As a practicing psychologist, Dr. Powers had seen hundreds of patients come through his home office in the past five years and nine times out of ten, it was religion that had screwed them up so badly. There were Baptist preachers who prayed to Jesus on Sunday but preyed on young girls the rest of the week, family members estranged from one another because of differences in doctrine and/or lifestyles, suicidal teens with self-esteem problems resulting from failures to live up to the expectations of one or more Fundamentalist parents, and others who simply were addicted to and strung out by their own religious convictions. And those were the worst of the bunch—they were addicted to their faith like smokers to tobacco or alcoholics to the bottle. What compounded the problem all the more was the fact that the enabling and codependency issues so prevalent in families with alcohol and drug abuse problems were far more pervasive and devastating where matters of faith came into play. It was all too easy to berate a drug addict or an alcoholic—but in a fantasy land where God is great and God is good and everyone is a sinner but they are REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB (praise Jesus, and everyone said AMEN!) and somehow above all of humanity by the virtue of their faith, eternal security, dinnertime prayers or their ad-hoc adherence to the tenets of the ancient Holy Scriptures, it was all but impossible to distinguish them from any other type of addict. They were the ones who lived to send out prayer request chain letters and thanked the Lord every time they took a healthy dump.

As the aircraft roared down the runway and then climbed sharply into the air, Dr. Powers summed up the priest from the corner of his eye. He was a tall, balding man with a short, gray beard, large oversized glasses and a youthful appearance. He rested with his head back against the seat and with his eyes closed as if in prayer, typical of a man of faith.