Treatment And Salvation

As Dr. Albert Mohler so aptly points out in a recent blog post "...it is now almost a reflex that people caught in moral trouble (especially related to sex) announce that they are seeking “treatment” for the problem."

He continued in a post on Twitter “Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective ‘treatment’ for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ.”  Which poses an interesting dilemma for both Dr. Mohler and Congressman Weiner.

How does Dr. Mohler deal with new Christians, who upon accepting Jesus and the forgiveness implicit in the cross, find that the base urges of sexual or chemical addictions remain a force in their lives? That those urges haven't been removed? You've stopped using drugs or sex as relief, yet they still call to you. Those new believers soon  discover that  "a long period of reconstruction lies ahead." (From the book Alcoholics Anonymous)  So it turns out that treatment and salvation are not mutually exclusive.

And Congressman Weiner is in for a rude shock if he thinks treatment is a short term solution to his sexual sickness (if he really thinks he has one) and calls for his resignation. A couple of weeks is completely inadequate to address deep rooted addictions, and they'll tell him that in whatever treatment facility he's absconded to. So any illusions he possesses that he'll be able to do a two week tune-up and resume life as normal is going to be shattered by the realities of a hyperbolic press corps, a wounded marriage, and the cynicism of his colleagues in that pest hole on Capitol Hill, not to mention a healing process that can take years.

Dr. Mohler is a man I deeply respect but he doesn't know squat about addiction. Christians like him kill addicts with their misconceptions about the reality of an addicted soul. And Congressman Weiner, if he truly cares about recovering from his malady, is in for a long period of reconstruction. I wish them both well.