BUSH'S FOCUS ON ANTIDRUG MINISTRY IRKS SOME

BATON ROUGE -- On a recent Friday night, cars began arriving at Healing
Place, a megachurch on the outskirts of town that from the road looks more
like a big-box retail store than a place of worship.

Into the sanctuary of the church trickled nearly 100 men and women, carrying
Bibles, avoiding eye contact and hoping for liberation from the addictions
crippling their lives. A Christian rock band belted out a set of love songs
focusing on Jesus, then a woman in a crisply pressed white shirt took up a
cordless microphone and began to preach a mix of scripture and self-help.

"The same God who delivered me can do the same for you," said the woman,
Tonja Myles, describing her victory years ago over addictions to drugs,
alcohol and abusive men. "If you're hurting tonight, we know the one who can
make you whole, and that is Jesus."

These Friday night sessions were singled out by President Bush in his State
of the Union address last month as an example of "recovery programs that do
amazing work." In that speech, the president unveiled his proposal to spend
$600 million on drug programs over the next three years to help 300,000 more
addicts get treatment. Mrs. Myles, invited to Washington for the occasion by
the president, beamed from the gallery of guests seated with Laura Bush, the
first lady.

Many drug treatment professionals were thrilled to hear a president direct
the nation's attention to a social epidemic that they say has too long been
ignored and underfinanced. But some were troubled that of all the nation's
treatment programs, the president seemed to hold up as a model deserving
government support a program that is religiously sectarian, unlicensed,
untested and not clinical in its methods.

"That Friday night event sounds like a worship service," said John Avery,
director of public policy for the National Association for Addiction
Professionals. "The bulk of the patients I know would need a greater level
of care than that. Maybe it would help if they're two years clean and dry,
but then it serves more like a spiritual support group, and why would you
need government to pay for that service?"

The administration said that no one from the White House had visited Healing
Place Church to observe the program before endowing it with the president's
blessing. If administration officials had, they would have found an endeavor
that its founders acknowledge is neither a recovery program nor a drug
treatment center, but a ministry.

It was started a year ago by two volunteers, Mrs. Myles and her husband,
Darren, who run a plumbing business and have no training in substance abuse
treatment or counseling. They call the program Set Free Indeed, and it is
among many ministries initiated by this fast-growing church, like Cruisin'
for Christ for motorcycle enthusiasts, and Growing Kids God's Way, for
parents.

"We're more of a support group," Mrs. Myles said in an interview here. "If
people need rehabilitation, we try to refer them to somewhere."

Appreciative anecdotes from participants in a newspaper article caught the
president's eye, but no one has studied the ministry's impact on those who
attend.

Set Free Indeed receives no government financing. Mr. and Mrs. Myles say
they contribute $300 to $400 each month toward child care for those who
attend and toward dinners like chicken and pasta and coconut cream pie so
participants will feel welcome and linger.

If government financing became available, said the Rev. Dino Rizzo, senior
pastor of Healing Place Church, the addiction ministry would pursue it
"without a doubt."

"Tonja and Darren have a heart to give people the correct help they need,"
Mr. Rizzo said, "which we believe, of course, begins at Christ and then
includes every other tool you can get your hands on."

The money from the president's drug treatment initiative would go toward
vouchers that would be given to addicts to pay for treatment at any program
that states deemed effective, including religious programs.

The White House says the plan does not violate constitutional prohibitions
on government support for religion because the money goes toward the
addicts' vouchers, not to the programs directly. Critics call it a strategy
designed to dodge laws on separation of church and state.

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the ranking Democratic member of
the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, said,
"Again and again, this president has demonstrated that he doesn't understand
the Constitution, or just doesn't care about it."

President Bush, who has long said that faith helped him overcome his own
problem with alcohol, argues that his initiative will give more choice to
addicts seeking help. The kind of programs that stand to benefit most are
those like Teen Challenge, a national network of Christian-based residential
facilities that has been excluded from government financing, said Jim Towey,
director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

"A lot of chronic drug users respond to interventions that aren't purely
medical, that have a spiritual component," Mr. Towey said.

He said that by honoring Mrs. Myles, "the president wasn't saying, `Here is
a program that deserves funding.' "

"Tonja's being in the box with the first lady was a demonstration of what a
difference faith can make in an addict's life," he said.

Mrs. Myles, 39, said that when she was in her early 20's, she used cocaine
and marijuana, turned to prostitution and twice attempted suicide. One
desperate night she arrived at the doorstep of her grandmother, who prayed
for her.

"That night, God did deliver me," Mrs. Myles said. "I never had a craving, I
never slipped."

Her mother, Hattie Richard, said she was also a recovering addict, but for
her faith alone was not enough. Fourteen years ago, Tonja called the sheriff
to escort her unwillingly to a detoxification program, which set her on the
road to sobriety, the two women said. Now Mrs. Richard works as a
receptionist at O'Brien House, a residential treatment program in town.

On the recent Friday at Healing Place, when Mrs. Myles and her husband
finished their sermons, the participants gathered in smaller groups and
revealed their battles with all kinds of addictions, including drugs,
alcohol, pornography and food.

"We're here for you," Mrs. Myles told the participants. "If you need prayer
during the week, someone to encourage you, we're here for you."