Larry Kudlow: From Addiction to Adoration

Many of you know Larry Kudlow as a talk-show host, a Reagan-administration advisor and a fierce supply-side economist. But how many of you know his conversion story? It is inspiring, humbling and touching:

"I had a problem with alcohol and cocaine. … I remember that in this little prep school that I went to, the Dwight Englewood School in New Jersey, we had to say the Lord's Prayer in homeroom. Every morning at your desk you put your head down and say the Lord's Prayer. I was there grade seven through twelve, so it's something you remember. When I was going into this dark abyss with alcohol and cocaine, after some terrible binge, I can remember lying in bed desperate and I started saying the Lord's Prayer. What made me do that? Just--I was desperate, I was trying to ask for help. You know, who was going to get me out of this? I started searching for God.

… One day Father C. John McCloskey [a former gold trader himself] appeared at Bear Stearns. My secretary said, "This priest is here to see you." No appointment, but a lot of the partners donated to various charities. So I was ready to pull out my checkbook and write a thousand dollars to whatever. But this guy didn't want any money. He was a friend of [a friend whom I had spoken to about my curiosity in Catholicism] and he wanted to talk to me. And he was a very engaging man. (Blogger Note: Fr. McCloskey is an Opus Dei priest that has been responsible for many high-profile conversions: Robert Bork, Robert Novak, Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, New York gubernatorial candidate Lewis Lehrman, Abortion doctor-turned-pro-lifer Bernard Nathanson.)

Larry continues:

[With addiction] You become so self-centered and self-willed that you decide you can do anything, without regard for others. I wasn't showing up for events, for friends, for my wife. I'd go missing in action for days. I've made amends to people directly, but still, I'm ashamed about that period… as I hit bottom, I lost jobs, lost all income, lost friends, and very nearly lost my wife. I was willing to surrender and take it on faith that I had to change my life.

…I was going to Mass on Sundays. And we recite the Nicene Creed, the church's statement of beliefs. There came this one day when I stopped just mouthing it and read it in an intellectual, cognitive way, and realized there's a whole story here. If you read the eucharistic part of the Mass, there's a whole story there and it's a fabulous story.

...It's--we are partaking of the body and blood of Christ. That's what I understand the Eucharist to be. We are pledging our faith in him and what he taught and all of a sudden it clicked, that Jesus Christ does not want me to touch alcohol or drugs because I wreck my body and I wreck his body and I wreck my life. Jesus died for me, too. And that is my redemption.

...The basic thought in [Fr. Richard John Neuhaus's book, Death on a Friday Afternoon] is that even we optimistic Americans mustn't ever forget that Jesus spent that time on the cross, painfully. His crown of thorns was sticking into his skull, he was nailed to the cross, and it was horrible. The book had an impact on me, because in my own mundane, low-level way, I was on the cross. I don't know if I've had salvation, but I have had a change. Sobriety is one of the keys to my faith."

There are many beautiful aspects of this conversion story. I think the most striking is that a political and Wall St. power broker reverted to a simple prayer he learned as a child when he hit rock bottom and found comfort in it.

I have followed Larry for many years, and I have to say after his conversion there is a compelling meekness about him, a noticeable humility that he did not have during his early years. A change that comes from acknowledging God's power and submitting completely to His will.

So the next time you see Larry on T.V., or hear him on the radio, be proud that he is a member of our Church and say a prayer for him that Christ will shield him from his addictions, which never completely go away. I always do.

Conquering Addiction

In this month’s Faith and Family magazine, there is a feature where readers tell how they avoid unhealthy eating. There was a brief suggestion from a mother that supplied all the answer this section needed. She said when tempted to have a fattening dessert, she offers it up to God as a sacrifice for her intentions for her children. I have never met this woman, but I need to know no more of her to know her soul.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen gave words of wisdom in one of his lectures on conquering addiction. He said, paraphrasing, to overcome any addiction, you must "force it" out of your psyche by replacing it with something just as consuming. Such words of wisdom and no psychiatrist payment needed.

This woman sacrificing for her children meant more to her than the pleasure that a dessert would bring. Her love for her children conquered her temptation to eat.

In this Sheen counseling lies the reason why so many diets fail. The dieter starts with the best intentions in the first of the month, but the uncontrollable craving to eat remains and is allowed to run freely within his psyche and still possess him. Nothing has forced this addiction out. It is lurking and waiting to conquer again.

One of my heroes of this world, Msgr. James McDonald - now rector of Long Island’s seminary- once spoke in a homily addressing the addiction of alcohol. He passionately and in a booming voice told the congregation, "Don’t tell me you can’t put down that drink when Christ thirsted for you on the cross!" Msgr. McDonald was coming at the same angle as Archbishop Sheen. Your love of Christ and gratitude of his suffering can push out that addiction.

My grandfather was a very good man but an alcoholic. He never harmed anyone but was his own worse enemy with his drinking problem. When my siblings and I were very small children, my father told my grandfather we could not ride in his car, spend time with him, because of my father’s obvious concerns. As the story goes after this difficult conversation, my grandfather quit cold turkey. Not one more drop. His love for his grandchildren was more consuming than his drinking problem. The last few years of his life were spent sober, and this is how he went home to God.

We are all imperfect people, with shortcomings and addictions. How much progress would we make towards Divine Grace if those parents with addictions (alcoholism, smoking, drugs, sex, anger-management, gambling, over-eating, shopping) offered their pain in denying their addiction up to God with the specific intention that Christ will protect their children in the future from acquiring the same addiction? How could the loving heart of Christ not accept an offering so beautiful, noble and selfless? How could we not eventually succeed in conquering our addictions through this act of love?