To the editor:

Many a paradox there is to ponder where the same man exists in an age when faith once rallied — but is now held in deception’s grip, without testing what faith would resist. Still, what is, what could be, must be no less by man’s own consent. A more resounding verdict of guilt for a nature that would be denied, as evidenced by the very effort of carnal Christians in their attempt to psychologically integrate, proving far from that which would be hoped to vindicate. Judgment may seem to slumber as precious time is wasted. Oh, what we could have become, if only what is freely given be sought and by the seeking and in the finding, the self be surrendered. What is unearned must still be unearthed; what may be won is in what time carves out apart from a formidable foe of distraction and presumption lest truth be brought to naught.

Waxing philosophical here of the whys of deception and belief polarization.

If a moral/biblical model is the right approach with addiction treatment, which is to say a conscious volition trumps psychology’s internal consciousness that is full of competing/conflicting presumptions, then there must be some truth to the notion we chose our deceptions. At least a high degree of culpability is involved. Any way what is known as recovery is riddled with contradictions, and a better Christian witness is one of contrast, not concession, with what is popularly known as recovery. In fact there are more “biblical principles” involved of impassioned warnings of the deceitfulness of our day and warnings of the preeminence of human wisdom.

John Sweeney

Troy