New York Times columnist David Brooks often has brilliant things to say. But sometimes he misses by a mile.
One such column, I pointed out, was his piece on AA (per an article in Wired) that praised AA to the sky while acknowledging it most often failed, and failing himself to see AA's deleterious place in the larger picture -- a focus he usually maintains better than other commentators.
His column today on New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin's Christianity is doubly wrongheaded. In the first place, he gets entirely wrong the idea that Lin's religion is a major departure for professional athletes. In fact, basketball players as a group are highly religious. This is because African Americans are among the most devout Christians in America.
Brooks' second mistake –– a religious upbringing and emphasis can backfire.
Which brings us to Whitney Houston. Houston grew up in the church in which her mother was very active. Whitney learned to sing –– and was often pictured singing –– in the gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark. She also attended a Catholic girls' high school in East Orange.
So far so good. Like Brooks, I admire people who are close to their families, who are part of close-knit communities, and who develop their skills in such a social setting and become great successes.
Then, if they are very successful, people are exposed to a larger world. Baptists are among the most abstemious groups in America (almost as much so as Mormons) –– over 90 percent of Southern Baptists abstain from alcohol.* But Whitney Houston then entered a world where alcohol –– and other substances –– were regularly consumed.
I can't speak about Whitney's sex life, but it's possible that her Catholic girls' school background was not good preparation for her marriage to Bobby Brown and related experiences.
What outcome from all of this might you predict? One was what in fact occurred –– Whitney lacked the capacity to manage her substance use and marriage and thus became a career and life casualty.
All of this struck me personally, because I lived across the hall for several years from a man raised in the same community as Whitney –– East Orange. I described in the Huffington Post celebrating Milton Irvin's (baseball hall-of-famer Monte Irvin's brother) 87th birthday with another neighbor, who was born in the Dominican Republic. We drank Scotch, and each of us discussed how we learned to drink. Milton's father instructed him on drinking occasionally –– and properly –– that is to say, moderately, with self-control and self-respect.
It so happens that Milton, who was raised a Protestant, married a Catholic woman, and he sent his three kids to Catholic schools. I can't comment on his offspring's religious commitments, but I'm pretty sure that none of them was a substance abuser.+
So I'm certainly not one to say religion is bad –– or good –– from the standpoint of addiction. I'm here to say that how that works out is related to a person's preparation for life, which depends on other things, and that religion per se is a secondary consideration.
Got that David? And, while you're at it, rethink AA.
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* Catholics, as a group, are far less abstemious than American Protestants.
+ Milton, a great family man and a good friend, has since died -- God rest his soul.
