is recovery chilled by political correctness?
Do we foster a community of recovery – one in which recovery is encouraged?
Are there public voices – champions of recovery – as in the past?
Or is the “recovery movement” that peaked in the 80s passé?
What do you think?
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My take is that the political correctness movement has had a chilling effect on the public honesty that being a community in which recovery is encouraged requires.
We’ve become a nation of wimps in our public conversations – the ones that occur within the news media and in the halls of public meetings.
We dissemble for fear of insulting some minority, some poor, put-upon set of victims du jour, usually aided and abetted by community organizers using the victims’ sad plights to get “funding” for their scams du jour.
There are, of course, notable and brave exceptions. I’m thinking of The Healing Place in my home town. They consistently turn out some of the most outstanding successes I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been watching for more than 35 years. They recently had the courage of their convictions to tell their story to the local daily newspaper, which promptly published an editorial recognizing, applauding and supporting their good work.
THP’s success is achieved not by huge tax outlays. It relies on the community for the majority of its support. The elder Bush – the “no new taxes” one, not the “helluva job, Brownie” one – would call THP one of his “thousand points of light.”
Some years ago, I committed to being fairly public about my own experience. My hope – and it was rewarded – was that others would benefit. And over the years, I’ve kept that up. But an amazing thing has happened in recent years. My sharing has evoked anger – un-dealt-with fear, I suspect – in a few disturbing instances. Sadly, those instances have been in churches, of all places.
I don’t know why that is. The message is still the same. But I suspect it is that folks today are so brain-washed by happy-talk that some plain talk about the truth of one of our major societal ills short-circuits something in their minds. Are “they” implanting chips yet, or something?
Or is the eternal truth that “the truth shall set you free” just eluding some?
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Comment, please. This weighs heavily on me as I continue to write my memoir, my “Ebenezers,” and I could use your help.
I think the problem you’ve encountered in churches results from but one source. Many who call themselves Christians in fact do not have a personal relationship with God that would enable them to fully believe the Bible is a true story. The church has had strengths and weaknesses since it’s inception, the essence of which is aptly described in the Bible itself. Most do not believe the penalty for sin is death. That has been the game changer, and in my opinion, still is. If someone doesn’t believe in the relevance and veracity of the Bible, how can they believe in the miracle of the truth setting one free. Put another way, how can someone understand what it feels like to return a punt, if they have never been there waiting for the ball to come down to them, while ten opponents charge toward them with one goal: to hit you hard enough to jar the ball loose. If someone hasn’t been there, it’s all just theory. If someone has been there, they know the truth, and it frees them to share that truth.
Keep sharing.
Well put, and I agree. The other factor — the proverbial 800-pound gorilla ignored in the family room — is that negative reactions to a full-disclosure testimony, in my observations, stem from some active, un-dealt-with dysfunction in the immediate family of the negative reactor, if not the reactor him- or her-self. In any case, they are instantly on my prayer list.