Faith Based Rehab Centers

Faith based treatment is a real blessing for those people who have strong religious beliefs. Faith based programs tend to be rooted in one religion and follows the core dogma of that religion exactly. These programs are founded in the idea that regardless of what causes addiction, recovery can be found through faith in a particular religion’s god. In the United States, the most common faith based treatment oriented centers are Christian in nature, and perceive addiction as being a problem that can be resolved by faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to the word of God.

While many faith based treatment centers do use the word “spirituality,” in the addiction community, a spiritual program is specifically not a religious system of recovery. While spirituality based programs do emphasize a belief in a Higher Power that could be anything, in Christian faith based treatment systems, the only Higher Power is Jesus Christ. Note well that not all faith based treatments shun the 12 Steps. They simply replace “Higher Power” with Christ. The rest of the steps remain the same.

It is important to make that distinction. People who hold a solid faith that Christ is the only possible Higher Power would perhaps have some difficulty in a program that did not adhere strictly to that concept. Fortunately, there are many treatment centers firmly rooted in Christianity and the belief that Jesus Christ can lead one out of addiction’s wilderness.

Perhaps the most famous faith based system is Celebrate Recovery, a Christian centered and oriented recovery program that was started in 1990. Its tenants are taken from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and is very specific in that a belief in Jesus Christ as God is absolutely essential to attend Celebrate Recovery.

There is also a faith based treatment for Muslims. Millati Islami (“Path of Peace”), although very similar to a 12 Step program is rooted in entirely in the belief that addiction is actually curable through obedience to Allah.