with the Rev Harold Stuteley, of the Church of the Nazarene in Oakworth Road

The Keighley News has printed letters recently regarding the Centre which helps drug addicts break free of their habit.

I am not becoming involved in arguments about where the centre should be situated, but a more fundamental question comes to mind:

Why do so many people experiment with drugs in the first place?

No doubt there is more than one answer. Some people are concerned only with enjoying the present moment and have little regard for the consequences of their actions.

Others find life dull and boring, and try drugs in the hope of experiencing excitement and elation.

Still others are easily influenced and begin to take drugs, not because they want to, but because their friends do so.

Another fundamental question occurs to me: "Would so many people have turned to drugs if we who are Christians had been more enthusiastic in testifying to the joy, satisfaction and fulfilment which Jesus Christ can give?

Not that I am trying to equate Christian experience to drug-taking.

I am not attempting to portray Jesus as the great 'fix' with no bad after effects. Nevertheless, if people take drugs to fill a void in their lives, it is tragic if they never knew anyone whose radiant life could have shown them a better way.

As Christians we are quite good at speaking out against drug abuse.

Furthermore, it is often Christians who are at the forefront in helping those who have become dependent upon drugs.

In the long term, perhaps the greatest contribution which Christians can make is to demonstrate, by the quality of our lives, that only Jesus is 'the way, the truth and the life? People are less likely, when they see the real thing, to seek unsatisfactory substitutes.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.