Is Addiction a Disease or Sin PART 2

 

Could it be possible that both the secular and religious worlds’ views of addiction have value?  Could it be that alcoholism, for example, does reach the point where it qualifies as a disease but is brought about by sinful choices as the religious world claims?  What’s really happening when a behavior reaches the point that it cannot be stopped with maximum effort?  If the behavior involved only sinful choices, then choice alone should be enough to stop.  However, sadly that is not the case.  Both the religious world and secular world could learn a lot from each other.  A gossip, for instance, may hear countless lessons on why he should not gossip and what will happen to him if he continues.  He may attend church regularly all of his life and never hear one message on how to stop gossiping.  Clearly, which message is needed the most: why a person should not use a behavior, or how to stop using the behavior?  The truth is both are needed.

At what point does a person start making sinful choices that lead to an unstoppable disease?  Studies point out that, by the age of four, children start carrying emotional pain that leads them to choose an escape behavior by age eight.  This behavior can become increasingly destructive over the next fifteen years until it is totally overpowering.  This cycle calls for training and compassion.  Does it not make sense that there is the need to teach a person how to stop a behavior if they have learned their behavior at the tender age of eight?  Does it not make sense that if a behavior started out as a sinful choice in the life of a young child and eventually reached the point where it would medically qualify as a disease, there is a need to train the sinner how to stop, rather than expecting him to do something he is not capable of doing?