Post by PrisonerOfHope on Jun 21, 2012 12:43:09 GMT -5
I love Mike, but I'm having a problem with this subject. It's clear he has some sort of issues as he's obviously been hurt by someone close to him who was an alcoholic, but I don't agree with everything he says.
He's giving the impression that as soon as someone takes a single sip of alcohol they're going to be falling down drunk and vomiting all over the place, and that's simply not true. As for letting children taste beer or wine, personally, I think it's a good idea - I was allowed to sip from my uncles' beer a time or two, and that was enough for me to decide that it was nasty and I wanted no part of it...I can't stand it to this day. I was also allowed to sip sweet, kosher wine, and even remember getting a mini bottle of it every Christmas to have all to myself. I still love that stuff, and go through an entire larger bottle of it....over the course of a year or so. I think the fact that drink is "forbidden fruit" is going to make a child desire it all the more; a sip to satisfy their curiosity isn't going to turn them into a raging alcoholic.
I don't agree that it was only grape juice that was drunk in Biblical times; to this day the Jews use wine with a low alcohol content (like my Manishewitz), and not grape juice, and Jesus wouldn't have been accused of being drunk if He drank only juice.
No one hates drunkenness more than I do, having been married to an alcoholic, but I think Mike is on a personal crusade with this subject. In the Bible, drunkenness is often paired with gluttony, and I notice he skimmed by that topic real fast...
All things are lawful (1 Cor. 10), and someone drinking a fine wine with dinner is hardly in the same league with a drunk sitting in an alley guzzling Night Train, or a guy drinking away his paycheck in a bar while his family waits for him at home. Of course, if someone finds drinking objectionable, we should avoid drinking in their presence - both to not offend them nor to make them stumble, as would be the case of someone who has a problem with alcoholism. The bottle of concord grape wine in the refrigerator doesn't call out to me every day, and I feel no conviction over my semi-annual pina colada. If it were wrong, I'm sure the Holy Spirit would let me know about it.
