i wanted to dive a little more into the issue of drinking. we discussed it a little a couple posts back. i think we can all agree that drinking alcohol is not a sin. i know plenty of good solid christians who have controll over there drinking and it does not affect their spiritual lives the least bit. however many lives are destroyed by drinking, and how these lives become destroyed are very much sinful acts.
a couple days ago i sat and talked to a guy in his early fifties about his father. his father was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet until he was drunk. he was mean and abusive. this is a sin. the same drunk would not pay any of the bills with his paycheck. he would spend it all on alcohol forcing the family to get by on the mothers wages as a waitress. this is a sin.
i have also known a few families who have lost love ones because they have been in accidents caused by a drunk driver. this is a sin.
i struggle with the idea of drinking alcohol because it seems like everybody's personality changes when they drink. maybe they lose reign of their tongue, which is a sin. they can lose self control, which is a sin.
i will never look down on someone because they decide to have a drink of alcohol. but i still do not understand any good thing that comes from alcohol. a lot of people drink wine because in moderation is good for your heart. but i have also heard that the same effect is seen in taking an asprin.
as for being a wesleyan, in a denomination that believes in the idea of holiness as being set apart from the "worldly ways" i believe there are two good ways that are not sins but the world can see as a good witness from our actions. one is drinking which i have just discussed. people will respect you for your choice of not drinking. the other is swearing, putting4 letter adjectives into a sentence to emphasize you stance on something. if the wesleyan church is going to be set apart then there should be some actions behind it.
1 comment:
Well I am in the moderation camp simply because Jesus, most of the Biblical writers and great Christian thinkers were (Lewis, Luther, and maybe even Wesley). It does lead to sinful behaviors but so does TV, Movies, eating, marital sex, perscription drugs, plastic surgery, etc. etc. including most human action. When I eat McDonalds I feel heavy and lethargic and a touch depressed. Does that make McDonalds sinful because it leads me to sin (sloth, iritability, gas) or does it make it sinful for me? If Lindsay does not have coffee in the morning she is not fun to be around. Does that make not having coffee a sin, does that make the addiction to coffe a sin? Maybe it is not the thing in and of itself that is a sin but what you do with it.
Jesus turned water into wine. He did not turn it into pure water so the people would have something safe to drink he turned it into wine. This was also late in the party so people were already tipsy. If alcholol was a sin in and of itself I can't see Jesus drinking it or at very least using divine power to make it.
I am a pastor in a Wesleyan Church (for another week at least) and I am not going to choose to die on the "must drink alcholol hill" but, to me, most of the membership requirements reek of mandated holiness which is really prettied up legalism.
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