Life & Wisdom Quote by Keith Miller

Religious work, in Keith Miller's framing, isn't automatically virtue; it's a hiding place with good lighting. The sting of the line comes from how it drags a respected Christian impulse - service - into the same psychological category as the habits people are quick to name as "real" addictions. Miller is aiming at a particular kind of piety: the busy, outward-facing faith that stays in motion so it never has to sit with grief, resentment, shame, or the gnawing suspicion that the self isn't as healed as it appears.

The intent is diagnostic, not dismissive. He isn't attacking Christianity so much as exposing a loophole in religious culture: work can masquerade as surrender. In many church ecosystems, being useful functions as a moral alibi. You get praise, structure, and a ready-made identity ("servant", "leader", "faithful") that can anesthetize interior chaos. That is why the sentence hits like a mirror: it suggests the addiction isn't to a substance but to relief, and religion can supply relief on credit.

Calling it a "spiritual disease" shifts the subtext from mere burnout to disordered desire: the compulsion to manage pain rather than tell the truth about it. The context here echoes recovery language - the way AA talks about self-deception, coping rituals, and the necessity of honest inventory. Miller's provocation is that religious activity can be a sanctioned avoidance strategy, and that the holiest-looking life may still be organized around fear of reality.