An article about the growing use of anti-psychotic drugs for children and youth (especially juvenile offenders) just caught my eye. These drugs are only approved to treat schizophrenia and serious bipolar disorders and have not been tested on children and youth. Research suggests they are primarily used for their sedating effects with no regard for the long term side-effects (like diabetes, weight gain, and possible long-term damage to brain development.
It’s such an easy solution. Sedate them, keep them as compliant as possible, and then pass on their problems to the next group of people who will have to deal with the fallout. Quick fix, long-term disaster.
I think all of us are tempted to do those quick fixes when faced with big problems. Occasionally, quick fixes work. Mostly, they just make things worse. The hard work of real transformation (from out-of-control children to responsible adults or anything else that is broken or troubled or seriously disordered to something that moves to a more meaningful maturity) takes too much time and intentionality. Few really want to do this today, and we are going to pay long term for a growing laziness.
It’s the same in the church. Stick a program here, lay a gloss over the situation there, but until real issues are addressed, all we do is make it worse.
What are the real issues of the church? We’ve exchanged programming for discipleship. We’ve exchanged the privilege of expending ourselves in service for the entitlement of having our needs met and someone else serving us. We’ve exchanged the worship of a Holy God for the worship of seductive power and security. No quick fix here.
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