Introduction continued…

The first school of thought is called the nature school.

This school believes that everything you are is determined by your genetic pool.  Ever since I read about the nature school in college I've been uncomfortable with it. 

Think about the implications for  recovering addicts.  Basically it says born an addict always an addict. Now Arthur Compton, in a series of lectures entitled "The Freedom of Man" began this series of  lectures with the following paragraph:

"The fundamental question of morality, a vital problem in religion, and a subject of active investigation in science: Is man a free agent? If our actions are the necessary outcome of our past history, if the atoms of our bodies follow physical laws as immutable as the motions of the planets, Why try? What difference can it make how great the effort if our actions are already determined by mechanical laws of cause and effect?"

In other words, if everything acts according to definite and unchangeable laws, then why bother to try and  hange our behavior? Of course, Compton concludes that indeed human beings are free moral agents and the choices we make are real choices that can effect our lives one way or another.

The second school is called the nurture school.

They believe that you are born a tabla rosa, a blank slate. And that your environment determines everything that you are. For example, if someone is brought up in a home where there is alcoholism or sexual abuse, no doubt, they will be adversely effected by those conditions. Likewise, the opposite is true. If a person is born and raised in a loving and caring environment, then, chances are, that person will create for his or her children the same kind of stable atmosphere.

But even this belief can create a sort of fatalistic determinism. Because we might say to ourselves that we can't change because we were victims of an abusive upbringing, an uncaring parent, poverty, racism, and so on.

In the end whether it’s nature or nurture  that causes an addiction is an interesting question that can lead to many different forms of treatment . But ultimately from this author’s point of view addiction is a spiritual disease that needs to be treated. And no matter what genetic predispositions we may have or no matter the environment we were brought up in, as long as we are alive recovery is possible.

So I subscribe to a  third school of thought.

It is quite different. It could be said that in some ways it is the antithesis of biological, sociological or psychological determinism.

It is the spiritual school.

Many of you have probably seen the movie “Lawrence of Arabia” . Lawrence, an Englishman, is very much in love with the desert and the customs and the people of Arabia.

But at the same time he is appalled by the violence of their tribalism and their belief that everything that happens, happens because it is the will of Allah....which is their own brand of determinism. Lawrence leads a whole company of Arabs on a virtually impossible journey across one of the most God-forsaken places on earth, which the Arabs called "The Devil’s Anvil." When they finally make it across the desert, Lawrence discovers that one of the Arabs has fallen off his camel and has been left to die in the desert.

With hardly any grief, the Arabs refuse to go back after him. "It is written," they say, "it is the Will of Allah." Despite being called a heretic, Lawrence goes back into the hot sun and desert, and eventually he finds the man and brings him back to  the rest of the company. When he gets back, he says emphatically, "Nothing is written.

"Nothing is written, meaning: there are possibilities for transformation, possibilities for regeneration, possibilities for education possibilities for resurrection of  the human spirit. Even or maybe even especially the human spirit that has been crushed by addiction.

In one way or another, prophets from all different faiths have echoed this thought.  2000 years ago Jesus of Nazereth said: "The wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.

"To all of you who may have directly or indirectly suffered from this disease that just won’t let you or your loved one go , we say "Anything is possible. With God's spirit, there's always the possibility for  recovery of a fulfilled spiritual, intellectual , physical and emotional life because “Nothing is Written!

”Whatever else this may say, it says to me, that change is possible; change is always possible. It says that no matter what your genes may be no matter what kind of personal hell you were brought up in, no matter what life may have been like for you as a child, the human spirit is such,  that radical change is possible.

Yes, environment and genetics, nurture and nature, do have something to say about who and what we are, but they do not have the final say: "The wind blows where it wills...but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So it is with everyone born of the spirit."

Over and against the voices of determinism and fatalism and cynicism in our society those  that  say “once an addict always an addict” “there’s only one thing to do with an addict throw him jail,” or “he can’t help it his father was addict”, the  voice of parents and psychologists and addiction counselors and ministers need to be heroic voices that say: "Nothing is Written! The wind blows where it wills!

"We need to say to nature and nurture skeptics that we are free moral agents: That the "The human spirit can surprise us. "You do not know whence it comes or whither it goes."

For all the addicted children of our society, for all those who because of nature  or because of nurture seem to have all the odds stacked up against them, for all those social scientists who would have us written off as a lost cause, those who are brought up in  abusive situations or born without an advantage, we who work with the still suffering addict  must be the steadfast and absolutely unyielding in our proclamation: “Nothing is Written!”

Back to Top | Home