I hadn't thought about this issue for years, but since it is relevant to at least two followers of this blog, I believe it's worth raising here. Going back to the 60s, I remember the words of a Boys' Brigade officer to me about alcohol:
"If I was God, or if I was Prime Minister, I would shut up all the pubs, and put all the people who work in them in prison".
Incredible though it seems, that is verbatim. Luckily for all drinkers, pub landlords and bar staff, this man never attained either position and we are still free to drink legally in this country. However, there is a question to be answered: what is the relationship between religion and alcohol?
The answer, of course, is that it depends which religion you are talking about, or follow. For Muslims, things are very clear: drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden. As the Qu'ran states unequivocally:
“O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), gambling,
idolatry, and diving arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. So avoid
that so that you may be successful.” (Quran 5: 90).
For Buddhists, also, the matter is clear-cut:
Buddhists typically avoid consuming alcohol (surāmerayamajja, referring to types of intoxicating fermented beverages), as it violates the 5th of the Five Precepts, the basic Buddhist code of ethics and can disrupt mindfulness and impeded one's progress in the Noble Eightfold Path.[3]
Christians and Jews, however, find that matters are not quite as clear-cut. Alcohol is used in religious observances, such as Passover Feast and Holy Communion. Jesus himself turned water into wine at a wedding party in Cana, Galilee, and he set aside wine to drink at the Last Supper. In the Old Testament, also, we read:
Ecclesiastes 9:7: "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do."
However, there are many texts in the Bible which warn against the evils of alcohol:
Isaiah 5:11 “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!” (KJV)
And from the New Testament:
Ephesians 5:18 “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (KJV)
As might be expected, this has led to a division of opinion among Christians. There are those who believe that drinking alcohol is all right in moderation. This would include Catholics; every RC social club I have ever visited serves alcohol. On the other hand there are Christians, usually, but not always, evangelical protestants, for whom alcohol is anathema. Thankfully, very few of them share the viewpoint of the BB officer mentioned above.
My own view is that, whatever religious views we have (or don't have), we have to accept that people always have enjoyed drinking alcohol and always will. Attempts to stamp it out, such as by Prohibition in the USA in the 1920s, and elsewhere, have always failed. In Muslim countries, locals and expats risk prosecution by smuggling in booze from abroad, or by making their own on illegal stills. Even in intolerant Iran, young people go to secret parties where alcohol is consumed - almost as an act of resistance.
I respect the right of religious people to speak out against alcohol abuse, but think them naive if they believe their strictures will halt alcohol consumption. God may be on their side, but history isn't.
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I have lived in a Buddhist country, Ceylon, and a Moslem one, Java, and I can't say I noticed that the populations were particularly teetotal. If you read the biblical quotations you provided carefully, you can see they actually say you can enjoy drink but don't get drunk; they aren't inconsistent. People will often be selective about their holy texts and try to 'interpret' them to suit themselves. I've put 'interpret' in inverted commas because I believe interpretation should be finding out the original intended meaning, but for many religious bigots, interpretation means finding ways of making the holy texts say what you want them to.
ReplyDeleteWhat really amuses me (or it can anger me when the situation is serious enough) is how little faith believers have in their God. If they believe their God will punish wrongdoers, why not just let the sinners get on with it and gloat saying, "You're all going to hell"? Why does a divine being who they believe created the cosmos need a bit of help if someone gets drunk? Or has an affair? Or indeed break any of the other holy laws? I suspect they don't trust their God to punish the wrongdoers enough. The God of the Old Testament is a harsh, unforgiving God, while the God of the New Testament is the God of love, peace and forgiveness - turn the other cheek, love thine enemy, let him who is without sin cast the first stone. They secretly think their God is a bit too New Testament, too much forgiveness and not enough punishment. Although they'd never actually say it, they regard the God of the gospels as a bit of a do-gooder.
That way of thinking leads to comments like that from the Boys' Brigade officer you quoted, and also to the American Prohibition, which doubtless made the good, God-fearing folk think they'd achieved something holy and grand. As long as you ignore the fact that Prohibition probably caused the biggest growth in organised crime in history - at least before the USSR collapsed - and often led to dangerous bootleg booze, murders, prostitution rackets, tax evasion (the only thing they got Al Capone for), unregulated gambling where you were killed if you didn't pay your gambling debts, and so on. But that was all okay, as long as the good citizens of the USA couldn't have a drink. Well, not legally anyway.
