-questioning sheep. If he wins the next election, it will definitely be rigged...why do you think they are saying he will? it is a setup to get more people to vote for him. They will feel they have lost anyway..or they don't vote at all and then of course he will. The manipulation continues.

If he wins, the world will certainly become chaos and in that case, ...it's to the forest kids!

[larry jr.]

This is my personal favourite when it comes to Bush's "compassionate Christian" ways:

http://www.dangerouscitizen.com/Photo+Gallery/568.aspx

From: "Devil May Care" by Tucker Carlson (a conservative himself), Talk Magazine, September 1999, p. 106

"Bush's brand of forthright tough-guy populism can be appealing, and it has played well in Texas. Yet occasionally there are flashes of meanness visible beneath it.

While driving back from the speech later that day, Bush mentions Karla Faye Tucker, a double murderer who was executed in Texas last year. In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, Bianca Jagger and a number of other protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Tucker. 'Did you meet with any of them?' I ask.

Bush whips around and stares at me. 'No, I didn't meet with any of them,' he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. 'I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with [Tucker], though. He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' 'What was her answer?' I wonder.

'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, 'don't kill me.'

I must look shocked -- ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel, even for someone as militantly anticrime as Bush -- because he immediately stops smirking.

'It's tough stuff,' Bush says, suddenly somber, 'but my job is to enforce the law.' As it turns out, the Larry King-Karla Faye Tucker exchange Bush recounted never took place, at least not on television. During her interview with King, however, Tucker did imply that Bush was succumbing to election-year pressure from pro-death penalty voters. Apparently Bush never forgot it. He has a long memory for slights." [Carlson, Talk, 9/99]

----------

Like Lisa Simpson said in that episode where Jebediah Springfield is exposed as a fraud..."I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth."

[Del]

I better start praying...

[Chewie]

"Christianity is a big part of our therapy,"

guess if you're a muslim, jew, hindu or any other sect...you're fucked.

[paisley]

Please Lord, let me find some kind.

[secondtube]

fight, fight.

[secondtube]

ok then, wanna meet for some morning jager ?

[paisley]

I think I may need to fight secondtube

have fun for me, I'm done