> Throughout her life, she has experienced all the negative behaviors exhibited by her drunken father.  So she decides to join a convent where alcohol is strictly prohibited.

> The "alcoholic gene" never had a chance to express itself in her although she did inherit the gene.  Is this gene then recessive? 

Recessive "genes" (technically "alleles", but no one's keeping score) only show up as a "trait" if the individual has two copies of the allele (also known as being homozygous).  With humans, this means "both mother and father have the same allele", but with insects like bees, this is far, far more complex a diagram.

But the specific question of "exposure to an environmental condition when having a selective gene" is best outlined with a real-world example:
I am a redhead, so in terms of sunburn damage, I rank only slightly above vampires.
Even if I never saw the sun (which is easy in New England - one hardly sees the sun at all between Thanksgiving and Memorial Day) I'd still be a redhead - a total lack of sun exposure would lighten the freckles, but only slightly.  My hair would still be fire-engine red.
Over the decades, consistent sun exposure has given me an uncountable number of freckles, and a permanent base tan. 


And just as a PSA...

In the analogy above, she became addicted to religion rather than alcohol, and let that addiction take over her life (as much as any drug/chemical addict would).

The actual expression of the gene is "addiction" in general - it’s a non-specific thing to the best anyone can tell.  There is no genetic propensity to be addicted to one specific thing or another.  

One's "drug of choice" can be anything, even excessive video game playing.  Addiction is addiction is addiction.

My comments are those of a very well-briefed member of the board of 2 different non-profit addiction treatment programs that use a "non 12-step" approach relying on "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy", that make zero mentions of any deity, or make any presumption that any addiction is permanent.  In humans, most "substance abuse" is an attempt to self-medicate an underlying depression.  So, treat the depression with anti-depressants, and the addiction is far easier to treat.  This "dual diagnosis" approach has a remarkable success rate, and will eventually obsolete "AA" and other approaches that view any/all medication as a "crutch".  The take-away here is that one is not going to escape addiction by going to meetings of any sort at a church, unless one also sees a doctor.

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