Lindsay Lohan’s Self-Destructive Ways

I wonder how many of the problems in Lindsay’s life are due to the fact that her father was in prison for a great deal of her childhood? Recently, they reunited, after a 3 1/2 year estrangement, and he appears to be trying to be a good role model for her, and teach by example.

Ex-con Michael Lohan, Lindsay Lohan’s father, has apparently had a spiritual awakening. After his prison release in March of this year, he entered a Christian based rehabilitation center in West Babylon, New York. Speaking of his experience there, he stated, “I made a commitment when I was in there, to God and myself, that when I got out, I was going to do God’s work, and I was going to share with other people what I’ve been through and how God changed my life.”

Michael Lohan served almost two years in prison for drunken driving and other charges. He is now a spokesman for GodMen, a Christian group of men who gather to share their lives honestly and openly, with the hope of encouraging each other to live Godly lives. He has also done work with Teen Challenge, an excellent, highly effective evangelical Christian alcohol and drug recovery program. He said that he isn’t bothered by those who are skeptical about his new found faith. He realizes that he will have to prove himself over time. Feeling that he has had such a negative impact on his daughter and family, he now desires to show them through example, that he has turned his life around for the better. In the late 1980’s, Michael also spent much of Lindsay’s childhood years in prison for securities fraud. Because of his time in prison, he was not a present father figure for Lindsay.

In an interview with AP television news, he admitted that he was to blame for many of his daughter’s problems. In an article in New York News and Features, he claimed to have supported his family all his life, and later became frustrated when he was not allowed to be a prominent part of his children’s lives. This started a downward spiral of “acting out” which landed him in the press again and again, and caused further estrangement from his children.

He has declared that he hates getting press, though it is reported that he keeps all his article clippings.

In an earlier interview, he speculated that many of Lindsay’s problems are caused by the company she keeps. “I believe the people, that my daughter is hanging around with, are the wrong people,” her dad stated. “Lindsay has to find hope in God and put her family first, not listen to what other people say, and listen to her heart.” At an earlier time, he blamed his wife, Dina, for Lindsay’s drug and alcohol problems. He claimed that Dina drinks in front of Lindsay, and that Dina had a past drinking problem, and may still have. He wanted Dina to submit to drug and alcohol testing, but she was reluctant. At that time, Michael Lohan was working with Teen Challenge. “I am now clean and sober. I submit to drug and alcohol counseling 3 times a week, because I am on parole, and because I now work as a drug counselor with teenagers. I am willing to be tested by the court all day, every day of the week. I know I will come up clean,” he stated.