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Meera Atkinson  According to the National Church Life Survey, only 19% of Australians go to church regularly even though the majority of Australians identify as Christian. On the other hand, the Statistics on Drug Use in Australia 2006 survey states that 41% of Australians drink alcohol weekly and 9% drink daily. It seems we’d rather get plastered than praise the Lord.
Unpack the issues...
The Statistics on Drug Use in Australia survey also found that, though smoking rates have declined, 17% remain daily smokers; 38% of Australians aged 14 years and over had used an illicit drug in their lifetime; and in 2005 some 234 million prescription medications were dispensed. Furthermore, the survey illustrated the link between drug use and crime, noting that one in ten prisoners was imprisoned for drug-related offences and 70% of juvenile detainees were intoxicated at the time of their offence. Even more alarmingly, methamphetamine (known as crystal meth or ice), a cheap and highly addictive drug that took hold at the height of the so-called heroin drought in 2001, is fast becoming a serious problem. A recent report claimed 4.7% of adults have used crystal meth in the last year. It seems a sad indictment on our society that our congregations are dwindling while the tobacco and alcohol indutrstries, black market dealers and pharmaceutical multinationals are flourishing. Rev George Davies, a semi-retired Uniting Church minister who co-founded the Palmerston Association, the first therapeutic community for drug users in Western Australia, says there are some key reasons why people use drugs. They include a desire for acceptance, adventure and attention, but the primary motivation is the need for an anaesthetic to dull emotional pain and a sense of alienation. It would seem that our high level of drug use is indeed medicating and masking a spiritual malady. If so many people are in need of solace, it would seem that the Christian church (across all denominations) is doing something wrong, if we consider its failure to attract and/or retain members. In an article published in The West Australian, George says, '“Moral decay is seen as the root of trouble, requiring a turning to God and moral uprightness. Such positions often align more closely to those pharisees of New Testament times who approached religion as a catalogue of moral legislation".  “Jesus, in fact, took the approach of getting close to the people, close to the issues, and looking to relationships rather than regulation. Detached or outreach work in the youth field resonates with this style, where workers seek to meet those whose behaviour is a worry and address the life issues behind the presenting behaviours.” In other words, the church is failing to adequately meet either people or problem where they live. Then there is the unavoidable fact that the times are a-changing and the church struggles to keep up. “In old England, there was a dearth of knowledge and experience was in a context of strong togetherness within the village green. The minister was often the main one who had travelled and brought the wider world close. Miners would listen to Wesley’s 90 minute sermons,” says George. “In current culture, the opposite is the case. We have information overload in a context of social disconnection and individuation. Mobility and change tear at the relationships we desperately need. Facebook tries hard to fill the gap, but community is more than electronic.” Our drug usage, then, is an attempt to cope with a complex world, both inner and outer. In George’s view, church worship misses the mark if it offers only “picture-show pews with a man out the front giving the big talk”. The failure to provide an interactive forum where people can have a voice, be heard, hear each other and throw ideas around, denies us a space to clarify complexity. George cites the rise of the Pentecostal churches as evidence that creating a more contemporary, entertaining and fun community where comers are not stuck in the pews attracts people, particularly young people, who don’t respond to traditional church services. However, he adds that they too fail to clarify complexity. “They are superficial about the making sense so you have a fundamentalist-rules-bag of right and wrong and what to think. In effect it’s acting like an alternative drug. It’s a camouflage for a complex world. It’s simplistic.” So, what must the church do to change its ways? “The church has a charity disposition... which worries me. I’ve seen the deepening alienation that goes on, fragile people pushed closer to suicide and the damage that happens from prohibition but I don’t hear people talk about it and argue the justice issue of prohibition,” he says. “The church is kilometres above the ground, not close enough to it. When it comes to drugs we get a better perspective close up, not from a distance. The gospel is about getting close and getting real.”
Unpack the issues...Discussion points To what extent would legalising currently illegal drugs tackle the issue of addiction in Australia? What can the church do to help 'clarify complexity'? What strategies should churches be adopting to provide spiritual nourishment to those in need?
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