They feel that if they repeat that the world is as it should be again and again, it would be the truth. "Things are the way you would like them to be. This is self-delusion and Christians are swimming in this."

This scathing indictment of the Church came in the opening remarks of a presentation by eminent psychologist Dr. Samuel Gateere during a workshop for diocesan clergy, on the 6th of August 2003 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral Nairobi.

The one-day workshop on the effects of drugs and substance abuse on Kenyans especially the youth, was organised by the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) and the Diocesan Clergy of St. Stephens Church.

He gave them an anecdote of the woman who had two daughters' aged 17 and 19 whom she fervently believed to be virgins. She wished it to be so, and so believed it to be so yet the truth was the girls had long lost their virginity.

The girls however wanted to tell their mother, but didn't know how so went to a very close family friend to help them out by breaking the news to her. So the friend did this and as the daughters had predicted, the mother collapsed.

"We can live in self-delusion as Christians, in our own families and with those we deal with and in the end we lose touch with the reality on the ground," Dr. Gateere told his attentive audience.

The Church has a lot of grassroots support he pointed out causing laughter by illustrating this with the reminder of how "we baptise babies just after they are born and are hardly a few weeks old and yet we are already trying to influence their direction in life. So church has more grass than grassroots" than many others.

The Church of God thus had a role to play and "today we are here not for soul preparation but body preparation which is the temple of the Lord. We are here to tell you about enemies of the body (temple) for it is under attack by drugs."

The young people are the foundation of any society, not the aged not the children but the youth and therefore the youth are targeted by the enemies of society which he said were fourfold.

The first according to Dr. Gateere was HIV/AIDS because sex was most important to the youth. Not the old or the children but the youth he carefully made the distinction. Because of this we were loosing youth at a rate of almost 700 daily to HIV/AIDS related deaths. Which society could survive for long with this rate of decimation, Gateere posed ominously?

The second enemy was drugs as they retarded the IQ of the young people and their development as well as all the attendant problems, which came with drug use like crime and school unrest.

The third enemy of society were the "intoxicating religions" in which the people involved with them got drunk in them. They worked through suggestion and threat and the youth that were very susceptible to this fell prey as their reasoning was often compromised.

This is why you find at these gatherings some want to shout louder than others do and they cannot reason. These religions at the same time were affecting more girls than boys so you find that these future mothers would obviously pass this on to their children.

Dr. Gateere gave the fourth enemy of society as ill health as a result of lack of work or poverty. "Sigmund Freud who has been called the father of psychology stated that complete health comprises two aspects, the first was the capacity to love that is relate to other human beings and maintain that relationship and the second was to work."

He explained that work was the other part of you, as evidenced by the fact that when we died the only thing we left behind was our deeds. "When we die the only things we leave behind are our deeds. Your bank account shambas and so on will not follow you. But your deeds will and when you get to Heaven will form mlolongo (queue) behind you to show who you are."

As to why the youth were taking drugs, Dr. Gateere explained that our society has changed and is still changing. But as it changes there are consequences.

These changes started with men leaving their rural homes in the 60's leaving their women behind. The society thus became one of houses led by mothers or matriarchal as opposed to patriarchal or those led by fathers.

There was laughter as he declared that "mothers with all due respect can raise boys, but cannot make them men. You need a man to make a man. You need a man to make a man," was his conclusion.

This was why "boys now have become like women and braid their hair and put on earrings because they are repeating what they see. Wana fuata nyayo (they are following in the footsteps) of the mother's"

At the same time because of lack of discipline these young people very amorphous with lack of strong beliefs thus when the drug pushers come round, they just take.

Youth itself by its very nature is another reason why they experiment with and then get hooked and thus begin to crave drugs. This is often part of adolescence. "But you cannot crave what you have not tasted," Gateere noted.

Jesus himself went through the same adolescence and when he was about 12 years old took off without permission. When they caught up with him for the first time he questioned 'why?"

This according to Gateere was normal when young people were around this age. Around adolescence they start questioning not that they are being bad. "Don't think devils have come. It does not make them the wretched of the earth. Let us not confuse the questioning stage of adolescence with disobedience."

It was also at this age that they tried drugs. But "there is no drug which can work without mimicking what God has already made. So when taken and competes with normal chemicals God has given you in heart, kidney and where you get your sexual power. But there are centers which God has put in place to detect too much of any chemical e.g. salt react."

