Like tens of millions of Americans, I was shocked by the heartbreaking and tragic deaths of prizewinning film director Rob Reiner and his gifted photographer wife, Michele. Rob and his wife were apparently viciously murdered by his drug-addicted and much-troubled son, Nick.
The Reiners deaths at the apparent hands of their son once again underscores the terrible scourge of drug addiction in the United States and the terrible, heart-wrenching anguish it creates in millions of American families, regardless of income or social status.
It is estimated that 50 million Americans struggle with alcohol and drug addictions. Approximately 17% of people 12 or older in the U.S. “reported having a substance abuse disorder in the past year.”
This terrible tragedy seems to be particularly painful during the Christmas holiday. At Christmas, we gather as families (I am so grateful that my wife and I will have all three of our children and their families with us this Christmas). I cannot help but think of the millions of Americans who will have empty chairs at the dinner table this Christmas because of the scourge of drug addiction.
I am reminded of an answer that Ambassador Mike Huckabee once gave to a reporter who was inquiring about his qualifications to be president of the U.S. as a former Baptist pastor (before becoming governor of Arkansas). I will never forget his answer. Huckabee said, when you are pastor of a local congregation in America, there is not a crisis in our country that as a pastor you cannot put a personal, human face to because you have had to help some family face it, whether it is domestic abuse, sexual abuse, addiction, homicide, suicide, etc. Ambassador Huckabee was absolutely correct.
I disagreed with Rob Reiner about virtually everything that you can disagree with someone in the public policy arena about. However, my heart aches for the suffering that he and his wife went through as they tried to rescue their troubled son from the horrible grips of drug addiction. I pray for their other children as well as Nick.
The Reiners evidently did everything they could to rescue their son. Nick was in drug treatment programs 18 times while still a teenager. He spent periods being homeless on the streets in a seemingly relentless cycle of relapse upon relapse. The Reiners’ story serves as an incandescent example of the fact that, despite having almost limitless financial resources and access to the best expertise that money can buy, such things are no guarantee that you will be spared agonizing heartbreak.
I find my response to the Reiner tragedy falling into two categories. The first is my response as a born-again Christian. My second response is as an American citizen.
As a Christian, I found myself asking the question, “How do people who do not have a personal Christian faith possibly cope with such personal agony and loss?” As a born-again Christian, I know that this physical existence here on earth is not the end, that we all have an eternal soul which is going to continue to exist with God or in eternal separation from Him.
And I think of my love as a parent. When my oldest child was born, I remember looking down at that precious little girl and thinking, “Now I really understand John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have life everlasting.”
I realized that there were things for which I was willing to die — my wife, my family, my faith, my country. However, there was no one I had enough love for to sacrifice my child. God, however, as the perfect Father, was willing to send His perfect son, Jesus, to die a cross kind of death for you and for me. Such love is incomprehensible and can only be accepted with eternal gratitude.
Also, for the first time I really understood what my parents would tell me when they had to spank me for misbehavior. They would always say, “this hurts me more than it hurts you.” When I saw my newborn daughter, I understood. People who are not parents simply cannot fully understand parental love and the hurt you feel for a child in pain and danger.
As a Christian, the Reiner tragedy compels me to renew my efforts with even more vigor to tell people how much Jesus loves them and how He has a wonderful plan for their life, and that there is a new beginning in Christ Jesus. As I thought about the Reiner family and how people cope with such tragedy when they don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, my mind went to the wonderful and moving hymn, “It is Well with My Soul.”
The hymn was written by Horatio Spafford after a ship carrying his wife, Anna, and their four daughters sank in 1873. After Anna’s rescue, she sent a telegram to her husband that said, “Saved alone.” In the depth of his grief and loss, he wrote these enduring words,
“When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught
me to say, “It is well, it is well
with my soul.”
Only the Lord Jesus can produce that kind of faith and comfort in His children who have been born again from above.
My second response is as an American citizen. I believe we have been dulled by the sheer numbers of our drug crisis into not really understanding the true scope of the human tragedy it represents. I believe we should insist that our government at every level make a maximum effort to eliminate the drug trade in America, including everything that needs to be done, including life sentences for everyone producing or selling such drugs after the first offense. I refuse to believe we as a people cannot confront and eliminate this scourge. Somebody had to produce and sell these life-killing substances to our citizens, and they should be eliminated from society.
In conclusion, President Trump’s recent actions to liberalize marijuana laws are a dramatic step in the wrong direction. Virtually all drug addicts start with marijuana, the “gateway” drug.
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
