As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Gambling ‘is all I think about,’ Danny told the pastor. ‘I’m quitting school. My parents are going to kill me, but I’m doing it because I can make a living that way.’” - Baptist Press
“The online gambling industry is profiting off addiction…. the pushers include state governments.” - The Free Press
“His life spiraled out of control and he ended up worse than he was before he was saved. This failure completely disillusioned a daughter who saw her hero turn into a completely different person.” - P&D
“Through a 12-month period ending in April, the CDC said, nearly 98,000 drug overdose deaths had been reported…Two primary factors drive that increase: a rise in the availability of fentanyl and isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.” - BPNews
“Dopamine is the brain’s natural feel-good chemical. It rewards us when we do enjoyable things: connect with friends, laugh at a joke, eat a taco. Today, that powerful reward cycle is being hijacked by digital technology.” - Breakpoint
“While the church has more to offer an addict, even many Christians turn to 12-step programs (like Alcoholics Anonymous). Why? According to Dunnington, one reason is that churches aren’t calling people to confess their sins or admit they are sinners” - TGC
“Nashville-based LifeWay Research asked 1,000 Protestant pastors about their personal connections to the opioid epidemic and how their churches are looking to address the issue.” - Christianity Today
“ ‘Accessibility, affordability, advertising, anonymity, and anomie, the five cylinders of the engine of mass addiction,’ writes David T. Courtwright in his new, one might say compulsively readable book about bad habits becoming big business, The Age of Addiction.” - The American Conservative
” … a conclusion that is simple yet profound: when dealing with addiction, environment matters a lot.” Intellectual Takeout
One of the things that always amuses me about being a pastor’s wife is that people think they have to be careful around me. As if I have a delicate condition that can’t handle the realities of the world. In order to protect me, they shuffle, they fumble, they apologize and then use euphemisms to describe situations that I could paint in living color. What they don’t understand is that, behind this genteel exterior, I’ve seen it all.
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