What took him so long?

[Stuckinthebush]

My ex-wife has finally agreed to an intensive inpatient 90 day alcohol treatment program. She entered the program a couple of days ago. She has been battling alcoholism for 13 years and it has taken a toll on her marriage, her relationship with her children, her health, and her career. We've all tried to work with her but it is one of those things that she had to finally do on her own. My children and I are so relieved that she is taking this step. It's a wonderful thing.

Cue the theists:

My current wife and my parents were all discussing this wonderful turn of events and exclaimed,

"I have been praying for this!"
"God has answered our prayers!"
"I've had so many people praying...."

I normally ignore such statements but my fatigue over the situation got the best of me. I looked at them all with their glistening eyes, clasped hands, and smiles and said,

"What took Yahweh so fucking long? Jesus Christ! Don't you think a lot of pain would have been saved if the dude would have listened to all of you 13 years ago???"

I will give all of my non-theist brothers and sisters one guess at their response.....

[Bryce Butler]

1. I hate guessing...

What was their response?

[Stuckinthebush]

2. God works in mysterious ways

We don't know HIS will.

[kdmorris]

3. That's vomit inducing...n/t

[Stuckinthebush]

4. Indeed

I mumbled, "Then he's a sick bastard" and walked away.

[AlbertCat]

7. God works in mysterious ways

Be sure to point out, if you eliminate the god part.... all the mystery clears up!

[DetlefK]

11. Wait. If my suffering is His will and He is infallible...

then who am I to ask him to stop causing my suffering?

[Warren Stupidity]

14. first you have to donate enough funds to the God Bank

then you get your suffering alleviated.

[trotsky]

17. That's what popped into my head.

It's a disgusting sentiment. Implies that the suffering of innocents is PLANNED. Yay god!

[AtheistCrusader]

5. These people aren't rational. You won't get a rational response from irrational people.

You'll just be disappointed, and offended.


They abdicated 'understanding' when they invested credibility in an invisible, non-responsive hypothesis of a supernatural being. They can't help you. They can't help themselves.

[Warpy]

6. Praying is likely the best thing they've done

since trying to control an alcoholic's drinking is often enabling in an "I have to drink, they're all against me!" kind of way.

At least prayer does nothing.

There is nothing you can do to control an alcoholic. You're as powerless against an alcohol addiction as they are and have just as miserable a time without some help.

But Jebus picks the time to open their hearts, dontcha know, usually after they've lost families, alienated any and all children, ruined their careers, and are often dying from the horrible effect alcohol has on body systems.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. Now they'll be praying for you.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. They've been doing that for years

I love to say, "well that explains the burning feeling in my brain last night!"

[Heddi]

10. I would ask them why they prayed instead of actually DOING something

since prayer is *literally* the least you can do in one situation. "sorry you're going through a bad time. I'm going to think thoughts about you for a minute."

I've asked that of my family members who gush on and on about the numerous prayers they have offered people who probably could have used some money, or a ride to the dr's office, or help with groceries a fuck of a lot more than they could have used prayer.

I never got an answer. It's like God is perfectly fine with suffering people being on the tongues of 18 people in a facebook prayer circle, rather than 18 hands helping the suffering person.

I'm glad your ex is getting the help she needs. Don't get discouraged if she hits some potholes along the way. I don't know how old your kids are, but if they're young (or even if not), they may get some help with this through counseling.

The hard thing, I have found, being a family member/friend of someone going through treatment is often the addict comes out of recovery and is like 'Look, a new me! Let's pretend that nothing bad happened in the past and get back to normal," and they often get discouraged and offfended when they're not given 100% trust back immediately, or that we still smell their breath to make sure they're not drinking, or cast a glance at their arms to make sure they're not using.

Most good addiction recovery centers will deal with these matters during therapy, and will involve the family so that way the user and the family can understand what each party was going through.

But I've been part of my fair share of arguments "WHY DON'T YOU TRUST ME? I"M CLEAN" and the answer is 'because I trusted you before and you weren't."

It's hard. Know that you're not alone, and you're always welcome to vent to me if you feel the need.

:hugs:

[Stuckinthebush]

15. Thanks for the post

It's been a LONG road but I hope she gets the help she needs. Our children are 17, 15 and 13 now. This started after my youngest was born. Interestingly, it was after a meningitis incident. I always wondered if the meningitis stirred up anything in her brain because there was a complete personality change.


The kids are doing well. They know that she has needed this for many years. As for trust....it'll come slowly.

[Lars39]

12. God's will....they all have lessons to learn?

Last edited Tue Nov 25, 2014, 09:17 AM - Edit history (1)

[Stuckinthebush]

16. Bing bing!

We have a winner

[Warren Stupidity]

13. well as we have learned, opinions like yours are hateful bigotry and

are most likely false flag operations by repeatedly banned trolls, or "Poe's" as they are now called, referring to Poe's Law, which has nothing the fuck whatever to do with trolling, done in order to make the REAL ATHEISTS look bad.

[trotsky]

18. +1 n/t