Psychos in Church

 I heard this story at a meeting today . . . 

Dude gets his third DUI after running over a pedestrian who was so grievously injured that he wasn't expected to survive.  The cop who arrested the dude said: "This is your third felony DUI - if that guy dies you're looking at 25 years to life."  This, in Alcoholics Anonymous, is known as An Attention Getter.  A court date is set.  Dude's lawyer calls and says he has some bad news - the runned-over guy was coming to testify at the sentencing.  Apparently this usually indicates that the offended party is looking for his pound of flesh.

The dude's sponsor accompanied him to the sentencing.  The runned-over guy shows up and sits down next to the sponsor.  When he's asked for his testimony he says this: "This dude isn't a criminal.  He's a alcoholic.  He's sick."  The judge sentences the dude to 30 days in jail, not prison.  Never drank again.

My contention has always been that most alcoholics don't respond well to being told what to do but that we are good at watching sullenly from the dark corners of our minds what other people do.  Talk is cheap.  Actions speak louder than words.  There are plenty of us in this world who talk a good game but don't back it up with good actions.  Like some pious church-goers in their Sunday best who behave badly most of the rest of the time - it doesn't matter if you're a deacon for an hour once a week but a psycho the rest of the time.