Reading a story about the drunk driver responsible for the car accident that killed Angels rookie Nick Adenhart and two others last week, I came across this description of the rehab program the driver, Andrew Gallo, underwent following a previous DUI arrest.
As part of Gallo’s plea deal on that arrest, he went to the Bible Tabernacle, a rehabilitation facility in Canyon Country, Calif., which is also a Christian ministry. Bible Tabernacle uses faith instead of therapy to heal. Mario Harper, who runs the facility, said its intent is to put discipline back into men’s lives.
Gallo was required to stay at Bible Tabernacle for six months, waking each morning at 5:30, reading his bible for 90 minutes, then working each day as a grounds crew member, raking leaves and taking out trash, among other tasks.
I’ve never heard of this form of rehab before, especially for alcoholism and other forms of addiction. I know it’s not uncommon for churches and other religious groups to sponsor treatment programs. But, sheesh, substituting religion for therapy?
For one thing, alcoholism, like other forms of chemical dependency, is a disease. So while their “discipline” might be a part of treating the addiction, it seems negligent to fail to educate alcoholics about the nature of their disease, and to not offer them the kind of therapy that might help them manage their disease more effectively.
Reading the program description from the Bible Tabernacle site, I’m no more encouraged that the program is really equipping its patients for recovery.
Our Canyon Country Ministry, The New Life Institute, was founded in 1979. Over 100 men are housed, fed and given the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day. Canyon Country uses a Biblical approach to rehabilitation. By offering spiritual guidance based on the Word of God, guest residents prepare to re – enter the working and social environments with confidence.
Guest residents read the bible every morning, attend Bible studies every evening and receive spiritual guidance on a daily basis. They work in departments ranging from the front office to the kitchen in preparation for the day they leave the ministry. Many opportunities are provided to learn the skills required to become productive members of society.
The Bible Tabernacle founder, Pastor Fred Hilst, believed that the self-contained environment of the facility (an 11-acre ranch away from the city) would help those in need of spiritual guidance to focus on the Word of God. As the name New Life Institute suggests, this is a place where thousands of men have started on their way to a new life with the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
In fact, that description makes it sound like the focus is solely on Christian evangelism. Rehabilitation seems like an incidental goal. Clearly this is a program of faith healing, quite literally.
I have no qualms with making bible study, religious instruction or other such faith-based components an element of recovery. If it helps someone cope with demons, I’m not one to question that.
But it still seems irresponsible to make that element into the totality of rehabilitation and recovery. I’m quite appalled that a court would recognize this program as a suitable course of recovery as part of a plea agreement (though, admittedly, the details of the plea deal are sketchy). It just seems irresponsible to let a drunk driver have non-treatment “rehabilitation,” when the dangers of relapse are great, and the possibility of a relapse could cause serious injury or death to others.
Two thoughts:
First, I grew up in Canyon Country.
Second, who paid for his rehab? His family? His insurance company? The state?
No one paid for it. The BT is an in-kind facility, that is work is performed for room and board.
All that considered, I wouldn’t go praising other forms of rehab for their great success in comparison. We have no data here on the effectiveness of any approach, just anecdotes. In that vein, we can point to plenty of celebrities who got little reform out of conventional rehab. How many times has Lindsay Lohan been in?
I think the real problem with rehab is that there’s not enough research given over to what is actually effective and what’s not. It’s like teaching: Much of the practice is based on what we all believe OUGHT to work (whether that be spelling tests and math manipulatives or Bible study and 12-step programs) rather than any clue as to what does.
Of course, if we knew of something that worked like a magic bullet, we wouldn’t have so many alcoholics and drunk drivers.
