Wednesday, March 14, 2007

"Mmmm . . . beer." - Homer Simpson

Pastor Mark Driscoll posted this apologetic for alcohol on his church's website. Interesting reading.
As feminism grew in America during the turn of the 20th century the women’s suffrage and prohibition movements were the practical results of a feminine piety that came to also dominate the church as more women became pastors and the church became more feminine. Some denominations began to condemn alcohol as sinful and the Methodist pastor Dr. Thomas Welch created the very “Christian” Welch’s grape juice to replace communion wine in 1869. The marriage of Christianity and feminism helped to create a dry nation that put out of business all but the largest brewers who were able to survive on near beer and root beer which explains why today American beer is largely mass produced, watered down, light on calories, and feminine in comparison to rich and dark European beers. The resurgence of micro-brews is helping to overcome the great loss and resurrect the art of brewing... (link)


HT: Phoenix Preacher

10 comments:

m brunjes said...

What's the Calvary position on this?

Bryonm said...

the biblical one...

Anonymous said...

??

Bryonm said...

yep

J Dub said...

That is a good read.

Interesting thought, taking it a step further--a wild thought after seeing the pic of Bryon from high school :-)--didn't God create marijuana too? Granted, it's against the law in the U.S., and according to Romans 13 we should obey our laws. But what if it weren't against the law? A moot point, but think about it without prejudice, if possible.

For the record, I've never smoked weed and certainly don't intend on doing so. Just interested to hear some thoughts. I've never really thought about it until reading that article and no Scripture comes to mind that expressly forbids it. The principle of avoiding drunkenness certainly applies but to what extent?

Mike West said...

The article mentions that "Moderationists rightly teach that drinking is not a sin and that Christian conscience must guide each person." This is the commion sense teaching that makes sense to me because I'm common. :) I do feel Paul's teaching in Corinithians trumps anyones tendency to "drink too much." Paul says in
1 Cor 10:32 (addressing believer's freedoms) "Do not cause anyone to stumble...." This is especially true when it comes to children. Our kids will do what we will do. That is why I disagree with the Libertarian view of drug legalization. When we as a society put a "stamp of approval" on something through legalization, we inherently send a message to our youth "that it's OK." As adults, we must be careful about the messages we're sending to our kids so they can make good decisions when their time comes. Having a drink with adult friends is one thing - drinking in front of your kids is something different. Some call it hypocritical - I call it common sense.

Bryonm said...

j dub: There are a few verses in Revelation that people who study such things would say that forbids drug use. The word "sorcery" in greek comes from the root word "pharmakia," which is the same word we get-you guessed it-"pharmacy" or "phamacueticals" from. So, somehow, when sorcery is forbidden, since socery through out history has been linked to potions and drugs and such, many take that to be a holy prohibition of drug abuse.

Drugs are illegal because rampid drug use is never good for a civilization. When the British occupied the Far-east, opium use was epidemic. Look up "opium wars." That is why there are such stiff penalties for drug trafficing in places like Thialand and others in the far-east.

Even though, in the case of marijuana, there isn't many stories of serious social disfunction (you rarely hear of someone beating his wife because he's high on pot or driving his car into oncoming traffic), it's irresponsible of a government to allow drugs to flow so freely.

Which brings me to the recent issue of pharmacy companies making a new drug for everything you can think of and then legally marketing them for high profit and high diviends paid to stock holders. To me, that's a moral issue, but people are making too much money from it to raise their voices.

All that to say, we are a culture that already abuses drugs-legally-if we can get a doctor to fill a prescription and there's a buck to be made. I wonder if God has problems with that?

That turned into quite the sermon...

J Dub said...

Really my question only pertained to marijuana. It is a plant, after all. As Ben Harper sings in "Burn One Down":

"herb the gift from the earth
and what's from the earth
is of the greatest worth
so before you knock it try it first
you'll see it's a blessing
and not a curse"

Granted, it a hippie view of the situation, but it's an interesting point, along the lines of the point I'm making. Man made drugs are obviously wrong because of the devastation they can bring to individuals and society. One can argue that marijuana is a gateway drug, but what about alcohol? It can lead to alcoholism or even to more serious, illegal drugs. Anything not done in moderation likely leads to sin.

The main point I'm making is with the argument, "God made it, so it's a gift, as long as it's used correctly," you can't just stop that at alcohol (unless I'm missing something). What is the difference in alcohol and marijuana? It does, after all, take a lot more processing to make beer than it does a joint.

I guess with my thinking, the only thing making marijuana wrong is the fact that it's illegal. Thoughts? Am I in left field on this one?

Don't worry, I still would never smoke weed--wouldn't really be a good career move anyway, being in the Air Force and all :-). I'm just trying to work this one out.

Bryonm said...

I personally wouldn't oppose the legallization of marijuana. I probably wouldn't smoke it. I can't make an airtight argument from the Bible that it should be illegal. I don't buy the gateway thing as a scientific fact, but I do as a social/american/cultural fact.

About man-made drugs... they're made from the things God created so that's not the argument I'd use...

Bryonm said...

J-dub... you need to go pee in a bottle :)