But when you take drugs these centers don't know that this is alcohol or other drugs and thinks it is the normal chemicals so tells the factory in your body producing similar ones "slow down production there is too much - go slow." According to Gateere if this goes on for one, two even five years, these organs shrink due to disuse and become like glands of old people which have shrank due to age.

Yet when you look at the young person you wonder why they look so old and "when they marry after using these chemicals for say 10 years cannot satisfy their wives in bed and thus the wife has to look elsewhere for satisfaction."

Thus the best advise to tell the youth was to avoid these drugs as they would make you old before your time i.e. "short term gain, long term pain." The Church must educate the youth even as they learned the common causes of drug abuse among youth.

Some of these were:

1. Example of parents: when visitors came home and daddy says 'what do you take?' Especially now during the holidays they would observe this and so think this is normal behavior. Thus "a drinking mother is more of a curse to children than a drinking father."
2. Example of siblings: The first born in a family is like a co-parent so the example is looked at very closely. Therefore as parents, how do you treat your first born? The way you do is very important. Then there is the leader child who is trusted by the other children to the extent even when the mother says something the other siblings will go and check with the leader child first for confirmation. If the leader child agrees with what the parent has said so to will the sibling. If the leader child disagrees so to will its sibling. The leader child can be a boy or girl as well as first, middle or last-born. The hierarchy does not matter. And this influence can be so great that even when for example a girl in the family was a leader child and gets married and goes to settle in Taita, a brother who wants to put up a kiosk in Nairobi, will go all the way to Taita to ask the sisters opinion. He will not look at the fact that his parents or other siblings are much nearer in the same town with him for it is only the opinion of the leader child that matters. Parents more often than not destroy the leader child who is also usually extremely talented. Therefore very important to find out who is the leader child in your house amongst your children and work with this child to bring order in your house. There was laughter as Dr. Gateere pointed out that if this child was your friend - good. "But if your enemy, you will regret."
3. Example of relatives
4. Example of musicians: young people constantly look up to musicians as role models so if they had alcohol and other drug consuming lifestyles, many young people would imitate.
5. Example of heroes in novels and films
6. Example of the peer group
7. Mentally slow: Those children whose mental development is slow or whose emotions develop slowly thus rendering them childish for their age and are easily targeted.

The short term effects associated with this were numerous including:

• Students started doing poorly as academic performance dropped
• Red eyes
• Drooping eyelids
• Excessive cigarette smoking
• Frequent using of the toilet where things are being done like smoking
• Temper outbursts
• Pathological lying
• Petty theft
• Stealing things from house to go and sell
• Suspicious mind always paranoid with statements like 'you don't like me'
• Stealing various items from the house to go and sell
• Petty theft
• Some (girls) exchange sexual favours for drugs
• Frequent absenteeism from school on flimsy grounds

Then there were the long-term effects of alcohol and other drug use. These Gateere gave as:

• Destruction by poisoning of the cells of the liver and heart killing them
• Killing of cells of heart muscle
• Enlargement of heart muscle due to excessive alcohol consumption
• Destroyed brain cells leading to dementia
• Inefficiency at work
• Poverty
• Suicide
• Intelligence and emotions are affected
• Delusions of grandeur

"You have not taken care of the weak ones..." Dr. Gateere quoted Ezekiel 3 4:4. Telling them that you have not identified to the weak and yet there are very many emotional weaklings. He told the clergy to identify with the sick among the youth particularly those with psychological trauma. There were two groups who were particularly vulnerable. These were:

1. Those rejected by family and society: When you constantly tell your child 'you are good for nothing' or 'you are the cause of all the problems in this family,' to a child who believes the father and the mother know everything you cause psychological trauma. Parents traumatize many of their children.
2. Those who are lost: These are the children who have no strong belief system of ideals or principles and thus become easy prey for and become believers in oddball causes to which they become fanatically loyal. They join all kinds of odd groups including those intoxicating religions

Dr. Gateere concluded with some suggestions for the church is they were to make any headway in the campaign against drugs. These were:

• Organise public health education for mothers to spread this message.
• Use ante and postnatal clinics to target mothers easily
• Have parish counseling centers, but again target ladies
• Pastors at the pulpit leave at least one minute without telling us how to get to heaven and tell us about drug abuse and consequences. Coming from the pulpit, the congregation will take it seriously
• Give a recovering alcoholic or other drug addict a chance to talk. They are very effective

"The Church can do many things if only they take this matter seriously. We are faced with an enemy that is targeting our youth from all sides and if the youth go, the whole system collapses," Dr. Gateere concluded ominously.