Bishop urges self-restraint in face of drug and alcohol abuse

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, the Rt Rev Ken Good, has taken the opportunity to comment on a number of key social issues facing our wider community, including alcohol and drug abuse, debt, obesity, HIV and AIDS.

In a wide ranging address to members of the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Synod last Thursday, he highlighted the need for a greater sense of personal responsibility and for the setting of boundaries in our behaviour.

Bishop Good highlighted government figures revealing that £35 million has been spent in Northern Ireland on treating alcohol related illnesses in 24,000 adults over the past three years. Instances of drink-related liver disease have more than doubled over the past decade, and with the abuse of alcohol now taking root in a younger age group, those figures are likely to rise even further in the longer term.

He talked of a reluctance on the part of individuals to set themselves limits of reasonable and appropriate levels of alcohol consumption and a refusal on the part of those who produce, sell and advertise alcohol, as well as governments which benefit from tax revenue on high volume sales, to set more responsible boundaries on the financial gain they exact at such a high personal and social cost.

Bishop Good pointed out that globally we are losing the battle against AIDS. 40 million people worldwide and 70,000 in the UK now live with the virus. In the next five years there could be 60 million people who are HIV positive in the world. Last year, three times as many people were diagnosed with HIV than in 1997. In Britain, the young, heterosexual community has the fastest-growing number of new cases of the disease.

Referring to the comments of Stephen Fry in a recent TV documentary he noted that Fry became convinced that the chief cause of the epidemic, whether in Africa or elsewhere, is promiscuity; in effect, the rejection of personal sexual boundaries. He pointed out that one reviewer of the programme paid tribute to Fry noting that, "while clearly anxious that it might be 'provocative' to blame 'people's personal behaviour' for the illness, he didn't back-pedal."

Commenting on rising levels of personal debt he suggested that our appetite to buy, to acquire and to possess is fed and encouraged by financial institutions' willingness to lend at levels which are excessive by any reasonable standard. He also said that recent global events have jolted our unwillingness to acknowledge the foolhardiness of current levels of personal debt.

Bishop Good talked of the changing place of religion in Ireland - of a post-Christian society which is now emerging on the island, a society which, he said, is choosing to "throw off some of the long-established boundaries and belief-systems ... and is opting instead for a more do-it-yourself system of individually selected life-choices, many of which can seem to be chosen on the grounds of short-term individual gratification and expediency rather than for any longer term social or corporate benefit". The result has not been "the hoped for freedom, nor the personal sense of fulfilment which it promised. If anything, all this has ... left us somewhat valueless and rudderless".

The bishop asked: "When, on the one hand, is it right and appropriate to cross a boundary, and when, on the other hand, is it better and more helpful to maintain a boundary intact and to avoid crossing it at all costs? I want to suggest that this is a key question that provides a framework within which many of the big issues before us these days can be approached."

In a rapidly changing society, Bishop Good reminded Synod members that "the church's mission has always been about Christians crossing all manner of boundaries - geographical, political, social and cultural ... following Jesus' example, to come alongside and to engage with people of all nationalities, cultures and experiences."

In matters of personal behaviour, Jesus set those who chose to follow him remarkably high standards to seek to live up to. Christ pointed to boundaries in moral values and ethical conduct which bring the best out of us when we choose not to cross them, he concluded.