There is none so deluded as a holy fool.
Thank you, Geoff, for your perceptive R&R about R & A., and also RedNev's thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis raises several points, most of which (perhaps to your surprise) I agree with.
As a Christian and as a human being I am convinced and saddened that alcohol causes a lot of damage. Most people would agree if they met many of the people who turn up at the Rectory door penniless and hopeless largely due to being hooked on alcohol or other drugs.
I appreciate the BB officer you mentioned because of his great care and concern for God and for people. His motives were the best possible, but I disagree with him on this subject.
The whole subject is a very complex one, but in brief, my opinion is that alcohol is OK if not abused. I tend not to drink but do occasionally, and make no big issue about it unless I think that a person is damaging himself by drinking.
I would like to challenge RedNev's thoughts about leaving it to God's punishment. I tell people about God's love partly because I do not want people to be punished here or beyond. God wants everyone to respond to Him, but those who reject Him cause their own downfall.
John - many thanks for joining in here. Alcohol is a difficult issue for Christians, and I recognise that. As for the BB officer (who shall remain nameless), while his motives may have been laudable, hie remark (long forgotten by me) points to what can happen if you take up an absolutist stance on an issue. Given the right circumstances, absolutists can become authoritarians, and will impose their views upon society. I don't know if that BB officer really would have thrown pub and brewery employees in jail, but I'm glad he never got the chance to try. I fully support education about alcohol and its effects by the church, muslims and anyone else, but the bottom line, surely, is down to the free will of the individual? Anyway, I am glad to have a Christian contribution on R&R, and I hope that you and other Christians will join in again.
ReplyDeleteJohn: I wasn't actually saying that Christians should leave those they view as sinners to God's judgment; I was questioning the nature of the faith of those who are only too willing to inflict their idea of God's wrath upon such sinners. My explanation is that such bigots, a description that doesn't fit you judging by your comment, have shaped God in their own image. They want a vengeful, not a forgiving, God. I cannot understand why, if believers are certain God will punish sinners, do they feel they have to add their own punishments too. Presumably because they don't actually trust the God of the New Testament to be vindictive enough. I've noticed the fire and brimstone brigade usually quote the Old Testament, which is frankly quite odd because as Christians their primary source of guidance should surely be the ministry of Christ. That's a bit like assessing Shakespeare by analysing his sources while simultaneously ignoring what he actually wrote.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a quarrel with believers who try to help people, practically or spiritually, as long as the former isn't conditional on acceptance of the latter; but I do with those who see themselves as without sin and all too enthusiastic about throwing the first stone.
Drink is not in itself evil; Jesus after all turned water into full strength wine at Cana - not low alcohol wine as one believer tried to assert recently on a Christian blog, claiming that new wine would be weak. This is nonsense: I've made wine and new wine is full strength - if it hasn't finished fermenting, it's like sludge, and once it has fermented, it does not get noticeably stronger with age. The wedding guests wouldn't have asked the host why he'd kept the best wine to the last if it looked and tasted like mud.
Drunkenness and alcoholism can undoubtedly cause very serious problems, and I have known alcoholics, both personally and through my former job in the welfare state. Drinking, on the other hand, isn't of itself a problem. Like anything you care to think of, it can be misused. Driving a car at 25mph in your town centre isn't likely to cause a problem; that car driven by a so-called joy rider at 70mph in the same area has a good chance of killing and maiming people. Yet it's the same car.
One biblical example I've recently seen quoted as an example of the evils of drink is the seduction of Lot by his daughters. They deliberately got him drunk, so it wasn't a choice he'd made, and then had sex with him when it's clear he had no real idea what was going on. The offenders here were the sober daughters, and - to be mischievous - I could say that story is a lesson on the dangers of abstinence.
By now, John, you're probably thinking that even the Devil can quote scripture for his own ends.
From my study of the scriptures...Christians are not to over indulge using alcahol...not totally abstain.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to invite you to visit and perhaps decide to follow my humble blog. I am your newest follower.