Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 17, 1990 TAG: 9003172202
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Frances Stebbins
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
After all, "getting religion" is supposed to help everyone. Many people have testified to improvements in their lives after they turned themselves over to God.
Booth, an Anglican clergyman turned counselor, would agree with that. Living in submission to God - which incidentally is what the word "Islam" means - has brought substance-abusers to wholeness of life, the British-born addiction specialist said in a recent seminar sponsored by the Roanoke Valley Psychiatric Center. His audience was made up predominantly of medical and social-service personnel.
But religion becomes an addiction for as much as 10 percent of the population, said the small, dynamic man wearing a priest's black suit and clerical collar. That's at least as many as lose their free will to alcohol, he observed in an interview.
Booth, 43, and now a California resident, apparently got more than enough religion when his British parents sent him to an old-fashioned Roman Catholic school. The ignorance passed on to him there, especially about sexual feelings and practices, horrifies him still.
It had nothing to do, he said, with healthy sexuality. One of the perversions of man-made religion, he contended, is the way people try to control the free wills of others. Frightening children and adults into passive behavior is the most common way of doing this.
Booth said those actions will more often than not drive children into some type of crippling addiction. The use of alcohol or illegal drugs may lead to one type of addiction, but many others cause misery to victims and their loved ones.
Many people eat too much. At least as many others are affected by the kind of submissive outlook that equates low esteem and lack of direction with religious humility, said Booth.
Others deliberately avoid anything suggesting church involvement.
The counselor said he prefers the word "spiritual" over "religious" to identify a creative adult, youth or child who acts as if he or she is on comfortable terms with God. Through such programs as Alcoholics Anonymous, people scarred by well-meaning religious pressures can grow in their own true spirituality, Booth asserted.
Cruelty in the name of religion is well-known to historians as well as to observers of many national conflicts today. Booth noted that while they were in slavery, blacks were permitted to exercise their religion relatively freely - though their names and families were denied them.
Western Virginia, with its many Protestant denominations that regularly preach and broadcast the "wages of sin" theology, is especially vulnerable to "scare" religion, Booth said.
Despite his harsh words for compulsive religionists, Booth made it clear that healthy spirituality is still the goal of major faiths and that many experience this in their congregations.
Besides being an addiction consultant to two major treatment facilities, Booth is on the pastoral staff of an Episcopal church in Southern California.
The congregation of Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church is evaluating itself before its search committee begins considering candidates for its next pastor. After 30 years, the Rev. James A. Allison Jr. will retire in a few months.
Surveying congregations has become standard in many denominations when a new minister is being sought. Sometimes computer banks maintained in national church offices are used to bring compatible clergy and congregations together.
A decade of experience with these "matches" has shown that errors may be made. But whatever the outcome, many active church people say the self-studies still are valuable.
At Raleigh Court, according to results released this month in the parish newsletter, more than 26 percent of members were attracted to the church because of Allison's leadership. Those who described themselves as lifelong members in a committed family made up the next-largest group of respondents.
Other reasons the Grandin Road Southwest church is liked are its residential location (15 percent), friendliness (11 percent) and a friend's recommendation (9 percent). The remaining 15 percent of members said they came because of such programs as Sunday school, choir, preschool and women's organizations.
The figures are significantly different from often-published national findings about church health. Countless ministers have quoted polls that say as many as 90 percent of members of a church come "because a friend, neighbor or co-worker invited me."
In these national polls, the influence of the pastor is minimized, along with such factors as convenience, program and skilled staff. The figures are quoted in order to get active members to engage in personal evangelism.
The difference might be accounted for to some extent by the length of Allison's pastorate and his higher-than-average profile in the community. He has served on the Roanoke School Board and in many human-service efforts.
The factor of family connection may also be significant. In assessing the drop in membership throughout America that most mainstream denominations have suffered, analysts frequently say few young adults today stay in their family's church.
The Raleigh Court survey also notes that 38 percent of respondents are in morning worship weekly. Far fewer go to Sunday school and evening worship.
by CNB