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I had lunch with the South Side Lions the other day as a guest of C. E ‘Mike’ McCain (who turned out to be the Lion of the Year for the club), and I got some food for thought as well as some good meatloaf and red beans. Guest speaker was the Rev. Chuck Rodger, administrator of the Teen Challenge program headquartered at 201 N. C St. in Midland — affiliated with the national program started by the Rev. David Wilkerson as related in Wilkerson’s book “the Cross and the Switchblade.” (Probably with much company, I had Teen Challenge confused with that program in which students set up quasi-companies to learn business techniques. The Rev. Rodger is a soft-spoken young man with 14 years of work with youth groups and individuals, and he lays it on the line when it comes to narcotics and their effect on our life and times. “Long before a kid sticks a needle into his arm, all Hell's broken loose at home,” he says in placing much of the blame for this drug-oriented generation on the break-down of home and family values. He also firmly rejects the view that decriminalization of marijuana is in order, calling the popular need “evil and destructive’ but admitting pot should not be dealt with on the level of “hard narcotics.” On the local level, Rev. Rodger reported on a survey last summer by a team of five associates (four of them former ‘heads ), who found heavy use of alcohol among area youths — mainly Midland and Odessa as well as pot and pills. They reported “a lot’ of heroin use in Odessa, “‘But it’s more under the surface in Midland,” he said. What can parents do when they discover an offspring involved with narcotics? Admit “I have failed’’ but now “things are going to be different, Rev. Rodger says. Set new rules, enforce them, and put incorrigible youths out of the home so they won’t cause further deterioration of the family nucleus. How to deter children’s in volvement with narcotics in the first place? Love with discipline, wholesome examples from the parents, and a sharing of religious experiences at church and in the home, the Teen Challenge director says. His program is intended to give aid to persons (and the average age, despite name, is about 21.5) for whom Social and family standards have been meaningless. He emphasizes “We are not a skid-row mission or a flophouse ’ for temporary respite on a life of drug involvement. Teen Challenge residents are ex pected to make a commitment for at least a year. They spend three or four months at a local home and the one in Midland is the only one of its kind in Oestexas) “learning to submit to authority’ and learning to fit into “normal” society, then go to one of the larger farm-based centers in Missouri or Pennsylvania, where they spend eight or ten months learning to adapt to regular work routines, learn a trade, and perhaps finish high school. The Midland Challenge home has a capacity for ten youths and a current occupancy of five. Frankly, I don’t share all of Rev. Rodger’s views. (I think the ultra criminalization of marijuana was a disastrous mistake that has con tributed to a most significant generation gap the end of which is not in sight.) And I’m afraid the heavy religious orientation is not the answer for millions of youths who are in different to organized religion. But I have always been strongly in favor of lighting candles instead of cursing the darkness, and Teen Challenge is obviously a most useful candle in certain dark corners. Parnets or youths with problems about alcohol or drugs — and groups interested in further information may contact Rev. Rodger at Box 25 in Midland or by calling 682-3244, Pendergrast’s
Newspaper Details
Midland Reporter Telegram
Midland, Texas, US
Fri, Aug 06, 1976
Page 33
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USA 10 Sep 2026
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Midland Reporter Telegram
