The opioid epidemic is a growing concern for the church in North America. In 2015 and 2017, US life-expectancy declined for the first time in many decades due to drug overdose deaths and suicides. Approximately 130 people in the US die every day from drug overdoses. Given the staggering number of people who suffer from addiction, I examine how the church might best respond to those struggling. While the creation of programs for addicts is an important step for churches to take, I contend it is even more important to explore the theological concepts, particularly of salvation from bondage, that undergird these efforts. Hence, I ask, “Is the predominant story of redemption that mainline Protestant churches offer those struggling with addiction helpful?”

Mainline Protestant churches rely heavily on Calvin’s substitutionary theory of atonement, which suggests that we are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath and just punishment, yet saved through Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. While Calvin’s rich understanding of original sin helps to name some of the complex issues addicts face, his conception of atonement falls short in that it relies on a metaphor borrowed from the judicial system, which presupposes a kind of freedom and agency addicts do not have. This judicial metaphor reduces the complex notion of original sin to a mere moral failing, and relies on a perpetrator/victim binary, which is not true to the human condition. When applied to addicts, this oversimplification of sin compounds the shame addicts already struggle with, which in turn reinforces the addictive cycle.

In the US, the consensus is that the “War on Drugs” proved to be profoundly harmful to addicts and that addiction is best dealt with in the (mental) health, rather than judicial, system. I argue that a similar shift in metaphors of atonement, from a judicial to a health framework, is necessary if the church in North America is to offer hope to those struggling with addiction.