I am sure Mario at the Bible Tabernacle never promised anyone a cure for alcoholism. Six months at the Bible Tabernacle will absolutely serve to help any man that finds themselves in dire straits, or thinks they genuinely need help with any “life problem”. They are free to leave at any time, and are also free to seek help of any kind. These men, like all of us are free to make their own choices. His disease of alcoholism may have had a grip on him, even a devastating grip, but he still had a choice. No matter how out of control he was, he was still in control enough to agree to his plea deal: Then after being expelled from the Tabernacle, he was in control enough to walk sober into a bar, liquor store, to his refrigerator…..
as it pertains to the word of God: The answers and solutions are all there and are surprisingly simple! What’s hard is letting go of the escape, the euphoria, the fantasy, the lust, the depression, the things that feel so comfortable, so good, so ecstatic, the things we want at our core that potential destroy us and anyone near or around us. That’s the war we as individuals are right smack in the middle of and we perish due to lack of knowledge. We need to know that we can proclaim and reclaim our power of choice! We choose to decide to do things we want to do all the time! Drinking, cheating, lying, drunk driving, stealing, gossiping, sleeping, loving, flying kites, rescuing puppies etc…
Please believe, know that we also have the power to refrain from doing things that could potentially harm ourselves and others. With practice we can learn to control our impulses. No matter where they originate, that’s all they really are impulses. If we only knew our potential! Let us no longer be controlled by mere impulses….
I’m not denying that there’s individual responsibility on some level to seek treatment or to try to remain sober.
However, my original point, and the one you seem to dismiss, is that self-discipline alone is insufficient for treating alcoholism. It’s part of the solution, to be sure, but you can’t confuse this one part for the whole of a treatment program.
That’s my real qualm with the approach to treatment the Bible Tabernacle appears to take: it seems as if the program is ignoring or choosing not to recognize that alcoholism is a disease that requires more than Bible study and hard work to treat. You wouldn’t suggest, I hope, that prayer and labor are sufficient for treating cancer or a heart attack. A sensible person would recognize that a course of radiation, or chemotherapy, or bypass surgery would be necessary for treating the proximate cause of the disease. Prayer, Bible study and even a carefully supervised program of light labor might all be appropriate components of a recovery program, but they aren’t sufficient on their own to treat the disease.
“No matter how out of control he was, he was still in control enough to agree to his plea deal: Then after being expelled from the Tabernacle, he was in control enough to walk sober into a bar, liquor store, to his refrigeratorā¦..”
My goodness, if an alcoholic going to get liquored up is proof positive of being “in control,” than what does “out of control” look like? You can’t allow that the guy was out of control (“No matter how out of control he was”) while implying that the only way one can consume alcohol while not being in control is to be strapped down while someone pours it down one’s throat.
An alcoholic’s drive to drink is like the human drive to eat: Sure, self-control can resist it for a while, but eventually that bag of potato chips is going down in a ravenous frenzy.
The Canyon Country Bible Tabernacle is not an alcohol treatment facility, and does not claim to be. There have been scores of alcoholics and hard core drug addicts who’ve spent 90 days there and have never taken another drink or drug. There also have been just as many that leave the facility and go right back to the dope or the bottle.
Bible Tabernacle may not claim to be an alcohol treatment facility. But obviously in this case it was being entrusted with the full-time care of a recovering alcoholic. (The more salient point is obviously whether the judicial system should’ve allowed Andrew Gallo to go into such a program as part of his plea deal, but no matter if you think it a good idea, the fact is that the court put Gallo in the care of Bible Tabernacle.)
Even if that’s not your ken and you’re really more about spiritual rediscovery, it seems negligent just to ignore the real needs of a person under your care. It’d be like being given guardianship of an out-of-control sixteen-year-old girl who is now pregnant because you run a sort of boot camp for troubled teens and you’re qualified and experienced in instilling them with a sense of routine and discipline. Only, even though you put the teenager through a rigorous daily regimen of rising early, doing chores and promoting responsible behavior, you completely neglect to get the girl to an obstetrician or to get her other prenatal care because “that’s not what do, nor is it what you claim to do.”
Not purporting expertise in alcohol treatment, just like not being expert in helping pregnant teenagers, doesn’t absolve a person or organization from showing some responsibility.
Besides, the Bible Tabernacle’s web description of its own activities says it offers a “Biblical approach to rehabilitation.” Now, it doesn’t specify “alcohol” rehabilitation, or “drug” rehabilitation, or “sports injury rehabilitation.” But it’s hardly a big leap to think the first two possibilities are more their target than the last one.
