Man suicides after court ordered Christian drug program tried to ungay him

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Man suicides after court ordered Christian drug program tried to ungay him

Sucrose: Dec 9, 2009

How is this not a blatant violation of separation of church and state?

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 19:22

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Sucrose: Dec 9, 2009

Parallel Paraplegic posted:

He had the 'choice' of going to jail instead.

I would hope that the courts are not quite this dumb.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 19:31

Sucrose: Dec 9, 2009

Woozy posted:

Even the "secular" programs aren't really irreligious. The 12 steps are woven into nearly every treatment program there is--even expensive, high end clinics whose clients believe they're paying for something a cut above. Even an authentically secular program, however, doesn't guarantee he wouldn't have been forced into some idiotic group therapy with homophobic strangers and bullies. The expectation in all cases is that your existing friends and support are replaced with a new group of potentially toxic, certainly unstable addicts, many of whom use the program as a personal dating service and have even shittier attitudes than judges and probation officers (assuming they're complying with the program and not just dealing to the people in their group to begin with) because they're essentially adult converts whose induction into the group wasn't all that different from hazing.

Maybe there was a perfectly viable alternative, but courts are unbelievable petty when it comes to their captives and can set all sorts of arbitrary rules based off of what the high school educated social worker thinks and what the Judge remembered reading in a magazine once about addiction.

Basically all these diversionary programs are meant to represent the "softer side" of justice but actually have the effect of creating potentially worse outcomes than the draconian sentences they are meant to insulate from criticism. Offenders typically receive a combination of probation and terrible and/or non-existent mandated care that guarantees they'll be cycled back into the system sooner or later, often at a greater expense and more time served than if they had just gone to jail to begin with. Arbitration is a separate issue but its no wonder that places that claim to treat addiction need a way to insulate themselves from lawsuits. The consequences for failing at that particular gig are totally catastrophic and the mental health community responsible for treatment is hilariously ideological to the point of blaming addicts in their own programs for not making the recovery they paid for.

Edit: All of this is not to mention the fact that the courts are not qualified to diagnose mental health issues to begin with and have absolutely no business mandating any kind of treatment, often overruling private assessments in order to do so.

Still sounds better than going to jail, or would if it didn't involve forcing non-Christians into Christian programs, which shouldn't be loving offered unless there's an equal secular program available.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 19:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Man suicides after court ordered Christian drug program tried to ungay him