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When God Becomes A Drug Breaking the Chains of Religious Addiction Abuseby Father Leo Booth Book review by William B. Lindley
This book is a significant addition to the literature of the Recovery Movement, the movement that began in the 1930's with Alcoholics Anonymous and has since taken on other addictions such as cocaine, gambling, overeating, and compulsive sexual behavior. AA is still the model, and its twelve-step program, with its belief in a Higher Power, is the guide. To the list of addictions to be treated through the twelve steps, Father Booth adds religious addiction, the compulsive religiosity that damages some people's lives. I think he makes his case. He carefully draws the parallels between compulsive religious behavior and the better-known addictions, and he supplies a variety of case histories to support his view. Here are just a few symptoms of religious addiction, extracted from a lengthy list that appears on p. 59: "Inability to think, doubt, or question information or authority; magical thinking that God will fix you; uncompromising, judgmental attitudes; believing that sex is dirtyÑthat our bodies and physical pleasures are evil; conflict with science, medicine, and education..." It is tempting to suggest that this book encourages us to call upon a Higher Power to cure us of our excessive dependence upon a Higher Power. This would be unfair. (1) Father Booth acknowledges that the 12-step method is not the only means of ending an addiction; (2) he notes that the 12-step method itself can become addictiveÑthere are 12-step junkies; (3) his "Twelve Steps for Religious Addicts" (pp. 157-8), while based on the AA 12 steps, show important changes, mainly away from conventional theology and self-abasement; and (4) he explicitly separates the God one is addicted to from the God with whom one "co-creates" his recovery. Freethinkers will not be comfortable with the remaining religious or "spiritual" aspects of Father Booth's suggestions for recoveryÑall of his atheists seem to be bitter. Other sources of help are Rational Recovery, Secular Sobriety, and professional therapy are available for those who can't go the AA route. But let's give him full credit for denouncing the doctrine of Original SinÑhe spends five pages on the depravity of the idea of inherent depravity! For people in trouble with religion, this book is well worth reading. One last warning: before you finish this book, you will be sick and tired of the word "dysfunctional". (Note: this book is also reviewed by Bernard Katz in the May-June 1992 issue of the American Rationalist.) Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., ©1991, hardback, 275 pp., $18.95.
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