What I mean to point out is that the Tabernacle never claimed to provide a clinical “Alcohol Treatment Program”. They absolutely claim to provide a biblical approach to alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Courts have been sending men to the tabernacle for several years because of their track record. (The people that work there didn’t just get their names pulled out of a hat and they don’t just hold hands and sing “Cumbaya” ). Most of these individuals arrive at the tabernacle with long histories of chronic addiction, prison and rehab. Many have been kicked out of rehab.
Way More than a few, now lead amazingly productive, transformed lives. Some stay on the wagon, some fall off, some refuse or cannot get on the wagon.
You make a big deal about drawing an important distinction between “providing a biblical approach to drug and alcohol rehabilitation” and a clinical “alcohol treatment program,” but that’s missing the more essential point: a rehab program is incomplete and, certainly in this case, a lot more likely to prove unsuccessful if it lacks that “clinical” component alongside whatever support program is being offered, be it Christian, secular, folksy or tough love.
Again, I’m not saying there isn’t a place for a program that emphasizes discipline and morning Bible study, or one that emphasizes a more new-age, “kumbaya” approach. I recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to alcohol rehab, and that some individuals may respond better for a variety of reasons to a religiously based approach.
The bigger issue remains that Gallo was placed in the care of Bible Tabernacle to help get sober and turn around his life. Bible Tabernacle was responsible for taking care of him, and while you can go on about self-responsibility and -discipline being necessary, the bigger issue is that nothing has surfaced to suggest that Bible Tabernacle ever offered him any form of “clinical” treatment for his alcoholism.
It seems, based on what’s been made public and what Bible Tabernacle says on its website, that the “Christian love” approach to rehabilitation is taking the place of “clinical” treatment.
My point is that it’s irresponsible simply to substitute the biblically based approach for clinical treatment and medical care. You can believe in the efficacy of prayer and scriptural study and good Christian living in reforming the life of an alcoholic. But while you may put your faith in scripturally based rehab, I place mine in clinical treatment. Alcoholism is a disease, not a character defect.
As someone who traversed the roads where Gallo continued to drive under the influence, and who has family members driving those roads everyday, I’m not satisfied with doing the functional equivalent of handing an alcoholic a Bible and telling him you expect him to stay sober. I consider that negligent. Perhaps it’s even criminally negligent in this case, considering Gallo’s drunk driving killed three people and critically injured and fourth person.
I recognize that even clinical treatment might not have “cured” his alcoholism, and that he could’ve still fallen off the wagon and got behind the wheel despite clinical treatment. But at the very least I’d feel like more was done to try to treat his disease.
I spent my 12th and 13th birthdays there at the Bible Tabernacle. The BT is what we called it. (The Men and boys lived on the same “Campus” back then). Looking back 20+ years later, I can honestly say that the program they ran there made a positive impact on my life. The Bible Tabernacle takes the worst of the worst and gives them a chance that might not receive anywhere else. trust me when i say this, the Bible Tabernacle is not for the weak, these are hard men, who have lived hard lives. It’s not easy for some people to live the straight and narrow, whether it be nature or nurture; the hand that was dealt in life. Sink or swim. Do they deserve that chance? Chances? Fate, Destiny, God, the Courts…whatever you choose to believe has rolled the dice for this man. How will he fair in his test?
I’m in no way affiliated with the Bible Tabernacle.. I spent some of the best and worst years of my life there. I just had happened to be thinking back to my childhood tonight…and those I shared it with.
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I have to just say, after reading this page that I was once a member of the Bible Tabernacle back in 2005. I was baptized there and it was there I learned of Gods ways and now after 6 years after leaving there I have no words to express how thankful I am that God led me there. During my stay there i was blessed to know the men and woman who run this faith based program and I can honestly say it has changed my life in unspeakable and uncountable ways. God word has the power to transform life and after years of attending so called drug rehab programs and 12 step meetings, My vote goes to the bible Tabernacle. I walked away from that life after years of addiction to crack Cocaine and never looked back. God has led me every step of the way just as his promised he would. Jesus said hat he who professes me before man the same i will confess before my father and his saints. the problem with this country is found in Romans 5/18 and it is a shame that men don’t open their hearts and ears to God, But the Bible did say speak not into the ears of a fool for he will despise your words of wisdom. My prayer for you reading this is that you will come to know Jesus.are you really naive enough to believe that heaven and hell are fairy tales? William Burris Los Angeles Calif.