I'm back from "spiritual based" drug rehab
Offline I went to a drug rehab for 28 days; 99% of the staff and residents were theists, and I was the only atheist. I could write a short book on the experiences, but let me start by saying I had to defend myself against ad homine attacks, daily Pasqual's Wagers, AA meeting that where more like jail house church, and lectures from a xian staff member making derogatory comments against atheists like "Believing nothing gets you nothing...and you will go to hell."
The James Oldham Treatment Center is the low end of treatment centers; this is the end of the road for most users. It's located in Buena, WA, which is south of Yakima, about thirty minutes. The area is one trailer park ghetto after another, and there is more cocaine, meth, and heroin then the cities of Seattle and Portland combined. This is on the major smuggling route by traffickers from Mexico, which distribute all the drugs around Washington, Oregon, Vancouver, BC, and Idaho. The solution to this problem of addiction is a belief in god, according to JOTC. This isn't really a faith-based drug rehab, but called a "spiritual based treatment facility". They define "spiritual based" as: accepting god, "cleaning house", and letting go. Prayers, after every class, group session, or AA/NA meeting.
I got singled out for not praying. That wasn't anything of significance, but residents began to question my beliefs. I did claim to have a higher power in logical thinking, science, and humanity; however this didn't sit well with most residents and reacted with trying to prove god; praying for me; and even one fundie Mexican said ad verbatim, "This place does not belong to the atheist and Secular Humanists. This is the house of god, and you better recognize!"
Of course, I told him to fuck off. Nevertheless, this wasn't the only time. I could go on, but I am ending here.
(to be continued)
To add the State of WA, dept of Social and Health sent me here without any information about the place, and JOTC doesn't even have a Web site. Were my rights violated? Should I call the ACLU?
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WOW...That sucks huge hairy balls. You may have been able to transfer to a different facility...I realy dont know much bout rehab facilities.
Shaitian, talk about the understatement of the year.
politicalhumanist, Seems to me that that AA/NA experience was enough to send you back to what ever put you there in the first place.
Maybe these guys can put you in contact with someone who can help. Wish I could do more.
http://www.secularsobriety.org/
We must favor verifiable evidence over private feeling. Otherwise we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would obscure the truth.
~ Richard Dawkins
PH, you need to tell your parole officer or whoever is making you go to these programs that they are not working and tell them why. There are plenty of secular SELF-HELP programs out there, and I've already sent you links to a few like SOS.
You SHOULD contact the ACLU if you feel that you are being forced into treatment programs that require you to adopt a religious ideology or make you feel excluded for not adopting such an ideology. Flat out I will tell you that simply threating to bring the ACLU in will get you action and get them to address your gripe - they know they stand on shaky legal grounds. I know from personal experience that I'd rather not discuss here - PM me if you like.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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The NA meeting weren't that offensive. The chair person was Native American, and was into some Native religion, saying "great elder spirit, great grandfather..." He even stated people without faith would not be judged because we all suffer from drug addiction, yadda, yadda, yadda.
AA meetings were run by us residents, and counselors didn't attend. Keep in mind that most residents here come out of the Union Gosple Mission, jail, prison, and the streets. Although I was not the only guy singled out; a Wicca was put on the spot, and I jumped to his defense. Did you know RSS and Infidel Guy are offensive URL's and slogans?
Oh yeah, one morning before the 8:00am meeting I wrote, 'god is just pretend,' and 'Fighting to free humanity from the mind disorder known as theism' on the chalk board, along with the URL's. This started a fight amongst residents, to say the least. I came close to stomping the shit out of some mormon, but kept it to verbal abuse. I way I saw it was, the theists put their Jesus crap on the chalk board every morning, so I thought it's only fair to have free access.
http://freethinkernation.com
That's the kind of story that sets my blood afire. I almost wish I was in such a situation some day just for the hell I'd raise. It would be a good stress reliever. For the day or two that I lasted before getting the boot anyway.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
The mormon herion addict and I made ammends and vowed to work on our anger issues.
Another funny thing happened one morning during AA when a wigger thug born again xian started reading the bible at the meeting. I interputed and said, "This is an AA meeting, not church goddamnit!"
Yes, indeed, this started another fight.
http://freethinkernation.com