Hooked On Drugs Healed By Jesus

Here we have a personal account of a man named Orlando Fitzhugh, who tells us that "at 16, I almost died a drug addict." Now, however, Orlando has "a wonderful Christian home," and he no doubt hopes the tale of his tribulations will cause other addicts - not to mention any non-Christian readers - to reconsider their lives and convert.

"Christ is concerned with the hard cases in life," and few cases could be harder than Orlando's. He began his odyssey to addiction hell "at the age of 12," smoking pot in order "to be part of the crowd." Naturally he "graduated to heroin," the fate of all pot smokers. Oh yes. ALL of them. That led to "gang fights, hanging around the streets," and stealing "anything that could be sold, including the family belongings."

"One day, during a gang war..." I just love that half-sentence. Makes it sound like he just stepped out for groceries, doesn't it? Anyway, during that gang war period of his life, Orlando was "shot just below the heart," he had "an overdose of heroin," and "nearly fell six floors to the street," and he "was quickly arrested again." When he was arrested before is not revealed.

It is important to note here that Orlando already believed in God; he prayed for his life after getting shot. And, when he almost fell off that rooftop, "one of the gang saved" him with a "quick grab," to which Orlando concluded that "God had spared my life." So either he mistook his fellow gang member for God, or God was a member of his gang.

Things didn't get much better for him after that. He "suffered a complete breakdown and developed a heart condition," and became "an emotional and physical wreck." Poor Orlando saw "no way out of my predicament."

But then, just when he "knew my days were numbered," Orlando "was invited to attend a church youth meeting" and before you could say Born Again, Orlando was Born Again. Less than a week later, "the craving for the 'stuff' had completely disappeared" and "peace and happiness have been mine."

"Why not repent now," Orlando asks at the very end, "and receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord?" Why not indeed? After all, this one isn't bad by tract standards. Nowhere does Orlando mention the threat of Hell or the joys of Heaven; his message is relevant to life, not in what may or may not happen after death. Orlando also manages to tell his entire story in the space of three tract pages with room to spare! That almost makes up for the storybook style of his prose: "One day, during a gang war..." "One night, after an overdose of heroin..." It doesn't sound at all like the gritty story of someone who had really lived through the events he describes. I'm not saying Orlando is lying, just that his writing style doesn't grant his story credibility.

Orlando Fitzhugh makes God out to be the ultimate rehab, but I doubt that readers who don't already believe in God are going to buy this story, let alone get Saved. However, drug addicts who are on the fence with their beliefs might just find this tract plausible, giving it a better shot than most of them.

Not bad, EDT. Orlando's worth keeping around. With some decent writing classes, this guy could really be something.

Likely to Convert - 4
Artwork - 6
Ability to Hold Interest - 5
Unintentional Hilarity - 5
Level of Disturbing or Offensive Content - 0