Timothy McMahan King - Addiction Nation: What the Opioid Crisis Reveals about Us

Timothy McMahan King writes from a deep well fed by an amazing personal experience with opioid addiction that led to unique insights about recovery in the context of his Christian faith. His words of hard-won wisdom should be read by individuals, churches, and any organization yearning for fresh ideas about how to understand this national epidemic.

TIMOTHY JOHNSON , New York Times bestselling author and retired senior medical contributor for ABC News

African American communities suffered the infiltration of death-dealing heroin in the 1970s and the atom bomb of crack in the 1980s. Our cries rarely made it to the pages of the New York Times , and few black drug addicts ever got to tell their story, though they writhed with the same agony fleshed out in Addiction Nation . Timothy McMahan King does not share a white addiction story. His story reveals the indiscriminate terror of addiction in the lives of human beings. I want every American to read this book. I want each reader to understand the horror of addiction through the framework of my friends struggle. And after turning the last page, I pray each reader closes their eyes and imagines the diverse mosaic of America in the clutches of this beast. Maybe then we might all be set free.

LISA SHARON HARPER , author of The Very Good Gospel and founder and president of Freedom Road

That Timothy McMahan King survived the clutches of opioid addiction is a miracle. That he lived to tell the harrowing tale is a gift to the rest of us. Everyone battles the beast of addiction, whether it is to substances or to some other form of unbridled consumption weve deemed somehow more socially acceptable. If we are to find our collective way out of addictions societal morass, we need a voice and vision such as Kingssteady-eyed and compassionate, rational and reasoned, full of hope and rooted in graceto lead the way. At once sweeping and deeply personal in its scope, Addiction Nation is an essential resource for anyone touched by addiction, which is all of us.

CATHLEEN FALSANI , award-winning religion journalist and author of The God Factor

With emotional honesty, intellectual integrity, and spiritual sensitivity, Timothy McMahan King tells a story that may be difficult for many of us to read. But this story is our story. It is the story of our culpability in a broken narrative that will not be redeemed without truth-telling and authentic lament. This book may be one of the most important books for this generation.

SOONG-CHAN RAH , author of The Next Evangelicalism and associate professor of church growth and evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary

Addictions are too often condescendingly judged as indulgence born in a cycle of self-absorption. In Addiction Nation , Timothy McMahan King probes the opioid crisis personally, theologically, medically, and systemically. If King can find himself trapped in a cycle with opioids, so can you. This book is an eye-opener, a summons for those with quick judgments to think again, and for Americas churches to become active in compassion for what is, by all accounts, a growing problem.

SCOT MCKNIGHT , professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

Addiction Nation offers an important message at a critical time. Our culture of addictionas evidenced by the opioid epidemicneeds practical and spiritual guidance. Timothy McMahan King offers trustworthy insights drawn from his own experience of addiction as well as from scientific research and spirituality. I believe this book can help our nations, our families, and individuals recover and find healing!

RICHARD ROHR , founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation

In his engaging book, Addiction Nation , Timothy McMahan King contends that our national opioid crisis is no accident. Addiction is not a choice that a few moral degenerates opt into but rather a pervasive and seductive dynamic in our culture that requires us to opt out. Through eyes of faith, King considers how we can be not conformed to a world that fosters such idolatries.

WILLIAM R. MILLER , distinguished emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of New Mexico

Herald Press

PO Box 866, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803

www.HeraldPress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: King, Timothy McMahan, author.

Title: Addiction nation : what the opioid crisis reveals about us / Timothy

McMahan King.

Description: Harrisonburg, Virginia : Herald Press, 2019. | Includes

bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019003950| ISBN 9781513804064 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN

9781513804071 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781513804088 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Opioid abuse--United States. | Opioids--Overdose--United

States. | Drug abuse--Treatment--United States. | Drug abuse--Social

aspects--United States.

Classification: LCC RC568.O45 K56 2019 | DDC 362.29/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003950

Published in association with The Christopher Ferebee Agency,
www.christopherferebee.com.

ADDICTION NATION

2019 by Timothy McMahan King

Released by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803. 800-245-7894.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019003950

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-5138-0406-4 (paperback);

978-1-5138-0407-1 (hardcover); 978-1-5138-0408-8 (ebook)

Printed in United States of America

Cover and interior design by Reuben Graham

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the copyright owners.

Portions of chapter 1 first appeared in Christianity Today , December 2016.

Portions of chapter 18 first appeared in Oneing: Perfection 4 , no. 1 (Spring 2016) published by the Center for Action and Contemplation.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are quoted, with permission, from the New Revised Standard Version , 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

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Beginnings

I dont remember much about the day when everything went wrong. Nothing indicated that a standard outpatient procedure would lead to weeks in the ICU, months in the hospital, and almost a year out of work.

It all started with a routine procedure. I was supposed to be in and out in hours. The doctors, after eliminating the typical causes, were looking for the reason I had developed a mild case of pancreatitis a few weeks before. I didnt know when I left my house that morning how much my life would change. Few people do.

Memories of a dark hospital room and slowly blinking lights come back to me in fevered fits. Dislocated voices from intrusive, floating faces said things would be all right. I had known pain before: crutches, casts, and stitches. But until this moment I had always experienced pain as something outside myself. Now it was all that was left of me.